Quilt Shopping Out & About


#89!

Rachel B. please email me with your mailing info so I can see that you receive a free copy:

Thanks to all of you who joined Quiltmaker and all of us to introduce the newest 100 Blocks Volume 4! A special thank you to those of you who commented on my blog and those of you that became subscribers.

If you were not lucky enough to win one of the free issues, head to your local quilt shop or news stand next week to purchase a copy.  It’s full of lots of inspiration for just $6.99!

Until next time,

Susan

My mom’s birthday was this week.  Since she can buy whatever she needs and wants  she seems to enjoy receiving something that I made just for her.  For Mother’s Day this year I made her one of my “Mother” lap quilts.

It’s a pattern from my “Best Friends” book.

Speaking of my Best Friends book, guess what I found made up last weekend while on a trip to Branson with my family???

That will be my next post…

Anyway, after some family conferencing, I decided to take Chloe’s suggestion and make my mom some new kitchen towels.  I have not made her any in several years and thought they would be a nice gift.

Although it sounds like an easy task, and although I have a nice selection of cotton towels in my basement, the hardest part is trying to decide what to put on the towels.  If I make them too detailed mom will not use them.  I’ve made her so many towels it’s hard to think of something new…

After thumbing through some old sketches I decided to make these:

It actually took longer to decided what to make than to actually make them!  Ever have one of those days???

I used my favorite stitch (buttonhole by machine) with my favorite thread (Sulky’s 12 wt. cotton) in black, ahhh!

My mom loved them and I know she’ll use them too.

Do you have a favorite little gift to make?

Perhaps you can borrow my idea next time you need a little gift.

Happy birthday Mom!

Until next time,

Susan

The beginning of June you might remember me chatting about Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods coming to teach at our guild’s Quilt Away 2011.

While Celine was here we took in a few quilt shops and the Hearts & Hands Quilt Guild’s quilt show.  That was a very nice show with lots of vendors! While there we both fell in love with Betty Cummings’  (Village Mercantile in Booneville, IN) Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel quilt.  She was selling kits so we each bought one to sew the next day. I was lucky enough that Celine stayed a couple extra days and we got to have our own mini retreat. We see each other during International Quilt Market each year, but we’re always so busy we’ve never had a chance just to sew and visit for fun.

I finally got mine quilted this week and finished the binding too.

Isn’t it cute?  The pattern and template are by Primitive Gatherings.  I added some of my own civil war prints to the kit. It’s fun to do someone else’s patterns once in a while too!

Celine, is yours done yet???

Until next time,

Susan

 

I’ve been doing some re-stocking in the fabric department here at Suzn Quilts.  I used some fabric in my new pattern samples and I’ve been running a bit low.  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, so…

I fell in love with some of the new Wild Rose Collection by Blackbird Designs last week.  Then Monday I fell in love with some Christmas photos that were full of nothing but reds & creams, so…

yesterday I stocked up on some much needed Glorious Reds, and a bit more of my new favorite Christmas background.  I can really get caught up in great backgrounds. To me thery’re kind of like a painter’s canvas.  They set the tone of your whole quilt. 

After I got home and checked messages from all my technical sources and got an order ready for shipping, I sat right down with my Sharpie and gave each piece of fabric their “selvage signature”.  Don’t want Mr. Murphy (Murphy’s law, you know it’s going to happen) dancing a jig when I run out of one of these and need a bit more.  This little exercise also gives me an excuse to refold and stack my new pretties.  I’m pretty sure the only reason I quilt is to use up some of the beautiful fabrics before the stacks fall over and smother my family members!

Until next time,

Susan

As promised, I’m giving you a brief peek at the three shops I was lucky enough to visit while in Tennessee with my family.  I would have liked to visit more, but as previously stated, I was there with my family and they can only take so much!  And I can only take so much of them taking so much, vicious cycle!

First I went to The Cherry Pit in Sevierville. 

What a nice shop. The owner, Jane Washington and her staff are so friendly. Jane told me her husband, George Washington, gets told all the time that he looks like the George Washington, hence the name, The Cherry Pit.  

I next visited Machine Quiltin’ by Iva also in Sevierville. (No photo available, & I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.)  Iva has the largest selection of pre-cuts that I’ve ever seen in one shop! 

Thirdly, I visited Mountain Stitches By Susan (love that name!) in Gatlinburg.

Susan’s shop is part of the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community.  So, not only does she sell fabrics, patterns & the like, but 52% of her sales have to be made by her own hands. She has a quilting machine in another shop across the boardwalk where she machine quilts the quilts she sells in her shop.

What a neat place to visit.  While I was in Susan’s shop, my family found a great little ice cream shop across the way from Susan and we had some fantastic hot fudge malts made with locally made ice cream, yum!! 

Also as previously stated, we used the GPS my brother, David, bought me for Christmas.  Thank goodness for that!  Not only did it simplify things A LOT, for instance it also took us around Gatlinburg to get to Susan’s shop.  That’s a cool little town, but the traffic is really heavy with walking traffic constantly crossing the street.  We ate there one night, went putt putt golfing one night and shopped there several times during the week we were in Tennessee.  Cool place to visit and people watch! 

If you get the chance to go to the area do it.  There are even more quilt shops really close by. Maybe next time!

Susan

 

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