Scrappy Hearts

#100DayProject

And so it begins. Another #100dayproject, my second. Last year I decided to take a picture of my feet, everyday, for 100 days; #100daysoffeet. While that may seem pretty easy, and it was, there were days that I just forgot to take a picture of my feet. I made it through the one hundred days and I am making an attempt to bring my little book together. 

This year I decided that I really missed sewing for me. So I have decided to tackle Tula Pink's City Sampler, 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. 

Originally I was going to piece all of the blocks in combinations of greys and neutrals but decided to use Tula's Zuma plus a bit of her newest line, Pinkerville. The Zuma colorway we carry in the shop is the beautiful teals and sea greens. Pinkerville will be in the violet colorway and I think that will add a beautiful sparkle to the quilt. 

The #100dayproject begins today and I accomplished what I set out to create, 1 6.5" quilt block. There may be days when I miss making my block but my goal is to stay on track and to allow myself just a bit of creative time, for myself, each day. Here's to the next 100 days!!

30 Days of Gratitude: November 19th

 Sundays and slow stitching make me happy. So very happy that Sunday is the one day I have off each week. I love a slow lazy Sunday. Not that this particular Sunday was that at all. Mark and I were busy getting ready for our guests on Thanksgiving when I came across these items already glued and ready to stitch. I am just learning to do English Paper Piecing and I was so upset that I couldn't find these honeycomb shapes for my first ever Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses block. It's amazing what you find when you clean! So grateful for that and life on this crazy Sunday!

One of my Favorites

Kaffe Fassett has always been one of my favorite fabric designers. I love the way he mixes colors and patterns, much the way nature seems to get away with certain combinations. The quilts in this book are exquisite and inspirational. On September 10th at The Village Quilter we will be celebrating a Day in Italy. In addition to eating Italian food and listening to Italian music, we will be making the quilt, Stone Log Cabin, just one of the quilts featured in this book.

If you know me, you know that I love a little party when I quilt. A celebration of my heritage and the food I love is the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Oh, there will be sewing! If you are looking for a new project and love the boldness of Kaffe’s fabrics, why not consider joining us! Give the shop a call or check our website for details.

Related articles

Yet Another Quilting Project

The Quilts are Back

On My Wall

Most of Today

Summer's Bounty

Farm Fair

Saturday afternoon, after closing the shop for the day, Mark and I headed over to the Burlington County Farm Fair. The last time I experienced a fair like this was the summer Mark and I drove cross country. It turned out that his hometown of Olney was having their fair during our visit. 

As it turns out, this farm fair was much larger in scope and brought back memories of attending the 4-H Fair when I was younger. My main interest in attending was to see how quilters used the specified fat quarter in their creations. That made our first stop the Home Arts tent.There were entries of jams, pickles and relishes as well as flower arrangements and vegetables. Entries spanned many needle arts crafts like weaving, crochet, knitting, sewing and quilting.Here are the Farm Fair fat quarters folded and ready to go before the shop even opened. I just love the fabric and I was so very impressed with the projects created for the contest.Photographing the entries was not easy because of the angle of the sun, but you can see the ruffled basket, the placemate with napkin pocket, as well as a few mini quilts.There were also a few clothing items and a couple of totes. I love that everyone was so creative! It was fun to see this contest through its fruition.While at the fair we consumed a respectable amount of fair food before calling it a night. I am thrilled that the rain experienced by so much of South Jersey on Saturday seemed to move well south of the fair. By the time we arrived, the air had cooled a bit and there was a soft wind blowing. Definitely a fun night which we will need to make a tradition. I am already thinking of fabrics to suggest for next year’s quilt challenge!

Related articles

Yet Another Quilting Project

At Thirteen

Worldwide Quilting Day, 2015

Most of Today

Summer's Bounty

Weekends Are Over Too Fast

Once the store opened I promised myself Sundays off. You see, I need Sundays off. Not just for the chores and yard work, but for the sewing also. The quilt above was in the show that I worked this weekend as a vendor. I have the same quilt, still unfinished. I have decided that my Sundays need to include a little bit of sewing. I need to get some of my quilts finished! Just looking at this quilt makes me jealous. I know that I could finish a quilt if I just had some time! 

Related articles

On My Wall

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 9

Some Kind of Sunday

A Little Bit of This

Getting Ready

Saturday afternoon I traveled over to Mt. Holly to take care of some business. The merchandise for our quilt shop has started to arrive so I started unpacking boxes, checking inventory against packing slips and packing slips against orders. There are so many beautiful fabrics.Blenders of all different colors have arrived. I really love the texture of this soft group of colors. It resembles a very soft weave. I unpacked 60 bolts of fabric. I ordered a few beautiful neutral quilt backs in a wider length and there are quite a few white on white bolts. 

Forty-nine different colors of thread have also arrived. Customers requested Aurofil and that’s what I ordered. After checking in the inventory I placed it on and under the two cutting tables in the store. Mark will be heading into the shop on Monday to begin taking down the fixtures and re-thinking the store layout. We are not sure that the layout will change, but we know that if a change is to be made, we need to do it before we begin setting up the store with merchandise.Currently the store is a blank slate. The possibilities are endless and we are thrilled to begin the process of making it into our version of The Village Quilter!

Related articles

Winter to Spring

Next, On the Red Carpet

And Then it Snowed

Summer's Bounty

Bedtime

Clearly this cat has issues. Who would lay themselves on a very thick planner when there are quilts all over the bed? You guessed it, my man Marlo! Lately he has gotten into the habit of deciding when it is we should head to bed. If I am working downstairs he will climb upstairs, stand at the top of the steps and meow at the top of his voice. 

Last night he didn’t have to meow too loudly as I was ready for bed quite early by my standard. I usually spend a little time reading before turning out the light. I call this my “winding down” time. Last night I decided to use my time before bed to review a few fabric orders. Well Mr. Marlo had a different idea.

He wandered around just a bit before deciding to settle right on top of my planner. Seriously, how does he expect me to get anything done? The truth is, I don’t like taking any work to bed. I have very strict rules about that. But, now that the quilt shop is truly ours, I have a serious amount of work that needs to get done and I allow myself to work on fun stuff in bed. Clearly Marlo prefers my previous rule, no work in bed!

Worldwide Quilting Day, 2015

Summer's Bounty

Related articles

My Last Saturday

Someone caught a picture of my last Saturday working at The Village Quilter. Sometime this week every bolt on the shelf will be gone. It is a sad time for those of us that loved shopping at Susan’s shop. It didn’t matter when you stopped by, there were always friends to be found and someone to help with a quilty emergency or two. 

Now, in the next week or two, boxes will begin to arrive. Mark will take all of the fixtures off the walls. We will clean and paint if need be. Sometime around the 19th of March the doors will reopen once again. I will be there but not as an employee. The next time the doors open it will be “my” shop. Of course, “my" shop in the way that all “my" stuff is “mine", with the help of the tribe I have collected around me. Mark and I are embarking on a very important journey and we couldn’t be more excited! 

Related articles

At Thirteen

Celebrating Susan and Jake

Family Time

I Found It!

Another new project. Aren’t these hexies wonderful? I am loving the beautiful fabrics and the fussy cutting that gets the little blossums to show up in exactly the right place. Once the shop is open we will be offering a class in English Paper Piecing and a quilt-along to make a bright and wonderful Glorious Hexagons Quilt. Now to teach myself how to use this technique!

How I Spend My Nights

Mostly spend my evenings these days, when I am not napping, shopping for fabric. Not yards of fabric and certainly not fabric for quilt projects, I have enough of that! These days I am shopping for fabric to fill our soon to be quilt shop. Well, to be accurate, we will not be filling it, per se. But, trying to fill it, that’s more the reality! Keeping busy and staying out of trouble. More news to follow!

Related articles

Winter to Spring

Next, On the Red Carpet

And Then it Snowed