April Silver Thimble Night

This past Friday and Saturday was the third Friday and Saturday of the month. That means it was Silver Thimble Club of Grayson time. I usually sew with the Saturday group, but had another activity on Saturday so I sewed with the Friday evening group.  I drove to the church in Grayson right after school on Friday. Here is the backseat of my car packed and ready to "rock and  sew" Friday evening. Kristie and  Brenda met me on Friday evening. We swapped books we needed for our library jobs, talked lots of school shop-talk, sewed and laughed.

Several of my Saturday quilting buddies stopped by on Friday evening to visit with the group.Cindi had "goodies" she had ordered from online shops. The new Jo Morton fabric was gorgeous, but we all were lusting over the tote bag with "Minick & Simpson" printed on it. Cindi ordered a Bar Harbor kit  from their website. The tote bag came with her order.  Way to go, Cindi! Very tempting!

Teresa, who left the business of driving a school bus this year, is making a quilt from Bonnie Hunter's website I don't remember the name of this pattern. Perhaps, Teresa will leave the name of the pattern in the comments of this posts. What a great use of fabric! Teresa, you can "gift" this quilt to me if you decide that you don't like it:)

Sandra made this tote bag using a charm pack from Moda's Bar Harbor line (Minick & Simpson) It's gorgeous. I have a Bar Harbor charm pack that I purchased to add to a scrap quilt that I am cutting from my stash. I may rethink that idea and make this tote. It is from a pattern by Penny Sturges from QuiltsIllustrated.com. It's called the Chubby Charm Bag Pattern.

Sarah, showed her completed top using all civil war fabrics. I don't know if I even heard what pattern she used. If someone knows, please leave a comment. Sarah's quilt is absolutely stunning.

Many of us have learned the hard way that projects with straight sewing, not a lot of concentration are best for our sewing sessions. Let's just say "We do talk some." Brenda learned that even with straight seam sewing, mistakes can be made.

It was wonderful to see Elizabeth who has been recovering from knee surgery the past couple of months. These two quilts were projects that she has completed. One is a BOM. The other is a "vintage" Sisters Club project that she completed. Many of belonged to Pinheads, then Sisters before Pat began her Silver Thimble Club group.

I  hated to miss my Saturday group, but sure did have a grand time with the Friday group.

A Little Side-Trip to Sweet Home

It was P.J. and Gretchen's fault. They both mention going to visit Melisa at Sweet Home. It's their fault that I HAD to slip in a side-trip after school on Wednesday. From my school, it's over an hour drive. 

P.J. or Peggy Barkle is a master log-arm quilter. When I picked up my last quilt, she mentioned visiting Sweet Home. She raved about the Moda Scrap Bags that she had purchased. I knew instantly that I had to have one or two for me. My schedule is bonkers this month. It would be difficult to drive to Sweet Home before Melisa sold out of them, but with the wonders of e-mail I was able to ask Melisa to put two of them aside for me. Bingo. Two  of the new Moda Scrap Bags had my name on them. The scrap bags are real neat. The strips are 3 1/2 inches wide. If my math is right, each bag contains four yards of fabric of various Moda fabric. I recognized Peace on Earth and Hello Betty. I'm already thinking of projects to use some of these strips.

Gretchen blogged about her trip to Sweet Home. She picked up the latest issue of Quilt Sampler magazine. This is one magazine that I always purchase. I still have all the issues from the very first one published over ten years ago. Another e-mail to Melisa and the magazine was added to my stack.

Today, Karin blogged about her recent trip to Sweet Home. Melisa has some luscious fabrics in stock. The new Moda lines -Aviary and Flag Day Farm -stopped me in my tracks while in the shop. I'm also wanting some of that green, black and white line that Karin took home. Karin hope that you left some for us! Thank you, Melisa for a wonderful place to shop and visit!

A Favorite Container

Perhaps, my favorite sewing room container is this hand-made basket. It was made in 1990 by my friend Lita. I keep it at my sewing room door. I use it to hold items that need to be brought downstairs on my next trip out of the sewing room like this great bag made by my friend Brenda. This floral bag hold stitchery supplies.

This Moda tin holds my Featherweight bobbins. It was purchased by friends Debbie and Gretchen on one of our Atlanta shop hops. I drove my van. They payed for gas in fabric and this super tin. I love Moda fabrics! I love these Moda tins.

Looking for Maison de Noel

Have you ever had one of those sewing days when you just wanted to throw the entire project across the room right into the trash?  Well, I had one of those days with a Christmas tree skirt that I was working on. I cut an entire section wrong. When I looked at the pattern , I realized that I wouldn't have enough fabric for the project because I had not followed the directions in cutting the section. For this project,   I'm using an older fabric line from Moda, Maison de Noel.  I put the project aside, and out of sight. Every once in a while, I would find myself thinking about this project.  I hate wasting fabric especially fabric that I love.  I thought about using the strips and making a string quilt. I thought about making another Strawberry Pie from my friend Pat at Silver Thimble Quilt Company. The problem is that I don't like to give up on a project.

 This weekend, I took it out again. I assessed the fabric situation. How much did I need? Of which fabrics from the eight in the tree skirt would I need more ? I searched www.quilshops.com, Ebay, and Google. I found 4 of the fabrics that I needed at two online shops. I really needed only about 1/2 yard of each. I still need the holly fabric pictured on this post. I can get it on Ebay, but would cost about $10.00 for half a yard.

 Would you my online friends, please check your stash. Does anyone have half a yard of this holly fabric from the Maison de Noel line by Moda that you would sell, trade, or barter for?  I know someone has to have a piece in their stash.  

Thanks so much for looking!