Stitching on the Go

Do you look for fabric stores and quilt shops when you travel? I love to make stops at small, locally owned bookstores and toy stores but I especially love a local fabric store.

On our trip out to Colorado this summer I was thrilled to get a chance to stop by Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver. It was such a bright, open space with lots of knitting supplies and fabric. Everything was so nicely displayed and the number of samples and fabrics were just right. Enough to inspire but not overwhelm. I was blown away by a display with rolls of Liberty of London fabrics which I resisted.
The woman who helped me was very friendly and suggested I take a quick drive over to Fabric Bliss. (I love it when local stores support one another!) I was very happy that Roy was willing to stop by one more store knowing that we had an Ikea trip ahead of us. He was nice enough to find a coffee shop near both stores to hang out with our daughter so that I could really have time to look. It was a very nice shop, too. Smaller but filled with great fabric and ideas. Also very friendly! Both stores were in an area of Denver that was very interesting. Both were urban in a busy downtown area. Fancy Tiger was just a block off of a darling historic neighborhood that I would have loved to explore on foot. Fabric Bliss appeared to be in an art district filled with lots of galleries.
Later in the summer, I made a quick stop in Paducah, KY on the way to see my family in Tennessee. I made sure to stop at Hancock's of Paducah for a nice driving break. It lacks the charm of many shops but it has an extensive collection of fabric from many manufacturers. Heather Ross's Briar Rose fabric had just hit the shelves and I really wanted to make something with the hexie/bee fabric. I suggested to my daughter that I could make a pillow case and with it and she liked that idea but wasn't overly enthusiastic.

I was able to spend one day of my visit in the classroom at my mom's shop while my mom, dad and sister were working. My daughter and niece spent the day with me playing together while I was able to sew. I decided to use the Noodlehead Open Wide Zippered Pouch Tutorial and my new Heather Ross fabric to make a project bag big enough to hold a hoop and cross stitch supplies that I was traveling with. I just had to enlarge the dimensions a bit. It was an excellent way to spend a day!
The directions were very easy to follow and it was only my second time working with a zipper. I even added some straight line quilting since I used batting instead of interfacing.
Halfway through sewing the bag together my daughter walked up to me and gasped. "You aren't using my pillowcase fabric are you?!" Oh my goodness! I didn't know she REALLY wanted one. So I had to promise to stop and get more bee fabric on our way home. That was a huge hardship to stop and look at fabric again. Ha!


It's worked out great to carry my stitching various places this summer. My favorite place to take it was camping at the lake. It was so relaxing to to find a spot in the shade and stitch for a while! I'm hoping I get to do a little of that this weekend.

Do you have a favorite store you like to visit when you travel?

They Do!

My brother got married tonight to a very sweet and lovely young lady. They make such a great couple and I wish them all the happiness in the world. I know from experience how wonderful it is to share your life with someone you love. I get the feeling they'll have lot's of fun together as they begin this new chapter of their lives.

Mountains All Around

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well. We've had a great couple of days. We got to spend part of yesterday and today with my sister's family. My sister and I got to have a few great chats, watch some reality tv, stay up late working on our own projects but visiting a bit which helped us through to the finish, did some fabric shopping, and watched the girls play on the Slip and Slide. It was all great fun but it never seems long enough!

She has such a beautiful view of the Smoky Mountains from her back yard. You can see in the photo below what we got to look at while the girls played in the water.

Tonight we headed back to GiGi and Papa's. After I dressed Jenna in her pajamas, I whisked her outside to see all the lightning bugs (fireflies) flickering around the front yard. It was magical!

Enjoy your weekend!

Finally a Finish!

I think this may have been the first quilt I cut out on my own. I used a Turning Twenty pattern. It spent a lot of time on a shelf in between stages of cutting, piecing, quilting, and binding and spanned a bunch of different life stages when I just didn't make a lot of time for sewing. I'm so excited that it's finished because I think it will get lots of use during the summer time. I picture using it on the table for celebrations, for a picnic with friends or an evening concert in the park. The fabric on the back seems particularly sturdy. It has a finish on it that is a bit stiffer than your typical quilting cotton. I'm curious to see what it feels like after I wash it.

A little bit of a blue rectangle faded a bit before I knew to be careful about closing the blinds in my sewing room so I gave it the name Faded Glory. It's not very easy to see and will get lot's of love in spite of it's imperfections.

My mom quilted it with red thread on her long arm. It's nice to have connections! Thanks Mom!

We are home now from Tennessee, and I'm missing everybody so much. If only I could be in two places at one time. My sister Viv, her friend Samantha, Jenna and I went to Knoxville to the AQS Quilt Show and had lunch at a Creperie near the big Farmer's Market.

I've dreamed of these gigantic blackberries since last year. Viv is an amazing cook and made an incredible blackberry crisp that night.

{If you are curious about those tobacco baskets in my last post, I've updated it with some more information.}

Basket Hunting

{I'm back to add some text to this photo as I haven't completely figured out how to blog from my phone. Nikki asked a question in the comments about this tobacco basket so I thought I'd share what I know.}

My sister has a tobacco basket hanging on her back porch that I just love and I also saw one hanging outside of an antique store. I love the structure and thought one would look beautiful (or at least interesting) over my mantel. When I asked Viv about it, she said they've been all over blogland for awhile. Kansas wasn't a tobacco growing state so I just haven't seen them here at all.

My mom, sister, Jenna and I had a girls day out and went on the hunt. My sister knew just where to go. Later my dad told me that when his family grew tobacco, he remembers these baskets being part of the process.

You can read this article for some history of tobacco baskets.

This is just one link I found that shows how people are using them in their homes.

Checking in from Tennessee

Hi everyone! I'm still here in Tennessee having a great time with my family. We just can't seem to squeeze in all we want to do together and my sister talked me into staying a while longer.

She took me to the Tin Roof in Pigeon Forge for lunch with our girls yesterday. It was such a darling cafe in an old house. I wanted to move in the moment I stepped on the front porch and opened the door! And of course, the food was terrific. My sister Viv knows all the wonderfully unique places to eat and shop.

Here's our girls at one of the parks in Gatlinburg. It's so hot and humid we have to hit the playgrounds pretty early. They are having such a good time playing together and I'm loving every moment I get to spend with my niece.

My brother got engaged right before I came to visit and the night I arrived the whole family had dinner with him and his fiance. Ashley is very sweet and funny and I think she'll be a wonderful wife for Daniel. I'm so happy for them!


My hexagon class went well. It was fun to share some techniques and have a chance to laugh and visit. In the afternoon I tried my hand at a Dresden Plate and I love how it turned out. Maybe I'll get it turned into a table topper before I leave and I can share it.


I did finish binding a quilt this afternoon. So I'll have to share it too.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of a barn I just love. It's so different from a Kansas barn. The sides are cantilevered (at least that's what I think it's called). My guess is that different crops call for different types of barns.

Hope you're all doing well and keeping cool (or warm if it's winter where you are). I'll try to post again while I'm here, and maybe even something sewing related!

Hexagon Class

If you are in the Gatlinburg, TN area and are interested in learning how to hand piece hexagons I'll be teaching at Mountain Stitches by Susan. The class is July 11 from 10 until noon. The cost is $20 (kit included). You can call 865.436.0077 to reserve your spot. I'm looking forward to it!!

Hummingbird Mug Rug

Hello friends! I'm having a wonderful day catching up on things and watching Jenna paint at her easel. I thought I'd take a minute and tell you how this little mug rug came about.

When I was visiting my family this summer, my sister Viv and I had such a great time window shopping, going to the AQS quilt show, and visiting an amazing scrapbook store all in Knoxville. I think the best time though, was sitting in her kitchen visiting, drinking coffee and sewing while our girls played. Viv has become quite the quilter herself and she was so generous to give me scraps from her Hushabye quilt. She also had a stack of fabric in her stash that was just beautiful and I oooohhed and awwwed over it. I think they might be Monaluna prints. Before I left, she cut a strip from each of those fabrics for me to take home!

They've been sitting on my shelf for almost 6 months and I take them out every once in a while to look at them and remember what a great time we had. It finally dawned on me that one of the little mug rugs that are all the rage over on Flickr would be perfect for these strips and I could send it to my sister to enjoy.

I experimented quite a bit on this project. Instead of graphing everything out with measurements, I just guessed and cut. I discovered I still need my graph paper! It was the first time I used my walking foot on my Bernina and it was a dream. I also tried a 2 inch binding instead of my usual 2 1/4. I thought it would be nice to have a thinner binding on such a small project. I ended up struggling a bit to get it around the edges and quickly let go of the idea that I would experiment with machine binding. It was very quick to hand stitch the binding though and I still very much enjoy it. I did discover that it's smart to start the binding on a longer side.

So I mailed it off Saturday and hopefully Viv is too busy during the week to read this because I don't think it will get to her until tomorrow. I'm excited to surprise her with something unexpected!

That little blue hummingbird on the brown background is one of my favorites.  I saved back a few little scraps for me to use in something later, so we'll see where it might turn up.

Quilting Retreat Projects

I thought I'd share a few photos of the quilts I worked on at the retreat. I started this one in Tennessee this summer when I went to visit my family. My mom cut a huge stack of these squares for me to sew together. The plan was for me to finish the top and then learn how to use the long arm quilting machine but I didn't quite finish. I had it chain stitched all in one direction and needed to finish stitching the other direction.

The way I pieced this went completely against how I normally do things. I like to lay everything out and rearrange until it's just right. But I picked up all the squares pretty randomly, just making sure I didn't have two of the same fabrics right next to each other. It sure made things come together quicker and I like the result but I don't think it broke me of the urge to plan.

I was very surprised when I showed my husband. He liked it quite a bit which is nice because it will be big enough for our queen size bed. So now it's ready to take to Tennessee in a few weeks and hopefully I'll get a chance to try the long arm.

I'll show you a few more projects over the next couple of days. They are all pretty simple but I think the fabrics are fun!