Toss that thing....

That's what we did with the Fabrics Plus life preserver block....we "tossed" it out on the beach. Fabrics Plus is located in Anacortes. We wanted to make this block smaller and 3-D. Somehow, Jan managed to do it and it came out looking fantastic! She is so good!!A few of the other shop owners happened by today on their own Quilt Tour. I got to see some pictures they had taken of the other quilts - wow! Everybody's was soooo creative. I think you'll really enjoy this year's Tour.

It was a very busy day at Fab-Etc today. Jan W had session #2 in her sweatshirt class. They are coming out great. The gals will be back Monday morning to finish up. And then this afternoon was 4-H. Our Izzie is making a very cool prom dress from silk shantung - it's going to be gorgeous! Freight? Got Eclectic Garden group from In the Beginning fabrics, some Kwik Sew patterns, notions, batting and new ribbons for the cash register - hooray! We can finally read what it's printing!!

Tomorrow will be another good day. Velina will be teaching how to scan fabric (it's just a drop-in, so don't worry if you didn't sign up...you didn't need to!) Tracey and I will be eavesdropping and learning what we can while we work.

Okay, I am done for tonight. Have a fantastic weekend!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay.....

This is the block from Calico Creations in Mt. Vernon. He's a cute paper-pieced pelican, as you can see. He was pretty easy to make...I made him smaller and he is "sittin' in the dock of the bay" in our quilt, as you'll see later on. We had quite a discussion as to what color he should be. Harriet said the ones she saw on her trip were this gray color. Others said they should be white, although we all agreed that this sort of rusty-orange colors was best for his beak. In the end, it came down to that this color showed up best in our design.

Last night was KT Klub and we had a surprise for them - the latest collection from Kansas Troubles had just arrived. It's called Butterfly Garden and is pretty spectacular to us KT lovers! There are about 24 bolts, charm packs and layer cakes.

Today, Jan and I got to overthinking a spring tabletopper - hey, it's what we do best! Think we finally "got it". It's made from April Cornell's latest group in blues and yellows using a pattern from one of the newer Anka's Treasures books. And then Mr. UPS brought two bolts of batiks and two bolts of flannel. We also got a great magazine yesterday with vintage quilts and their directions and "remakes" in contemporary colors. Tracey said today it was the best magazine she's gotten in a long time!

Hope your week is going well! More blocks to come this week.

Sailing, sailing over the ocean blue....

This is the sailboat block from Folktales in Lynden. I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but the sail is 3-D and fun to make. We left it full-sized for our quilt. We added the button portholes, the flag, red stripe and the sun on the sail - just for fun! Jan and I worked on this block....see her signature needleturned waves at the bottom?!? She's the best! What's that rope coming from the side of the boat, you ask? You'll have to wait for the answer to that question. We moved our Quilt Tour quilt today to the wall where last year's quilt has been hanging. It looks good in its new home!

Today was a good day at Fab-Etc. Linda helped me do one of my favorite things....clean up the back room after Fat Tuesday! Since I'm still on "light duty" she climbed the ladder and moved some of the boxes. She is the best at convincing me that I really don't have to save ALL of those great boxes for future projects. It looks sooooo good in there now.

We got some fabric today. A spectacular sunflower group from Clothworks - WOW! (And if you're reading this on vacation, Theresea...yes, I cut yours first and have it tucked safely away.) Another fun group came from Riley Blake, too. We have a Kwik Sew pattern on order for a little girl's dress that would be great made from some of these prints.

Okay, day is done. But first a special thanks to Julie from Keepsake Cottage for mentioning our quilt on her blog. If you go to http://keepsakecottagefabrics.blogspot.com/ you can see her finished quilt - she's not teasing you like I am and making you wait for the finished project. Night all!

Leapin' Orcas.....

Next to the Two Thimbles two-masted ship is this leaping Orca block from Lynda's Quilting.....just up the road a piece from us. We also shrunk him a bit so he didn't overpower the two boats close by. Lynda had used a black rope, but we took the liberty of making it kind of rainbow-like to fit our design. We tried to make it look like the sun shining through his "splash". We had some UltraSuede and Diane "built" him using that. Makes him look great, don't you think? You'll have to look up close when you stop by.

Yesterday was another day filled with EQ classes. Velina's quilt was beautiful and a great design using the Laurel Burch horses and her EQ6 software. Think she took it home to finish and then I get custody - yippee. Next Saturday from 10:30-1:00 she's having a "drop-in" clinic for scanning fabric. If you're interested, just show up with 4 fabrics, your laptop AND MOUSE and she'll show you how to scan, make files and integrate them into your software.

Linda and I tidied up a bit, finished packaging our last Gracie's Garden Sampler Block of the Month, and I tried to take it easy. We do have a couple of "leftovers" from the BOM that we put into kits for $60 if anyone is interested - has the patterns and all the fabric for the top and binding.

Today? Well, got to get some grub in here, so John is going to go grocery shopping with me. Doing laundry one load a day. Have some tax stuff I'm waaaay behind on. Think my Mom would like to go get some fish for dinner, so we'll join her. Hope your Sunday is a good one!

Ahoy....

Sailing close to the Calico Country boat is this two masted ship from Two Thimbles! We shrunk this block a bit also to fit our layout and Jan once again needleturned some waves for us. Harriet added the happy red flags at the top. We then embellished with the cording and the silver "whatevers" - we aren't sure what they are, they just seemed to perk it up a bit, don't you think? It was a fun block to make....

Today was a great day at Fab-Etc. Jan Weaver had the first session of her sweatshirt class - the "destruction" phase. Judging from the fabrics folks had today, there will once again be 5 gorgeous sweatshirt jackets! We got some new books from Martingale. Didn't have much time to look at them, but maybe Saturday?

Tomorrow we have our EQ classes. I got a sneak peek at the project Velina designed this time, and it's very cool. I get custody of it after the class, so you'll have to take a look at it. Her students are having a great time learning the "ins and outs" of EQ6 each month. It's an amazing program. We even used a few things from EQ to do our Quilt Tour project.

Enough for tonight....I'll put another block up over the weekend for you to see. Enjoy your weekend!

Sail on....

We're going to just sail on across the quilt to the Calico Country (Lynden) block. Isn't this a darling little sailboat? We "shrunk" the block to make it fit into our design and then hand appliqued it down, except for its UltraSuede mast and flag. Then, Jan needleturned the waves gently lapping over the side. Pretty fun!

Tea Party was great today. And the only freight we've gotten this week are some notions and a few batiks, a couple of 30's prints and some other "basics". They're being easy on me! But, I have to tell you that our UPS driver took a look at our quilt this morning and thought it was pretty cool. At lunchtime a gal came in that told us she was his wife; they'd just had lunch; and he told her she needed to come over and see it! We felt really good that we could impress "the guy in brown"!

Well, still playing catch-up in a major way, so I'd best write a few checks for those pesky bills they keep sending me. Have a wonderful evening!

A funny thing happened.....

A funny thing happened....well, okay, it really wasn't funny at all, but isn't that the way you start out stories like this? What happened after the Saturday night with the empty laundry room floor? Well, Sunday at 2:30 a.m. is what happened. I woke up in lots of pain and ended up in ER at St Joseph's Hospital with a SEVERE kidney infection. (I put SEVERE because that's the way my doc finally got me to realize I wasn't going to be getting well in 24 or fewer hours!) So....it's not been a lot of fun the last week and a half. I am slowly recovering, and a few other things have cropped up along the way, but I am much, much better!

Team Fab-Etc pulled together when THE QUILT came back from being quilted and we got it finished and hung by the Monday deadline! As promised, I'll blog the blocks up until the event March 24th. If you've been into the store, you've seen the finished piece, but I am not divulging it in its entirety until the end - ok? This is the block from Keepsake Cottage in Bothell. Isn't it great? And we were soooo proud of our "beam". It's made from a yellow silk chiffon that's been hanging around the shop for a while....it worked perfectly, don't you think?

Okay, as you can imagine, I am way behind on everything, so that's all for tonight, folks. I'll try and put another block up tomorrow.....Tea Party Wednesday, so another full day for me!