miscellaneous Monday

Last Thursday & Friday I had the chance to visit Stitch Supply Co. in Altoona, Wisconsin. The store has been open for just over a year and this was my first visit. (For shame!) While I was there, I had the chance to take part in a retreat with a few good friends. The retreat space is AMAZING!!! (I failed to take photos, but you can see some here.) The store is quite lovely, too! Lots of amazing fabric, which made it overwhelming....but in a good way!

The first thing that you see when you walk in the front door is this amazing paper pieced elephant quilt that Ann made. Isn't it beautiful? (Pattern is by Violet Craft.)

There is a lot of gorgeous yarn at the shop, too. Everything is as cute as can be! The staff was wonderful and helpful! If you ever get a chance to stop by the shop, DO IT! :)

I took a bunch of tiny scraps to play with while I was there. They were literally flying. Hahaha! I did some tiny piecing.... I can't wait to get back to these scraps and do some more!

This mini is a brighter version of my remainders quilt (pattern is in No Scrap Left Behind). The mini measures about 10" x 12 1/2" and it took me all afternoon and evening to make it. It was totally worth it, though! I am planning on making a bright & white lap size version of this quilt sometime soon. Can't get enough of those tiny triangles!

I also made a 9 patch mini quilt, which took slightly less time. The squares in the 9 patch blocks finish at 1". That feels big to me....which is actually quite disturbing. Ha! The mini is about 15" square.

I immediately used the binding triangles from the mini above to make a little star pincushion. (Pattern for the pincushion can be found here.) The background fabric is a lovely chambray by Andover, which I also used in the mini. It's such a great fabric, so I bought a yard of it. It will be fun to incorporate into all kind of projects! I already gifted the pincushion. I LOVE giving them away!

On Saturday, I did my first trunk show and class from my new book at Gruber's Quilt Shop. Many thanks to the wonderful women who attended! It was a great day! It was awesome to finally show all the quilts that I worked on in secret in my basement for 6 months! It was also inspiring to see how the students dove into their scrap piles. Lots of fun, lots of progress!

I've been doing some stash enhancing lately.... these goodies below were purchased at quilt con, actually, from Cassie of Sew Stitching Happy. She makes the cutest bundles!

I finally broke down and bought an Uppercase fabric bundle while I was at Stitch Supply....such great colors. Such good blenders! My daughter squealed when she saw it. She wanted to claim it for her very own. I think we will be sharing it. Maybe.

I also purchased a quilt kit.... my first one ever! The fabric is Tag, by Cheryl Arkison for Connecting Threads. The pattern is Arithmetic by Jeni Baker. I'm super excited about this quilt!

One last thing for the day....

While I was at quilt con, I was on a panel about stash management, which was a lot of fun! When they showed this photo (above), there were several audible groans from the audience. Well, just to set the record straight, here's the rest of the story....

 ...this is the other side of the room. It needs a good cleaning!

And here's the reality of my cutting table today. See, I'm a normal quilter, after all!

Happy Monday to you!