Another Quilt Sampler Shop!

I have patronized this shop, Cotton Patch Quilt Shop, since our first visit to Sarasota/Bradenton in 2004.  The shop opened in 2003.  It is one of the Fall 2014 Top Ten shops in Quilt Sampler magazine.  Woot! Woot!  I wasn't as excited as the gal from Virgina who I met in here last week.  Her words to me were, as she gazed around in obvious delight, "I think I'm having an orgasm, I'm so excited to be here!"  LOL  I felt just like it at the Sisters, Oregon outdoor quilt show I got to attend several years ago.

I had hopes of a picture of me sitting on the quilt you see under my arm, Freddie in my lap.  Freddie WHO in your lap??!!  Relax.  Laura and Tim, the owners, have 3 Basset Hounds, all rescues.  Freddie, their newest, is a DARLING.  Last week, I got to meet him.  He is very thin, a result of his having been a stray, and a stray puppy, not long enough with his mama, awww.  He won't be thin for too long, under the loving attention of both Laura and Tim.  Sadly, the hounds weren't working yesterday.  They had the day off.   The quilt is the second one for which I bought all the fabric at Cotton Patch.  Laura helped me choose both the pattern and the fabric.  It is called "Sunny Days" and is perfect to have in our Florida home.

So this day I was back for the second time in a couple of days to pick up the kit for the quilt they have in the magazine.  I love the pattern Storm at Sea, (think that is the name for this setting), love how straight lines and angles can create the illusion of curves.  I love the colourway.  They were busy cutting kits for their quilt, "Sea Swept", when I went in the first time, so I explained that I was only down until mid-week, and hoped to get a kit before I left...ta-da!

Here it is, undone, so you can drool over those gorgeous batiks in blues and greens with a little purple mixed in. 

The only issue is that it is f-f-f-foundation-pieced.  God, these f-words lately in my quilting world, lol!  I do think, however, that I can use the new ruler I bought last winter to make "Peaky and Spike" triangle units...will keep you posted.

This guy was waiting by our SUV.

He posed beautifully between chowing down on the acorns(?) under the live oak.  He is a sandhill crane, gorgeous, no?  Do they ever make bizarre calls!  A few years ago I was woken early one morning by this bizarre honking/grating/cackling sounds outside of our window...no it wasn't my husband grinding his teeth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeRKMAw7Q2Q
They are sooo cool.  His mate was nesting in the grass on the other side of the 6-place parking spot we were in.  Saw her as we drove off.  I was able to get fairly close to this one.

I snapped a couple of shots of the interior of Cotton Patch.

It's so bright and cheery.  I love the "Fabric Hounds" banner!  The classroom is open to the rest of the shop, and is to the left of the pink wall.

This display is in the window.  There's the quilt on the poster-sized sign of the magazine.  They have lots of beach-themed fabric and patterns.  Yeah, I bought some.  Okay!  Several.  Over a couple of visits.

Back to f-f-foundation-piecing, I am jumping in...to a snow drift....well, not literally, although with some of the hot flashes I've had lately, I've been tempted.  Joanne is having a quilt snow-along over at Canuck Quilter.  It starts tomorrow with the most sparkling, crisp snowflake patterns that are, yes, paper-pieced, aka foundation-pieced.  So that explains the new button on the sidebar.

And ya ya ya, I know.  I have NO projects on the go, so I NEED something else to occupy my sewing time, right?!

Off to quilt, er, pack...well packing is pretty much done, so I can quilt for a bit! Movers are coming tomorrow.  In other news, we might have found a house...

Linking up with Marelize at Stitch by Stitch for Anything Goes Mondays.

Biscuit Basket

Happy National Quilting Day, one day late!  I spent my day making this basket!  Finish Number . . . I don't know, I should count them up!  Or not, as I'd probably be elated for a nanosecond, and depressed the next when I realize we are here for one more month and I had 26 total projects, of which I think I might have completed 10.  Never mind: focus on the positive!

I bought this pattern and the packet of Rigid Weave 1 3/4" roll last year at my LQS, Cotton Patch Quilt Shop last year.  Planned to make it in the summer, but it didn't happen.

I thought I might make it out of some of the batiks I bought for another of Karla Alexander's Stack a New Deck quilt, but I saw this roll in JoAnn's a month or two ago, and just LOVED the colours.  Thought it might grow up to be in a Bento Box quilt, but then decided nope, it would be perfect for this project.

This is the first time I've bought and worked with jelly rolls.  I'm sure those at a quilt shop are die-cut, so very precise; this one was not!  Consequently some of the strips were as much as 3/16" too wide.  I tried to compensate during stitching the tubes, but still had a few tubes where the fabric is not taut against the stabilizer.

Pretty colours, n'est-ce pas?

The good news is that I got it 50% off , so $6.50 for 20 strips, pretty good I'd say.

Auditioning the layout prior to sewing

One complaint regarding the pattern is that she insists on using 44" wide fabric, something which I believe is pretty hard to find.  The majority tend to be 42-43" wide.  These strips were not 44", so I had to use two to make a 22" tube of fabric

Below, you see the bottom all woven.  The 3 green ones form the sides and the 5 blue and green ones form the front and back longer sides of the basket.  It's totally finished off inside, no seams or raw edges.

Starting to weave

It was tricky to get the tubes butted tight against each other, and I stabbed myself several times in the process!

The end result was worth it, however.

The colours are jewel-like no?  And speaking of jewels (gosh, I'm good sometimes, ha!) what is that pendant you see hanging from the top centre of the basket?

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A closer look.  Yep!  It's one of the 1.97 earrings pair I picked up at JoAnn's the other day!  It just called for something to jazz it up a bit, and the earrings were right there...  I'll use the other one for either a cool look (cough) and just wear one earring, lol, or I'll attach it to a zipper for a pull with bling.

Think I might be changing the lanai colour scheme...
What IS that brownish thing I just noticed now in the righthand lower corner??  Sigh.  Bella's butt.  HOW many pics has she backed her butt into??  It IS a cute butt...

What am I going to use this for?  Joe's usual question when I want to buy something, that, or, "Where are you going to put it?"  So, I've been thinking of possible uses.  Sewing room of course, as I can never have enough catch-all organizers, or a lanai catch-all, and I suddenly thought of the bathroom too!

And yes, those are all shells and sand dollars from the Sarasota/Bradenton area beaches.