Spooky Season Sampler

I joined this quilt along, it was a lot of fun! It ran from October 1-10. Every morning, the first thing I would do, was look at my email to see what the new block looked like. On the tenth day, there was the finishing instructions.  This is the second year that Fran at Cotton and Joy has done it.  Each year, she gets nine different designers to design 9 spooky blocks. This year, I was able to get each block done on the day, but some days I had to stay up late!

Here are all the blocks, I think you can still sign up to get the free block patterns.  Cotton and Joy is on Instagram.

One of my grand daughters said that this is her dream Halloween quilt!

How cute is that! 

It was fun to fussy cut the skulls on this one :)

I turned my Frankie into a lumberjack, lol!

A spooky tombstone!

I loved choosing the fabric for this block. Notice that the owl has owls on his body!

Here's the link to my quilt from last year.

Thanks for following and I'll see you again next week :)

My Sewing Room Organization

I bought quite a bit of fabric when I went to Missouri Star!

I haven't known what to do with the excess, my sewing room is a bedroom and it's almost overflowing!  I saw that someone (sorry, forget who) bought these containers at Target. They are the perfect size for fat quarters and they are stackable! I bought 6 of them at 

$6.00 each.  Pretty reasonable!

I had my fat quarters in piles sorted by color. They were here, there and everywhere. I thought it would be  better if my fat quarters could all be in one place. Here they are, labeled by color.

 

I bought a lot of Halloween fabric and my basket was overflowing. I was able to fit everything into 3 bins!  I just love how it all turned out!

I might as well show you the rest of my fabric organization. All of this fabric are 1/2 yard to 1 yard pieces. They are also in color order and the bottom right shelf is low volume. I fold the fabric over comic book cardboards.

Here is one of my shelves, a lot of vintage decor.

The left of the top shelf is leftover Sarah Jane from another shelf, 1 yard pieces of backgrounds, and the colored fabric to the right is Lori Holt half yard pieces. 

The middle shelf is all Lori Holt (mostly older pieces) I bagged up some of the Lori Holt fabric that I've outgrown and will be giving it away. 

The bottom shelf is for quilt backings, mostly 2 yard pieces. When I use those, I have to piece the backing together, but I like that look.

The middle shelf is my collection of Sarah Jane fabric. It's over 10 years old. I'm not as fond of it as I used to be so I'm going to make a goal for the new year to make a couple of quilts from it and see how I feel then.

The top shelf is Tasha Noel, I'm going to make a couple of quilts out of it in the new year and possibly a dress for my grand daughter.

I use Lori Holt's method of sorting scraps. The 3 boxes to the left are almost overflowing!  I may have to edit it soon.

The containers to the left are smaller than fat quarters, I go to them first to choose fabric. 

I had to buy 6 more of those Target containers to freshen up these shelves! I need to go on another fabric fast!!!! 

Thanks for reading this, I'll see you next week!

My trip to Missouri Star

We arrived in Hamilton in the afternoon, and I was able to go to a few of the quilt shops before we left for dinner. 

We spent two night in this beautiful bed and breakfast. The first day and night, we were there all by ourselves.  We woke up in the morning and our hostess Terri had a lovely breakfast waiting for us. This is the front of the house.

This is the side back of the house.  The floors were creaky because it was old, but everything was in outstanding shape!  The carpet was very soft, and the bathrooms were so well done! We were so comfortable there.  The second night, another couple arrived, but we never heard them and didn't meet them until the morning at breakfast. Terri was a wonderful host! She doesn't live at the house anymore, they have a beautiful home in the country, about 20 minutes away.

One side of the street had these shops. There are 16 total shops, each one having its own theme.

These are the shops on the other side of the street. Jenny and Ron Dean were struggling to raise their 7 or 8 children and make ends meet.  Their son Alan suggested that Jenny get a long arm machine and start quilting people's quilts to make money. Their house wasn't large enough for a long arm, so they rented a small shop. I should say that the population of Hamilton is only 1800 and hasn't grown in years. Alan also got his mom to do a YouTube channel with tutorials. They began with a few bolts of fabric. Jenny has a magnanimous and great personality, so people loved her tutorials. She found her own way to make quilt blocks which was a simplified way.  Slowly, they started to grown and now I think they said they employ 500 people. They have also become millionaires with all their hard work and dedication.

Missouri Star just celebrated their 16th year. I love all the painted murals on the walls. 

I bought some fabric, doesn't take long for the tab to grow!  The fabric was $11.95 per yard, and there was some sale fabric too.

I loved this staircase!  It led me to one of my favorite areas, the halloween and modern and children sections.

This shop was so unique!  It was all designed and laid out like a grocery store, so cute!  Fabric Market :) 

All of the notions were separated and sold by color.

This section had colored fabric, it was all Riley Blake.

I loved this button and clip bar too!

Jenny and her husband Ron are leaving this week for a two year church mission in northwest Africa. There have been lots of teary farewells.  Jenny says that she will only miss on Birthday Bash! Her daughter Natalie and daughter in law Misty will keep the YouTube tutorials going and Jenny said that next year's Birthday Bash will be better than ever!

I'm very grateful to my husband for taking me to Missouri Star. He was very patient and supportive of me. I love him dearly :)

My Quilt Retreat

I went on a four day quilt retreat with these lovely ladies ❤️

We had a lot of fun! Lots of sewing, talking, laughing and eating!

I made Reindeer Xing by Lella Boutique. I was sewing like mad to get the blocks done.  I think in the future when I bring a cut quilt project to a retreat, I will sew a few blocks before the retreat.  It would be less stressful to not be in such a big rush :)

I made binding pincushions for my gift for everyone, along with two binding clips that color coordinated, and a little pair of scissors.  I had a lot of fun making them!

See you next week ❤️

The Power of a Quilt

• I am very particular about who I give a quilt to......they take so much time to make, I put so much love into them, and they cost a lot of money!  So far, I've only given my quilts to family, because I love them and they know what it takes for me to make a quilt. I became friends with a lovely lady about 6 years ago.  She was bedridden, had two types of cancer and was always in extreme pain. When I visited her, I always left so much happier.  She always lifted my spirits. I kept wondering what I could do for her. The thought came to me to give her a quilt. I chose the yellow one because it was cheery and sunshiny. Time passed and I would visit less often. I felt badly, because it was a huge effort for her to get up. One day recently, she went to the emergency room by ambulance. I went to visit her there with my son and daughter in law who were also her friends. A week later, she was home and hadn't eaten in seven days. I went with my son to see her, she was deep asleep from medication, and expected to pass away. I took her hand in mine and told her that every time I visited her, I felt like I was in the presence of angels. I told her I loved her. The next day she returned home to her Heavenly Father. I went to her memorial and went to the front of the chapel to give her husband a hug.  When I looked up, I saw the quilt I made for her, draped over the pulpit. I was filled with emotion! Tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn't speak. Her family told me that she  loved the quilt I made of her and always had it with her. When she passed, her husband kept hugging the quilt, almost like that was all he had left of her, in his emotional state. Various family and friends thanked me for making the quilt for her, it made her so happy and that's all she talked about. I didn't realize a quilt could give someone so much comfort and have so much power.

I hope you enjoyed this story, it really touched my heart ❤️

Doll Clothes

 I made some doll clothes for Sabrina's 3rd birthday.  It's a lot of fun making 18" doll clothes. They're not too tiny and all have velcro to close the backs instead of zippers, buttons or snaps.  

I use these patterns when they go on sale at Joann's Fabric store.

I may make her some more clothes when she's four if she really loves them and still plays with her dolls 💗

I've made lots of doll clothes, here are some that I made for Lucy.

I made these clothes for Izzy's doll.

I made these clothes for Charlotte's doll and here too!

Clothes for Kennedy's doll.

An incredible fashion show for Kennedy's doll ❤️

I bet there are still more doll clothes in my future! Thanks for following me and see you again next week.

Boo! quilt pattern

I went on a four day quilt retreat in Scottsdale, an hour from my home.

I had this quilt all cut out, and about 9 of the ghosts done.  Even so, I finished the quilt just in time for our show and tell.  I love it! It was so much fun choosing the fabric from my stash, I even had the orange print :) 

The ladies in the pink shirts were in my group. Each morning we had a delicious complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then we went to the ballroom to sew, sew, sew! I love seeing what everyone is working on.

There were over 40 women at the retreat, they're all such nice ladies.

Thanks for following, and see you next week!