Nell Hill's

 

I am back with part 2 of our trip!  After we had visited Mary Carol's beautiful home we then drove the 2 or 3 blocks to her shop.  The shop is just beautiful and there was so much there that it was almost overwhelming!  This introvert was a little overwhelmed with all the crowds there too, standing room only.  Pictured above was a pretty fall vignette that I just loved.

 

                                                  Another fall beauty.....

 

I loved this, yes that is ribbon hanging from the ceiling!  I thought it was a great way to store ribbon...hmm...have to think about that for my studio!

 

 

 

I just loved the decorating that she did on the ceiling, it was just everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

This little ornament was so cute, and yes, it is made out of zippers of all things...

 

After we left Mary Carol's shop (Nell Hill's) we decided to do some shopping in Kansas City.  As we were driving, we discovered that we would be going right by Florilegium.  Now for you die hard crazy quilter's, you know what a great place it is!  If you haven't been there, you need too!  Of course we thought we would stay there only a few minutes but we left over an hour later and quite a few dollars poorer!  Can you tell Dixie had a good time there?

 

Now for some crazy quilting items!  Finally, a sneak peek at what I have been working on.  They still aren't quite done but getting closer!

 

 

 

 

Have a great day and I'll talk to you soon!

An Unexpected Trip!

 

Fair warning!  This post is not about crazy quilting but I just had to share what I did this weekend.  The crazy quilt project I am working on is still not fit for public viewing but I hope it will be soon!

For many years, my friend Dixie has wanted to go to Atchison, Kansas for a special Holiday Open House.  For 2 special days every year, Mary Carol Garrity opens her home for tours after she has decorated for Christmas.  Mary Carol owns a very beautiful decorator shop in Atchinson and is very gifted!  We have never been able to go before because I always had the Victorian Stitchery Retreat on the same weekend but because I didn't host a retreat this year off we went! 

 

 

This is a picture of her front door....so simple yet so elegant.

 

 

Here is a beautiful decoration she had on one of her concrete posts going up the steps to the front door.  So creative.....

 

We walked in the front door and here was the first sight, it was just so beautiful.

 

 

Every room had beautiful decorations even on the lights.

 

 

A beautiful vignette...I would love to reproduce it....so simple and elegant.

 

 

I have always loved these kind of shutters...I would love them in my kitchen!

 

 

This is over her fireplace, I loved it!

 

 

Another beautiful vignette....

 

 

Here she went all out when she decorated the ceiling in the kitchen.

 

 

One of my favorites, candy used as a bouquet!  I love it and I think I could do something like that at my house except I might eat the candy!

 

Next post I will show you some sights in Atchison and her beautiful shop.

 

 

Talk to you soon,

Fall Leaves

Here is another Fall project I did as a class for my students several years ago.  You could make one for yourself!  Just draw some leaf patterns, or go out in the yard and trace the shapes of some actual leaves on muslin.  Do some piecing with some great fall colors and embellish to your hearts content!

Next week I'll do a post on a project I am working on, but right now it isn't done enough for public viewing!

Talk to you soon,

A Little Fall Project

Years ago I made this little fall project.  I think all I did was crazy quilt a round piece large enough to fit over the edges of the jar, embellish and voila!

I love to do bullion embroidery so it is a given that it will be on just about every project I make...

Here is another finished project that I did last spring.  I donated it to the Quilt Alliance and I think it will be auctioned off on ebay sometime in November.  The Quilt Alliance is a great place to get all kinds of info on quilt history.  Here is a link to their site:  http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/  
It was so much fun to crazy quilt with cottons and denim, of all things denim!

Talk to you later,

The Year of Finishing

Well it appears that I have abandoned my blog for over 5 months, how is that possible?  Not that I am making excuses, but I thought I would show what I have been doing.  It has been a wonderful year and I have been so grateful for all that I have been allowed to do.  In March our quilting group finished the quilt pictured above, and donated it to the MCC Sale in Hutchinson, Kansas.  It sold for around $1500 and we were very pleased with that.

  

In April, my dear friends Vonda and Dixie helped me tie my Valentine Crazy Quilt together so I could get it bound and finished.

In March, Allie Aller and I finished our manuscript for our book that is coming out next Spring.  That felt really good!

 

 In May, I finished my Secret Language of Flowers fabric book that I had been working on for several years.  I am really pleased with how it turned out!

In September, our quilting group finished the quilt top for the next MCC sale and started quilting on it.

And last night, Dixie, myself, Shawna Klein and Laura Warwick hosted a dinner for 350 that we have been working on for months.  We had a wonderful time and I was encouraged by our speaker, Kelly Stamps. She has a very popular blog that has 30,000 to 40,000 readers a day!  I can't even imagine....

I'll tease you a bit by telling you I have three other finishes, but you'll have to wait awhile to see them. ;-)

Talk to you soon and I will try to blog more often!  I tend to post more on Facebook if you want to join me over there that would be great!

My Crazy Quilt Fabric Book

I posted a picture of my completed Secret Language of Flowers Crazy Quilt Fabric Book on Face Book the other day and some of you were asking for more pictures, so here goes!  I have this killer camera, but the thing is, I don't really know how to use it that well.  I find I can take the best pictures of my quilts and projects in natural sunlight, so my fabric book and I took a trip outside.  I have always been fascinated by the way the Victorian's expressed their feelings to one another by the types of flowers that they gave to one another.  This tradition also transferred to their crazy quilts.  Many books in that time period were written about the topic of the Secret Language of Flowers and many of them didn't even agree on what emotion each flower should represent.  Hopefully both the giver and reciever were using the same book so there was no miscommunications!

I started with a 6 1/2 inch square and did a pansy block just because I love the colors and then it progressed from there.  I ended up with 12 crazy quilt blocks and about 1/2 way through the process I had decided to make them into a fabric book.  I then stewed about how to make my fabric book for quite some time....and then I wrote a book with Allie Aller and didn't have time to think about it!

I ended up putting two pages wrong sides together and binding them.  I tried to group the pages so that the same colored binding would work for the two pages involved.

I then crazy pieced a cover that would be large enough to hold all 12 of them as pages in a book.

I hand sewed the pages into the "spine" of the book.

Having just a little fun with the pictures, I made one of them look sepia......

Anyway, that is my adventure with my crazy quilt fabric book and I really pretty pleased with it!

Talk to you later,

Just Checking In!

I can't believe it has been 2 months since I posted, so I thought I would just check in with all of you.   Allie Aller and I turned in our manuscript for our new book in eary March and the same day we turned it in, Jodie Davis asked me to do 3 segments for the Quilter's Newsletter Magazine on QnnTV.  So much for taking some time off after finishing our manuscript!  It was alot of fun and I was really wasn't too nervous, in fact, Jodie is so good that I even forgot there were camera's going and we laughed and giggled and had a great time.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture because that is certainly not how I look everyday. They have a wonderful hair and makeup artist come to the studio and she is certainly a miracle worker in my personal opinion!

Jodie was a dream to work with and so pretty!  Thank you Jodie for asking me to be on your show.

Talk to you later,