Shop Hopping While on Vacation - Third Stop

The third stop of my three days - three quilt shops, shop hop is Fringe, located in Salida, Colorado. My family skied for three days and I found three shops in the area of Salida, CO to visit, which is where we stayed. 

Like the sign says fabric - yarn - gifts.  About half the store was fabric, the other half was yarn. There were sections of gifts in between.

A section of the fabric

A section of the yarn

Below are pictures of what I bought!

 Red, white, and blue fabric!

Cat scissors and a pattern to make fabric bins!

I really enjoyed my vacation shop hop!! If you're in the area of any of Buena Vista, CO, Canon City, CO or Salida, CO I recommend that you stop in and visit them. They were all awesome! You can read about the other two here and here. I can't wait to get started on my new projects! Like I needed new projects to start!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Gina

Shop Hopping While on Vacation - Second Stop

The second stop I made was in Canon City, Colorado. The shop name is The Creative Cloth Closet ... oh! the eye candy! Take a look at the terrific store front!

The owner Denise, and Bonnie her employee were super nice! (I didn't expect anything less than super nice, especially from quilters!) I enjoyed visiting with them and learning from them! The store was awesome!! There were a lot of projects/inspiration on the walls, and I wish I would have taken more pictures!

Here are some pictures of the shop and some projects too. This is just a very few of the beautiful wallhanging/quilt projects.

A grouping of inspiration!

Below are pictures of what I bought!

                       Fat Quarters!

Three paper pieced patterns and foundation paper and an Add A Quarter ruler. The patterns are from a local designer Faith Wellman. Those are her designs in the 'grouping of inspiration' photo above. I've been wanting to try paper piecing and am so excited to get started on these projects!! Denise took the time to show me how to paper piece and gave me great tips too!

They had this Little Twister wallhanging displayed in the shop. I have a Little Twister and have used it to make a couple of wallhangings. I loved their red, white and blue version, so I bought fabric to make one too!

I've had so much fun on my shop hop! It's not the traditional shop hop of going to many shops in one day. I worked out a schedule to visit the three shops in the area, in the three days my family was skiing. If you are ever in the Canon City, Colorado area, I highly recommend that you stop in The Creative Cloth Closet!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shop Hopping While on Vacation - First Stop

My family is skiing and I'm shop hopping! I decided skiing's not for me and Googled 'quilt shops' in the area where we're staying and found 3 shops. Three days of skiing means I get to visit one quilt shop a day!

I drove about 30 miles to Buena Vista, Colorado to visit Bev's Stitchery. Oh! I was in heaven in the Rocky Mountains!

It's such a nice shop and the picture above doesn't do it justice. There was so much more to the store. A section with quilting, knitting and crocheting books. There was even a chair inviting you to sit down to stay awhile and browse through the books, which I did by the way! (Not the black chair at the bottom of the picture, but actually a rocking chair)

There were a group of ladies working on their Quilts of Valor quilts.

Of course I must show you pictures of what I bought! After going through the store at least twice, I decided on these FQ's. I'm really not good at putting colors together which is why I love pre-cuts! However, this is what I came up with. I have no plans for these... granny squares? maybe just stash builders.

Blues

Reds

Blues and Yellows

Sorry the book is a little wonky in the picture. I hardly buy books because there's so many (free) awesome tutorials out there that I want to make! For some reason this book caught my attention and I looked at it, put it down, looked at it again, put it down... went back over and looked at it and decided I should get it!

Below are a couple of pictures of what I saw on my drive to Buena Vista, CO!

Absolutely Beautiful!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina

Slow and steady... {wins the race}

The Drunkard's Path turtle quilt is finished! I'm very pleased with how it turned out! This is a prayer quilt for a 7 year old boy that has health issues. When I heard he liked turtles I searched long for a turtle design. My initial thought was a turtle to applique, because I didn't think there was a pieced design. I Googled 'turtle quilt block designs' or something similar, and found many applique designs but they didn't seem to fit. When I came across the Drunkard's Path turtle I knew that one was the one to make!

As I was cutting, sewing, and quilting around the curves, the phrase 'slow and steady' kept coming to mind because I tend to go to fast. I hurry to get it done, but I had to keep telling myself to slow down around those curves and you'll get it done ... you'll win the race (the race was my deadline). Maybe this quilt is appropriate for the young boy that will receive it ... slow and steady and he'll win his race/battle!

The way a prayer quilt works is there are threads stitched into the quilt and left untied. You can see the untied threads (#5 Pearl Cotton) in the center of the turtle shells. (You can make the quilt a tied quilt, but I like to machine quilt mine). The quilt is presented to the congregation and information about the recipient is given as to their prayer needs. After service the quilt is placed in an area large enough for people to get around so they aren't stumbling over each other. Each person says a silent prayer and ties a knot in the threads. Knots can be tied on top of knots (prayers on top of prayers). The recipient will then be covered in prayers and they know each knot represents a prayer for them. If there are threads left untied, I let the family know, just so they are aware. Usually what happens is once the prayer quilt is given to the person in need, they have family members that say prayers/tie knots into the quilt. I'm also aware of hospital personnel saying prayers/tying knots into the quilt. The prayers/knot tying aren't only for the church family.

Thank you for stopping by!

Gina

WIP Wednesday {3.7.2012}

Drunkard's Path Turtle Quilt



Here's my progress on the turtle prayer quilt.  I had a chance to take a picture outside.

Up close view on how I'm quilting the blocks. It takes about 13 minutes to quilt around the turtle and that was without distractions. I always have distractions, so it takes me longer than 13 minutes. I usually don't like to show up close pictures of my quilting since I'm not very good at it. However it may look, I like the way it's turning out! Mostly, I hope it brings peace and comfort for whom I'm making it.

This is a picture of jean legs that have been torn open into panels. I've been saving my childrens jeans for awhile to make them a denim quilt.  I'm following this tutorial.  Since I've been saving them for awhile I have varying sizes. The piles are divided into 5 inch, 6 inch and 7 inches widths.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday. Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on at 

Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gina

Never Say Never - Fuglies

I can't ever say I Never Win Anything because I hit the jackpot on fuglies!

Lucy at Charm About You had a Linky Fugly Fabric Party in early February. You can read the original post here. The idea was to destash.. to get rid of fabric you may have once loved but maybe not so much anymore.  It may have not been ugly, but maybe it was fabric that's been hiding in the back of your stash, fabric you knew you wouldn't use anymore.

I came across her linky party and thought I'd play along and register.. maybe I could win fabric for the prayer quilts that I make. The prayer quilt ministry budget is low and I'm always looking for donations and well, this was right up my alley.

I was so surprised and excited when I began receiving emails that I had won! Of course I want to show you!

I received this beauty from Ella at throw a wrench in the works.

This wonderful fabric is from Irene at Hilachas.

This 7 yards (total) of lovey fabric came from Pat at Color Me Quilty.

These 3 pictures are fabrics sent from Karen at Practically Pippy.

Love that seashell and starfish fabric!

I love those 4 1/2 inch charms.

Thank you ladies, I promise I will make good use of your fabric! I hope you have a chance to visit their blogs. They are very talented ladies!

Blessings,

Gina