HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Wishing you the happiest of memories and moments

shared with loved ones this Valentine's Day!

When will I ever finish this one?  LOL

Still working on quilting this one!

And, yes we did have a huge snowfall last week!
Here is a picture taken from my front door.

It did cancel our shop Grand Re-Opening but we

have rescheduled for this coming Sunday!

Happy Sew Year!
Colleen

Blizzard on the way...

...that's what they say?

Not that I want a huge amount of snow.

We have the Grand Re-Opening Party at the

shop this coming Sunday

and it would be a shame it a storm

mucked that up!

Most people around here are running out for the

emergency foods;  milk, bread, eggs, butter...etc.

Not in this house!

It's RICE and FABRIC!

Rice for him...

It's cooking away right now!

(What a good wife he has!)

And for me...I have plenty of fabric and lots of projects in the works.

I know that I haven't posted in a while but I have been working on a few things.

A Thimbleberries Stash Buster!

This one goes very fast...15" Blocks.

LeMoyne Star...a class sample in the works.

A Spring Topper for my daughter.

Started this about 2 years ago and made a mistake.

All fixed now and ready to layer and quilt!

Another Holiday Lap Quilt in the works.

This one is using the Eleanor Burns Braid in a Day

technique.  I taught a class at the shop on this one Saturday and

so I used my already cut 2.5" strips of Holiday fabric to demo

and just kept going!

I think I have enough to keep me busy in addition to the

great sewing room organization project.

So for now...

the rain/snow mix is falling and the temps are cold.

Off to work for the day and then home to

Rice and Soup!

Happy Sew Year!
Colleen

February...

...already!

Where has this year gone?

Hard to believe that it is February already.

And the temps have been crazy...

cold, warm, frigid, warm, cold...

Minimal Snow...Makes Me Happy!!!

I made some progress on the Irish Chain quilt.

The center is complete and 

it just needs the borders on...

(after a good pressing of course!)

I am happy with it so far and I know that my sister will love it!

I also worked on a little doll quilt that I designed...

I still need to add the corners and the borders.

It is so cute!

Here she is on the Elan RED Miracle Mat

that I won from MODA...

Love this mat, it is so pretty that

I don't want to cut on it...

But I will one day!
Thank you MODA!

Well, that's all for now.

Enjoy the weekend!

Happy Sew Year!
Colleen

Where did the Inspiration come from?

You know, it's a funny thing Inspiration!

I have a file on my desktop full of photos from

all over the Internet and it is named

INSPIRATION.

I do look at it and browse through it a lot.

But this past Sunday when I was working
on the
"organizing my sewing room"

project of the century cutting anything 

smaller than a quarter yard into
2.5" strips or smaller squares

I picked up a bag of green scraps 

to cut and found (what I thought was)

INSPIRATION!

So I started cutting and liked the colors

so I pulled my stack of greens off the shelf 

and cut a strip from each of those.

This ain't all of 'em...let me tell you that much!

Then it hit me...

I could make a green scrappy

Double Irish Chain!

Off to the computer I went, pulled up EQ

and designed a simple table topper.

Simple enough and cute for March...

after all, I am Irish you know!

Well, as I was sewing and sewing and looking at the very large pile of green strips I realized that this would turn into something larger than this little table topper.

I have enough strips to make a King Size quilt...

AND THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN!!!

So I kept on sewing and thinking...what size should this be?

On Wednesday night it hit me...

THE REAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS QUILT!

It wasn't my picture file.

It wasn't even the green fabric strips.

It was a shopping trip I took with my wonderful sister Doreen!

Last year my sister was diagnosed with

early onset Alzheimer's.

The time we share together now is more important and precious to me than any other.

Last Thursday we went shopping together.

As I sewed I remembered she spent a lot of time on this day talking about Ireland and hoping to go back there again in the near future.  She talked about the last two trips she had taken there and really wants to go back.  In addition, she focused a lot on the St. Patrick's Day decorations in the stores where we shopped and even met a man from Ireland at the Wendy's were we ate lunch that day.

She spent a good 20 minutes talking with this wonderful man all about Ireland and our family.

We had an absolutely fabulous day together.

AND THAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS QUILT!

So far it looks like the original plan...

...but I have quite a few more blocks already sewn and more to ready to sew the rows together.

This quilt is not done and I don't know what it will be in the end other than...

A 60th Birthday Gift for my loving sister on her

Birthday in November!

So, if you want, stay tuned for what the future will bring for this quilt top.

Happy Sew Year,

Colleen

I've been busy...

...not a tremendous amount of sewing...

but a lot of organizing.

I have been digging through my fabrics

and sorting, cutting, sorting, prepping...etc...

I did finish two bindings on two small quilts.

Also have been working on some class samples for the shop.

Speaking of class samples...

We are having a class next month 

to make a quilt from the pattern

Walking on Broken Glass.

Look at this amazing photo of

three versions of this quilt.

Mine is in the middle...

The other two belong to my friends.

We had a lot of fun making these quilts

and they look fantastic hung in the 

classroom at the shop.

I used a jelly roll from the Tapestry line 

by Fig Tree.

The other two are from stash...WOW!

I also made this cute Valentine "wreath"

for my front door.

Believe it or not...

2 of those large plastic candy canes

from the $1 store left over from my

Candy Cane Christmas decor,

a few fabric strips and some ribbon and...

Voila!  

Instant skinny "prim-like" heart wreath!

Have a great day and if you are in the cold

like we are here today...

stay warm!

Happy Sew Year!
Colleen