Quilt Shop Saturday- Asheville Cotton Co.

I got a chance to go to Asheville, NC Saturday. My trip was meant to go see Biltmore (you can see photos I took here), but I like to stop into fabric shops on my vacations. It gives me some great ideas seeing a new shop and sometimes there are unique finds you wouldn't find in another part of the country. This trip I stopped at the Asheville Cotton Co. shop.

This was my second stop at this shop. Last August I had gone with my mom and my friend Regina. This trip was only me and Regina but I had to go back to the shop. I like this shop. It's a good sized shop and has a great selection. They also had this cute sample quilt done with some whimsical peter pan fabrics. If I was a huge peter pan fan I would have loaded up on these.

Quilt made with peter pan fabrics

I did get a variety of floral fabrics and a couple of fat quarters of this cute tomato fabric I found. Mom had asked me to pick up some floral for her so we're going to get together and divvy out the fabrics this week.

We stopped at the shop early in the morning. So early we were there about 15 minutes before opening. I ran into the nearby Fresh Market and picked up this matcha ginger tea. I thought it was a store brand, but it's by Matcha Love. It was very good and refreshing. I did get two yellow plums for a snack and never got around to eating them. I plan to do that today with some lemon iced tea while I sew and catch up on household stuff.

WIP Spooktacular Halloween

I've been a little busy and distracted this last week, so I don't have much done since my last post about this project. Going to Quiltcon should not have meant loosing the weekend to work but apparently it did. I was inspired by going to the convention but didn't really feel like doing much of anything until late in the day on Sunday. I have however made some progress.

I'm almost done with the entire top portion. I had the panel quilted and finished quilting the body area around the lettering. All I need to do is some tight spaces actually close to the words. Then I can start on the bottom.

So far I've been using black thread to quilt with since it will blend in. I was planning on using the variegated orange thread for the colored sections in the center and I had some plain orange I used to applique the letters down. Then I found glow in the dark thread at the con. I have to figure a way to work this into the quilt.

With some of my new patterns I'm already planning on what to do next. I got this small focus freeway pattern that I want to work on. It's mostly applique work. I just need to pick my fabric. This would make a fantastic gift to some of my friends who love photography. I just gotta keep my mind on the present project. I've got too many WIP stuff going on, but I think that's a normal quilter's dilemma.

For today's tea I'm going to bust out an tea I don't use much. It's one I got before our local Teavana closed. The Vanilla Creme blend. I don't think they make this stuff anymore. It's got a warm almost caramel flavor to it. The photo is not mine. I stole it from the web but this is what the canister it was in when in store looked like. Someone is selling it on ebay if you want one.

Quiltcon 2019 Nashville Experience

#QCGreetingsfromNashville

So for my first Quiltcon experience I loved it. Now as said this isn't my first show but one of the biggest I've been to. But this is the first one to feature exclusively modern designs. I loved the experience and was very happy to get a chance to go. I only had one day and bit of a drive to get there. The weather was terrible. It rained very hard all day all over Tennessee. All the way there we had flood warnings going off like crazy.

Getting there we first went to the vendor area. Now all the quilts in the show are in front of that but I wanted to get to certain booths to make sure I got some things I was looking for. We spent the majority of the time in this area. I got tons of deals and great patterns. I made sure I went by the Soak booth and picked up two bottles of flatter. When I went by the Pink Door Fabrics booth Tula Pink was there. The crowd was crazy and I didn't really want to stand in line, so I did not get to meet her. I did go back to the booth and got a pattern I had been looking at before.

One of the first few booths I visited was the Sewing Party booth. I met the designer of the "Rose for my Boyfriend" quilt pattern and was able to see the original one done for the magazine. I also showed them a photo of mine and they asked me to email it to them so they can post it on their Instagram! I love sharing my quilts and am so happy the designer liked mine.

One of the fun things about the show is they had a lot of areas you can sit and sew. They had booths that were doing charity quilt blocks. They give you a pattern and you can go through scraps and sit down and sew the block for them. These blocks will go into a quilt that will be sold for charity.

They also had a hand stitching area where you got to try out a free hand stitching design provided by sulky. It was printed on a dissolving interface so you can put the guide on and not worry about it messing up the final look. This was a nice area to go visit cause I was really exhausted and needed a bit of time to rest. Also this lead me to go back to the sulky booth for another free design. I found glow in the dark thread that was a must have.

After that it was time to go through the quilts. They had a collection of antique quilts and a collection of youth quilts that were both very interesting. There was a feature of quilts using a mix of fibers like faux fur or knitting. I also got to meet a few of the people with quilts in the show walking around.

Afterwards we went to the Flying Saucer for dinner. I have been to this place before. It's a pub/taphouse type place that has tons beers and ciders on tap as well as in cans and bottles available. I have been trying to do a low carb diet so I did not get one of the ciders that I wanted to but did get a burger. Mom's sandwich ended up being too spicy for her so we swapped what we got.

In all the trip was a success. Mom and I had a huge bag of stuff to split when we got home and I've got a lot of new projects to add to my to do list. I have sprinkled pictures through the post of the different things I saw but I also have more photos available on google photos.

Quiltcon or bust

So I've only been to a handful of quilt shows and it has been way too long since I've been to one. The last show I got to attend was AQS Chattanooga in 2016. It had been a birthday trip for me and I remember it very fondly. In the past few years I would put a reminder on my phone for local shows in hopes I would get the time to go. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity.

This year Quiltcon is in Nashville, which is a short 3 hour drive for me. Mom and I decided to make it a day trip. We're leaving early Saturday morning and I hope to get there before lunch.

I have been  stalking the Quiltcon tag on Instagram in my excitement to go. I also decided to join the Modern Quilt Guild in advance of the con. Of course I'm just getting a one day ticket but I have seen enough to get me excited.

I did make a little ID pouch to carry at the con. I've made bags before but I found a pattern for an ID wallet and kinda improvised to make this small bag. There's a lot of errors but it came out pretty good for going off without an actual pattern. Some of the ideas come from previous bag patterns I've seen and I had some of the hardware I already needed. I did not have the metal piece to make the handle adjustable so I improvised. If it gets annoying I can buy what I need later.


This is the first time I have made something with a clear ID window. I already had the vinyl for another project I never got to so I was happy to put it to use. The fabric was a recent purchase from Mountain Creek Quilt Shop in Greenback. I don't get there that often but it's nice that they remember me when I do come. It is from Fair Isle Friends by Anita Jeram. I got the little white fabric from the salesman sample bin of some Japanese fabrics. Over all it's cute and works for a first try. No one else will see it close enough to see my mistakes.

Tea today is my ever loved Starbucks green tea. I got an iced latte on the way home from Mountain Creek. I usually get the frappe but I wanted something a little different

WIP Happy Haunting Halloween Wall Hanging

Laying out the applique 

So this thing is coming out bigger then I expected. It will end up being more like a throw. The size issue started right from the beginning. When I started making this in 2016, the middle section is from a quilt pattern. I was starting with the block sizing that was given in the pattern. I should have at that time made the blocks smaller but they say hindsight is 20/20 and I can't change it now. So we're going with the larger quilt.

Top without letters

I have it broken up into three sections. I'd be done piecing it but I decided to try to quilt them separately and then put them together afterwards to make quilting it easier and give me a chance to do a higher fill pattern. This is the same technique I used when making my row by row quilts, so I'm fairly confident in going with this route. I've built in strips to cover the attachment points. 

The top portion contains a large open spot and a panel. I found this batik in my stash that has a floral print. Even though it's a floral does seem to work with everything once I put the letters down.

I have appliqued the words from the bonus pattern we got for going to all 4 shops. I didn't get the kit for this pattern because I didn't honestly think I'd use it at the time. I'm still glad I didn't because I got to use the colorful scraps from the corners of the blocks in the center section. They contrast nicely with the background and strangely I don't think they over crowd the whole thing because of the color differences.

Center without 2 inch border strips

Also note this is the first time I've used my machine to applique. Usually I do that by hand but it takes forever when I do. It's hard to get a sense of this because I didn't take a photo of everything laid out together. I'll have to have one for my next update post. This section is complete and has been basted up for quilting.

Bottom portion ready to baste

The center section is suppose to resemble a calendar page. I have 5 rows of seven blocks with two of them being small round accents from the panel piece I got. I just did a small border around this to use as a buffer and to help when attaching the top and bottom sections.  The photo was taken before I added that in. It's the same batik fabric used in the top. This piece hasn't been basted because the fabric I used for backing on the other two sections is too small. I'm going to do some decorative patchwork with the  scraps to fill out this a bit more. It will probably resemble my flying geese type row on the bottom section.

Appliqued letters

The bottom section has the majority of the applique work. I used the kits I got with the house, tree and trick-or-treaters to make this cute scene. I did not measure my fabric when I cut it for this section. I cut it the same size as the top section. The problem came when I realized my appliques were too large. Now I could have quilted it and then attached it to the center then put the applique on, but I decided I didn't want that. So I used all the triangle scraps my Tri-Tri Again blocks left over and made a sort of flying geese pattern row. I did cut the white squares new for this row. I hadn't used that fabric yet. Since it came in the layer cake, I wanted to try to use at least one of each of the fabrics. This section is also basted up for quilting.

Basting down

I'm actually stopping for the night so I won't be tired when I start quilting. I still have thread choices to make. I have some orange variegated thread I'm thinking of using for the center section and maybe a grey or black for the other sections. I have to look at my collection a bit more. The piecing and applique portion of this quilt has only taken about two days. I went out for part of the days and put my work on hold. I'm hoping the quilting doesn't take long because I've already got the next project bugging me for attention.

For tea today I found this Hibiscus Peach by Pure Leaf. It's been a while since I spotlighted their tea because I always get the green or black unsweetened tea. I've become diabetic and need to watch my sugar. This is a new product of theirs and is sweetened but it's not overly sweet. I found it very refreshing.

Village Quilters Guild Meeting and Mom and Meg Quilt Shop

So my mom joined the Village Quilters Guild in Tellico Village, TN. Even though she lives in Knoxville this is a guild she has gone to meetings for often and also has been to many of their quilt shows. The guild is hosting a bus trip to Missouri Star at the end of April, which I jealously can't go because I can't take the time off for work.

I don't know who this quilt belongs to.

The February meeting was her first meeting as a guild member and they had a trunk show and guest speaker from Mom and Meg Quilt Shop in Dandridge, TN. Mom came back from the meeting raving about the quilts, the speaker, and wants to plan a road trip to Dandridge sometime in the future. Maybe we can go in May as a mother/ daughter trip. Maybe I will get a chance to accompany mom to the next meeting.

Now some of the quilts were brought by guild members and the photos she sent me she did not clarify who owned what. She did send me photos of her spoils and got a pattern for me. I can't wait to make this Elizabeth Hartman quilt. I have her Greenhouse pattern which is another WIP on my to do list. I've got the top complete. I just need to make a backing and quilt it.

One of the Teas Organic Apple Red

Our Table

As for the tea for today I'm actually going to talk about an event I did get to go to. My co-worker's church had a Ladies Tea the Sat after the guild meeting. Both of mom and I went and had fun. They had lots of sweets and a huge variety of teas. Some of the church members played hostess at the tables and they decorated the table and brought in the teas and some even brought beautiful cups. I collect tea cups also, so I enjoyed seeing the variety.

A Rose for My Boyfriend Finished!

No more WIP posts for this one. I have a finished quilt! It's not my fastest quilt time but I did finish it pretty quickly compared to my average quilting time. So, Lets start with a little time line of my quilt.

• Dec. 29, 2018 to Dec 31st- Piecing. I Found the pattern out of Simple Modern Quilts & Crafts # 15 which I believe is the December 2018 issue. It hadn't been out long. I got the magazine for a cute penguin pattern but decided to do this one first. I still want to make a penguin.
• Jan 6th 2019 - Backing and Basting. I started the backing the next weekend out of the scraps from the quilt top. This was an excellent use of scraps and left me with almost nothing. I've been tempted to toss my remaining pieces but I keep stopping myself. Most of the backing is a sold black fabric I picked up from JoAnn's on New Year's day. I decided that if I finished it quickly I would try to enter it in a local quilt show. I've missed that deadline now but It was motivation to not stop. 
• Jan 7th to Feb 13th- Quilting. I'm still slow at sitting down and quilting because my work area has always been slow. Last minute inspiration from the web showed me an idea on expanding the work area so that I'm not hurting myself so badly pushing and lifting the fabric. I am no expert at quilting. Anyone who sees my stitches will not argue with that, but I am learning and getting better. 

  

  Almost no scraps!

• Feb 14th- Binding and Finishing! With the final week of realizing how close I was to finishing I was able to get myself to work harder and finish everything on Valentines Day. I do still have to label it but for now I call it a good finish. The binding fabric was a scrap from a walker bag I made for my aunt years ago. It was a large piece maybe a little smaller then a fat quarter. It matches the pinks in the quilt and even if it's adding a new fabric to the whole project it matches the thread color I used. 

Back of the quilt

Now I'm not sure I want to continue to do so many of the bed size quilts but I do have a few tops this size to quilt. I think I have a better idea on what to do to make it easier. One thing I want to invest in is a walking foot or a free motion foot for my sewing machine. I use a Project Runway Brother I got several years ago on a black friday sale. It has been a wonderful machine but I never bothered to buy extra feet. 

Now that this quilt is done I will start on my next WIP and I'm thinking about the Halloween one. 

For tea today I have a Ginger Peach Green Tea. I picked this one up recently at Tuesday Mornings. It's very peachy. I love the smell of this one. The tin had 50 bags and I got it at a good price. Inside they were packaged into tow foil pouches of 25 each. I took one pouch to work and left one at home so I can have the tea both places. The cup in the photo is one I picked up at world market a few years ago. I like it because the green part is silicone so it keeps you from burning your hand on the warm glass.