Christmas in July!

I am continuing to plug along on old UFOs.  The boys are all at my in-laws farm this weekend doing some work for them so I have taken advantage of my time alone and have spent a lot of time in the quilting studio.  I have been itching to do some machine quilting as it's been well over a year since I've done any, so I dug out this Christmas 9 Patch quilt that was ready to go and got it all basted. 

I just wound a bunch of bobbins and will be getting started on the quilting shortly.  I'm going to do an overall grid pattern on it.  As an extra bonus, when I unfolded it I found that I had already made the binding for it, so I can get that attached as soon as the quilting is done.  Who knows, it might actually get done by Christmas!!!

Bloglovin - Claiming my Blog

As I'm sure you know by now, Google Reader is going away on July 1.  Many people, including myself, have switched to Bloglovin for reading our favorite blogs.  Apparently you have to "claim" your blog if you want to put a button on your blog for people to easily add your blog to their bloglovin reader.  So that is what this post is for.  You can click on the link below to add my blog or on the button on the sidebar.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Batik Postage Stamp Mini

I needed some mindless sewing the last few days so I dug out my baggie of pre-cut light colored batik squares and just started sewing them together.  After awhile I decided that they would make nice little mats for under our bedroom lamps so I sewed twelve rows of twelve squares together and here is the first finished mat.  Each square finishes at 1 inch.  No border to be added.  Just a little grid quilting and binding and it will be done.  I need to make one more for DH's lamp.  The backing and the binding will be this Princess Mirah batik that I have in the shop.  It is from the Temple Life collection.

Done!

I got the pieced border finished on this old UFO yesterday and the top is officially done!  I've pulled some fabrics from my stash to make a pieced backing so that is next on the quilting to do list.  It felt good to finally get some sewing time this weekend.  We also got the rest of the garden planted, a good long bike ride in once the rain finally stopped, and watched several movies from back in "our day" with the kids, which they enjoyed.  All in all, it was a great weekend at our house!

Scrappy Afghan Progress

We have spent the last 3 weekends traveling so I needed to have a good traveling project to work on in the car.  I only had one small quilt to bind and I wasn't in binding mode anyway, so I chose to bring the scrappy afghan I am crocheting.  Two of the trips were 5 hours each way so I was able to make quite a bit of progress when I didn't have a cat in my lap.  Sassy traveled with us for the first two trips so I didn't get as much done on those.

Here is my progress so far and a close-up of the variety of colors I am using.  Because of all of the color changes I have lots of yarn ends to weave in, which I don't care for at all, but it's worth it to get this awesome rainbow of color.  I am using my cotton yarn stash, much of which is no longer available since Peaches 'n Creme sold out to the Sugar 'n Cream guys, so having all of those discontinued colors in one afghan is pretty cool in my opinion.

As an extra bonus, I stumbled across a cute little quilt shop in Jamestown, ND this past weekend purely by accident as we were leaving the buffalo museum of all places.  We had 30 minutes until closing so perfect for a quick browse through the shop and to pick up a few small pieces to add to my stash. 

Tons of New Items at My Very Own Quilt Shop!

We have been very busy this month adding new products to the My Very Own Quilt Shop website.  Lots and lots of gorgeous new Anthology and Mirah batiks have been added and we are not done yet!  Click below to see all of the new batiks we've added:

http://www.myveryownquiltshop.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=68&limit=100

And here is a peek at just a few of them:

One Border Down, Two to Go!

I am finally getting the borders on this quilt.  And only a mere two plus years after the center of the quilt was complete.  Not bad I suppose considering everything that has happened during that time frame.  Anyway, I've got the first inner border pieced and attached as you can see below.  The main border is a scrappy piano key border and I have much of that pieced and am in the assembly process in order to start attaching it.  Fingers crossed that things match up fairly well.  Hopefully I will have progress pics for that phase in the next day or two.  In the meantime, here is where I am at:

The bottom is not actually wavy...just laid out a bit funny or bad angle on the pic.  Not sure which.

Scott's Stocking

Whew, after a whirlwind trip to Phoenix to sell a house full of furniture and pack up, donate, or toss whatever else was left, I need a vacation from the vacation!  Consequently, I've been a bit lazy since we got back on Thursday night.  I spent much of yesterday catching up on TV shows that had been DVR'd the last few weeks and while doing so, I got a lot of stitching done on Scott's stocking.  I started this piece on our trip to Phoenix in December and did work on it a little bit during this last trip, but not much. It's probably 80% done in this pic:

The pattern is Reed's Stocking by Shepherd's Bush and I am stitching it on 18 ct Natural Linen using Caron Impressions threads (50/50 silk/wool blend).  These threads are expensive but so amazing to stitch with and SO soft!  I plan to stitch a stocking for myself as well using the same linen and threads.

I've also been working on some shop stuff putting together new fat quarter packs and adjusting the pics for new fabric to load on the site.  I really want to sew, but didn't feel that my brain was quite ready for that given that I couldn't even decide WHAT to sew lol.  I am feeling marginally less exhausted today so maybe by tomorrow I will be back to normal.  Fingers crossed anyway.

Soaking Up The Sun!

We have been in Phoenix for almost a week now and are soaking up as much sun as we can while we are here since it was still cold when we left ND last Sunday.  It was finally warmer there yesterday but it's supposed to cool back down again and until the warmer temps stick for a week, I'm not counting on them staying around.

Besides enjoying the warmer weather here in Phoenix, we have been selling all of the remaining furniture in my house down here, which was most of what I had as we moved very little.  We have renters lined up for at least a year, possibly two, so figured we'd just clean everything out and start fresh if we are ever in a position to spend more time down here, which we aren't right now or for the foreseeable future.

We have also been enjoying our backyard wildlife.  We had cameras up here to monitor the house so DH put one out by the quail block in the yard and now we have a live quail cam going lol.  Here is a still pic he took:

Stash Enhancement!

I haven't been able to sew in over a month, but I did buy a couple of things last week to add to my stash and they arrived this week.

First, I splurged on some additional Vintage Modern stash by Bonnie & Camille.  I love this entire line (which rarely happens) and definitely want to make an entire quilt from it so I needed to get some more to make sure I had enough (love that rationalization lol). 

Coincidentally, the book mentioned below has a quilt made from Ruby by Bonnie & Camille, of which I have a bit, and that line plays perfectly with this one, so that may be the quilt to make.  We'll see.  Just look at all of this yumminess:

I bought this from Kris of Lavender Quilts off of Etsy.  Check out this cute packaging and scissors she included with my purchase:

Secondly, I finally got Kim Brackett's new book, Scrap-Basket Beauties.  What a great book!  I looked through it cover to cover last night and I immediately found a handful of quilts that I must.make.now.  This is Kim's third book and they are all great!  You should definitely run out and get at least one of them if you have scraps or 2 1/2 inch strips to use up. 

Sale at My Very Own Quilt Shop!

Our St. Patrick's Day sale is still going strong!  See details below.

 

SALE ALERT!!! I've got some Irish in me, but more importantly, I need to make room for all of the new inventory I have coming, so we are having a sale this weekend for St. Patrick's Day. Starting now, you will receive 20% off your entire order, excluding shipping and sales tax, if applicable. 

 

The discount will show up automatically in your shopping cart, but not on the individual product prices. No coupon code necessary!

The sale will run through midnight on Sunday, March 17th. Click below to start shopping!

 

http://www.myveryownquiltshop.com/

 

And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook if you want to see new product announcements and get notification of sales.

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/MyVeryOwnQuiltShop

 

As a side note, there has been no sewing going on here :-(.  Too much tax work to do, but in a month that will be over (thankfully) and then I have big plans!!!!  LOL

Princess Mirah Batiks Have Arrived at My Very Own Quilt Shop!

There are many, many more to come, but the first of the Princess Mirah batiks are now available at My Very Own Quilt Shop!  These are some of the richest, yummiest batiks I've ever seen.  I just love Mirah batiks!  Well, I love all batiks, but I REALLY love Princess Mirah batiks lol.

Here are some of the new ones on the site.  Click on the link above to see them all as well as the other batiks in our shop.

Perkiomen Daydreams

Ever since I saw this quilt on Bonnie Hunter's website I knew that I had to make it someday.   Well that someday has finally arrived.  I got the book with the pattern in it for Christmas this year and realized it would be a perfect quilt for using the cutoffs I get from prepping the bolts for sale in my store.  So out with the original plan for the cutoffs and in with the new. 

This quilt is HUGE and has 10,000 one inch squares.  Even using strip piecing methods, that is ALOT of cutting, sewing, and then more cutting.  I set a goal to cut and piece 50 strip sets in February to ultimately yield 50 blocks (I think) of the 400 total that I need.  I managed to get 3 sets completely pieced and the fourth cut, but now sewn.  Not bad considering the time of year it is.

Here are some pics of my progress in February:



Giveaway Winner!

Wow, thank you so much to all of you who "Liked" us on Facebook and participated in the giveaway!  Thanks to bloggers and customers we got 29 new Likes on Facebook :-). 

My stepsons are here this morning with us, so I enlisted the help of Kelby, the youngest, in picking the winner of the giveaway.  I asked him to pick a number between one and 29 and after thinking long and hard, he picked lucky number 13, which was Ame, who is a customer of My Very Own Quilt Shop.  So congratulations to Ame!  And thank you again to everyone that participated!

Batik Fat Quarter Giveaway Closes Tonight!

The batik fat quarter giveaway at My Very Own Quilt Shop closes at Midnight, CST, tonight but you still have plenty of time to enter! 

Details for entering the giveaway are in THIS POST.

Batik Fat Quarter Giveaway Reminder

Just a reminder that My Very Own Quilt Shop is giving away a pack of batik fat quarters to one lucky winner this week.  Entry deadline is Midnight, CST, this Thursday, February 28th.  Details for entering the giveaway are in THIS POST.

Bargello Orphan Block Trivet is Finished!

Woo hoo!  I have another finish already for 2013 and another UFO finish to boot.  It's small, but it's finally done, so it counts.  This little bargello block didn't make the cut for this quilt, so I put a border on it and quilted it.  That was a few years ago.  Last month I finally made and attached the binding and last night after too many hours of tax return preparation, I put in the final stitches of sewing down the binding while watching a movie.  Now I just have to find the perfect place to display it.

And if you are a batik lover be sure to check out our giveaway from My Very Own Quilt Shop that closes this Thursday, February 28th at midnight CST.  Details are in this post.

Batik Fat Quarters Giveaway at My Very Own Quilt Shop

Just a reminder that My Very Own Quilt Shop is giving away a pack of batik fat quarters next week.  See details for entering the giveaway in THIS POST.

Good luck!

Fat Quarter Pack Giveaway at My Very Own Quilt Shop

My Very Own Quilt Shop is now on Facebook (yay!) but not too many people know about our page yet.  We want everyone to know right away when we get new products or have a sale so we are having a little giveaway here on my blog.  All you have to do is "Like" our Facebook page and leave a comment on this post that you have done so, and you will be entered to win a fat quarter pack of your choice off of the website.  We have 49 different fat quarter packs currently for sale so you are bound to find something you like :-).

The giveaway will close at Midnight, CST on Thursday, February 28th so you have a whole week to get over to our Facebook page and give us a "Like" and get entered in the giveaway.  Check out the post below for a peek at some of the yummy fat quarters and click HERE to get to our Facebook page.

http://www.myveryownquiltshop.com/

8 new Batik Fat Quarter Bundles added to My Very Own Quilt Shop

In between preparing tax returns this weekend, I added 8 new gorgeous fat quarter bundles to My Very Own Quilt Shop.  They are all from the January 2013 Anthology Batik collection.  Click below to start shopping:

http://www.myveryownquiltshop.com/