Sweet Home Quilt Co.

Don’t know why, but the shadow-y photo on the right is one of my favorites from all that I took! This was Day One, about 8AM, and the beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures promised a great day ahead!

As soon as it warms up just a bit more, I’ll be planting flowers with the old bicycle…right now it is covered in grapevines!

I know, I know…it’s a “gender-neutral” mannequin…but it was the illusion I was after! This was a Popsicle Sticks (Atkinson Designs) quilt made with Tonga Treats, and we had no more wall space to hang it! I added a zipper flower “belt” and a little bling around the neck to complete the look! So I wouldn’t make the cut on Project Runway…I haven’t quit my day job…yet!

Cathy did a great job with our Quilt Book Library…that’s Melville Dewey you see up there…as in Dewey Decimal System! He had all sorts of quotable things to say to our hoppers!

A couple of our free-standing demo boards – I loved watching customers’ faces for the “Aha” moment!

…we had a “fierce” teacher in the classroom…Gwen was stern but helpful to all our shop hop friends, making sure they followed the “Rules of our School!” Her biggest thing was #9…Don’t Spit! You can see our big chalkboard on the front porch, welcoming hoppers with our demo/lecture schedule.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little shop hop picture tour of Sweet Home! I’ve still got pictures of all the shops’ quilts and they are wonderful…stay tuned, more to come!

Melisa

….or else my sewing machine was possessed by aliens overnight! Yesterday I was wrestling with some thoughts/decisions, and decided a little bonding time with my sewing machine was in order. Usually when I’m besieged by demons or dilemmas, a little quilting therapy works wonders!

I started this VERY simple quilt sample, which was already cut out. All I had to do was sew, which is what I needed – mindless sewing so I could think about other things. The top went together without a hitch, but because I was running up and down the stairs (I sew upstairs in the classroom) all afternoon dealing with issues and helping customers, I didn’t have time to get the borders on before I went home last night. No biggie, I thought, I’ll just come in early and get the borders on, give the top a good pressing and get the backing ready so it can go to the quilter. I estimated a half hour at most – the borders were already measured, cut and ready to stitch on.

Well, that estimated half hour of work turned into almost three hours! I swear I ripped those borders off no less than two times (each one!) and I still wasn’t entirely happy with them when I finally got them all on. It was as if my sewing machine had a mind of its own, and its mind wasn’t on sewing those borders! I couldn’t keep the machine threaded for one thing. You know how sometimes you’re stitching along and then realize you’ve been out of bobbin thread for a while? That’s what would happen only it was the top thread, not the bobbin.  And then the feed dogs were pulling to the left so I had to sew very slowly and pin, pin, pin just to get a reasonably accurate 1/4 inch seam. But it is finally done, now that I’ve used up half the day trying to sew four little seams!  My sewing machine has been admitted to the hospital, but no diagnosis yet. Pat’s advice was to just go buy a new machine! I can assure you that is not going to happen!

Sorry for the yucky photo of the sample - it was cloudy here this morning and the lighting upstairs was really bad. It really is straight, but I just threw it up on the wall to quickly snap the picture. The quilt also looks more mint green in the photo than it is. The fabric line is Kiwi by Timeless Treasures – the slide show below is a better representation of the colors.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The pattern is “Fresh Vanilla” from the BHG Quilts and More, Summer 2009 issue.  We have the Kiwi fabric collection in stock, as well as a few remaining copies of the magazine. This would be a quick and easy quilt to whip together to send off with a college student to brighten a dorm room. (Without the issues I had, it realistically could be made in 2 or 3 hours!)

After wrestling with the sample, I promptly poured a box of cereal in the floor while fixing my ‘delayed’ breakfast…I think I’ll go back home and crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head until this passes! Hope you’re having a better day!