Rain, rain, go away . . .

My crocus are up at home, the daffodils are up at the shop, but not at home yet and we're getting ready to build the ark here as it rains and rains and rains.  My poor crocus looked good last week but are rather drenched & yucky looking today.

Since it's raining like crazy, I've been sewing up a storm of my own.  Samples, samples, samples!  Sometimes you just have the urge to sew and when that happens, just go with the flow.

I saw a machine technique and really liked it.  You take ribbon and do a decorative stitch on either side of the ribbon.  This is the purse sample for Top Of The Line Club in April.  It was fun and I wish I'd had more ribbons at home when the urge struck me to do the sample.  The topic for our Crazy Quilt Block of the Month this month is couching so it tied in really nicely. 

The best part of the Crazy Quilt block of the month?  I get to buy all kinds of neat embellishments & fabrics under the guise of buying for the BOM!

This is a butterfly tote I did last week.  Love the pockets inside!  We sold out of the bolt of panels but never fear, more are due in next week.  We'll have a class on this tote May 5th.

Why is it I look at fabric and think of food?? And usually some type of dessert or candy?  This fabric came in and just reminded me of Italian Ices . . .  This is a lap sized Thangles project and kits are ready!  (sorry no Rita's Italian Ice is included in the kit!)

And then I saw this on a friend's blog and loved it.  Thanks Joan & Janet for sharing!  This is Chunky Elizabeth and I'm actually going to put this on the HandiQuilter tomorrow and quilt it - you'll know it's my sample because as usual, it won't have any binding . . . . This is a picture of Joan's Chunky Elizabeth (obviously not my sample since it has binding on it!)

My friend Karen sent me a trunk show of her pillow patterns.  We love these patterns and have done quite a few over the years but she has some new ones (check out the surfboard one) so we have a nice display in the shop and we are frantically cutting kits for those we don't already have.  We've mixed our samples in with Karen's - you can tell ours by the fact that Karen's all have zippered backs - you know mine don't! 

Until next time, why not sew up a storm of your own!

Debbie
I