Thursday, July 17, 2014

Missouri Star Quilt Company


You cannot believe my surprise while driving through the middle of Missouri in a very small town seeing the store, the Missouri Star Quilt Store.  Online, I love looking at their quilts, their youtube tutorials, and have even ordered supplies from here in the past.  Now, I thought to myself, can I really stop with my husband, whom I hate going in cloth stores with me, and my four daughters.    

We were just driving through Hamilton on our way from Hannibal to Kansas City with a few small detours to the north and south of Hamilton, but yes I did stop for only 5 minutes.  I would only stop if the other 5 members of my family would stay outside so that they would embass me so much trailing through the store like lost sheep.
 Here are some of my favorite quilts in the store.


It's made with fabric Heather Baileys free spirit line.



 
My 10 year old accompanies me and assisted in picking the fabric/pattern for the new quilt I will make her.  Here is the quilt


And here is her fabric choices


Riley Blake's, A Beautiful Thing, line.  


Wednesday, July 16, 2014

WIP Wednesday!


My blogs been quiet again.  What have I been doing you ask?   Well, ever since the small town quilt show I have been gone!  

At the quilt show in midway besides a few classes, I was able to go to 3 trunk shows.  I've never been to a trunk show before, but I love them!  First I went to the two sisters Jenny and Helen from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  

Most of their quilts use the quick curve ruler and YES I did purchase one.  I think my favorite quilt of their was:


Next I went to the trunk show by  Sherri Mcconnell, let me just say she is amazing!  Her blog 
www.aquiltinglife.com is fabulous and so is she as a person!  I really want to make this quilt of hers :


This is my favorite of hers:


Lastly, I went to Emily Herrick of crazy old ladies.  She has a very unique style, but I like it and I purchased a few of her patterns.


Lori Holt had the final trunk show that day, I really would have loved to attend but it was late and I needed to drive down the canyon home, not something I like doing a lot late at night.  

Now what have I been working on,  tablerunners!  As we drove across the corn fields of Nabraska last weekend I bound a summery and a Halloween tablerunner.  

Summer is my favorite season and so it's no surprise that this is my favorite table runner.  I love the pattern that a local cotton shop created for a small class I attended to make this class.  



Quilting, I am still learning on my new Aria machine, but it's improving quickly.

You can see some the the quilting on the back.


Halloween, I love this pattern (and I will update when I get home for the name of the pattern).  If you like to appliqué, it's easy.  If you don't love to appliqué and need help, this gives you experience you need.  I would rate this as a beginner lev



Now where am I, we just drove 1600 miles to visit Missouri and Illinois with my 4 children (I feel a little crazy right now).
I am sharing the post on Lets Bee Social  and Freshly Pieced

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Journey

I love to sew!  I made my first quilt when I was in young women's and about 16 years old.
It's nothing noteable, it's tied and actually made from all my t-shirts from my childhood memories.  My grandmother belonged to a group that would get together every Tuesday morning and quilt beautiful patterns onto solid fabric, sometimes my mother would join them and I learned to hand quilt early in life.  After seeing a few others quilting stitches, I can brag that I have a very good quilting stitch.
When each of my children were born I made a few more quilts and as they grew the quilts got bigger and I branched out of my comfort jone a little more.  Until a 1 1/2 years ago, when I really embraced the whole pieced quilt & machine quilting technique.  Let's just say I love it!!!
With quilting there have been sacrifices!  I wasn't blessed with 26 hour days to add another hobby into my already full schedule.  My blog name is simplescrapperquilts, well it was originally just Simplescrapper, because I was a scrapbooker.  Scrap booking kind of fell off my schedule so that quilting could fit in.  The design team I was on for 6 years ended and I started a new crafty life, and YES I do miss it at times.  Especially the social network of scrapbookers all across the country that I worked with for over 10 years.  Would I turn back, NO.  

In February I started a buggy barn quilt that I really love.  Whether it's the pattern, the Moda floral gathering fabric or the combination that I love most, I don't know.

In the middle of each star there is no quilting,  if you look close you can see a safety pin.   It won't stay that way!   I am looking for the perfect buttons to accent my stars right now.  

I quilted this with a "wonky" zigzag pattern.  I feel it was the perfect quilting pattern for this quilt.

 

I am sharing the post on Fresh Sewing Day and Freshly Pieced