Dots and Stars, I Love 'em

I got the best of both worlds Dots and Stars in the same project.

Need a Bright Spring Project?

Gather up a nice variety of polka dots like I did.

I found this terrific bright cheery spring quilt over at

allpeoplequilt.com

We also have a terrific selection of polka dot fat quarter bundles in the store now.

Tell me. Are these perfect or what?

What a wonderful weekend for the Flea Market.

After a good dose of rain, the pollen is gone and everyone headed out to our local flea market this weekend.

My friend likes me.
She bought me this pincushion.
I like her too.

Our store is participating in the April 2010 FabShop Hop.
In celebration of Spring and Make a Quilt Day, April 18, this FabShop Hop brings a special challenge to hoppers.

Collect these 12 quilt blocks that will be circulating throughout each participating shop’s and make this awesome quilt.

I am starting mine today and hope to make one block a day.

Blocks found "Sew Far"
1. Bachelor Buttons

Just for Celebrating Spring

I won this terrific fabric

It's so "tweet"

Thanks Char I love it.

Visit her blog at Cloth Stitched

How adorable are these?

Do some us of have a soft spot for pincushions?

I do and I bought patterns for these sweeties at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show

These two friends were having so much fun!! They couldn't decide on which one to buy. I think they ended up buying them all!

This one is my favorite. How unique is this?

A primitive chair.

Yummy!! Martha Stewart Yummy!!

Yummy Cupcakes and Give-Away!

Sometimes I can't decide whether I want to sew and make a quilt or spend time with my Happy Voyager embroidery machine.

I think these bunny cupcakes are just adorable. I am now on the hunt for a machine embroidery design to compliment these cupcakes.

I did find this cute rubber duckie and stitched out a bunch of them. Of course, I am giving one of them away. Leave me a comment and how to get in touch with you if you are my winner and it's yours!! Check out my store for a sweet Debbie Mumm Fat quarter bundle that actually comes with one of these sweeties. I would love to see a bright pink baby girl quilt using this sweet duck. So how about it?

Happy Cottage Quilter is my Winner!!

Happy Quilting!!

Memories of a Lifetime

I love old vintage linens.

They wash fantastically. They iron perfectly. They smell so sweet when you can let them hang out in the afternoon sun. Mmmmm. I would love a nice spring sunny day right now. Sitting in my screen-in-porch with my pretty pillows and a good shabby cottage book or magazine to look it. Dreaming of ways to incorporate the shabby look into my house.

I have ton of vintage linens from my mom. When she passed away, I got a treasure. Her huge boxes full of wonderful duvet covers, tablecloths, embroidered table scarves, doilies and more. Ohhh the hand work on some of those duvets is fantastic!

I took some of the duvet covers that were a bit stubborn to get crispy clean and I made this redwork block of the month quilt with them.

Just a few days before valentine's day, I bring it out. Iron it. Display it. Remembering all of the sweet things my mother did for my brothers and I as we were growing up.

I remember how fun it was in school to pass out my valentine cards. I would come home with a handmade goody bag from school. Filled with cards from all of my clasmates. Now I look for those valentine cards in antique stores and flea markets.

Technology is terrific too!! You can get your vintage images on-line. I am not this vintage, but I do love this old look!!

Cyber Commitments Almost All Done

One more commitment to finish.

"The Winter Time Mini Quilt Swap"

I just don't know what to make this time. I am learning toward a sweet valentine block of the month pattern that I have always wanted to do. But that doesn't really say winter time to me. Maybe there is sometime cute on Quilter's Cache. Or maybe better yet, take a block from a stack of "Love Note" blocks that a friend gave me and turn one of them into something super cute.

One of my finished group swap projects was to make 22 stretched star blocks. They are all done and ready to be mailed. Every waste triangle was used to make this sweet banner hanging from a tree in my backyard.

Which turned into these pinwheels

Where are they?

Somewhere under my sweet yellow and green string quilt are the tips of my daffodils. I stayed home all weekend retreating with myself. LOL!

Here is a peek at my street!

I live on a nice sweet gradual hill. Perfect for kids to sled down to the end of the cul-de-sac. Boy did they all have fun today! Through my camera looking up the street here's a guy who thought he could go make it down our street. He chickened out and turned around.

My Winter "Snow Day" Weekend Retreat

My Fall Mini Quilt Swap Arrived

How fun!! I got my fall mini quilt in the mail yesterday. It came from Lynn in Oregon. It even has two little thingies in the back for me to hang it up next year.

This swap was a lot of fun. There were swappers from all over the world.

Thank so much Lynn.

Sock Monkey Tote Bag Give-Away

Hi Ya'll,

Jennifer in Nebraska is my winner for the Sock Monkey Tote bag!!

Check out her blog.

Jennifer Quilts

Down in The South

This Southern California Girl who transplanted to the South 17 years ago loves her "Greens". Down in the south, New Year's day would not be complete without a taste of collard greens and black-eyed peas.

The tradition of eating collard greens on New Year's Day is said to bring good luck. I learned a few ways to cook up this inexpensive cheap dish over the years.

Well, I was one day off. I made my collards for tonight's dinner. Sauteed in olive oil with tons of garlic and onions and served over rice.

I started this neat tradition in 1993 with my family. The very first year that we moved to Raleigh, NC. I never heard of collards and let alone eat black-eyed peas? I thought my neighbors were nuts!! I said "No Way, I am a Southern California Girl". Well, I tried them and the very next year started our family tradition of making a huge batch of collards leaves and a great big batch Hoppin' John.

Whole Food always has a great "culinary specialist" out demonstrating different ways of cookin' these huge leaves. I like to roll them up like a dollar bills and slice them very thin.

p.s. I like it here in the "South"

Join My Challenge

See that blog button on the left?

The one with the turquoise and green strings!!

It's my favorite string quilt.

Click on it and join me in my madness for my color-controlled

string quilt challenge.

We'll have lots of sharing, lots of comments, lots of show & tell, and lots of cool things to give-away during the year.

Still Stringin' Along

Eight Tops Done!!

Here is my "Show and Tell" from my own personal quilt challenge to make as many string quilts that I could for one month. I started the day after Thanksgiving and ended it today. I got eight tops done, and have 3 quilted. They are going to be donated to kids in need charities. Thanks to all of you who sent me so many emails of encouragement and charities in which to donate them too.

I am still going to make more, because I can't stop!! There are so many color combinations that I want to do and so many charities that would love to have them. Please keep you comments and emails coming . I love hearing from each and everyone of you.

Watch for my exciting challenge. I am in the processing of organizing and setting up a great quilt-along. It is going to start in January. I am so excited.

Opps!! Forgot to post the New Give-Away on Sunday?

Who loves Sock Monkey??? We do here.

Another Give-Away !!

Take a peek at my store, leave a comment and you can have a chance at winning this cute tote bag made with Moda's Sock Monkey fabric. The tote bag pattern is from Kimmies Quilts. One of our favorites at our store. Winner will be chosen at random on January 8th.

Us Southern Girls Love Our Monogramming

This is so true for us Southern Girls. If it's flat, cute and girly, we want it monogrammed.

Talk about a difficult job. My last order was to monogram 4 zebra print umbrellas. You should have seen my Happy Voyager embroidery machine humming along. It's amazing that I didn't get the spokes of the umbrella caught or bent. You don't want anything in the way of this embroidery machine while is humming along. I really thought I would have to press the emergency stop button on these. But alas, I still have all my fingers intact and there were no trips to the emergency room. Wheew!

~~~~~~ Drum Roll Please ~~~~~~

Congratulations to Donna. She is my winner for the KP Kids Christmas tote bag. Donna please send me a quick email to sewfarsewgoodquiltshop@gmail.com with your address so I can mail your sweet gifty to you.

Keep watching. Next week it's a different contest with a super cute sock monkey tote bag.

Re-Purposing a Yellow Pages Phone Book

We all get these phonebooks in March, Right? I found the perfect foundation for making my string quilts and it didn't cost me a penny. I decided that I wanted to make smaller blocks when I make my Heartstring quilts for charity. I can get a nice 6-inch square out of one page.

This paper is really easy to tear away after sewing my strips to the foundation. This little book "fit the bill ". But wow, you should have seen the floor in my sewing room.

I went through 300 pages making all the quilts shown below.

I tore out lots and lots of pages. The nice thing about some of these phonebooks is that the ink does not rub off on anything or even mess up your iron. Do a simple check. Run your fingers along a page from the book. If you get residue on your fingers, don't use it. It will make a mess of your ironing board cover and your iron. I asked some of my neighbors if they still had one or two of these phonebooks hanging around. Well, I got lots of them now. I think I will be able to make hundreds of blocks. My neighbors came through big time.