Time for some charming fun!

Guess who's going to play with some charm squares this weekend?  Yup... you got it!  I've collected some batiks and ordered some Kona and Free Spirit charms to go along with them... oh boy!  This should be fun!  What to do... what to do...

 

I ordered a couple of books from Amazon that are giving me ideas:

This first one, 3 Times the Charm, Book 2 has some GREAT patterns - it's very promising.  I like the straight forward directions.

The second one,  Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3 has a great series of quilts that take you from basic to more complicated - I'm thinking my friends may want to get in on this one!

I'm thinking of doing half square triangles with the Free Spirit fabrics as the base, mixing in the other fabrics (batiks and Kona).  The colors would be FUN!

I'll let you know how it goes.  Till then, what sort of fabrics are you working with?

Happy creating!
Carrie
PS.  As an Amazon Associate, I receive compensation (it's tiny, but it adds up!!) if you purchase either of the books.  I LOVE them, so far!! 

Would you like the Tiffany Panel by Timeless Treasures? Come win it!!

I just LOVE this panel!  The colors are stunning and the gold metallic makes it all pop!  I loved it so much I bought this one on my shop hop the other day... you might have seen it in the photos.

I loved  it so much that I bought a bolt of it down in Boston today and I want to share one with a lucky fan!  OH YAH!!  It's gorgeous!!!!!  You KNOW you want it!

All you need to do is click on the Rafflecopter entry form below and then chose to do ANY or ALL of the things it requests.  It's that easy!  Question?  Problems?  Wondering how to do it?  Message me and I'll help you out!

Good luck to each of you - the drawing closes Sunday at Midnight.

Click my dears!

Hugs,
Carrie

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fabric Explorations: Part 2, Stop 1

I had a wonderful opportunity to head out for another day of fabric exploration recently.  This time, I took my youngest DD along and we headed northeast to start: Claremont, NH and Four Pines Quilting.  We've been to Claremont multiple times for softball games over the years, and this shop was literally a "stones throw" from Steven's High School.

Four Pines was the first shop I visited so far, with a large "sale" section.  As I am going to LOTS of places, I can't buy out the store in each one, if, in fact, my family would like to eat this month!  So... a little something here and there and some bargains is perfect!  

Here are two fabrics I snagged that I just LOVED and thought I could share with my customers ... unless of course some super fantastic project idea comes my way first!  For now, if you stop by Fresh Chicks Market Monday, you can grab them!

You might be able to glean that I have a "thing" for blue...yup... I went back again and again to that floral on blue panel.  Finally, it ended up coming home with me.  I am thinking of trying an Amy Butler project I saw on Creative Bug with it!

DD was eying some really fun Star Wars & Star Trek fabrics, of which there were quite a few - need to remember that!

There was a wonderful selection of super soft Minky - and I mean SUPER soft! 

And then, there was the batiks... oh...my....goodness!  Those blue/black ones were stunning!  I hadn't seen anything quite like them yet.  L.O.V.E.D.  I will be BACK to check out those again.

I enjoyed the space and set up, overall.  There was a sense of lots of wonderful options, but not being over-crowded.

When I went to check out, she had an adorable kit for tiny quilts with the most wonderful buttons, like candy at the grocery store! The kit is on the right - it has all the patterns and all the perfect little buttons.  The bagged tiny quilts on the left are the finished project.  I absolutely HAVE to try that!  BTW, in the back of the shop, along with oodles of threads was a great section of specialty buttons like these, themed.  How cool?

We totally enjoyed the time spent there and walked away with some gorgeous fabric AND $1.16 in Quilter's Cash for our next visit.  I'm hooked!


Come on back for the next stops!
Have a great day,
Carrie

Mini Shop Hop

Good morning, All!

Last Saturday was a lovely day and I decided to go on my own little Quilty Shop Hop. I picked a couple places I'd never been, jumped in the car and headed out.  The only plan I had in mind was to hit a few of the shops on my list with my eyes open for batiks, some white fabric & a pair of pinking shears.

I started by heading to Richmond, NH - a town I'd never been to, but it didn't seem like it would be all that hard to find.  It was a bit of a challenge as I gave DD "Jack," my GPS for her PA trip and it was still with her.  I had checked out how to get there via Google Maps and, again, it seemed easy enough.  About 3/4 of the way there, the road I thought I was supposed to take was OBVIOUSLY not the one I needed, so I went on, hoping I'd see something that I remembered from the directions.  I ultimately did and just before I was about to stop for directions, I came upon my first stop: Pickering Farm Quilt Shop.

The first thing I noticed was how much bigger it was on the inside than it appeared on the outside.  Here's a view as you walk in the door: FILLED with fabric and quilting goodies!  Diana, a very kind and wonderful woman, greeted me immediately and as I was a "first timer" filled me in on what I would find and then set me loose to explore.

I particularly like those blues on the bolts in the lower left corner!

One might expect to find fruits at a "farm"!

I am VERY into batiks and kept coming back to this lovely section.

You'll notice gorgeous fabrics, LOTS of patterns and wonderful quilts all throughout the shop.

 Many of the quilts, Diana told me, were quilted by her husband with their long arm.  NICE work, Steve!

Loved these bright fabrics!

 As you can read on their website, the folks at Pickering Farm carry MANY reproduction fabrics, but as you can see with the batiks and the lovelies above and below, there's plenty of variety for the fabric shopper.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stop there and it was a great place to begin my day.  I walked away with some Hoffman batiks to get me rolling.  I will definitely be back!

From there I found my way into Keene and made a brief stop at both New England Fabrics (always fun to see what they have) and Joann's for those elusive pinking shears, with, I will add, my 40% off coupon!  :)

Then it was back on Rt 9 for a stop at one of my favorite quilt shops: Quilted Threads in Henniker.

If you're from around here, you might remember when they were in a tiny building back closer to the highway, near the grain store?  It barely had room to move in, but they FILLED it with gorgeous fabrics.

Well, they've "come a long way baby" to where they are now and it's MARVELOUS!

They were out of stock on the pattern for this bag, but I'm on the list for when it comes in!

The highlight for me was seeing a quilt I am at the VERY beginnings of called "Over The River and Through the Woods." Some one had actually made one and it was on display - it was soooo cool!  I'm still working on the stitching, but I've seen how wonderful it will look someday!

I got some stunning white on white for the borders of my next quilt for DD's coach... but that's another post.

I was tempted to head home at this point, but something said, "oh go on... just one more..." so I took some back roads and got myself over to Bedford for my final stop of the day at The Quilt Patch.  What a little gem!  The owner, Sue, greeted me warmly and we jumped right into quilting conversation.  She had some wonderful little sets of batiks, my fabric of the day, so I tucked those into my bag along with some ideas and information that she was kind enough to share.

Looks a bit like that blue I saw earlier.

 

Like my other shop stops, I will definitely be back!

Here's my "stash" after the days travels: some batiks, those pinking sheers and a lovely piece of white!  It was a great day and I can't wait to go back!

Where would you go if you could create your own shop hop?  Hey, what's stopping you, right?

Go have fun!
Carrie

Wordless Wednesday 5/28/14

Good morning, from drippy NH!
It's Wednesday, a moment to share an image from my world. 
Today?  A hint as to tomorrow's post:

I went on a wee little shop hop Saturday.  Hehe...

Hugs,
Carrie

Cleaning My Machine: Not Dust Bunnies... Dust Buffaloes!!

Today's post is rather like inviting people in to see your bathroom: most of us would rather not... particularly if you don't know them well.  I have people ask me often, "How do you do it all?"  This post answers that question: I don't.  I don't even pretend to.  Don't get me started about dishes and laundry...

Remember the video I shared about cleaning your machine this weekend?  Well... I thought I'd better go do mine.  She talks about clearing away "dust bunnies" ... I started there, but when I got into it?  HOLY COW!  Mine were "dust buffaloes"!!!!

I learned soooo much about my machine this weekend - it was fantastic!  Not the bunnies and the lint, that was scary, but I took it apart in ways I'd never done before.  I'm feeling rather good about that.


Here's a photo essay about the task.

Just a wee bit of dust here...

My grandsons would have thought this was cool.  So far, so good.

Had some trouble getting that screw undone.  Couldn't find the little screwdriver made for that.

O.M.G - NO wonder my feed dogs didn't work well!

Caked in dust. ARGH!

 

This will NEVER happen again - sooo easy to pop out bobbin case to check on this.  YIKES!

Bobbin case lint.  EWWWW!

All of that came out from the inside.

So... the lesson here folks?  CLEAN YOUR MACHINE!!  I'm lucky the darn this even sewed!  Okay... raise your right hand... 

Repeat after me...

"I solemly swear....

"To clean my machine...

"WAY MORE OFTEN THAN THIS!!!"  

Seriously - go clean your machine!

Hope everyone has an incredibly creative day!
Carrie