Houston International Quilt Festival-2012

I thought I had better share my Houston trip before I go back to work tomorrow.  Thursday morning Cathy, Liz and I picked up Pat Winter, and her friend Dawn Crowder from the airport, and part of us had breakfast at a Mexican Restaurant before heading to the show

Liz is in the green shirt standing up, Dawn is in the middle and Cathy (our excellent driver for 3 days) on the end.  Pat and I are sitting down.  There were 4 of us with our Boho bags.

 This was our first glimpse of the show, looking from the second floor down into the venders section.  There were over 1,000 venders!

There were many beautiful quilts and exquisite clothing and dolls.  I was in wonderland looking at everything.  This has been my dream for many years to go to this Quilt Festival.

The next 2 days, the girls and I decided to visit thrift shops to see what we could find.  Pat and I found some dresses we could cut up.  At 1 thrift shop we put on silly vests and picked up bags to pose in.

 

On day we went to a restaurant called Brasil, which was very good.  The only place we saw the name of the restaurant was on the glass in the window. 

One day we went to High Fashion Fabrics and we posed on a sofa outside the store.  

Liz trying on a top in High Fashion Fabrics.  

The last day we visited a few antique stores.  I loved the blue color on this one.  But of blue is one of my favorite colors! 

CQJP-OCTOBER

I finally completed my Crazy Quilt Journal Project Block for October.  With making my Boho Bag, and my trip to Houston, I am a little behind.  This one is of John and I when we got married, November 16, 1975.  We got married in the Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas, Nevada.  We took our own witnesses, good friends Susan, Mark, Don and Nancy.  I made my own dress and veil.  The next weekend, our friend Susan had a reception at her house in Pacific Beach, CA.

CRAZY QUILT JOURNAL PROJECT-2013

Registration is now open for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2013 from 1 November to 12 December.  You can go here to register and read all about it

Happy Halloween

Leaving for Houston in about 3-1/2 hours.  Wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

Another Finish

I have been frantically trying to finish my Boho Bag to take with me to the Houston International Quilt Festival.  I am leaving tomorrow morning.  I am so excited, I doubt I will be able to sleep tonight.  This is my finished bag, and I am extremely pleased with it.  I have a few changes I will do to the next one, and yes I already  have one planned!

I used Pat Winter's easy-to-follow directions.  I purchased her little booklet Boho Fever here.  In a few days I will be meeting up with Pat in Houston.  Well better get back to packing.  I just wanted to share my Boho

TWO FINISHES

I have 2 finishes to show for this week.  This is an accessory case I plan to give as a gift.

And this is my water bottle holder for Houston.  I leave in 11 days and am so excited!  I keep thinking I need to make a Boho purse before I leave, but don't know if I can manage it.  I might try though.  My only problem is, finding fringe etc for the finishing.

TAST-WEEK 42-ITALIAN KNOTTED BORDER STITCH

This week's stitch on Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday was the Italian Border Stitch.  I added a bit extra to the basic stitch.  I REALLY love this new one to me.  This is on the water bottle holder I plan to take with me to Houston in 15 days.  I plan to assemble it tomorrow.  Will show more then

September CQJP

I just finished my block for the CQJP for September.  I got a bit behind when I was doing my room renovations and could not stitch in the morning like I prefer to do.

So I am happy I finished this one this morning, and can get to my October block next, and my water bottle holder and my new accessory case.  I have a lot to do before the end of the month and my trip to Houston.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of my accessory case is Pippa, of Pippa's Quilts.  If you could get me your address I will happily ship it to you!

TAST-WEEK 40- BEADED HEDEBO EDGE, BLOG GIVEAWAY

This was my sample of the Beaded Hedebo Edge in Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday.  I really liked it, although it is hard to see because I used the same color thread pretty much as my dyed lace.






This will be the accessory case I will be giving away in my
blog give-away later this afternoon, celebrating my 300th post.
One of my grandchildren will be choosing a name, and I will post later today.

My daughters and grandchildren are taking me to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack in Old Sacramento, a place I have been wanting to go to for some time for my birthday.

Well off to get some stitching time in before lunch.  I requested my BD off since we can do that and get paid for the day.   Lovely to have a Friday off.  I think I can get my September CQJP block done before lunch.  I have about 5 hours before they pick me up.

WORK IN PROGRESS WEDNESDAY

I was busy today piecing blocks.  This one will
be my September CQJP block.  I am behind, but my bedroom renovation took 3 weeks out of my time.   This one is another of my 2 daughters posing for a Christmas picture

  

I decided to piece October's block while I was at it.  This one is my wedding picture.  It was in a Las Vegas chapel,  "The Little Chapel of the West" and the lighting was pretty dark.












I also pieced a water bottle holder for my adventure at the Houston International Quilt Festival in less than a month.

I also pieced another accessory case as a gift  for a person who likes red and black and white.   The center piece I plan to do some silk ribbon embroidery or maybe Brazilian Embroidery.  Haven't decided yet.

Well off to finish my accessory case for my give-away next week.

TAST CATCH-UP

After all the home renovations, when I didn't have time to stitch, I decided to catch up with my TAST stitches.

This sample incorporates:

Pekinese Stitch
Double linked Chain
Sheaf Stitch
Knotted Buttonhole and
Drizzle Stitch

Glad to be caught up

BEDROOM RENOVATION UPDATE-300th POST-BLOG GIVEAWAY

After 2 weeks of peeling off the old wallpaper, and on the 14' wide wall 2 layers of wallpaper, I was able to paint it a nice shade of soft blue and I was so happy to have my portion of this project done.















The shade of blue goes quite beautifully with my dresser/doll cabinet and night stand that John made for me, and which I had painted and stenciled.

 It was really exciting to be able to bring in the new headboard.

And to finally see the assembly of the bed coming together.



















The last picture is the bed all assembled and it is really nice.  I have plenty of storage, still have 4 drawers
on each side, and a nice little compartment for storage at the foot of the bed.  I still need to hang some pictures, and I love the wall space I didn't have before.  I really, really need to finish my new quilt which will complement my walls.

This is my 300th post, and as I mentioned before I would be having a giveaway.  One of my daughters will choose a name on my birthday, October 12th.  If you are 1 of the 4 people who entered before, I still have your names.  I will be completing another CQ accessory case as the gift.  If you would like to be entered in the drawing please leave a comment on this post.  If you are an anonymous no-reply commenter, I will need a way to contact you if you win.

WORK IN PROGRESS WEDNESDAY

My Work in Progress Wednesday this week has nothing to do with stitching, as Sharon B's  has done.

What I worked on my past 2 days off was my bedroom.  DH build this bed in the 70's.  It was a waterbed up until about 4 years ago and since has had a Tempur-pedic mattress in it.

I have always used a stool to get in my side, which doesn't bother me at all.  But John has had more difficulty getting in it as he has shrunk a bit in the past couple of years.  So he has been in the process of building a newer, lower bed.

And it is finished, and he began the process of dismantling the old bed.

My plan, when the new bed was finished, and I could get behind it
was to rip the navy wallpaper down, and paint that wall.

I started ripping the wallpaper down, and discovered (or remembered), I had had some wallpaper on this wall before I put up the navy stuff, and apparently when I ripped the other stuff off, the backing was still in place and I just wallpapered over it.  The first wallpaper was pasted down, so I am having to get that off too to get to bare wall.  I probably did 2 feet, of this 14 foot wall yesterday.  It is going slower than I thought.

John got all the bed dismantled, except this headboard section which he will work on while I am at work today.  He was pretty worn out yesterday though.

Right now our mattress is in the dining room, so I need to get going on this.  Guess what I will be doing after work!

August Block-CQJP

I finished my August CQJP yesterday and this one has a lot of meaning for me.  But first an explanation.  My girls were about 4 and 5 in this block.  When they were little, I had their rooms papered in in Holly Hobby wallpaper.  I STILL love Holly Hobby!

When some fabric came out a couple of years ago, I bought some, planning to make a quilt one day.

















My dear mother-in-law made both girls quilts.  This is my oldest daughter's quilt.  They were finished in March of 1980, so are 32 years old.   I had shown a picture from a magazine to DMIL, all it had was the center figure in it and she designed the rest.  The large Holly Hobby used to have a pocket on her dress, where DMIL designed a little dolly that fit in the pocket, who also had a bonnet.

My youngest daughter's quilt was stolen from her by her roommate as Katie was moving out, who stated it was hers.  Even though the back was labeled and said "To Katie From Grandmother Hurd, March 1980".







Anyway, this is my August block for CQJP.  On a recent order from Liz of Gypsy Feather, who is currently on vacation, she sent along with my order the little Holly Hobby motif in the left corner.  I dyed it but wasn't getting the effect I wanted, so I ended up embroidering most of it to look more like the Holly Hobby Fabric.  Right below that, and to the right is the bonnet of the doll that used to fit in the quilt pocket which I found recently while looking through a stash of some trims I had.