Pat Sloan Challege Quilt - Spring

I am posting my Pat Sloan challenge quilt on her blog today Pat's Challenge here, but thought I would post some more pictures here.  I must say I am not getting much quilting done lately as I have found my other activities are getting in the way of my quilting time so this was a good challenge to help me a least get one quilt completed this year.  I was able to use up a lot of my floral scraps at the same time.  I used Pat's fabric from the Moda fabric line "The Sweet Life" for my center squares.

No flower garden is complete without a butterfly, so I added an applique butterfly to the corner of my quilt.

 

I'm back!

Wow!  It has been almost two years since my last blog.   A lot has happened.....I closed my online store, Beaver Creek Quilt Company.   (We built a new home and moved a couple of times.)   It was a hard decision to close up my dream of someday owning a store, but I am enjoying my time away from shipping boxes and I have been able to finally get back into quilting again.   My most recent quilt....just took it off the longarm machine.   

I am working on the binding this weekend.  I am giving this to a girlfriend who is using it to raise money for breast cancer during the Avon walk.    I saw a picture of this quilt online, but I could not locate the pattern so I made up my own.  I made the nine patches using finished one inch squares (cut 1-1/2 inches) and the setting squares were cut at 3-1/2 inches the larger squares are 9-1/2 inches.   I used mostly civil war blues, creams and tans.   Love it...hope the recipient does too!

Lucky Ladybug

We carry these adorable sew down buttons from Susan Clarke Originals.  They are only 1/4 inch big and would be great to sew into a crazy quilt or art quilt.  There are lots of other small buttons available from our store as well, but I thought I would focus on this one today. 

I was thinking about the lady bug and how it is suppose to bring good luck.  I think it would be a cute idea to sew them in the corner of a quilt so the recipient of your quilt might have good luck. 
I was able to find a few poems on the Internet that would make a great label next to the cute little lucky bug. 

Here are a just a couple I found.  I am sure there are lots more.

With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug, sleep tight little one like a bug in a rug. 
--Author Unknown

I'm sending luck and wishes
All wrapped up in a hug
Good things should come your way
with this tiny ladybug

and the long version of the above:

Fresh Cut by Heather Bailey

Lots of Jelly Rolls, Charms, and Bundles from the Fresh Cut Line by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit have arrived. They are on sale right now during our Moving Sale. Check out all the great deals throughout the store!!

Here are a couple items I purchased at the Country Living Fair. The wooden spoon was hand carved by E. Gregg Kristophel from http://www.riverwoodtradingco.com/. He had some really great stuff.

The plate on the right was made out of recycled pop cans. Each piece is hand-hammered from the recycled aluminum by experienced craftsmen. The first step is to have the design hand engraved in reverse into a block of steel using a hammer and chisel. They then place the piece of aluminum on the engraved steel and the craftsmen force the metal into the engraving, creating a forward design. After cutting the piece to the desired size, it is edged and then colored to detail. The art form is called, "repousse." I am giving this plate to my Mom for Christmas. You can see more of their items as www.AmericanForging.com

Country Living Fair 2011

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain in GA with my husband and daughter. We had a great time. It was filled with antiques, hand crafted items, demos and of course food. Below are just some of the items that we saw at the fair. I will post a few more pictures tomorrow of a couple items I purchased. I loved the chair that was redone and also the hand-carved horse that holds up to a 500-lb adult. It takes him 3 months to make one of these horses and it is made using real horse hair and horse shoes. You can read more about him at http://rockinghorsecarver.com. The cute little trailer was redone and the picture to the right was the inside. What a nice little retreat. The girl putting the necklaces on was from the show Cash and Cari (HGTV). Of course, I had to have one. It is really versatile. You can use it as a headband, necklace or bracelet and for only $15.00, it was a great deal also. I believe they are called Snake Necklaces.

It was a beautiful Fall day and what a great way to spend it.

Wild Thing Pattern

This has got to be my new favorite pattern. I have been looking at it for some time and decided to give it a try. It is so easy and fast. I have spent the last two days making a couple of baby quilts from the pattern. For the first quilt, I used mostly fabrics from My Little Pupply line by Blue Hill Fabrics. The red is from OZ by Moda and the green is from Playful Pups by Benartex.
I used four different prints for the pinwheels. I cut a 5 inch strip and was able to get all the blocks from the four different strips. Inner border was cut 2 inches and the outer border was cut 4-1/2 inches.

The second quilt is made from a layer cake by Moda. The line is by Bunny Hill Designs. I cut the 10 inch squres down to 5 inches. I then cut 2-1/2 inch strips by 8-1/2 inches for the outer borders.

A closer look at the blocks.

The quilt ended up using only about half of the layer cake, so I will spend the next few days coming up with another quilt to use up my scraps unless I decide to piece them for the backing.