WIP Berry Box table runner

Fabric from Loose Threads

After I got the top completed from the east Tennessee shop hop blocks, instead of quilting one of the many projects I had, I decided to start a new project with some of the fabric I picked up. I had gone back to Atomic Fibers and picked up the Straight out of Line ruler and decided to use one of the patterns in their videos.

I used four fat quarters I picked up from Loose Threads in Harriman. I used a wood grain fabric and 3 Downton Abby fabrics as well as a grey Zen Chic fat quarter I had in my stash. I used the blocks to make a four patch surrounded by the wood grain. I am calling this one berry box since there are berries on some of the fabrics and the colors are very berry-like. I used a solid grey from my stash as a border and used the scraps to make a backing for it. Now all I have to do is quilt it. The only problem is all my basting pins are in other quilts right now. I need to get something quilted.

Shop Hop: 2019 Row by Row

flowers at the rest stop

So for this year's Row By Row I'm a bit behind in gathering patterns. Up until today, I've only gotten one from my local shop. Mom and I had a road trip to try to fix that. I went to the Northern Atlanta area to stop at four shops. Most of the shops were new to me and I am always excited to visit a new shop.

Atlanta is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from my home. We set off at 7am to try to get to the shops early. We had a few setbacks due to rain, but thanks to my GPS rerouting me I did get around some serious accidents with no problem. We chose to hit the shop the farthest away and work our way back home.

Antique Quilt at the Cotton Farm

The first shop was InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA. I have been to this shop before. It's a cute shop that had some unique fabrics. They had some precuts of the Ruby Star Society Pop collection. There is one fabric in this bunch I really wanted but I had a budget today and getting the fat quarter bundle was not in it. I will have to keep an eye out for this one though. I did get the kit on their row by row pattern. Their row is called Mmmmm... Donuts. It's 4 donuts using the drunkard's path block. I love the colors to this one.

Antique toy on display

The second shop was The Cotton Farm in Roswell, GA. Their row is the square format called The Big Chicken. I will admit it's not my favorite out of all of them I've gathered so far but I love the shop. It has to be my favorite out of all the ones I visited. It's got such cute kitsch to it. I enjoyed poking around. It's in a converted house in a nice neighborhood. I passed it up first because I didn't see the sign in the yard. They used so many beautiful fun antiques as decoration and display places for the product. They even had an antique toy washing machine. I got several fat quarters from them but there was so much fabric I wanted.

Shopfront for Tiny Stitches

The third shop was Tiny Stitches in Marietta, GA. This was the largest of the shops we visited today. It was a two-story building with the downstairs being classroom space and the upstairs being shop space. They had lots of fun nooks and cranny's to look into. Their pattern is called "Taste the Experience." It is 4 mason jar glasses on a picknick table. I love this pattern but again budget-wise I couldn't get the kit. I did get several fat quarters from Anodover's Full Moon collection. Andover also has a free pattern for this collection to download if you go to the link.

Halloween Quilt from Cottontail Quilts

The last Georgia shop we went to is Cottontail Quilts in Kennesaw, GA. This is another shop in a historic district that is in a converted home. The neighborhood was a fantastic area I would love to explore if I had more time. It's near the Southern Civil War Railroad Museum. I have been to this museum before. It's a fascinating place to spend a few hours. I never realized the shop was nearby. They were having their Christmas in July event going on. They had a sale on all Christmas items as well as a couple of drawings going on. Their row by row is a sun next to a watermelon that looks like it on a picnic table being attacked by ants. I purchased the kit with this one since it had the cutouts included, Intricate cut-outs can be difficult without the right tools and this was one of the cases where it's better to go the easy route with the kits. I did pass on some cute Halloween panels they had because of budget reasons but I hope to get them later.

the bathroom of Tiny Stitches

During this shop hop, I ended up going to each shop's bathroom and as funny as it sounds all of them had cute bathrooms. The two older buildings had fun characteristics that reflected something about the shop. One being the kitsch theme or the other with the classic country look. Tiny Stitches had an elaborate Paris themed mural and decor gracing theirs. All of them had quilts to display.

Chattanooga Quilts window display

The last shop I visited was on the way home. I rushed to get to this shop because I didn't know if I could get there before it closed. I went to Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah, TN. I love this shop. It's in a historic building that the owner always has fun decor and antiques. We did make it to the shop 10 minutes before closing. Their pattern is a cute ice cream cone with several scoops. I did get the kit with this one also and a piece of ice cream cone fabric for the backing. When I saw their pattern online I knew I had to have it.

Final Loot for the day

This makes my 6th pattern total because I had gotten the Pizza block from Fiberology Lab several weeks ago.  I plan on starting on what I have now. I hope I get time soon to go visit two more shops before the deadline. I know my local shop hasn't had a winner yet so time will only tell.

Tea today was this Zevia Organic Tea I picked up to try. I did not like it at all. I am not partial to stevia. It tastes too chemically for me and I wanted to give ita chance. The artificial chemical taste to this made it unpleasant. I will stick with my sweet n low thank you.

Million Hexies first project

First Swag N Seek Find

So I found something to use the hexies I've been making. I don't think this will be the only thing I do with them but it is a good start. I love going to Dragoncon on labor day weekend. It is one of my favorites conventions. In the last several years a group has gotten together and does what is dubbed Swag n Seek. It's basically making or giving small swag items away for free. The most common is to randomly hide it in the various con areas for people to find. They also do meetups during the convention to swap items.

2018 Swag Haul

Last year was my first year hearing about this and I came away with some of the best con swag ever from this. I didn't know about it ahead of time so I didn't get a chance to make anything for it but my friend who runs one of the dealer's booths is fast at making jewelry and had me run around as her swag fairy.

Swag N Seek logo

This year I'm getting prepared. I decided to do somethingI'm good at. Sew! I'm using the hexies for coasters. I'm trying to use up my scraps and I have several fandom fabrics that would work wonders with this project. I have about 9 coasters together so far and have about 7 more planned out. The best part of doing this is since the hexies are being EPP'd I can do this while I'm out with my friends. We regularly meet twice a week and I always loose sewing time. This is a good hand project that lets me keep my hands busy during our nights out.

One of my local quilt shops does a regular sit N stitch several times a week. One of those is after work on Tues so sometimes I go there. I'm enjoying the slow pace and I feel like at this point I will have something fun to share at the con this year.

Double Wedding Ring Wall Hanging

In progress photo.

A major project I have been working on was a commission from one of my co-workers. Her brother is getting married this fall and she wanted to give him a unique wedding present. We had decided a wall hanging and after some looking she wanted the double wedding ring pattern.

She loved the traditional symbolism in it and thought it would be something very special for him. She had said the wedding is in October so not to hurry but I wanted to get it done so I can work on projects planned that need to be done before September.

Finished!

This is the first time I've done anything with this pattern. Generally, I avoid curved piecing because to me it's the devil to get to lay flat. I have done it before because I made purses in bucket shapes before. I had downloaded a free pattern and went fabric shopping with her so she can get the fabrics she wanted and go ahead and pay the material costs. People have a tendency to complain less about prices when they see what material costs really amount to.

backing being created

I only needed two rings so that did cut down on the number of curves I had to do. Not that I didn't do a lot. I paper pieced the ring sections easy. I do like paper piecing. I had a few spots in my piecing where there were small gathers and puckers visible but quilting it actually smoothed those out. I used Gutermann # 327 Maize for the thread.  It's a light yellow color that blended in with the other fabric choices.

I pieced a back with the scraps and used those scraps to create two small sleeves on the back for hanging. My co-worker said they're going to buy a dowl rod to hang it from. Overall everyone was very happy with the finished results.

Shop Hop Project update and gadget find

Photo by Atomic Fibers

I have been very busy. I can always be accused of having too many things going at once. I started putting the blocks from the shop hop together almost immediately when I started picking them up because I was more worried about buying the kits and never putting them together. I took about two weeks to get the blocks completed. I roughly spent 20 hours total but the summer has been crazy busy for me. Several nights I haven't been able to work on them.

The photo I have is before I put the final border around it. I cut each block to 12 inches and put a small 1 1/2 inch border around each block in colored fabrics. I tried to use scraps for some and complementary fabrics for the rest. I also tried to pull the fabric I got from the shop hop for these borders. I think I used stash fabric for two but overall I am happy with the results. I did go to my local shop to show them what I've done. Since I haven't taken a photo of the finished top yet I'm using the photo Atomic Fibers posted on their Facebook page for now.

I did go back to the shop to get the demo ruler they had for the shop hop. It's the creative grids Straight Out of Line ruler. I also found a 25% off coupon in my pattern kit from them so I used it on the ruler and picked up some of the Mr. Domestic fabrics I love that they had on the clearance section. Overall I'm happy with what I picked up and can't wait to use my new ruler. They have a free pattern that comes with the ruler and also lots of videos on their site to use. One of the best things about their company is that they give us nice demos.




One of the saddest things I've found out since the shop hop is that Atomic Fibers is going to close. While I was hunting down the photo of the top they posted I noticed the closing announcement. The owner is going to retire to spend more time with her family. I am happy for her and hope her the best but will miss the shop.

The other thing I got recently was a gadget to use when I'm ironing. I had seen this at CVS several years ago and didn't pick it up because I didn't think I could use it until recently. My cousin bought two for cup holders on her lawn chairs. I hadn't found it since and I know a good google search would have yielded results but I wasn't in that much of a hurry to find it.

I have a problem with my fabric spray falling off my ironing board as I iron. It gets in the way and my ironing board is unstable because one of the legs is shorter than the rest. My dad bought the ironing board online for me and didn't realize the flaw until I opened it up. It still does its work. I just have to be careful not to jiggle off things. That means leaving stuff on the board is dangerous.

I found my clip-on cup holder at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was on sale at the time so I got it for about $3. When you clip the full part up it becomes a wine glass holder and turning it the other way it becomes a regular cup holder. So far it has passed the wobbly ironing board test.

Today's tea is the Ito En Koicha Tea. Ito En is a Japanese brand that is commonly imported to the US. I know if I ever get my dream trip to Japan I will not lack in things to eat or drink. I love this brand. The tea is unsweetened, which is something I need, but it is smooth. This flavor is a robust brew and has more flavor but still no bitterness. I know a lot of times unsweetened tea is bitter but they do not have that problem with this brand. They have a few different flavors but this is actually the first time I got this one.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part 3

Day 3 Loot

So I managed to hit the final two shops in the hop this morning. I've been to both before. I live close to Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge but I wanted to make it my last shop so I could turn my card in there.  Plus Oak Ridge had the Lavender Festival going on so I got a chance to visit the festival after I hit the quilt shop.

I stopped at Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville first. It is not in my normal path. It's on the northeast side of town and I have a tendency to go to west Knoxville. So it's been over a year since I've been to the shop. Last time I was there I was collecting 2017's row by row pattern. Since then they have moved to a better location. It's probably a couple of blocks away from their old location but it's easier to find and had more parking. Mom got the ruler they were demoing and we'll most likely share it. It was a 60 Degree Diamond Ruler. She got two patterns that use the ruler. One was a Hot Air Balloon pattern that I want to borrow.

Since I have spent a lot at the other 10 shops I've been to I didn't buy as much at these two. I did get some nice gifts from them and I plan to go back to Atomic Fibers for the ruler they were demoing for the hop. It was the Straight Out of Line Ruler by Creative Grids. They also had some cute Cut Loose Press patterns using the tool I thought would be cute to get.

Final Shops:

• Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville - March
• Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge - January 

Overall the hop was fun. I got to see some new shops in areas I wouldn't normally go to. I got to save a life and spend way too much money. 12 shops for 3 days. I'm kinda sorry I forgot to get a picture of my punch card before I turned it in.

I did start working on putting the blocks together that I have been collecting. I have 5 of the 12 done. The current one which is September's block I just need to applique everything down. I did add extras to it because it was just a basket by itself. Little Blessings had put flowers in theirs so I found some cute oversized flowers to fussy cut and add to the block. I've very happy with it. I'm going to use the orange thread I got today to applique it down. I want the thread to stick out a little against the yellow basket.

Today's tea was a Raspberry Limeade Herbal Tea. I didn't get a photo but I got it from a vendor at the Lavender Festival. I love the stuff and have purchased it every year at the festival. It turns a dark ruby color and has such a nice fruity flavor. I normally get a bag of loose tea to take home but I didn't get one this year. I did just hit 12 quilt shops. I did get a pretty photo of some sweet peas I passed when going to the Lavender Festival.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part two

Bathroom signs for quilters

Since there were so many shops and I didn't think we'd get the trip done on Saturday since they close at 3, we decided to take Tuesday off and go on the second leg of our shop hopping trip. This has been a popular hop with the locals because all of the stores have been pretty busy with other people doing the hop. It's usually funny when you see some of the same people at one store and then the next. A lot of "Hi! again," goes on with that.

Tuesday was a good day because we got lucky with local traffic levels and the shops were open till 5. We left mom's at 8 and got to our first shop in Johnson City a little after 10. During the two hour drive, we passed 5 halves of double wide mobile homes in transport. I don't think they all went together for the same building cause the last one was really old but man that would be a huge building for a mobile home.

The first shop we got to was Bernina in Stitches. It was a cute shop in the downtown business district. The building it was in was one of the older ones with a lot of fun artsy shops. There was a cool reclaimed furniture place, a vape shop some restaurants and a lawyers office called Legal Ladies.

When we were leaving the shop we didn't make it out of the parking lot before a little grey kitten crossed our path. It had just bounced across a 4 lane road into the shopping center. We don't know where it came from but the poor baby was dirty, hungry, and scared. This started the adventure of finding a humane society. Neither of us could keep a kitten. I'm not allowed a pet and the pet fees at mom's place are so exorbitantly high it's ridiculous. We did finally turn it into the Washington County Humane Society. So if you would like a new fur-baby please go over there and adopt. They're overloaded with animals right now.

Day 2 Loot

After that, we hit two more shops, The Sewing Bee and Tennessee Quilts. Both I have to say took advice from Dr. Who because they were bigger on the inside. The second shop was just rooms and rooms of fabric. It looked like it had been an office suite turned into the shop. The second was the entire two-story building near historic downtown Jonesborough. The downstairs was nothing but batiks and upstairs they had a small saleroom and a large open area for classes and more fabrics.

After that our path home took us past Sevierville and we hit the Gatlinburg shop in the area also. We got to The Cherry Pit about 3:20 and to Mountain Stitches by Susan about 4:00. There was no making it back to Knoxville before the next shop closed so we called it a day. I was pretty wiped out after that but it was a good day altogether. 

I did find this TV Spot done for the Shop Hop online. It's done from the Cherry Pit's shop and has a good introduction to the hop. It was neat to see something like this on local TV.

Our stops in order were:

• Bernina in Stitches in Johnson City, TN - February
• The Sewing Bee in Jonesborough, TN -  October
• Tennessee Quilts in Jonesborough, TN - November
• The Cherry Pit in Sevierville, TN - December
• Mountain Stitches by Susan in Gatlinburg, TN - September

Lunch had been a stop at Panera before we left the Johnson City area, so of course my go to drink there is the Iced Green Tea. It's actually a Passion Papaya Green Tea. I don't get it that often because it's got 34 grams of sugar and I need to watch that, but man do I love this stuff.