Fabric Shopping at Stepping Stones

Drive across state lines for the purpose of Fabric Shopping?

You bet!

Let's go to one of my favorite places, Stepping Stones Quilts on St. Simons Island, GA! Located around the back of the airport, you'll be glad you made the drive!

Shop owner Connie Vaghtborg has every fabric you could need or want...ocean themes, airplanes, Aunt Gracie, Jinny Beyer...but most of all, fabulous batiks!There were so many gorgeous bolts...they were taking over the shop! They were going up and down the ladder, stacking up along and around the cutting table, and the blue ones had even taken over an actual shelving unit!
This is definitely the place to go for batiks.

Of course, Cherry-Cherry came along for this excursion into Fabriholic Paradise.
She was take with the many shadings of the Jinny Beyer collection.....

...and had a good time selecting bolts in a great color-run of blue through green, with a touch of purple, all inspired by a border stripe fabric.
She wisely added a few bolts of non-Beyer fabric for texture/print contrast.
Sorry I didn't get a picture of all the bolts layed out on the classroom floor! This just half of the classroom...and one of two 50% off racks filled with good stuff!

Connie's husband Chris is the Featherweight guy of the Southeast! He fixes them and sells them and even has parts...so contact Chris if you need some Featherweight assistance.
I need to get back up there when he teaches the Featherweight maintainence class!

OK, I know you are wondering, "What did Sunnie buy???"
Why, thank you for asking! How about these?I don't know either, but it was on the 50% off rack! (a Timeless Treasures fabric)

Just when you thinkthe fruit/ veggie craze has passed, somebody comes out with another fabulous collection! These carrots were just too beautiful to resist.
(another by Timeless Treasures)

Someday I will get around to the polka-dot quilt I have been collecting fabrics for! This one is "Woodstock by Isadora Phoenix" from Benartex.
And now...what you've been waiting for....the batiks!The motif is like trees, and the color is more tealish than it appears here...but still dark!

This is the one I kept going back to, so I had to have some!
And to finish it off, a little Fat Quarter frenzy for dessert:

Yumm, yum...the second from the left was fabulous beyond compare, which means I got the last fat quarter in the shop and the bolt was loooooooooooooooong gone!

Well, that was fun!
I am looking forward to seeing what my friends brought home from Paducah.
Meanwhile, it's back to the usual: designing a Personalized Mystery Quilt (you can see it in August, after the Seaside Piecemakers have at it!). Which reminds me, I have to show you the "Stars of the Quilt Show" Mystery Quilt from Space Coast Quilters!
Look for that tomorrow!

Florida Quilt Shops: Quilter's Cove

You may find yourself in Orlando, FL, wondering, "Where can I go for a good fabric fix???"

I enjoy visiting Quilter's Cove, so conveniently located a few miles from Mrs. Starbucks house! (it was even closer, but the new & larger space is just wonderfu!)

The QuiltMobile may have an internal GPS for fabric! Or is it me???

This is a bright and airy shop, with lots of space to wander around getting a good view of the fabric, patterns & notions.

If you're looking for seaside inspired fabric, this is a good place to go.
Of course, there is a great selection of batiks, too....you can guess what I bought! Not to mention the color of thread I could not find elsewhere.
They also have an extensive collection of bag patterns, which quilters are still sewing like crazy!

Who wouldn't want to come in here and take a class or just sew away from home for a few hours? Mrs. Starbucks likes to come here when she needs to concentrate on a project.
They are open seven days per week!
Be sure to visit the Quilter's Cove website: http://www.quilterscoveofcfl.com/

There are several other shops named Quilter's Cove across the country...I guess the idea of a safe harbor really appeals to all of us!
Let me know if you have "dropped anchor" (or major bucks!) at any of them!

Personal note to Mrs. S: and how many new projects did you dream up in Paducah???...oops...sorry, I am not supposed to whine! Hope everyone had a wonderful time there! I also hope the show stays in Paducah next year!

Not in Paducah & Not Whining!

My trip to Paducah had to be called off, and since I promised you I wouldn't be whining about NOT going this year (as I did last year)....I just kept quiet for a while! No Waffle House pictures, either, as the Waffle Houses around here have closed.

MEANWHILE, this is what has kept me busy:

As I told so many friends, "If I can't go to Paducah, I'm getting a cat!"

It's been a year since Wizard had to be put to sleep. He had 18 wonderful years with us.
I really need to have a cat, so off to the animal shelter I went, with my cat-loving son along to help look for the right kitty.

Did you know they have websites with photos of all the animals ready for adoption?

It sort of felt like a "kitty dating service" to look at all of them! I wouldn't choose a new friend that way, but I knew there were several cats I'd like to meet.

They had many fabulous cats there, including some handsome large males. But I wanted a grey striped female.

The photo above is my new friend's "mug shot" with her shelter name.

Her new name is Shayla, and she's a sweetie!

She's taken up residence behind the bathtub, but is willing to come out when called.

She gets braver every day. Soon she will be running the entire house, as most cats do.

I know not everyone likes cats, and this will be the last post exclusively about Shayla...

but you can be sure she'll start to show up regularly in pictures from the studio...once she has found her way upstairs!

I've been neglecting Patchwork Pie due to some other activities, besides getting a new cat.
Stay tuned as I get caught up with a visit to another Florida quilt shop, a quilt shop in Georgia, and a great Mystery Quilt with the Space Coast Quilters!

Something for Everybunny

Here's something everyone can agree on for Springtime: a bunny rabbit!
I'm celebrating Easter, and sending my best wishes to all of you for whatever you are celebrating in this time of year.
Just as we all look for the Light Coming into the World during December, now we are all celebrating re-birth and renewals and life.
How wonderful are all the ways we have to express Love!

This little guy and his veggies is from a pattern QNM had back in 1993, Mrs. McGregor's Garden. I regret not knowing the designer's name, but will try to look it up soon!
The whole quilt is a really fabulous medallion type, ending up with a white picket fence border.
Just about the day this magazine arrived, with the quilt on its cover, my sister told me she was expecting a baby! I had to make this for her. That baby has just turned 16.
Yes, I did 10 billion satin stitch applique shapes! And then I made another small quilt that was intended to be used. The garden one went on the wall.

The small piece (22" square) above was made for an exchange with some English quilters, so it has traveled overseas and back again. I call it "Peter's Dream", and the back has a wild vegetable print!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Spring!

Studio saved from disaster!

My 100+ year old house is being painted.
It began with a Power Wash...which came right in through most of the windows, including my studio.
Those casement windows are no match for a clean machine. I knew it would happen....but I forgot to take precautions. (darn...it IS always my fault!)I was too busy mopping up to get any pictures of the soaked cardboard boxes that were once stacked on the floor here. And the window sills were filled with button jars and, well...all the junk that hastily been transferred to my sewing desk, cutting table and any other remotely flat space!

I know a sewing machine and a chair are in there somewhere!

Even as accustomed as I am to working in the midst of clutter, there was no place to get any work done...especially as the Main Project is quilting on a quilt I need for a class on the 16th!

Indeed, the pigeons of "I'll get around to cleaning that later" had finally come home to roost, and did they ever leave a mess!
So I started by cleaning the windows and thinking about getting rid of some of the stuff stored back there (between my desk and the wall). I am pleased to say that two boxes of doll making supplies will be used by the BGPC for an angel-making day next month (and I hope to send all the remaining supplies home with my friends).

And some items could be combined...

so it was off to Wally World to buy three new plastic boxes!

TIP: Label boxes before filling!

I could not believe what I found inside the lid...a yellow warning sticker that shows a child inside a plastic box and in 3 languages it says "Suffocation Risk"!

While I was peeling it off, I noted that the same warning is molded right inside the lid, too!

I was reminded of the TV show Eerie, Indiana where a woman kept her kids inside Tupperware containers so they would "stay young forever".

As you can see, this box is being prepared to hold UFOs from a couple other boxes. I tape a label inside each short end, so no matter how it gets shoved back in place, it will be indentified.

There were so many UFOs to put in there, I sub-labeled one end "Area 51-2-3".

I knew you'd want a peek before I closed it up!
The UFO you can see is...(OMG!)...hand pieced trees from a Quiltmaker pattern (198??), partially hand-quilted in Quilt As You Go style!!! This is actually getting to be vintage!

How can I get rid of something like that????
Especially, as readers of this blog know, in regards of my rampant PackRatism.
And as eveidence, I ask you to look at the cardboard box behind the plastic one.

That, my friends, is an heirloom cardboard box!

It was first used to transport electric parts from the THOR company in Chicago to my grandfather in Dayton, Ohio. There's no date, but that was probably 70 years ago!
It has been used for several things...it is marked "New towels" and "Hobbies" and has numbers from at least three house moves. My father gave two of them to me when I collected my pre-marriage stuff from the attic, and I was instructed at the time that these were the most excellent boxes and not to just get rid of them!

Someday, I will pass them on to my son.... filled with:

Travel back to those by-gone days of blue & mauve!

I knew you would want to know! This is the sample (and also supplies, etc.) for the first beginners class I taught when I became a quilt teacher. All hand pieced and quilted, this sampler had 8 blocks to chose from, and totally prepared you to be A Quilter!

This class has since been replaced with a machine techniques one. The original is going in the THOR box and stashed up high where it is no longer in the way of anything else.

How do you like my baskets-as-a-valance? They DO have stuff in them, too!

The rolls and bolts of fusibles and other paper supplies have found a new and bigger box. The Steam-A-Seam packages are old...how about a 5 cent price for them at the Quilters Flea Market in July? (a guild activity, but do stop by if you are in town on the 25th!)

And at last my sewing machine and chair have re-appeared, ready to get back to work!

Oh, you noticed that flat thing? It's an old cork board that I rest between my desk and the window sill, to support the quilt as it comes out of the machine, and keep the weight from dragging it down.

I'll really need it now....there isn't much stuff piled up back there anymore!

No April Fools here!

While everyone else is playing tricks and having a good time, let's talk about scraps!

This what I call my scrap "container" because I cannot bear to think of my scraps being in a trash can! But it is a fantastic "scrap basket".

It's great for digging through. The top turns upside down and can hold the scraps that have to be removed to get to all the ones packed down at the bottom.

Lately I have noticed something different accumulating in my container.

I seem to have leftover amounts of fabric that are definitely scraps, but they're more than a fat quarter, and won't go into the folded yardage stacked in the cupboard. They might be enough to make something if you wanted to use mostly the same fabric.

Here they are all rolled up, posing in front of their home.
I guess I'll just let them live there, as I am afraid of starting a whole new category of scrap containers!

Meanwhile, Mrs. Starbucks was delighted to receive her scrap quilt:

However, she says she will not be checking to find out if there are any repeats in the alleged 137 fabrics.
Which, by the way, all came from that white scrap container!

I am just having a fabric withdrawal here, as I am working on the newsletter for the statewide quilt guild. I like doing it for the most part, but it does involve an extended period if time at the computer...no fun photos possible when my desk looks like that.
It's fun to see piles of fabric all over my studio, but not so much the piles of paper on my desk!

Here comes April, and it's going to be a great one.
In about two weeks I'll be doing a Personalized Mystery Quilt with the SpaceCoast quilters in Titusville, FL. In celebration of their recent show, this quilt is called "Stars of the Quilt Show" and we're going to have a lot of fun making either a wall hanging or lap quilt.
After that comes....PADUCAH!

So have fun with all the other blogs who thought up good ideas for April Fools' Day, and remember this:
Originally this was the first day of the year, and when the calendar was changed April Fools were the people who wished everyone a Happy New Year on the wrong date.
But every day is a new one, and any year can begin when you want it to...so if you are feeling the need for a fresh start, make it today!

Mrs. Starbuck's Quilt

Mrs. Starbuck's quilt is finally done!

You may remember that it is a charm quilt, with the pieces all coming from my scrap basket.

For the binding I used a variety of different dots & stripes -on-black-background, all taken from my box of scrap bindings. I cut bindings 2.25" wide, so all the left-over ends will sew together nicely. This is especially fun on a scrap quilt, of course.

You may also remember the real batik backing on this quilt.
When Cherry-Cherry was helping to baste it, she inquired as to whether it had been washed.

I said no.

She wasn't so sure if it would be safe...and, as usual, CC was correct!

As I was stitching down the binding, I noticed my white T-shirt had a new purple stain, courtesy of just rubbing against the backing!
So I finished the binding, and decided it might be a good idea to wash this baby.

COLOR CATCHERS to the rescue!

These saved my bacon on the Summer Garden red and white quilt...so why not for this one?

All the art & mixed media quilters are talking about using the sheets after they have collected the excess dye. So I was looking forward to some nice purple material!

This is what I got:

One from each of the 3 washings (with multiple sheets). The first is absolutely orange!
The quilt came out just fine, the bright yellow sashing is not carrying any dye marks from the backing.

I like the Color Catchers made by SHOUT (a Johnson & Johnson product), but I will never

forget the original Color Catcher that was a long piece of terry cloth with a stuffed end that made it float through the washer and around the fabric! It was supposed to be good for at least 30 washings.

This was a one company buys another sort of loss... now we have these sheets that are to be thrown away. They do not always come out looking like anything you'd use in your art...it depends on the amount of dye they have to catch.

I use several sheets when I am trying to rescue a quilt from my bad habits, the largest amount of cold water possible, and repeat 3 times, changing out the sheets each time. Then I dry the quilt. Once it has been exposed to the heat of the dryer, there is nothing more you can do.

So, if you are recuing a quilt from a stain or excess dye from "forgetting" to pre-wash, do NOT put it in a dryer until you are sure the marks are as gone as you can get them.

Air drying would be OK, if you have somewhere to do that.

If you click on the link above you will go to a site that will show you more about doing laundry than you ever want to know!

For Patchwork Pie fans who have been reading all along, you will be happy to know I am REALLY going to Paducah next month for the AQS Show!

You will avoid being subjected to the sad posts I did last year about Not In Paducah, and I will try to get plenty of the pictures you really want to see!