Penny Sampler Assembly

I have all the blocks made for my Penny Sampler and three of the borders done.  Its so pretty!  I started assembly and have a little sneak peek to show you.

This is the top third of the middle of the quilt.  

Look at that fun fox block I added on the top left hand side. Its from the book Scandinavian Stitches.  It wasn't in the original quilt design....that space had the second Dala Horse.  But since I didn't want two horses I had to think up something different.  I think the fox is the perfect addition to my sampler.

International Quilt Festival

Going to Houston for the International Quilt Festival has been a dream of mine - and my best friend, Rhonda - for many years and this was the year to go!   

I thought I'd share a few of the many photo's I took over several blog posts.

Rhonda and I.  :)

The convention hall in Houston is HUGE.  I've been to the show in Paducah before but this is much bigger. 

 We started with the quilts in the main show on the first day, then did the special exhibit quilts on the next day. So much beauty and inspiration.  

This is the Best in Show winner.

"Chihuly's Gondola" by Melissa Sobotka.

Such an amazing quilt.  My photo does not do it justice.  All that shading, etc, was done in fabric.  No digital photo's on fabric or painting. 

This was my favorite of the ones that just delight me and make me smile.

"You are what you eat" by Kathy York. Honorable Mention in the Art - Whimsical category.

Here's some examples of detail and texture that is achieved with fabric.

"Cock of the Walk" by David Taylor.  Third place in Art- Pictorial category.

"Did You Wash Your Beak?" by David Taylor.  Judges Choice award.

The machine quilting was phenomenal.  I didn't get too many great pics of it but here's one that shows up.

Close up of "Zen Magpies" by Helen Godden. Honorable Mention in Art - Painted Surface category.

And the only pics of hand quilting that I have were from quilts in the special exhibit.  I'll share some of those in future blog posts.

You can see all the winning quilts here.  Go look.  They are amazing.

Dala Horse and Flower Pot

Two more paper pieced blocks for the Penny Sampler done and checked off the list.

This is the Flower Pot block. Measures 12x18 inches.  I altered this one quite a bit as I've gotten tired of paper piecing and wanted to eliminate as much as I could.  The pot had lovely diamonds as part of the design.  I left them out and just used a single piece of fabric.  That fun text print was perfect for it.  The stems were also to be paper pieced....I thread sketched instead. The two border pieces are different sizes than Rachel used. 

The Dala Horse has probably been the most anticipated block in the quilt.  It's 12x12.  He is so cute.  There are suppose to be two but I only made one.  I'll fill in with some other block that's not paper pieced.   :)

I have some diamonds to paper piece and then will be DONE with those pesky papers.  After that a couple of pieced blocks and assembly.  The end is in sight. 

More Paper Piecing

I'm getting closer to catching up on my Penny Sampler blocks. 

 Here is the teapot. It was suppose to be bigger with some borders and corner triangles but I preferred it like this.  Turned out really nice.

And this is the top border.  Pieced diamonds with some of the Penny Candy blocks sewn below. 

 Onward my sewing goes!   :)

Apple Cider

We have several apple trees and usually end up giving most of them away.  There are only so many apples two people can eat!    This year we bought an apple press and decided to make cider.  We had the grand kids over, the weather was perfect and boy was it fun!

First up - picking....  

....and carrying them back to Papa in the garage.

Even their dog, Rusty, got in on it....though he was more about fetching and eating!  :)

Back in the garage grinding and pressing.  We ended up with 8 gallons.  Hubs and I pressed another 4 gallons on a different day.

Sent several gallons home with the kids.   Reduced a half gallon down to 1/2 cup and made apple cider caramels with it - soooooo good!  And the rest went in the freezer. 

Oh and a week ago a mama black bear and two cubs came and ate all the apples that had fallen on the ground!  Got to actually watch them do it...such a treat.

Tea Cups

Its been a busy month and I keep forgetting to blog! The Penny Sampler is almost over and I'm behind!  We got into the paper pieced blocks part.  I'm not a fan of paper piecing (I do it when I have to) so procrastinated to the point of being weeks behind.  Ugh!  

 I finished two tea cups and the top border diamonds but only took a pic of one of the cups.  I was able to fussy cut one of the sayings....fun!

I'm hoping to catch up but with the holidays fast approaching I'm not sure I can stay disciplined.   Here's to trying!    :)