October part three

For some actual sewing this month, it took a treat in the mail to get me going. As I am sorting and purging through my stuff, Julie, of JulieKQuilts has been doing a bit of the same...at least in her sewing closet :-) She has a lot of wonderful projects started but was thinking some were just going to languish. So she sent me some wool applique blocks to share with me...I'll show these later when I get started working on them.  These are a particular treat for me as I love applique...but really don't like the prep part...and these are totally ready to go!  Awesome! Thank you so much, Julie!
A surprise in the package though was a precut kit for curved piecing project. Curved piecing peaks my interest so I jumped right in. 

I'm sewing slow and steady as these are not the easiest in the world to sew. And I'm not sure if I see improvement in my skill just yet but hopefully I will. It is so perfect for me right now with most of my house packed away. This little kit is too easy to pick up and just sew pieces together.
It is also giving me a chance to use something I purchased at PIQF. 

I think it was my last purchase as things were winding down Sunday afternoon. My sister and I listened to the demonstrator and it got my attention.  The cover uses the same material as firemen protective gear that reflects the heat back to what you are trying to press. So you can actually set the iron to a lower temp and also it was just a nice smooth surface for ironing. I have purchased an ironing pad at market before that was not really that great so I was leery of making another disappointment.  But they had a handy small pad just perfect for my pressing station next to my machine so I bought that for a test ride :-)
And I like it!

I was trying hard not to bring a lot back with me from this show.  I stuck with looking for some blacks and greys and reds that I haven't been finding at my LQS's.  I found these and am looking forward to sewing another red cross quilt in the new year sometime.

The white piece has demo stitches from the awesome Bernina 790 that I tested out.  It is quite a fun machine with beautiful stitches and great features.  I did not bring this home though!  I am happy to say that I'm quite content with my 1090 but it is fun to fly a jet sometimes :-)
In the not needed but still fun to purchase was this

...plaid, always a fun purchase!  and a pretty orange for pumpkins from Farmhouse Threads. I think this was their first year there and because my other favorite, Sew Cherished, was not there...these folks cheered me considerably. They have a beautiful booth with wonderful wools, homespuns and fun patterns. An oasis in a modern world :-)

October part two

More pictures of PIQF

I'm not sure how this got hexagons in the name but I loved all these plaids and flying geese.

This next one was wonderful to see from designer, Sandy Klop.

And from two quilters local to me...

I think these were most of my favorites. The show had some beautiful quilts.
I'll save pics of my purchases and what I'm sewing on now for the next post.
We are getting rain here in dry California. An absolutely wonderful fall day!

October

This month included very little, if any, sewing as we sorted and purged and donated 3 car loads of items for a local charity. Most of the rest is packed up and in boxes stored in an upstairs room as we wait...for still several weeks...till our flooring will be replaced. We are waiting for a preferred installer that we liked. So I don't really see the effect fully of my cleaning out.  We will have to wait till I unpack and put it all back together to see if we indeed made any progress to lighten our load. I know I still have more to do.  Does anyone know of a good way to donate rubber stamps?  :-)
On the quilting front however, I did make my way up the state to Santa Clara for the Pacific International Quilt Festival. It was a good show of some beautiful quilts and creative vendors. I am usually rather strongly drawn to the shopping but found less of a pull this year. Someone told me there were fewer vendors there and I did find that a couple of my favorites were missing and there were few new ones. The quilts displayed this year however were, in general, a lot more interesting to me. So here are a few...
From my favorite applique artist and teacher, Nancy Brown,
Leonard's Big Day

Almost too fun for words :-)  Leonard has his binoculars hanging from his royal neck, and he and his bird friends are wearing colorful sweaters. The ostrich may be my favorite just because his face shows so much attitude.

I really enjoyed this and also being able to see Nancy briefly. She really amazes me with the detail and creativity she puts in her work.





Of course I was drawn to the animal quilts in the show. Quilters did not disappoint this year.
One of Nancy's students entered this beauty.

These elephants were also a favorite. Such beautiful creatures.

I have more quilts to show in my next post and a pic of something fun I did get to sew.  Have a wonderful Fall weekend everyone! 

September

Happy Fall! Still my favorite time of year. We actually had a short heat wave here on the coast but we survived and are enjoying the cooler temps that the fog and breezes bring us. 
I finished a t shirt quilt for a friend's son. They are visiting colleges for his next adventure and hopefully will enjoy this quilt with shirts from his athletic days.

It is sandwiched with Hobb's 80/20 and quilted with stars and loops using a primary colored Rainbows by Superior. I used what I've learned is identified as Lingerie fusible to stabilize the shirts. I like it because it doesn't add any unwanted stiffness to the shirts but makes it so they sew up nicely.

There will not be much more sewing for the next couple of months here. After a few years of researching flooring, putting it off, and finally getting around to going to a flooring store...we have made a decision and committed to having all the carpet in our house removed and replaced with luxury vinyl tile. DH was all set for engineered wood but the flooring specialist steered us this way as it is more easily cleaned and more durable for the dogs and cats in our household and it really does look like wood...or close enough for us to be happy.  We have quite a bit of stained wood in our house as it has sort of a craftsman look to it. All the baseboards and doors etc is stained fir and oak so picking a product sounded daunting.  We brought large samples home and surprisingly found one that worked pretty well with what is here.  We also worked pretty hard to abuse those samples and found them to be rather resistant to scratching. So here's hoping all goes well. I will miss my carpet somewhat but will add some area rugs and possibly runners as the dogs get older and might find the smooth surface slippery. 
We are spending time now going through our house culling out what we don't need and packing the rest up to store in the 2 rooms that won't be affected. We'll move the furniture into the garage right before the job is done.
I'm trying to pretend that I'm actually moving....trying to trick myself into getting rid of as much as I can.  I'm not a hoarder but I sure like my stuff :-) We will see how well I have done when actually trying to fit all this stuff into the designated space!