New Displays

I've been "fluffing" - a technical retail term! - the shop with displays. Here are some pictures.

A bake shop - for what else? Jelly Rolls, turnovers, layer cakes & honey buns + charm squares!

This is a close up of the beach display - everything you need for a day at the beach! A beach chair, some Salt Water Taffy, and get the HUGE Margarita glass!

Judy's been working on floral samples. Aren't they gorgeous?

Yes, it's official - we've gone purse/tote crazy!

Landscape Quilts

I really like landscape/pictorial quilts. Probably comes from being a frustrated artist - I do stick figures really well! I admire anyone who can draw, be it with paper or with thread & fabric. I have these great pictorial quilts in my head and have great plans for when I retire to actually get some out of my head & onto fabric!

In the meantime, I take pictures of those I like, with closeups of how the quilter/artist achieved a look. Here are a few that were hung at the NJ state quilt show last weekend.

This beach scene had the neatest waves. A shiny, organze fabric was couched on for the foam on the crests of the waves.

Another was this clipper ship with fuzzy yarn for foam & great details on the ship itself.

I love sunflowers so this one caught my eye just because of what it was. The center of the sunflower was completely beaded and looked just like seeds.

Then I noticed the dragonflies! They were beaded and their wings made out of a shiny tulle. Very neat!

The turtle was cool too and I think it's the one that won Viewer's Choice.

This lighthouse quilt has a story behind it - a poster of the painting was divided into four sections. Each section went to one quilter who copied that section in fabric, pieced, appliuqed and QUILTED it. THEN the top was put together! Really neat! I liked the wall hanging before Karen Dever told me the story, I liked it even better after the story!

NJ's State Show

We sponsor the state quilt guild's annual show and it's this weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the quilts - there are some GORGEOUS ones here!

If you're in the Edison, NJ area tomorrow - stop in!

Roses

My roses were gorgeous before the rain littered the driveway with the petals . . .

The pink ones on the right smell HEAVENLY! Just like roses are supposed to smell.

The peonies were even more gorgeous than last week - the rain has them dragging in the mud now.

Purses

Having spent all of Tuesday on the computer doing the summer class schedule, I revolted & spent most of Thursday in my sewing room. Ok, ok, that meant I was up till 11pm - WAY past my bed time! - getting the email ready to send Friday morning but there's a price for everything.

I made this purse from Pink Sand Beach Designs.

And now I'll tell you the rest of the story . . .

About a month & a half ago, I brought home two projects to do - a big weekender bag from batiks and a purse to make from Krakow. Somehow, they just never got done & slowly got buried in my sewing room under more recent "stuff".

Note to family - tomorrow is my birthday & the butler I didn't get for Christmas would come in real handy now . . . .

So, I took this pattern home Wed night and thought I'd use the Krakow fabrics to make a sample for the store. I looked "everywhere" - no fabric. Did I bring it back to the shop? Was it buried in a pile I hadn't looked in yet? I found the pattern I was originally going to use with that fabric but finally gave up finding the Krakow and used the batiks I was going to make the weekender bag out of. (See, a butler would have not only organized my sewing room, but would remember EXACTLY where the Krakow fabric was.)

I like the sample. I was a little stunned when I opened the pattern & saw 28 steps . . . but it went quickly and the pictures were helpful. It has inside pockets - one zippers shut - an outside pocket & a top zippered closure for security. Sara's significant other told me it looked like someone spilled bleach on it & made his eyes hurt - that's it, that kid is out of the will!

I'm making another sample, with the Krakow fabrics. I found them in a pile I hadn't seen . . .

Peonies!

About 15 or 16 years ago I saw these gorgeous bushes of flowers in Jim's sister Esther's yard. When I asked her hubby Tim what they were, he said Peonies - I never remembered seeing them before. They were GORGEOUS and three bushes totally hid their air conditioner.

Four years ago I found some in BJ's, stuck them in the front garden and expected great things. First year, bushes and no flowers. I read up on them & learned they don't usually bloom for three years - so I bought more and put them in the back garden. The next year, we had one bloom. It was gorgeous but gone too soon and the second bush still did nothing. Third year, we had two blooms and 10,000 ants on each one.

This year!

Patience is a virtue in gardening! The ones in the back garden from three years ago still haven't bloomed, I think I planted them too deep and need to dig them up. Two of the four bushes I planted last fall bloomed this year - white!

Star Quilt Update

While I don't have it finished . . . I do have the star quilt mostly quilted. If I finished the last 13 stars, all I would have left is the binding. I need two hours to myself - step away from the computer!