It’s All About Me! Getting Ready For the Blog Hop :)

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Lori

Are you ready? There’s a new blog hop starting on Tuesday, February 19th! I’m so excited because this is actually the first blog hop I’ve ever participated in. I had a lot of fun with my version and can’t wait to show you all what I did. I love Amy Bradley’s patterns…they are so clear and straight forward. There are a lot of bloggers participating, so it will be so fun to hop along and see what everyone created. I’ll be posting the full schedule tomorrow.

A big thanks to Marlene of Stitching By the Lake for coordinating all of the bloggers and of course, Madame Samm! You can come by on Thursday, February 21st to check out my version of “It’s All About Me!”.

Lucy and I are planning on working on the Montana quilt today after paying bills (gah!) and straightening up the pit Happy Sunday all!

Farmer’s Wife Update

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Lori

So, I’m not quite meeting my one post a week goal that I set for myself, but I’m giving myself a definite pass for the month of January. Between crazy hours at work, speaking commitments, an article deadline, Purdue Vet School admissions work, and the IVMA Annual Meeting, let’s just say I might have lost my mind somewhere between Jan 1 and now. However, I am breathing a sigh of relief this weekend and have literally no plans other than tackling laundry, grocery shopping, stall cleaning, and some sewing time with Scarlett!

Yesterday I was able to finish up the last of the blocks from October 2012. Mom and I took a brief hiatus in November/December and then an unintentional hiatus in January due to my being all kinds of crazy. We’re going to make the January blocks I picked our “February” blocks officially and continue on. I hate that I put us behind, but luckily Mom is a “roll with it” kind of gal I really love working on this project together. Even though we’re miles apart right now, we’re texting each other pictures of each block as we make it so it feels like we’re together!

Here’s a pic of all 15 of my finished blocks together.Here are a few of my favorites along the way. This one is called Grape Basket.This one is the Friendship Star. I keep saying one day I’m going to make an entire quilt of these. My next favorite is Star Gardener. This block kicked my butt from here to kingdom come and back again. I think I ripped more seams than I sewed. It has 57 pieces. I do love the end product though.I also really like this little guy (Corn & Beans). Seems appropriate for a girl in the midwest huh? The rest of my sewing plans for this weekend involve working on my little quilt for the upcoming blog hop, “It’s all about ME” that’s just around the corner! I’m looking forward to this Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Q1 Finish-a-Long Goals

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Lori

This year I’m going to get my act together and join Leanne over at She Can Quilt for the 2013 Finish-a-Long! I enjoyed watching everyone’s progress over at Rhonda‘s last year but could never get it together in time to link up and participate, lol. So, drum roll please…..here are my Q1 goals

1. Get those darn borders on and finish the Montana quilt! Here’s the story behind this quilt. My husband travels a lot for work and he was in Montana for an install at a hospital. There is this FABULOUS quilt shop there (I didn’t know how fabulous it was at the time) called Glacier Quilts. Now, the hubs is not a “bring the wifey home a gift” kind of guy, so when he came home with this quilt kit for me, I was floored. I opened it and was like, “Wow honey! That’s awesome “. Let’s just say, it wasn’t my kind of quilt (pictures of bears, trees, etc), but seriously…the guy BOUGHT ME A QUILT KIT…that doesn’t happen often and we want to continue to encourage that kind of behavior right? LOL. So, I put off working on it for a while because I was having a hard time getting excited about it. He would occasionally ask, “don’t you like that quilt? i never see you working on it?”. And yes, I was raised Catholic, so I do guilt like nobodies business. So I started working on it. Lots of triangles, etc, so it was a great way to improve my HST skills.

Then I had the chance to actually go to Montana with him in June. OMG…it might just be the most beautiful place on earth. Take your breath away beautiful! I spent time in Glacier Quilts and all of a sudden was totally energized to finish this quilt as a reminder of our time in Montana. It was fabulous. I even bought the backing while I was there so the entire quilt would be my “Montana Quilt”. Look at this scenery and then look at the quilt top that I’ve finished so far…I have a whole new appreciation for the Montana Quilt. So, my first Q1 goal is to get the borders on this baby and get her quilted

Huge waterfall – Glacier NP

Montana Quilt Top – no borders yet

2. My second Q1 goal is to finish 15 more of the Farmer’s Wife blocks. If you remember, this is a quilt my mom and I are making together (read about it here). We alternate picking 5 blocks from the book each month and then share the pictures of our blocks as we go. We’re both using our respective stash for this…it’s been fun and I look forward to it! Here’s a pic of some of the blocks already finished.

Farmer’s Wife September blocks

Farmer’s wife October blocks

We hit a stall in November and December due to the crazy holidays, but we’re back at it. I have 2 more November blocks to finish today (we skipped December) and then I’m ready to start tackling my January blocks!

3. Last but not least – I’m going to participate in a blog hop featuring one of Amy Bradley’s designs. I don’t have a pic to post of this one yet because I’m waiting to see the pattern. The blog hop happens in February, so I realize it doesn’t qualify for the FAL really since it’s not a UFO, but it’s still a goal of mine, so here it is on my little list, lol.

That’s it for me for Q1. I have a few other things I’d like to do, but honestly, this is a busy speaking season for me so I’m going to try to be realistic! Looking forward to watching everyone’s progress!

A Fun Blog Hop!

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Lori

Gosh it’s been a busy week. I haven’t had a ton of time to sew this week, but I managed to carve out an hour last night and finish two more of my Farmer’s Wife blocks. I only have 7 more to go to be “caught up” with my Mom and ready to move onto February. Jan is such a busy month with speaking and volunteer commitments that I’m trying to sneak it in as I can. In clockwise order they are: corn and beans, kitchen woodbox, and mother’s dream. Sorry for the poor lighting quality! It was really late

In other exciting news, a new blog hop featuring a design by Amy Bradley was announced today! I love Amy Bradley…it’s like she just “gets me” with her fabric and designs (maybe because her husband is a veterinarian too?? LOL). Here’s the info on the hop if you’re interested! If you remember, I LOVE Amy’s fabric, Happy Howlidays, and made not only a quilt but a little wall hanging/table topper with it here. In fact, if anyone else is stashing some, I’ll happily buy your Happy Howlidays from you!

Happy Howlidays

Happy Saturday! It’s a nice break from the cold we’ve had lately and is a balmy 60 degrees. We’ll be back in the 30′s on Monday, so I’m off to muck the horse stalls while it’s warm. If these silly horses only realized how good they have it

2013 Goals – Quilty Goals and Life Goals

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Lori

I’m not going to call them resolutions…I hate the sound of it and I never seem to keep them and then I have a sense of failure that irks me and makes me want to throw in the towel So this year, they are “goals” to symbolize the fact that life is constantly a work in progress and something we must work at every day. This post is going to contain more than just quilty goals for a couple of reasons: 1) I want it to remain a touch point for me throughout the year to refer back to, and 2) let’s face it…it’s not like I’m a famous blogger and people are going to be upset if I discuss something other than my blog topic, lol! So, you have been warned…I’m starting with the quilty goals and then progressing to the life goals (at which time you may feel free to ditch me if you’re not interested )

Quilting Goals
1. Take one quilting class per quarter. This can be online via Craftsy or some other online venue, at the quilt shop, or at a show. One class per quarter so that I remember that life isn’t all about work and sometimes it pays to do something nice for yourself and expand your skills in other areas besides veterinary medicine.
2. Make 5 Farmer’s Wife quilt blocks with mom each month (a total of 60 in 2013). This has really turned out to be a fun project for us. We’re 15 in and we take turns each month picking 5 blocks to make. We text pictures to each other and we’re both using our stash for the project.
3. Learn how to use my cutwork tool that I purchased and make a table runner or cute applique quilt with it.
4. Finish the Montana “Walk in the Woods” quilt. The center is pieced, but it needs the borders and then quilted. Here’s a pic of it if you don’t remember the one I’m talking about.

Montana Quilt Top – no borders yet

5. Finish my Swoon quilt – FOR ME! I have 7 more blocks to go.
6. Get my Lone Star quilt quilted. This one is going to a longarmer. It’s completely finished and ready to go…I just need to make it happen. Here she is again in case you have forgotten what she looks like. I LOVE this quilt!

Lone Star Top complete

Health Goals

1. Exercise – ah, the classic resolution right? I want to run my first 5k by June. That’s going to mean getting myself up off the couch or out of the sewing room and onto the treadmill or outside.
2. Achieve a healthy BMI
3. Food – make more mindful choices of what I put in my body.
4. Plan, plan, plan – I have found over and over that if I plan the week of meals and exercise I am WAY more successful than if I just roll with the punches.

Work Goals

1. Continue to grow the Ft. Wayne satellite and help develop a nice branch for Dr. Dell with the goal of one day per week in a few years.

2. Start to work on plans for a new resident in 2014. This will help for long-range planning, especially if Ft. Wayne takes off and we have Dr. Dell in Indy less.
3. Continue with the daily to every other day posts on the clinic FB site. Clients love the pics of their animals.
4. Work to establish the blog for the clinic. Informative articles on various diseases keep the clients engaged and let them know that they aren’t alone in dealing with their pet’s problems.
5. Continue to publish 2 articles per year.
6. Keep current with journal articles (VetDerm and JAVMA primarily). This can be either bedtime reading (oy!) or in place of TV time in the evening.

Home Goals

1. Quit whining about the white walls and freaking do something about it (do it yourself, hire it done, just fricking do it!). You’ve been in the house for 6 years and have 2 rooms painted…really????

2. Do something in the decorating department for the house once a month. This can be something little like buying curtains for a window, a new area rug, or hopefully this summer adding on that screened in porch we’ve been dreaming about if we can save up for it.

Horse Goals

1. Hire the natural horseman to work with Tongo and I this spring/summer.

2. Start lessons again with Blossom. This will be great exercise for both of us! The goal would be to get to the point where I can just head out, saddle her up, and take off riding around the property or elsewhere without having to have someone with me or someone to give me a boost because I’m too heavy to get up on my own

I think that’s it. Now that I’ve got them down, I just need to figure out a way to make them happen and stay accountable! I hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration. Needless to say, Moose and Simon didn’t make it until midnight last night.

The last quilt of 2012

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Lori

I handed off the last quilt of 2012 last night I made it for a dear friend of mine (our neighbor). When we first moved into our house in 2006, she and her husband were quick to befriend us. My husband had lived in the country all his life before marrying me in 1989, but I have ALWAYS been a city girl (he lured me out to the country with the promise of horses, lol). She and her husband had lots of chuckles as I learned some interesting lessons about life in the country: 1. Although strawberries are a fruit, they do NOT grow on trees.
2. Always lock the gate behind you, even if you think the horses are following you
3. opossums really DO play dead, even when they are definitely NOT!
4. Hot wires really ARE hot.
5. And that sometimes, life is hard..and when it is, it’s important to cling to those we love to weather the storm.Two years after we moved in, her husband passed away from a massive heart attack. I still miss him every day and think of him when I do something “city-fied”. I can’t even imagine how much she and her girls hurt missing him. She is always here for me, no matter what time, what day, no matter what! So this quilt has been in process for a year (I started it the day after Christmas last year) and it’s finally complete. It’s soft and cuddly, and has sayings on it about friendship. It’s a simple quilt made from strips cut from panels and fabric. It was quilted with an all over meander of loops, stipple, and wandering clovers. It would be beautiful with quilted snowflakes, but my quilting skills aren’t there and I wanted it to be pretty and not look like a practice piece. So, that’s it for me to end 2012. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve I’ll have another post on quilty goals later in the day.

Wrapping up 2012

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Lori

I love the week between Christmas and New Years. It’s always been a time of reflection and planning for me. 2012 has been such an incredibly busy year. The clinic has grown so much…it’s hard to believe it will have been 3 years since I opened it in February. Here’s a pic of my awesome staff at our Christmas party. I’m very proud of them and all the hard work we’ve been doing. However, hard work has its downside. When building a thriving business, sometimes that doesn’t leave a lot of time for things like hobbies, family, and other things that bring passion and joy to our life. 2012 found me running from the get go with tons of speaking engagements Jan through April, busy volunteer work as outgoing President of our state veterinary medical association, and the regular day-to-day craziness with appointments. You would think it would have settled down in the summer, but this was the summer to beat all summers in terms of allergies and my little patients were extra miserable resulting in lots of extra hours. I tried my hand at gardening again this year, just in time for the summer with the least amount of rain in Indiana history. I kept it going until I was gone for a week for a meeting in July and then it all died while I was gone (thank you hubby….). Then fall approached and my dermatology resident was off for 5 weeks studying for his board examinations (which he passed!!!! YEAH!!!) so that meant one dermatologist doing the work of two. Let’s just say I don’t remember much of October and November…and here we are at the end of December. This year has flown by and we’re ending it with a bang. We have about 9 inches of snow on the ground right now, which is beautiful…but makes it a bit difficult to do the daily chores that come with taking care of these beautiful ladies.

Tongo & Blossom 2012

Then, what would a vacation be without a trip to the ER for surgery? I tell you, I’m not sure why my animals can’t ever have dermatologic issues that I can fix, lol. Poor Edward woke me up crying on Friday morning. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him until I accidentally touched his face and he cried again. Well, I opened his mouth and voila! He split one of his upper left molars in half (dangling…ewww!) and slab fractured the other with the pulp hanging out. Now, as a veterinarian I have a pretty strong stomach but there are 2 things I do NOT do…maggots and teeth. I have a long-standing history with hating dentists (not their fault…something ALWAYS goes wrong when I have work done), so yes, I’ve transferred this phobia to my animals. So poor Eddie had surgery to remove 2 teeth (each with two roots…ouch!) on Friday along with a cyst he’s had on his rump for a bit that I was going to have removed when he had his dental in March. It’s been a rough 48 hours with him, but I think things are looking up today. Here’s the poor patient on Friday night.So, what have I accomplished on the quilting sewing front this year? Well…I started the year with a “thank you” quilt for the Executive Director of our state veterinary medical association. She was a huge help to me while I was President and she is all about family, so I made her a photo quilt. With some help from the resident quilt police Work on the Swoon quilt commenced, but I only have 3 blocks finished (this one will be showing up in my goals for 2013!) March brought the exciting arrival of Scarlett, my Bernina 830 LE (you can read all about it here). I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know her this year! I spent 3 days in August at a Bernina retreat and made some great friends (and bought a lot of stuff, lol). I really love this machine and still have so much to learn. I made a fun little banner to welcome her to her new home with my embroidery module. Next up was the completion of a fun little table topper. Nothing exciting, but something bright and summary I started the HoopSisters Mystery Quilt project in June and this is as far as I got This is a fun project, but all of a sudden I lost patience with all of the thread changes and didn’t really care for the colors and was just kind of “meh” on the whole thing. Next, I completed the top on a quilt kit that the hubby had purchased for me Christmas 2011. He brought it back for me from Glacier Quilts in Montana. Finishing it and quilting it are on the list of goals for 2013. Oh yes…I almost forgot, we added a new addition to the helper cat household in July. This is Moose (aka “bad kitty”). He was a rescue with some serious eye issues but has grown into a huge boy (10 lbs at 7 months old!) and his lack of vision in one eye doesn’t slow him down in the slightest. Next up was a baby quilt for our neighbor the end of July. This was the first quilt I have tried the “endless embroidery” option on using my 830 for quilting. All of the quilting was done in the hoop repeating a design over and over. It was a good thing to try with a baby quilt, but I sure wish I’d had my MasterHooper then. I felt like the quilting was too dense and it’s not my best work, but the baby’s mom loved it, so that’s what counts.In August, Mom and I decided we were both going to make a Farmer’s Wife Sampler quilt out of our stash fabrics. Each month, we each pick 5 blocks from the book (alternating months of who picks the blocks). We took a break over the holidays because I fell behind while my resident was out of the office, but I’m eager to get back to it in January. It’s fun working on this together and texting each other pics of our blocks as we go. It’s even more fun to lay them out in person when we get together. She and Dad are in Florida most of the time now and I sure miss them!Then I finished Mom’s “Florida Quilt” using the Jelly Roll Race technique. I used Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. This was my first attempt at a pieced back along with my first Jelly Roll Race quilt. I really love the way it turned out, so I’ll be making more of these.Then, before you knew it, it was October and time for Halloween. I fell in love with this embroidery pack from Claudia’s Creations called “Pillow Talk”. It has designs for every season and so far I’ve made the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas pillows. I just make the 16×16 pillows with an envelope back and toss in a pillow form. The Halloween one was great because I used fabric on the back that glows in the dark (the smiles glow in the dark even though it’s a little hard to see in the pics).I also made a fun little Halloween quilt that I could never get the cats off of long enough to take a full picture of the front and back, lol.In November I made a Thanksgiving pillow (with Simon acting as Vanna White) and a little Turkey Table Topper (that I didn’t finish until the day AFTER Thanksgiving thank you very much!).And we wrap up the year with my favorite season. Even though it was incredibly busy this year, I always LOVE the holiday season. I love the decorations, picking out presents that I know will bring a smile to loved one’s faces, and just the joy of the season. This Christmas was especially fun with a 7 month old kitten in the house tearing up the ornaments, decorations and tree as quickly as I could put them up.Don’t let that angelic face fool you…He’s all mischief and trouble. My embroidery machine got a work-out over the month of December. I made several holiday pillows using the Pillow Talk design to give for gifts. In fact, I made so many I didn’t have time to make one for me this year! That design takes over 2 1/2 hours to stitch out! Then I cut up a little Maxine panel with funny sayings and made little hand towels out of them for family members. I found this nifty little snowflake stitch on my machine and went to town. This is the one I made for my Mom and Dad since they’re in Florida more than Indiana. They were good for a giggle when their recipients opened them And last, but not least, the last quilt of 2012 is meant for my neighbor. I finished sewing the binding on last night and just need to put the label on today and wash it up. More pics to come of that one.So, as I look back at all I accomplished in 2012, I realize I managed to do more than I thought I did As crazy busy as things were, I still managed to try some new techniques and create a little sewing time for myself and the helper cats! I hope you guys had a great 2012 as well and I plan to be posting a lot more next year (stay tuned for the 2013 goals post). Happy New Year!

Getting in Some Farming!

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Lori

A bit of an odd title I know given the fact that I live in Indiana and we’ve had a complete drought for the last two months. The corn is pathetic and when they came to do our second cutting of hay, we only got 36 bales (we normally get 125). Hoping for some rain in August and maybe we can get another cutting in before fall, otherwise it’s going to be a very expensive winter for these ladies!So, back to the farming…Mom and I decided to make our Farmer’s Wife quilt together. In case you haven’t heard about the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt, it is a book based on 1920′s farm wifes and the 111 quilt blocks they inspired. The book was written by Laurie Aaron Hird (click HERE to go to her website and read more about the history behind the ides). I purchased the book back in 2010 and have followed along with several of my favorite quilters/bloggers as they started their quilts, but until now didn’t feel I could really commit to making my own. Mom suggested it on a whim and I thought it might be a fun mother/daughter project. We won’t get to sew together often, but it will be fun to share our progress. Our goal is to do 4 blocks each month. After making the first four, I think that’s more than manageable. I’ve been using the template method for these, mainly because I haven’t figured out paper piecing, lol, but may try that later. There are also just a gazillion pics on Flickr in the Farmer’s Wife group too if you want to take a gander.

Here’s my first block. It’s called “Big Dipper” – block #6. I’m going to try and accomplish this quilt only uses fabric from my stash. I have a good bit of “Etchings” by 3Sisters for Moda left in my stash. I love this entire line and it’s soft muted colors. Aren’t there some lines that just grab you that way and you almost want to hoard the fabric so you don’t run out of it? LOL. This block actually has a really cute secondary pinwheel pattern in the middle, but I don’t think my fabric contrast was high enough to really point this out. I could redo it, but I really like the fabrics The next block is called Economy (block #29).Then I made a little “oops”. Mom had picked squash blossom and I had put a paper clip on that page, but when I turned to that page, instead of making squash blossom, I made the bowtie block which was on the back of the page, lol. Hence how I ended up with 5 blocks instead of 4. This bowtie block looks deceivingly simple. There’s a wicked y-seam in here. I am SO not good at y-seams yet. Practice practice right? So here are Economy and Bowtie together.And here is the infamous Squash Blossom, block #86. I’m kind of “meh” on this one. It’s ok, but it doesn’t make me jump up and down happy.And finally, Grape Basket, block #45. I thought I’d hate this one with all the little tiny HSTs, but I found I really liked it and was quite proud of my points at the end. I don’t know what fabric this is, it was just in my stash. I couldn’t find anything in my Etchings scraps that looked “grape-ey” Here are all five together. I’ll share pics of my mom’s blocks too as she sends them to me so you can see both of our quilts come together.So, let’s see, what else has been happening? Well, work has been insane (it is allergy season after all and insane is good for business which means more money to buy hay for said horses looking poutily over the railing above). I completed a baby quilt for a friend in July. It was a soft flannel quilt made from a panel and fabric I bought at IQF when I was in Houston in 2010. I quilted it using my embroidery portion of my 830. It has bears, moon and stars, so I chose a moon and starts motif. This was my first time using endless embroidery so it’s not perfect, but mom and baby both liked it. Here’s a close up of the quilting:Speaking of babies…we added this little one to our menagerie in July! His name is Moose (we had just come back from Kalispell, MT and his legs are HUGE). He’s keeping us laughing nonstop and has just blended seamlessly into the household. That’s it for the update for now! Hopefully it won’t be another 30 days before the next one Hope you all are well!

Vacation and a Little Bit of Catch Up

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Lori

Gosh, it’s been too long again. I knew when I started this blog that I might have trouble keeping up regular posts and that has turned out to be true. I refuse to do guilt over that though…I can only do what I can, when I can…and as it turns out, I am on vacation this week, and I CAN!

I’ve had the opportunity to tag along with the hubs on a work-trip to Kalispell, MT. We came out the weekend before so we could have a few days together of vacation time before he has to go work all week and I continue to vacation, lol. I have been in desperate need of some down time, so this is perfect. We arrived on Friday afternoon and just spent the afternoon wandering Kalispell and eating at a nice little mexican restaurant. We were both tuckered out from flying all day, so went to bed early so we could be up and ready to hit Glacier National Park bright and early on Saturday. OMG…the beauty is just beyond belief. The pictures just don’t do it justice…not even slightly. Here are just a few

Huge waterfall – Glacier NP

It really is one of the most gorgeous places on earth! You could easily convince me to pack up and move here. I had never heard of Kalispell, MT until last Christmas, Jim brought home a quilt kit for me from Glacier Quilts. It was a quilt of some bears and a scene from Glacier National Park. Not my “typical” quilting project, so it languished in my sewing closet for a bit. Every time I would start a new quilt, he would ask with sad puppy dog eyes, “don’t you like the quilt I got you?”. After running out of excuses,lol, I finally started the quilt a few weeks ago. The top is pieced (well, not completely…I still need to get the borders on) but after being here and seeing the beauty of Glacier NP in person, I am completely motivated to finish this quilt so I can snuggle under it and remember our trip. I think I’ll even go back to Glacier Quilts and buy the backing fabric while I’m here and have them ship it home so the entire quilt will officially be made from fabrics purchased in Montana. Here’s a pic of the WIP:

Montana Quilt Top – no borders yet

Close up

This top had lots of HSTs, so it was a good quilt for me to make. I haven’t done a ton of HSTs and this was the first set on my new machine…lots of good practice I’m looking forward to finishing it now!

In other news, I decided to make a jelly roll race quilt out of the Vintage Modern jelly roll I had. I love every line these guys come out with and am eagerly awaiting the release of Marmalade this summer. I posted pics on FB, trying to decide if I wanted to add a border or not, and I think I’ve decided to leave her “naked” without a border. I bought some turquoise fabric with little red dots for the backing and am going to use either a red binding or a scrappy binding from the same line. This was originally going to be a gift, but I think I may be too attached to part with her. We’ll see….I’m going to quilt this one using my embroidery module on my machine. I’m looking forward to trying this…it will be the first time using my 830 LE for embroidering a quilt. Here’s a look at the naked top:

Please ignore helper cat Lucy

Ok, the hubs is ready to start our day. We’re headed to Whitefish to Big Mountain to take a trip up the mountain in an open air chair lift (yikes!) and then some hiking. I have the rest of the week to hit little shops. There are 6 quilt shops within 60 miles and Judy Niemeyers studio…I have a big week

Score! IQF Cincinnati Loot

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Lori

Ok, for my quilty friends that have tweeted that they want to live vicariously through my shopping skills (read lack of control) from my trip yesterday to IQF Cincinnati, feast your eyes upon my fun finds. I suspect you will all notice a theme and I will have to change my username on twitter and such from “ltdermdvm” soon to “the crazy cat lady”…sigh, what’s a girl to do?

First up….you know I’ve been lusting after, I mean “wanting to try”, some Aurifil thread for a while now. I could no longer wait for Sandy to PICK ME! My pleas were falling on deaf ears…wiping a tear from my eye…sigh! SO, the hubs wanted me to pick something special for my bday present while I was at the quilt show and I decided I wanted to get some Aurifil if I could find a good deal. My local shop charges $12-14/spool. Have you heard about their new Lana 12 wt thread for wool? mmmmmmm, yummy. So I got this:

Can’t wait to try it out! And I found the PERFECT project to try the Aurifil Lana threads on at Wooly Lady! Have you guys ever seen her wool? OMG…if you like wool, she has the softest wool in the most unusual colors. I met her in Houston in 2010 and have been a huge fan ever since. Not cheap…but so unique. Kind of reminds me of the Sue Spargo type colors. I managed to contain myself and only bought one thing at her booth.

It’s going to be perfect on top of an antique buffet I have in my dining room. Seriously…look at these colors!Love, love, love! Ok, moving on. You all know Emmie by now, my little quilting buddy right? Well, Emmie proved herself to be a phenomenal mouser this past winter (thank you husband for dragging me kicking and screaming out into the country with the lure of “you can have horses”). I found this pattern and thought it was priceless! Totally reminded me of her. The gumball machine is filled with mice (that piece of fabric was included) and the whiskers were sparkly strands of something (not sure what I’ll use for that yet). Yep, couldn’t help myself…had to have it!While we’re on the animal theme, I might as well confess and show you all my other animal type purchases yesterday. I know, I know…serious problem. What do you expect from a veterinarian though? Seriously?

This was a pattern from Thangles called Mama and Her Kitties. I’ve never used Thangles but the demonstration looked super simple (ha! don’t they all). I also bought the kit because the colors were perfect for my friend who does a ton of rescue work for kitties. I also thought I would make one for our local group, Indy Feral, to use at their fundraising auction. This one looked so fun for summer. It’s called The Hunter and came with some matching Aurifil thread (giggle…). Let’s just say, Bigfork Bay Cotton Company loves me after my visit to their booth yesterday. Dear checking account, I apologize…I just couldn’t help myself, and to be fair, IQF Houston was my last real blowout…And another….this one reminded me of my Siamese, Lucy, who hangs out in my sink every morning. She’s a little visually challenged. We think she’s such a good mouser because she sees 2 of everything! Sorry Lucy…no discrimination in this house, you must have “issues” to live here

Lucy

And another….

Hey, at least I deviated from cats this time This is a VERY cool little kit that combines some pretty pastel wools with some gorgeous batiks! Yummy.

I personally think I exercised an outlandish amount of control when I left Primitive Gatherings booth with just ONE little itty bitty wool kit! This is a very cute little reindeer table mat that is all in the shape of hexagons which I’ve been wanting to try my hand at. Primitive Gatherings had this BEAUTIFUL kit that was a huge Ohio Star. I swear it had to be 80×80. You can imagine how $$ it was. Again, OUTLANDISH self-control (patting myself on the back).

Hey look! Something without a cat or an animal, lol! This cute little applique pattern was designed by Pat Sloan for Bigfork Bay Cotton Company. So pretty! And of course it came with some lovely coordinating aurifil thread.

Wrapping up now, I promise. This cute little book by Kim Schaefer (you may know her from her book Calendar Quilts) had some adorable applique for crib blankets, bibs, and growth charts. I have a few friends having babies this summer so I thought I could try a few of these out and make something different from the typical baby quilt Last but not least, I give you…Yeah…sigh. I had a bonding moment with Deb Tucker. She is a total HOOT! If you’ve never met her and you’re ever at a quilt show, go chat with her and watch her demonstrations. I would love to take one of her classes sometime or just go drink some wine, beer, martinis, whatever with her. The lady is a bundle of energy. I had heard AJ from The Quilting Pot talking about a table runner she made from one of Deb’s rulers, so I knew I wanted to check out her booth if she was at the show. I probably spent 30-45 minutes watching various demos and just laughing with her. I walked away with 3 rulers, a quilter’s wand, and 2 patterns. Nuts!

And that, I believe is IT my friends! I had a great time and find myself unbelievably glad that it’s raining today so I can stay inside and play with my loot instead of get out and clean up my flower beds and garden like I SHOULD be doing Have a great weekend everyone!

quiltingunleashed

fun, fabric, quilting, and the furbabies

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