Quilt Show weekend

So we didn't go to the Lancaster Quilt show, but we did shop. I found so many pretty fabrics, tried to be good, but bought this whole pile anyway.

And we made a little bunny tabletopper/wall hanging for Easter at my Aunt's house.

Quilt Retreat

My local quilt guild had our Spring retreat. My sister and I went, and I am just so glad we did. It was a blast to get to be away with no distractions and just SEW! There were some fun little activities scattered throughout. The theme was Back at the Barnyard. We had a hat contest, the only requirement was to use the flowers provided. I won most creative with my upside down planter/chick hatching hat. I won a cute little jar lantern. There were some really creative ideas. We also played barn yard games, an egg toss, hot potato, and a cow chip tossing contest. I won the cow chip tossing contest, and won some brown (manure) colored fat quarters. I worked on a pinwheel quilt (they are doing pinwheel quilts on ORBC flickr group), and actually got the top all put together. Now I'm trying to decide if I want a border on it or not. I also made my guild name tag. After those two things were done I started a circle quilt. We actually got to know the ladies in our guild. It's a challenge to get to know people at the meetings, but this was great. There are so many wonderful ladies in our guild. (I have more pictures but am having an awful time uploading, will try to add more tomorrow) I joined a flickr online quilting bee, called The Stitchin Bee. We just started, and Kelly is up first. Kelly is making a quilt to use at the beach so she wanted it really colorful. The only requirements were to make a 12 inch block with the fabrics sent, and include the little comic piece of fabric. The only way I could think of was a string block. So now, I just need to mail it back to Kelly.

I finished my potholders for The Potholder Pass 2 swap, so I just need to mail them off to my partner. The only thing I had to go on here was a list of colors my gal likes.

In progress

I've only been able to sit down and use my new sewing machine a couple times so far. It's a bernina 230 Patchwork Edition. I've learned so far that I absolutely love it. It doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that the 440 had but I can always trade it in later on. It sews such beautiful stitches, and it sews straight without even touching the fabric. I absolutely love the bright light it has! Unlike the Sears model Janome that I had, this machine can start at the edge of the fabric and doesn't jam up. I love the needle up/down function. The machine has a lot of stitch options, but I haven't had time to play around with them yet.

I'm trying to get started on a sewing area. My house is not the biggest house, and it has no sewing space. I usually sew in the kitchen but cleaning everything up at mealtime is not that enjoyable. I plan to finish half of the attic in order to have a sewing room. Last week we went to pick up some old kitchen cabinets from one of my father-in-law's properties. I plan to paint them white and use them as the base for a sewing table. While I was in the attic cleaning I found many more UFO's. The little blocks are a thangles project that I bought at the Lancaster quilt show at least 4 years ago. They are cute, and need some attention. Hopefully I can work on them this weekend because it sounds like a good sewing weekend with all the rain that is in the forecast.

I joined a potholder swap a few days ago. I thought I had the heat safe batting at home for in them, but I must have used it all in some Christmas presents last year. I need to run to Joann's and get some this weekend. I did get them started last night. I like how the tops turned out. I just swapped the fabrics for the second one. I'm trying to decide if I want to put loops to hang them with on or not. I hope my swap partner will like them.

Monday was the start of week two for the Pinwheel Quilt along. I made block A-2, which went together pretty quickly. I can't wait for next monday to make the third block.

Pinwheel quilt along & a new toy

I made the Pinwheel Party block A-1 hosted by twiddletails. Looking forward to block A-2 on Monday!

And I got a new sewing machine. My sister and I went machine shopping on Friday.I need to go get it set up and see if I can figure it all out. It's a bernina. I bought the 230 Patchwork edition. This machine appears to have everything I need for now, there were some really neat upgrades on some of the higher end models, but I can always trade it in down the road if I decide I want something else. Right now I'm just glad to have a machine that makes such lovely stitches. I never realized how unimpressive my current machine is, until I got to try a really nice machine.