Monday, June 16, 2014

Goodies from the MN Quilt show










I went up to the MN quilt show on Thursday in St. Cloud. Got there just in time for the show to open. Shopped till  3:30-here are some goodies that came home with me.




 then I went to Crafts Direct and shopped some more! And on the way home Friday I went to SR Harris in Brooklyn Park, MN. If you ever get that way you need to go!!  It's a big fabric warehouse type of store with gobs of all kinds of fabrics. I think I am pretty well stocked on my solid fall colors for a bunch more table runners.






And here is the table runner I stitched up since I got home. It's from the pattern shown above that I got at the show. All batiks in the leaves and sashings.











There are always lots of Linky Parties going on each week-I'll be linking up to a few of them :-)

Monday, June 9, 2014

Pattern testing-Tubix

When Sue, who blogs at Quilt Times, asked for volunteers for pattern testing her upcoming pattern Tubix, I jumped right in. I am soooo glad I did!  This was a fun, fast and effective modern quilt pattern. I chose to make mine just a bit smaller by using less blocks, mine measures in at 44 x 50.  It really is very easy so a beginner could do it, but can still hold even a seasoned quilter's attention! Of course being a longarmer I had lots of fun quilting it too.

Be sure to check out Sue's blog and look for her upcoming pattern release!  Thanks, Sue, for letting me be a pattern tester!
Don't cha just love that polka dot binding!





This pattern has those stitch and flip corners and rather than throw them away I just had to use them!!
So I got these bonus half square triangles sewn and trimmed to 1.75" and then realized I could make stars with them and since I had enough fabric of all the other prints why not a little wall quilt :-) this measures in at 18" square. I usually don't make things this small but it was so fun. I decided to use my RnS groove circle board to quilt it. The board didn't have enough circles to do it all so I finished the outer rings with Renae's amazing arcs. 



Here is my RnS template board and special stylus that attaches to my Nolting longarm. So the stylus sits in the groove and makes quick work of following the circle around, lift the stylus and put it in the next groove and continue around. I lock my beginning and ending of each circle with a few very small stitches.





Here you see my whole set up




and here is Renae's amazing arc.








Linking up with the linky's on the left!!  Each day of the week there is always a different linky party, go check them out!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

A switch from quilting to knitting

Yesterday I decided I needed a little change from quilting so I made these 3 hats on my bulky Brother knitting machine. Also posting a pic of my knitting machine for those who have never seen one and are curious. I have this one set up with a motor, so I don't have to manually move the carriage every row. Don't get me wrong it doesn't just make the hat by itself, I still have to sit right there and manipulate some stitches, change the yarns, set the pattern, cast on and off etc. It's just easier on the arm/shoulder to have a motor unit attached to it.

I knitted the parts(sleeves, button and rib bands) for these little fleece sweaters a few weeks ago and just yesterday got them sewn up.  I do sew the knitted parts to the fleece with the sewing machine. Then hand stitch the ribbed cuffs and tie in yarn ends.  Next they will get their buttons.  I still need several more knits for the fall craft shows, I only had one fleece sweater left after last year and the hat supply is low also.

I have been machine knitting for 28 years now! Yikes that makes me sound old-well I am getting older, today is my birthday!!  And it is shaping up to be a great weather day, think I will have to take a bike ride this afternoon. Tonight, I am meeting my daughter and her family at Red Lobster, YUM!



The hubbs and I had a great weekend over in Wisc for my great Nephew's wedding. This is the part of my family that attended, some which I had not met or had not seen in several years. It was sooo awesome!!