Quilt Shows are especially fun with a group

last week I went to the Shipshewana Quilt Show with my mom, my sister, three of my aunts and my cousin. We had a great time :) the quilt show was better than last year and they have a good mix of vendors to browse while at the show.

We went on the show's shop hop, and while we had fun, we were a bit disappointed in the specials we were supposed to find especially for shop hoppers. Some shops had nothing special for the shop hop except for the free patterns. We did find a couple of lovely quilt shops, but will most likely not spend money to participate in the shop hop again, just go to the shops we like :)

It was a lot of fun shopping with other enthusiastic quilters. We egged each other on to buy what we fell in love with...and we had a fun paper bag challenge (more about that in another post). And we helped each other choose the best coordinates for quilts we are in the process of making and are hoping to make.

In LaGrange we saw an outdoor display of the Million Pillowcase Project - the courthouse square was just filled with them! I took this shot out the van window...there was no parking anywhere nearby.

AH! It feels SO good to quilt!

Last week we focused on getting VBS things done. AND worked on getting portfolios finished up. All of that is behind us for this year (YAY!) as we have had evaluations done and turned in the portfolios, evaluations and next year's affidavit and objectives *WHEW!*

Saturday I got in some quilting time...finished up my Quilts for Kids top...and then loaded it on the frame. Quilted until I ran out of bobbin thread on the second bobbin (time to make pizza). It stayed on the frame until I finished it up today.

This morning, when I logged on to Facebook, I found I was invited to a baby shower, in MI, on SATURDAY. I might not be able to make it (I'm going to the Shipshewana Quilt Show and might not be able to get there in time), but I should at least have a gift ready! SO, I pulled a top that I had set aside and loaded it on the quilt frame and quilted it up this afternoon. I just have to get the label sewn on before I head to Shipse and I think I'm capable of that. Since it is a baby quilt, I stitched the binding down by machine, hoping that will be more durable than my (pitiful) hand stitching :)

Yes, I did quilt them the same...with a freemotion swirl design. This is the easiest (thus fastest) design for me to do...and it should be fairly durable :)

VBS is over and I'm getting back to normal (whatever that is)

I haven't been in my sewing dungeon for a whole week (I'm going through withdrawal!). I hope to get at least 1/2 hour in sometime today :)

I have been thinking about next school year's homeschooling on and off while working on/with VBS and this week I got THE homeschool catalog:

I love perusing the Rainbow Resources catalog. They have SO much packed in there and it just gets me all excited to be homeschooling :)

I might just take it with me when we head to MI next week. A little light reading  is always a good thing on vacation!

It isn't like I need much for next year. Science books/classes are paid for (we will be using BJU's DLO option) and we have our SonLight Cores purchased and on the shelves. The Boybarian will be doing Core 5 and Princess Sunshine will be working through Core 200. They both will be using Teaching Textbooks on their own levels.

I just need to make sure I have the right fit for LA. I've not had good success with SonLight's LA - it hasn't been the best fit for my students, so I am still looking for just the right thing (like every year).

I always get a few other fun things here and there...and Rainbow Resource usually sparks an idea for the fun things :)

Vacation Bible School

Today we set up for VBS at our church. It will run evenings from Sunday to Thursday. I've been working with my favorite teenage designer (Princess Sunshine) to revamp the visuals for the week and typing out words to the songs and redesigning pages for the workbooks...not much time working on quilts *sigh*

We are doing Bible Boot Camp - The Armor of God this year. It should be a good fit as we seem to be heavy to boys in our Awana clubs AND dh is a soldier. Though he looks nothing like the soldier seen here ^


We (my Army guy, actually) hung camo netting on the stage, put bible verse posters around, rearranged chairs, looked over crafts (and some people worked on samples, stuffed "sand bags" and brainstormed.

I think we will have a fun week, but leading up to this week has been rather hairy for me - I'm exhausted before we even have any children coming in!

My birthday present came yesterday!

My birthday is May 31st and my darling soldier pre-ordered EQ7 for me (isn't he sweet?).

It arrived on my front porch yesterday and I played around a bit with it last evening and am itching to get back to it...but have to get some other things out of the way first *sigh*

I am liking it lots. It is SO colorful :)

I have EQ5 and never got around to moving up to EQ6 as I was still not using all the features of EQ5 (and it works). In the last few months I've been using more and more of the features (probably have a ton I'm still unfamiliar with) and started wishing for EQ7 when I started hearing the hype...well dh came through (thank you my dear sweatie!).

Go! Cutter Giveaway (wish it were me!)

I follow Amy's Creative Side blog and she is giving away an AccuQuilt Go! cutter on her blog...pop over and enter for your chance to win one (if you win, will you share with me? pretty please?)




If you are unsure about the Go! cutter, read back on a few of her posts where she plays with hers...makes me want one ;)

Design Wall - June 7

On Saturday I was on a shop hop over in Ohio. Had a great time with other quilters on the bus (and our bus driver is a hoot!). BUT we were caught in some severe weather and spent about 45 minutes in the basement of a quilt shop.  After we left, we saw the havoc wreaked by the tornado/winds, roofs off buildings, large trees completely uprooted, limbs sheared off trees...it was nice to have a haven during the storm!


On my design wall this Monday I still have last week's hexagon quilt...just a few rows are sewn together. It looks about the same.

On the bottom of the design wall (hanging off it, actually) I have the first block for the Boybarian's quilt. He chose his quilt a few years back from a magazine. I purchased the fabrics and they have been aging nicely, waiting patiently for me to make them into something. Well, I have ONE block done and am very pleased with it (and so is the Boybarian).

For more design wall inspiration visit Patchwork Times.

Shop Hop on Saturday

Do you love to go on shop hops? I really enjoy them, IF I can go with fellow quilters!

On Saturday some quilt guild members will be taking a bus shop hop in the next state. I am looking forward to being with some of my quilting buds AND getting a chance to see some new (to me) shops and spend some quality time petting fabric :)

The owner of our LQS (and fellow guild member) has a husband that loves to drive bus (and owns a nice little one) so she arranged for this shop hop. Her husband insisted that she come along with us this time...usually she has to stay home and mind her own shop.

What are you doing this weekend?

BTW: the quilt blocks are some where I was just playing around with 4 patch blocks...