Sisters part 2 - I made a quilt top!

I forgot to mention that 5 of us brought our sewing machines with us on our recent trip.  I almost finished a whole quilt top while I was there. I finished it yesterday, here it is:

I'm pretty excited about this one.  See, I was super excited about the re-release of Flea Market Fancy because I only had a few of the original prints, and I have been in love with the collection since seeing some quilts made by guild members. I usually don't like to take a fabric collection and use only those prints in a quilt, I generally like to mix 'n match between collections and colors. There's just something about FMF that looks so complete on it's own without interference.

So I couldn't go and order a whole FQ set or anything because I just didn't have any extra in the "fabric spending" account at that time, but I was totally excited to find a shop that was selling 10" square (layer cake sized) sets of the whole collection. I quickly decided it was a worthwhile (small) expense that would get me a piece of the whole set. I laid them all out and drooled over them, and petted them a bit.

At the time I was working on the Portland Peel template set with Rachel, and was soooooo excited to see that the tester template set (hot off the laser cutter) fit all 3 pieces perfectly on the 10" squares. So I cut. Yes, the whole stack! It actually took no time at all. Look at the seriously minor waste from cutting up in that top left corner of the pic - barely a 1"x1.5" rectangle was the biggest piece of waste. I was so determined to use every bit.

Flash forward several busy months, and I was looking around my sewing space for a quick project to sew up while I was in Sisters for the quilt show. I found the lovely cut stack of FMF, grabbed a big piece of some white(ish) fabric to go with it, and some templates, and off I went.

Even through all the chatting and margaritas I was able to piece most of this quilt while I was there, and I just put the blocks together yesterday. It's a bit of a wrinkly mess, but I just love how it turned out. There's 2 squares for each FMF print, I feel like I got alot of mileage out of that 'layer cake'.

Oh, and here's my quilt hanging at the Sisters show.... can't believe I forgot to post this pic yesterday.

Oh, and here's my artichoke plant in full bloom! Artichokes are pretty crazy aren't they? I'm always amazed. We ate 7 HUGE artichokes from this plant and I left the 2 biggest ones to bloom because they're so gorgeous.

Cheers all!

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

Well last Thursday I took off on an adventure to Sisters, Oregon to see a quilt show and hang with PMQG friends. We loaded up four fat Elecktra cruisers and headed for the high desert. About 3-4 hours later after a gorgeous drive over Mt. Hood and through the changing landscapes we arrived.

The house we stayed in (thanks to Petra), had a fabulous view of the Three Sisters Mountains, this is what we woke up to every morning. Gorgeous!

We had our own deer friends that hung out in the shade near the house, which was about 4 miles north of the city center.

I biked into town and back each day, it was lovely and beautiful - after all, this was my view:

The actual quilt show is outside - quilts are hung on all of the buildings in the town. It's so cool to just be able to stroll around town and check out the quilts. Here is a view of the outside of one of the buildings in town with quilts all over it.

So, I guess there's a first for everything - there was actually a crazy thunder/lightning/hail storm at about 3pm, and they closed down the show about 2 hours early - all of the quilts were taken down and 'rescued' in about 15-20 minutes. Awesome. Here's our fearless leader Susan rescuing some of the PMQG special exhibit quilts.

I'm glad I was able to see the show before the abrupt ending, and I'm also glad I was in town a few days early to check out the shops - in particular the local quilt shop - The Stitchin Post. Here's a couple shots of the inside of the store. This is one lucky little town to have such a cool shop.

...and this is Ruby Bliss - she's a watermelon. Obviously.  She had some great adventures with the Elecktra Gang.  I'm hoping she comes to our guild meeting this Thursday, I'd love to see here again ;)

Hope you're all enjoying your summer, cheers, Jill

A Quilt Show and a Sale

Hey Peeps! How are you all doing? I'm totally overwhelmed in crazy kiddom. But I'm also loving it. 

3 & 5 is so much better than 2 & 4 for me. Still crazy though :)

So coming up a week from today I'm leaving for Sisters, Oregon for 3 nights. Never heard of it? I wouldn't expect many people have.  However, they have a super cool outdoor quilt show every summer. I went last year, and can't wait to go again.   It's about a 3 hour drive from Portland, and gas isn't cheap these days. So, I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop to hopefully raise a few bucks to put in my gas tank.

Need some templates? Want to add to your fabric stash? Everything that's in stock is 15% off starting today though July 15th (Yes - even that Aurifil set, it's a steal!!-tell your friends). Now I'm going to be in Sisters from the 12th through the 15th, so any orders placed during those days will be shipped on the 16th. 

PLUS Every order placed today through the 11th gets a free 'surprise' added to their package!

(provided that you use the coupon code upon checkout)

I have actually done a bit of sewing too.  I made the above quilt with the Portland Peel template set, it's going to a special baby girl.

And I started the quilt below based on an architectural inspiration that I will go into in another post.

I hope everyone is enjoying their July so far, I know we are. My birthday, my Hubs birthday, and my Son's birthday all occur in the next 2 weeks, so we'll be busy partying and getting older (and maybe more tan - come on sun!).   Cheers all!