Books, books and more books.

I love books! Simple as that. Just this morning I was talking with my gal pal M. and told her I was definitely in fabric rehab. I have enough fabric to keep me busy for the rest of my quiltig life. But books, oh dear. I did say I would like to purchase Kaffe Fassett's new book as I've seen the cover quilt as a W.I.P. on someone else's (?) blog. And a few other books are on my wish list. But first things first. I just purchased a home and I need things like a wheel barrow, $169, pruning sheers, approx $80, tree trimming $??, waiting for that estimate, etc.
So shopping for books is not high on my "need to do" list. So then how did I just purchase two new books? Check this out, free shipping and great prices. How could I not add a few new titles to my ever growing book collection? I saw this link on this blog and the rest is history. The deal was too good to pass up, and I figured since it is being shipped from across the pond, it will take a few days to arrive and that will give me time to forget that I ordered two new books and then it will be a surprise when I check the mail, sort of like a self created surprise present in the mail.
It's amazing how I can justify buying a couple of new books!
Sharon

Disorganized Organization

Things are quickly coming together here at my new place. I have no idea how people can live through a renovation, the move was as much as I could handle. About 90% of my boxes have been unpacked, due to the hard work of my boss Debbie. Without her help I would probably have just been moving into my house this weekend. Instead, I've settled in and have a workable sewing room. Here is the sewing room before Debbie showed up Saturday morning.

This room is going to hold my fabrics, sewing machine, cutting table and, hopefully, my bookcase with all my piecing books and magazines. I will also be using this as space for my rolls of batting. Although it is not completely set up, it is now a room that is disorganized organization.
My job was to put together the basket system I purchased and Debbie emptied boxes, bins and drawers of fabric. It kept coming and coming and wow, do I ever have a lot of fabric now that it is all in one place.



It was very interesting to take all my fabric and group it by color. So far I have only seen 5 or 6 pieces of fabric that could go into the purple category. I need a 12 step program for reds though. I have 2 baskets full of reds, so I need to shop from my own store before heading out to the quilt shops!
This was my thread before this weekend.And here is what my thread looks like tonight.

And here is a picture of my Annie girl. She has settled into the new home. She used to be allowed on a chest that was in front of the living room window. Now it's a leather couch in front of the window. Silly me, the dog has me trained as I now have a big blanket on the couch to keep her from scratching it when she jumps up to see out the window. She usually does this when I leave, she has such abandonment issues! But today this is what I saw when I came upstairs. How could I do a thing about this? She is so darn cute!
Although I did not use my DSM or my longarm, I have been doing some hand quilting on this little panel that can be seen on the back of my couch. I have missed quilting so much in this last few weeks, I look forward to finishing the organization and getting to work on piecing a few things and quilting a few other pieces.
Sew many things to do,
Sharon

Pictureless Post

So much for a Wordless Wednesday, how about a pictureless post?
I've moved!
OK that should sum up why no posting has been going on around here. I know I own a camera......and a toaster. I know everything has left my old place and has arrived at my new place. How could things go missing just by travelling around the block? Seriously!
If anyone knows where my toaster is, please leave a note in the comments section! ;-)
My new home is going to be amazing, as I have moved my longarm studio from a garage with no heat to a bright downstairs room with sliding glass doors with lots of natural light, new paint and new floors. Plus room to move around. My sewing room has gone from my kitchen table to a room off the longarm studio. It too, has a large window, great lighting and a door that closes this room off from the studio. Got a mess? Close the door! whoohoo.
I promise I will post pics once I find my camera. I really want before and after pics of my sewing room. Right now it is a mass of boxes, bolts of fabric and rolls of batting. Tomorrow night I am becoming an IKEA shopper and will be using this system to organize my fabrics. My goal is to have my sewing and studio area organized by the time I go to bed on Sunday evening. The proof will be in the next few posts.

Take a few stitches today!
Sharon

Girls Weekend

I have posted about the "quilt show" but here are a few pictures from the weekend with my gal pals. It is so great to get together with friends and be away from home. No dishes, no cooking, no cleaning. Life is great while living in a hotel!
We did a block swap prior to getting together. Each person picked a block and a color scheme, and the others made 4 blocks each. OK, so we made more than 4 each, I have good friends! This way we could all get blocks our friends made for us and then go home and put them into a quilt as a rememberance of this trip. Norma chose log cabins, her fav, in browns and creams.Muriel wants to do some curved piecing with batiks so we all gave her pieces to work with. I sent everyone pansy prints and they worked them into 9 patch blocks for me. I will be doing some slicing and sewing once I get settled in my new sewing room.
The first night we did snacks in the room, along with some wine and lots of gabbing. We all brought books and magazines and projects to show and share,


Norma and I are both doing some red work right now so we shared techiques and tricks. Muriel made all of us these cute little bags! And of course it was Wine Time.Paula and Norma had us well stocked with wine and goodies for the evening, and I made sure the Holiday Coffee was availabe every morning.

Friday afternoon I taught Bonnie Hunters Pineapple Blossom.

Here are Norma and Paula working away on their project. It's such a great block to use up small pieces and strips. It goes together fast, it's very graphic, and easy to make. I am working on my third one, reds and creams, and then I will have almost 1000 1/2 sq triangls from the "bonus" corners and will work them into something fantastic.

Friday night we had reservations at Skamania Lodge for their Harvest Buffet After many trips through the buffet, it was finally time for dessert. The real reason I love this restaurant is for the amazing peanut butter balls and the hazelnut ganache mini chocolates they put on the dessert bar. This is what it looked like after we finished ;-0


Once we finished, we strolled the grounds, did a tour through the gift shop, and settled into these comfy chairs outside around the firepit. It was a fantastic evening spend with good friends, good food, and good wine!

If you are still with me on this long post, here are a few more pictures some quilts from the show. As always, you can click the photos for close up views of everything. Enjoy!










Take a few stitches today,
Sharon

Quilt show pictures

Here are some pictures from the Columbia Gorge Quilt Guild's 2009 show in Stevenson WA. All photos can be clicked on for more detailed views. Enjoy!
First in Pieced catagory, Nancy Goldsworthy. Beautiful quilt!

Second in Pieced Catagory Norma Telford of Goldendale, WA Beautiful job. Judges comments focused on the amazing selection of fabrics and excellent piecing.

First place in the Applique. WOW! is all I can say, I love applique and this is an amazing piece of art. Congratulations to Mary ArnoldSecond place, beautiful applique. Kathy Anderson did a beautiful job with this piece.

Third place, how fun is this. It's machine appliqued and the quilting is lovely. You couldn't help but smile every time you looked at this quilt. A real joy to see.

Here are the miniature winners.

Close up of this amazing piece. The checkerboard ended up being her challenge.

Innovative winners........
LOVE this one, very Nancy Crow/Gee's Bend

Judges choice........

The big winner, Helene Knott of Oregon City, OR. She also taught some classes and I took her Machine Quilting as Art class all day Saturday, it was amazing!

And the feature quilter was Kathy McNeil. Here are a few of her pieces. Her newest one is simply breath taking, but not picture taking yet. So although we got to see it, we were asked to no photograph it as it has not made the rounds of shows yet. If you have the opportunity to see her work, don't pass it up.

Sew many beautiful pieces
Sharon