Buggy Barn Quilt Show

So, once upon a time, we lived in Spokane. I started to sew there - made my first two quilts there - but I didn't really know about quilting yet.

My LQS was Buggy Barn, a barn in a field on a dirt road. There was sale fabric in the bathroom and quilts pinned to the ceiling. I had no idea it was famous. Again, the sales fabric was in the bathroom!

When I moved to Oklahoma, people were awed that I had been to Buggy Barn and asked if I went to the annual show. Ah, no. What? People in Oklahoma know about this place? The sales fabric is in the bathroom!

Eventually I figured out why Buggy Barn is famous, and even though I don't tend to make crazy quilts like them, I do want to make one of their star quilts someday.

This weekend, I got to spend my birthday wish - going to the annual quilt show alone. {The Dude and I have had a lot of togetherness this summer...}

And oh - the eye candy!

I never wanted to do a basket quilt..but of course I want to do a GIANT basket made of log cabins!

Crazy frogs and crazy summer.

And then I uttered the words, "I wish I did embroidery or wool." The ladies around me chuckled, because they know how these things get started.

The walls were just covered in quilts. I believe the star one is a "Road to Oklahoma" like I'm planning for my son's foster family.

Love how simple blocks become WOW with color placement.

This one looked awesome until I started mentally counting HSTs.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of Tennessee Waltz-ish designs. And the little block in the corner of the first border? Love.

A quilt I want to make, in the fabric I want to make it in! Score! Double hourglass in California girl, been on my list since last summer. Must.not.break.into.jelly.roll.yet...

Brights, with florals, with embroidery...something for everyone!

And whimsy! I think Santa needs to join Ho Ho Ho and the Christmas tree.

Now THAT'S a pixelated heart!

Stars and chains - love them.

I was drawn to a couple patterns, and when I got to one of the barns, I discovered a trunk show! Sassafras Lane Designs - my new favorite designer. Mentally adding half the patterns to my list...if it ever gets whittled down enough. 

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm totally doing Atlantic Avenue as {one of} my Rainbow Scrap Challenge for next year.

I didn't take any pictures inside the barns, or buy anything, because it was insanely crowded inside. And Buggy Barn is my LQS again, so I have plenty of time to go shopping when there's not a million people there.

But I did go inside to check...the sales fabric is still in the bathroom!

Weekly Progress - Making Some

Slowly, things are getting into place. I think we have about ten more boxes to unpack, and we're actually putting things away...in what may be the permanent location! {Maybe. I changed the layout of the dining room six times...and it's the smallest room!}

The top half of my shelves is looking good. If you can get fabric to reach the ceiling, it's a good day...or the ceilings are low. I prefer the scrap boxes separate on shelves like this, so I can browse easier. My fat quarters are in the boxes, too - anything more than a half yard is wrapped on comic book boards and shelved.

Bottom half is still pretty much a disaster...and I pulled a ton of the FIZ {fabric in ziploc} and put them in the striped boxes. I need to find the bins that go in the shelving unit and hide some FIZ in there. Or, you know, work on them.

Meanwhile, at the sewing machine...

Working through the snowball-ish rectangles for Flirt Marks the Spot...which made it to a quasi-design wall. {I've got a plan sketched out for a PVC pipe frame...but the hacksaw hasn't been unpacked yet. Thought about pinning it to the shelving unit until then...but I can't find thumbtacks.}

I started putting together a weighted blanket. My sheet set is terribly wonky, so there's been a lot of trimming, but other than that it's coming together very nicely.

And my faithful Rainbow Scrap Challenge leader/enders. My reds are some of my favorite fabrics, so this little stack makes me happy.

I also went to the Buggy Barn Quilt Show, but more on that later.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

     

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

     

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Weekly Progress - Little Bits

I am still slowly unpacking. We're at the lovely point where it feels like it will never actually get done, and we will drown in piles before we figure out where everything goes. So.Many.Tchotchkes.

This, of course, extends to the sewing room. I have no idea where I'm going to put a design wall. 

My two corners of the room look like this:

And this:

 

Wall space is pretty much gone. The front {toy} half of the room is all windows, so I'm not gaining any wall there. At this point, I think pinning a flannel-backed tablecloth to the archway is my only option. Sigh. I hate trying to fit into a new place!

But anyway, in between bursts of unpacking, I did manage a few little things.

Cut all the reds for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge leaders/enders.

And while I had the box out, I cut the reds for my Rainbow Chevron quilt.

And since I clearly hadn't spent enough time at the cutting table, I cut the first piece of Ripples & Reflections. It's actually the third color, but the first one is the border and the second one is the huge corner setting triangles - no need to cut those down for another year or so.

And I finished the nine-patches and four-patches for Flirt Marks the Spot. Still have snowball-ish blocks to piece before any sort of assembly, though.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

    

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

    

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Weekly Progress - Moving In

Well, I am slowly getting unpacked. Just about to the horrible stage of where to actually put everything.

Seriously. Why do I have this much stuff?

At least the Dude will be keeping me company as he organizes his half of the room.

Well, at least someone is happy with the room the way it is. He's a lot happier to crash here all day, knowing that I'll come around every few minutes. He's been stuck to me like glue since the other cat died.

I've made a smidgen of quilt progress. In between emptying boxes and crying at the thought of putting things away, I've been sewing nine patches and other parts for Flirt Marks the Spot. I really should be working St. Paul's Cross, but I need something a little more mindless than paper piecing.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

   

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

   

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Pets on Quilts Show

Last time, I featured Tycho in the Pets on Quilts Show, because Tycho loves quilts. Constantly. Too much.

Wedge wasn't all that into the quilting thing.

Tried to bribe him with treats to pose on my Halloween Hexagons. Not much luck.

Did someone run through your layout and mess it all up? Gee, that's terrible...I think it was the white cat.

He spent most of his days napping on the bed, which was, occasionally and to his dismay, used for scrap sorting.

Or he napped in sunny spots, like in front of my design wall. {Don't go away, sunny spot!}

Or sometimes he protested the placement of things on his spots by draping himself awkwardly over them.

Oh, look, it's a sunny chair. You go ahead and baste, Mom; I'm good here.

And his favorite spot, of course, was on my lap, preventing me from doing anything sewing related...like sorting those patterns.

Unfortunately, this post is in past tense. After a five month battle with lymphoma, Wedge passed away last week. It breaks my heart that he never got to find the sunny spots in Washington.

5/2001 - 8/2/2013

Linked:

Pets on Quilts Show

End of Month Report - July

 July  involved a lot of this...

...and this...

...with a little bit of sewing and wedding stuff thrown in!

Family: our house in Oklahoma is under contract and should close soon. We found a new place in Washington - renting this time - and will be moving in today. Well, the Dude and I. Our stuff might be here in a week. Let's just say it was NOT a good move for our stuff.

The Dude: got the award for muddiest at Cub Scouts camp. And he has the once-white t-shirt to prove it!

We stopped at Dinosaur and Craters of the Moon National Monuments on our way to Washington, and we all had a great time. The Dude especially loved the pteroglyphs at Dinosaur and the lava tube caves at Craters. I'll have a full post on that once I can use a computer that takes camera cards!

The cat: is already meeting with his new cancer vet in Spokane. Cancer is still in remission, but he is getting a feeding tube, as my 17 pound behemoth is now six pounds. :(

Adoption: well, let's just say the agency asked us to update the home study asap because travel may be in the near future. Which still could be a while.

Wedding: threw a very purple bridal shower in between all the moving and house hunting. And made sure I had a professional photographer around, so the photos are amazing! Full post on that soon, too. {Hey, I have nothing to do until the boxes are delivered!} I believe Lori is posting about it on Friday, if you want to see more.

Running: very little this month - just some sprints (ow) and a nice pre-shower run with Lori. In which we got lost in my parents' development, but managed the fastest 3.5 miles for either of us in the recent past.

Sewing: okay, this got to be a long update before I even got to the sewing!

Two quilt finishes - a second family t-shirt quilt, and a second really random quilt.

Finished the blues from, um, May, maybe? But that caught me up to the end of June on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Obviously my teal scraps were elsewhere this month.


{The following pictures were taken with hotel room lighting and a cell phone. Sorry.}

There was some shopping along the way, of course! I picked up everything but the neutral to make a quilt for my son's foster mother in Korea. The quilt is based on the "Road to Oklahoma" block {since we thought we'd be in Oklahoma when he came} so it seems appropriate that the fabric came from the road to Washington.

And I grabbed three pieces of Happy Go Lucky to finish off my little collection for Spin Cycle. Now I just need the neutrals {and time} to start that one!




And the biggie - my mother-in-law talked me into making this massive kit. The pattern has instructions to break it down into a BOM, so I will spend some time cutting and bagging it for that, in between unpacking. I've got just under two years before her 60th birthday!

So my four goals from last month? The two quilts are done, the move is...done-ish, and the sanity was gone by halfway through the month.

This month, I'd like to:

1. Move in/unpack.

2. Finish St. Paul's Cross. Yeah, I'm only two blocks in. No biggie. I'm sure I totally remember how to paper piece.

3. Start "H is for Henry."

4. Start the Road to OK/WA quilt.

Linked:

Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Getting It Done
Year of the Finished Project

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Weekly Progress - The End

Oh, Oklahoma... I never much liked you. With the extreme summer heat, the mediocre winters, the poisonous spiders, the tornadoes...and the wind. Seriously. The wind. Even in the summer, it just felt like living in a blow dryer. I really only liked September-November here.

But there are great people, of course, who will be missed. People, groups, and places who helped hone my skills in quilting and running. I ran my first half marathon here {well, in Florida. But while living here.} I took my first quilting class here {well, I made a half dozen or so quilts before that...but we don't talk about those.}

I went to my LQS, Prairie Quilt, one last time this week, to use my punchcard discount. Since I'm being a responsible adult, I bought backing for a quilt I already have on the list and a pattern that's on the list. {And a fat quarter for a quilt that's on the list that doesn't really need more fabric, but whatever. Mostly responsible adult.}

Finished!

 My last batch of squadron baby blankets.

My last t-shirt quilt.
{Okay, not really. I have a pile of shirts to take with me for the next one.}

No Rainbow Scrap leader/ender blocks, since there was nothing but some quilting this week. I did originally say I didn't have much teal, but I realized, hello, half of Boardwalk is aqua/teal! But also packed.

Speaking of packed...

Don't the packers know that it's Projects In Grocery-sacks? Do we need to start calling them FIZ?

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure