Sweet Home Quilt Co.

If you weren’t here today for UFO Day, you missed a G-R-E-A-T time!  There was lots of “alien food” and laughter, and even a little bit of quilting was accomplished!

I snapped this early on before everyone arrived – Alien Juice (lemonade), Martian Orbs (green grapes), and Planet Cookies. (We have a fabulous new bakery in town – Sugar Bakers – and they had fun with our UFO Day idea!) We also enjoyed Martian Toes (creme filled pastries), Flying Saucer Chips with Beam Me Up Bean Dip, and lots of other stuff that escapes me now. Trust me, we had plenty to eat and there was lots of creativity depicted in our alien food!

Page brought her cross-stitch projects to get caught up on – Christmas Stocking two years in the making for her son-in-law, and a fall scene featuring pumpkins and a scarecrow and moon against a black background – I’d have been blind! In fact, it’s hard to tell from this picture, but Page wears 2 pair of glasses at a time!!! No wonder, doing all that cross-stitch on dark backgrounds!

Mellie managed to sew a few seams in between customers in the shop. She’s working on a new sample for the Market Party next week – you are planning to come to the Market Party on Wednesday, right?

Gwen is working on a patriotic project using the new Lil Twister tool – she’s making it up as she goes along…the best way!

Several different options were auditioned for finishing – I can’t wait to see what she finally chooses!

Doli managed to elude my ever-present camera, but I did manage to capture what she was working on. She had bought these fabrics in Florida 5 or 6 years ago, but could never decide what to make with them. We looked at several pattern choices, and she settled on Fire Escape by Atkinson Designs. Can I just say…Y-U-M-M-O!!! She didn’t quite get it finished, but almost!

I know you’re wondering about the other glorious piece hanging behind Gwen, too. This was a show-and-tell that Doli brought to share.

This was a Round Robin that Doli made with her mother and her sister. They each started with the center pieced blocks section and the large flower, and all used the same fabrics. This is Doli’s finished top – don’t you love it??? She is going to bring pictures of the other two quilts to share with me and I can’t wait to see them also.

So, you’re asking, what did you finish Melisa? Well, I did manage to get two things off my list, but I can’t show you. (I really did finish, I promise!) No sneaky peaky until the Market Party next week — see another reason you need to plan to be here Wednesday, June 30th, 5:30 – 8:30PM!!!

Fun Days of Summer at Sweet Home are off to a fantastic start, and I’m excited about all the other fun stuff we have planned. I hope you’ll come play with us, too!

Melisa

Seems every time I pick up a calendar there is a new day or month designated for this or that. For instance, did you know that June is National Bathroom Reading Month?  Or how about Eat What You Want Day? Wait, I thought that was every day!! Some are pretty ridiculous, and others sound like a lot of fun. So I thought, why not pick a few and have some fun with them? I came up with Fun Days of Summer at Sweet Home, and I’m having a blast planning and coming up with fun ideas.

First up is UFO Day on June 24th…that’s THIS Thursday! Sorry for the short notice, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Officially, this is the ‘day’ to search the skies looking for Unidentified Flying Objects, but every quilter knows you don’t have to search the skies to find a UFO! What better time to work on some of those quilty UFOs we all have stashed away than UFO Day? So grab a UFO from the pile (you know you have a PILE of UFOs!), bring a snack to share and head on over to spend the day with me working on UFOs. We’ll have some Martian juice to go with our snacks, and I’ll dig through the ‘flying saucer’ to find some prizes – maybe we’ll have a prize for the oldest UFO or the ugliest or something like that…I’ll figure it out before Thursday.  What could be more fun?

Here are the other Fun Days of Summer I’ve come up with – add the dates to your calendar – and watch for all the details as the date gets closer (I just thought this up yesterday so I’ve got a little planning to do, ok?)

• June 30 – Market Party, 5:30-8:30PM
• July 3 – Firecracker Extravaganza
• July 10 – Teddy Bear Picnic Day
• July 14 – Tape Measure Day
• July 17 – National Ice Cream Day (actually the official date is July 18 but we’re closed on Sunday so we’ll celebrate a day early.)
• July 20 – Fortune Cookie Day
• Aug 7 – Beach Party Day
• Aug 20 – Lemonade Day
• Aug 27 – Annual Party on the Porch, 8:00PM-10:00PM
• Aug 28 – 5th Birthday Party

I know there are a lot of you who would love to be here for Fun Days of Summer, but it might be a little far for you to travel…no worries, just plan your own little celebration. Have fun with it — I’d love it if you’d send me some pictures of your celebrations! I’ll enter your name in a drawing for every Fun Days of Summer picture you send me, and we’ll do a giveaway at the end of the summer. Now, there’s some incentive for you — no excuses!

Melisa

I am woefully far behind posting the wonderful projects that have been brought in to show over the last few months…mea culpa! I’ll start with the latest and work my way backwards…enjoy!

Sarah brought her Yo-Yo quilt to share last weekend and what a beauty it is! All original feedsacks that she’s collected – the quilt took her 2 years to make! I recognized a few feedsacks that I have in my collection, but I could have spent hours just looking at the wonderful fabrics that Sarah was able to find.

Sarah also finished her embroidered baskets quilt…exquisite stitching and so sweet! All pieced with 30s reproduction fabrics. Beautiful job, Sarah!

Lisa Marie shared her first quilt with us last weekend, too. She made the entire project herself, even the machine quilting, and did a wonderful job. Lisa Marie went with us on the Paducah bus trip in April and is sooo much fun! She’s taken to quilting like a duck takes to water!

Here’s her second quilt top inspired by a quilt she’d seen. She put this one together with no pattern – she’s fearless!

Kris made this Studebaker Quilt for her Dad, who has restored a Studebaker which he enters into car shows. Kris incorporated t-shirts and photo transfers – the quilt is double-sided so she could include all of the mementos. What a special keepsake – her Dad loves it!

More to come…I’m still digging through all the photos we’ve taken! Don’t stop bringing your show and tells – we love seeing your projects even if I’m not very good at blogging about them!

Melisa

Moda has brought us another cute project idea for Christmas in the form of a Christmas Advent banner with little pockets for each day. The banner boxes are available in three different fabric collections: Park Avenue by 3 Sisters, 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain, and Adoring by Sandy Gervais.

This Advent banner will be so cute strung across a fireplace mantel, or maybe along a staircase, or use it to decorate a small tree for a small space that needs “just a little something something” at Christmas! Whip it up now and set it aside so you’ll have at least one new decoration ready when Christmas rolls around this year (only 196 days!!!)

We have all three sets in stock, but they are in very short supply (only ONE 12 Days of Christmas set remains!) so if you think you want one, order it soon!

Melisa

One of the most fun new gadgets I found at Spring Quilt Market was the Twister Tool. It comes in two sizes – 5 inch and 10 inch – and is designed for use with 5” charms or 10” layer cakes. The Twister tools are extremely easy to use, and the results are sooooo worth it!

This little sample was make using the Lil’ Twister and a package of 5” charms from our 30’s reproductions. Actually, I only used 16 charm squares and a 3” outside border fabric…the finished project is about 15” square.

Here’s a sample Mellie whipped up using a layer cake of Moda’s Collection for a Cause Legacy with a 6” brown border. Notice the play of dark, light, medium fabrics and the blue “accent” in the middle. The squares were sewn together in a Trip Around the World arrangement first, and then using the 10” Twister Tool cut for pinwheels. Any 3 dark, medium, light fabrics paired with an accent would work great in this layout with a contrasting border. I didn’t measure the sample (and as you can see we already have it hanging!) but I’d guess it finished at about 60×60.

We are having loads of fun just playing with the possibilities these tools offer, but there is also a companion book available with a dozen projects ranging from aprons to table runners to quilts using both sizes of the Twister tool.

There are quite a few of these projects calling my name, too! Plus the book gives you some great suggestions for experimenting with the tools beyond just the basic pinwheel…oh to have 20 more hours in my day just to play!!!

Melisa

Let’s Twist Book

No, not fruitcake fruitcake, THIS F-R-U-I-T-C-A-K-E!

Fruitcake by Basic Grey for Moda.

If you loved Basic Grey’s Figgy Pudding Christmas line from 2009, you’re going to FLIP over Fruitcake! We have jelly rolls, charms and yardage available now – it isn’t too late to get started on those Christmas presents!

And although I am not a fan of traditional fruitcake, here’s my mama’s recipe that I make every year at Christmas and I can never get enough of it…you don’t have to wait until Christmas, though. I hope you’ll try it, too!

Icebox Fruitcake

1 box vanilla wafers or graham crackers, finely crushed

1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

1 box flaked coconut

1 box raisins (I use the golden raisins)

1 qt pecans, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients together by hand until well combined; form into log rolls about the diameter of a silver dollar. Wrap tightly with waxed paper, twist ends of paper to secure. Refrigerate overnight until well set; slice into thin rounds to serve. (Slice off just what you need and wrap the remainder of the log with waxed paper; will keep in refrigerator up to 4 weeks.)

 (click to enlarge)

Love hydrangeas…they thrive on neglect! This bush was a hot house plant given to me about 10 years ago when I had surgery…I planted it outside and it has never failed to have beautiful blooms!

Melisa

All proceeds from the sale of tickets will be donated to the Brain Mahaffey Memorial Fund.

Butterfly Kisses Quilt

91 x 91

Machine pieced; custom quilted by Pooregirl’s Quilt Co., McDonough, GA

$1.00 donation per entry requested. Drawing will be held July 12, 2010. Need not be present to win. Tickets are available at the shop or by calling 678-413-1611. Cash or checks made payable to Brian Mahaffey Memorial Fund please.