Quilt Geek Celebration

I reached the core of my first 40 yard roll of 90" Warm and White.

IKEA cinnamon rolls and MDF - mmmmm!

The smell in the furniture pull warehouse, before you check out at IKEA - their cinnamon rolls mixed with MDF.  It just makes me happy for some reason.

They have some really pretty new fabrics in the textile section.  The colors are a little harsh here, as the display was shaded, outside.  But this soft, happy floral is only 3.99/yd, and would make great table runners and napkins.



And I somehow kept myself from buying all the napkins, plates, and trays in this new line.



Had to tour around the mini apartments.  Becket took off his shoes and wanted to move into the bunk house.



He loved the fabric panels and chair in the bathroom and wanted his picture taken with them :)

It's always a happy day at IKEA.

Fun Quilty Mail

Nothing better than happy mail arriving! Found this pair of really fun prints.

My pre-order of Angela Walter's book arrived last week.



Summer Flight!

Instagram Target!

Have you seen the new stuff at Target? What an awesome quilt tray!



Super cool mugs as well.

 I had to come home with the one on the right.



Hope you're having summer fun. Water balloon fight!!!

I Drank the Kool-Aid

Joined last night....

Been pinning ever since.

Source: designer-daily.com via Angela on Pinterest

And just bought a stitch/quilt pattern.

Source: crabapplehillstudio.com via Angela on Pinterest

But I WILL NOT buy more fabric.  

Leigh and I made a pact!

.

What books do you buy?

And patterns for that matter?

Being fairly crafty, as well as a math-loving engineer, there aren't many patterns I NEED to buy.  I can figure out just about anything with a bit of time and a pencil.

But I still buy books and patterns.  Not all, but some.  And for various reasons.

I'm interested in exploring my and your book/pattern buying reasons.  Just one of those random things I wonder about sometimes!

Right now I have a book that just arrived.  You've certainly seen it on the blog tour over the last couple of weeks.



It was the review on Kathy's blog that sent me clicking my shopping cart at Amazon.  She said that "It’s an excellent method to teach modern quilting techniques. Each month features a description of the bee member’s selected block, construction tips and design considerations. The result is the block being interpreted 12 different ways by each member in the group. The reader can see each unique take and how choices in color, layout, and fabric make the block different."

Just 15 pages into the book has sent me running to tell you all about it, too!

In talking about her bee month, Alissa gives the kind of information that everybody who is new or not so new to bees always wants to know:

Alissa asked each bee member to make 2 blocks between 14" x 14" and 17" x 17".  Alissa planned to later frame the blocks to make them 19" x 19" when finished.  She cut 8 yards of different solid and print fabrics into 6" x 22" strips and also added some scraps of coordinating fabrics from her stash.  She sent a varied selection of 10 fabric strips to each member.  This was more than enough fabric for the bee members to make 2 blocks each.

Right!?  Exactly the kind of stuff you want to know.  And it looks like there are 12 fabulous creative quilts, each with this info.   But I'm only on page 15 and couldn't wait to share.

Are you interested in talking about what motivates us to buy a book or pattern?

 

Downtown Chicago Inspiration

A couple weeks ago, on a non-preschool day, Becket and I met my mom downtown Chicago for a day at the Flower and Garden Show.  I found some cool quilty inspiration on the trip.  But first I have to add some cute Becket pictures.

We parked at the local Metra station and took the train in.  We sat in the top row seats.  Becket was a bit excited.

Once we got downtown, we had to wait a bit for my mom's train to arrive from the north suburbs.  So a snack was in order.  It was fun to sit on the old benches in the huge, marble station. 

The Flower and Garden show is at Navy Pier - and one of the permanent exhibits at the Pier is the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.  It's a fabulous collection, and of course great quilt inspiration.

My mom and Becket peeked at me through this one :)

Surprisingly, I didn't find much quilty at the flower show.  They fill the big exhibition hall at the end of the pier with a bunch of mocked-up yards, ponds, flower beds.  A fabulous thing in the last of the Chicago winter!  But the theme this year was sports, so not as quilt-inspiring as the Alice in Wonderland displays last year.

But on the way back to our train station, I had to jump out into the road for two last photos.  It was so cool to see the cobblestones partially exposed from pot holes in the pavement.

Kid side note - so we're here watching Becket's favorite cartoon, Max and Ruby.   Do you wonder how old Ruby is?  There's never a parent around except for when the grandma comes to visit.  I hate it when I'm watching these things and am saying in my head how unrealistic it is to have no parents around, or traveling the world as like a 6yr old.  I have to remind myself that it's a CARTOON of talking rabbits - not realistic in the least.

A Green Start

I love sketching out a plan, doing some quilty math, and pulling a stack of fabrics.

Inspired by the cover photo of Modern Log Cabin Quilting - I'm eager to look through the whole book.

Super Cool

Thank you Heather! 

Pink Lemonade is over at Modern Day Quilts today!

Inspiration at Target

You're a quilter when you excitedly squeak at the Target paper party display.

Then you buy the napkin pack to hang on your inspiration board.

IKEA inspiration

We all love going to IKEA - and luckily (or perhaps not) it is very close. I found some great inspiration there.....

This puff light fixture is FABULOUS and about 3 feet across. It makes cool shadows on the ceiling, too.

I actually brought these next two lamp shades home. But they were vetoed by everybody else in the house. So they ended up going back.

But wouldn't those be cool QAYG patterns!

As soon as Becket saw this mini apartment, he threw himself onto the bed and claimed he was going to live there. (And survive on their breakfasts and meatball lunch and dinners) He assigned me the tiny kid bed nearby.