SWAP BLOCKS RECEIVED!

I received my broken dishes exchange blocks today from Barb!  What a wonderful variety of red civil war reproductions!!  Thanks Barb!  I'm not sure how many I got, but I think it's about 80!  I wonder what I will make with them.

Here are some more items that I've been making for a craft show coming up this weekend.  I just finished one more of the Bow Tucks Tote designed by Penny Sturges.  I got this fabric at my LQS and the colors are so great!  I have another one like it in process.

Back view

Front view

These are some smaller tote bags made from a panel of cat pictures.

Front view

Back view

I've decided I don't really enjoy making tote bags and probably won't make many more of them.  It takes forever to iron on the batting and interfacing!  

Tonight our church is having a Trunk or Treat event for the local children.  I had never heard of this before we moved here.  But, since they desperately needed more trunks, my DIL and I decided to decorate her trunk as a "doll house."  I will try to get some pictures.  Hope it doesn't rain tonight!

SHOP HOPPING

This week I went on a shop hop in the Salem OR area.  My friend and I went to a few shops but didn't make it to all the shops in the hop.  

Besides the shop in our home town (Boersma's), our favorite shop is Grandma's Attic in Dallas, OR.  The scrap bin was full of great pieces of fabric and you can stuff a plastic bag full for $4.99 as long as it can close.  Here is my bag.

And here is the contents of the bag spread out.  I stuffed 12 1/2 oz. into it, which makes it a great deal!  As you can see, I got mostly civil war and 30s reproductions.

I couldn't resist purchasing some other yardage and below is what I got.

Just got home from watching the Cubs baseball game and they won!!!  They will be going to the world series next!  Yea, Cubs!!!

PIN CUSHION EXCHANGE

Barrister's Block had a pin cushion exchange and I decided to sign up for it.  This first one is the one I made and sent to Britt.  

I recently received this log cabin pin cushion from Linda along with a gorgeous piece of fabric!  Thank you, Linda!  Of course, I love log cabin blocks!

Thanks Randy for organizing this exchange!

I have also been working on a SAL (sew-a-long) organized by Lori.  You can still join in if you want to by going here to find the instructions.

Here is my group of blocks from Part 3.

I think the final reveal is coming up on Friday with directions on how to put them together.  I have been joining in with Lori's SALs for years and they are always great!  Thanks, Lori!  I can't wait until Friday.

WHAT I WORKED ON LAST WEEK

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted on my blog!  I have been spending less time browsing as well because I have been keeping pretty busy on quilting projects.

This block is the September BOM from Barbara Brackman's Civil War blog.  I haven't done the August one yet.  Both of these have Y-seams, which are not my favorite.  I tried to make mine more like the one Becky Brown made (see Barbara's post).  Also, my friend/neighbor and I have signed up for a craft show in November and I'm working on some projects for that.

In case you didn't know, I love going to garage sales and thrift stores.  I look for fabric and projects that I can use and/or sell from my Etsy shop.

The quilt show that I went to in Salem, OR had a sale section of fabrics, panels, etc. that members of the group donated.  There were some great deals!  Below is a small panel of a dalmatian dog along with some pieces of fabrics to finish it.  I put some of them together, but now I'm thinking of making it into a small quilt.  The top and bottom border pieces aren't sewn on yet and I don't have any more of that fabric.  Right now it measures about 22" x 29".  I was thinking about making a wall hanging, but if I make it into a baby or child's quilt I would need to enlarge it.  Any suggestions?

This Santa place mat/table topper or Santa's cookie and milk mat, was also found at the quilt show.  It was layered and partially quilted.  I just added some more quilting and finished it.

I found this rabbit at a thrift shop and she needed a dress.  The package included a pattern for a dress and I had this fabric on hand.  I made the apron out of a vintage napkin.

I love the old crocheted corner on the napkin.

This table runner was purchased at an estate sale and it was all layered but not quilted yet.  I decided to finish it off and hope to sell it at the craft show.  It looks like a mardi gras design.

This is some of what I have been doing.  The weather has turned rainy, so it was a good time to spend inside sewing.

COULDN'T RESIST!

Lori from Humble Quilts is having a QAL aka quilt-a-long.   I tried for a couple minutes to resist it, but I've done so many of her QALs that it didn't really take too long to decide to do it.  After I saw the first step and how easy it was, plus it's only 24" square,  I figured I could squeeze it in.  Some of her QALs are my very favorite little quilts, after all.  I haven't done any of her bigger QALs.

Here's the first step.  Cut some squares.

Next, sew most of them into 4-patches.  Very easy!

The next step is some HSTs.  I'll get to them next week.

Have a great weekend ladies!

QUILTOPIA IN SALEM, OR

Yesterday I went to Salem, about 35 minutes south of where I live, to attend Quiltopia!  This is a quilt show that used to be put on by a quilt shop that just went out of business, and now the people that assisted in organizing it are doing it without the sponsorship of Greenbaums.  It was held at a really special place, the Willamette Heritage Center, which was a woolen mill established around 1840 by some missionaries.  The mill is now a museum and is a wonderful place to tour, so we'll have to go back there again.

This farm quilt was my favorite.

 The quilts were hanging up quite high and it was hard to get a straight picture and some might be blurry.  And, of course, I didn't get all the pictures that I would have liked to.

Too bad I couldn't fit this whole quilt in the photo.

This applique quilt was lovely.

A cute halloween quilt!

Here's a special patriotic quilt!

It was a beautiful day for an outing!  Look at that sky!

Abby didn't have school, so she came with us.

There was also a bed turning and this was the top quilt.  It was a millennial quilt and had 2000 different fabrics in it.

Another quilt in the bed turning was this vintage crazy quilt.

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.