A Start, and a Finish

          First, the finish.  We have a great niece graduating in May and her mother and I planned a quilt together.  I blogged about it a couple of weeks ago, while it was in progress, but now it is a finish.  The niece is active in music groups and theatre, so that was the theme.  The border is a very cool theatre print.

Here are some of the embroidered snowball blocks.

Next, my new start.  In fact, there should be no new start.  I have UFO's enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year.  But, I fell in love with this fabric at my LQS.  I talked myself out of it the first time, but when I went back to Second Saturday, I succumbed.  It is Regent Street by Sentimental Studios for Moda.  It is designed to look and feel like the lawns sold by Liberty of London.  I actually visited the store a few years ago and purchased some 1/4 meters.  I had used one of them, but still had the second one, so incorporated it with this Moda collection.  It will be a churn dash block.

The middle and upper right blocks are from the Regent Street line and the other blocks are from stash, but went with them well.  It will be all florals. I forgot to take a picture of the Liberty Lawn.  I'll try to remember to include it next time. 

I'm using my AccuQuilt Go to cut the churn dash blocks.  I have been buying a couple of dies at a time, just to see what works for me.  This is the 9" Churn Dash block die.  It worked well, especially the HST's, the corners are trimmed and they are accurate.  Most of the learning curve is figuring out how to fit your fabrics on the die.

     Arrow Rock Quilt Camp starts next week and I have friends coming to stay with me.  These are the same friends I sewed with in Florida in January.  I have a goodie bag for each of them and this is the mug rug they will receive.  The selvages are from fabrics we bought together on a shopping trip last year.  

We are having a beautiful spring day here in Missouri and the forecast for next week is good.  There will be a lot of stitchin' going on.  Hope you're getting some done too.

Judy

April RSC

     My April RSC Civil War blocks are done, as well as the Baby Grace charity quilt (top only).  Civil War prints don't contain much orange, so my April blocks are a bit of a stretch.  These are reds which lean a little to the orange side.  I like them, though, and they will actually work with the other blocks better than a real orange would.

     Looking for orange scraps turned up very little for my monthly charity quilt, so when I was at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop for Second Saturday, I found a nice orange novelty to pull something together.  Somewhere, sometime, I was given or purchased a few scraps from an American Jane line from several years ago, reminiscent of the Dick and Jane reading books from my childhood.  (now you know my age)  It must have originally been a panel.  It had quite a bit of orange in it as the colors followed the primary colors of a basic box of Crayolas.  Using the pieces I had, an FQ of a black and white print, and making some little four-patches to fill in some blank spots, I managed to make a crib size top.

This one is truly a scrap quilt except for the border, which is the piece that I purchased.  Now I need to find a backing.  Black and white?  

Linking up with http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/04/scraphappy-saturday.html#links for Scrap Happy Saturday ( I know its Monday, I'm running a little behind).

     Here is what is under my needle today.  Another graduation quilt in red and black, this is the third in five years.  I think my next one will be blue and green.  At least this one isn't about sports.  Music and theatre was a welcome change.

I hope there is something under your needle today (and its not red and black).

Judy

Pickin' in the West Bottoms

     A friend recently invited me to travel to Kansas City for the well- known event of 1st Friday, which actually lasts all weekend.  We chose Saturday so we could also visit City Market, which is the open air produce market in downtown Kansas City.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it.  It is very colorful, as you can imagine.  We loaded up on fresh radishes, onions, asparagus and some pansies.  We stopped buying produce because we wanted to leave room for vintage shopping in the West Bottoms.  This area used to contain the Kansas City Stockyards and warehouse district.  Most of these buildings had been abandoned until some enterprising souls decided to take them over for antique markets.  I had never been to visit them, so jumped at the chance when invited.  

  Our first stop was Good Ju-Ju, only open that first weekend of every month.  Two factory floors of vintage and repurposed furniture, as well as vintage collectibles.  I found a Toby Mug to add to my collection, my first made by Royal Doulton.

He is the one front and center, joining his new family.

    We moved on to the next building, called Vintage Rose.  My first find there was a Norman Rockwell tray.  It is called "Last Ear of Corn".  Rockwell's characters are always so amusing.

Isn't it great?

    I have been looking for a vintage sewing chair for my Singer 15-91 and count that as my best find of the day.  Not only did I find one, but found two alike.  $20.00 each, or both for $30.00.  Of course, I took both of them.   I immediately put the second one on the Facebook page of my LQS and found it a good home with Jessica, another vintage machine enthusiast.

And with storage under the seat.

Here's how it looks with the 15-91.  

     And it's comfortable!

     Don't you love the retro upholstery?  At first I thought I wanted to recover it, but have since decided I will leave it alone.  I think it fits the machine.  

Hope you are getting some sewing done.  I'll blog about that next time, just had to share my picking adventure.

Judy