2nd Finish! I'm on a roll! .....

Another finish already. Two in one month!

Teresa at Stitchin' Friends had this cute little table runner for our monthly group meeting. And I don't mean she had it like she planned the meeting. No! Miss Overacheiver had designed the pattern, bought the fabric, cut ALL the pieces (every single little one!) and had them in the cute little totes that she shows on her blog.

The meeting was the day before Mother's Day. I had my top all finished before Sunday night! I asked to be left alone for Mother's Day and they did! That's one of the main reasons that I finished it so quickly.

Here is a picture of just the top. While I love the colors and fabrics Teresa chose, the white was a little too white for me. So what's a person to do?


Tea dye it, of course. Here it is tea-dyed, quilted, binded, washed and dried. It's going as a gift to someone soon but I can't tell who.



I had it hanging on the clothesline like the first picture but about 10 minutes before I went out to take the picture, Computer Geek took out one end of the clothesline with Dear Hubby's truck. The truck is fine.

Blessings, Cathi

The Pilgrimage.....

Sounds like an episode from "The Waltons", doesn't it?

Next Wednesday, I am making a trip up north. I will be traveling from the greater Charlotte area up I-77 to I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Then on to Philadelphia, up I-95 and wind up in Staten Island. Yea, I know. Staten Island is not known as a mecca for vacationers, but that's where I will be going.

So my question for all of you is..... Could someone tell me where there are any quilt shops or prim shops along that route? I don't want to go too far off the interstate. I just need the name of the shop and the town. If you have a website, that would be great!

After a few days there, I am going back to the suburbs of Philadelphia to visit my dearest and longest, very best friend in the whole world. She lives in the tiny hamlet of Lederach in Montgomery County. (We both grew up not too far away in Lansdale). I am sure she knows where all the prim and quilt shops are in her area, not that she would ever set foot in a quilt shop! But if you know of any in that area anyway, let me know. She may not have found them all!


Blessings, Cathi

Finished my shaker boxes!.....

I have had these boxes unfinished for years. After seeing others on blogs, I thought I would give it a shot. I really love how they turned out. I even designed and made the labels myself!

I would have taken a picture of them without the flash but it rained again today! Haven't seen the sun since Friday afternoon. According to the weather report, we won't see any for another week.....Sorry Libby!

Blessings, Cathi

Rain, Rain, Go Away ? .....

We haven't had a lot of rain in the past month but we were drenched with it this past weekend. We had so much outside work that we needed to do. I'd really rather it rain during the weekday while I am in the office (with no window) working. But beggars can't be choosers. Today it is beautiful weather again and it's a weekday again.

To make me feel better about being stuck inside on nice days, I'll show you a picture of my flower bed at the end of the driveway. I still need to mulch it but it is looking pretty good!


And a close-up of the lily plant that "Computer Geek" gave me for Mother's Day last year. This is just one of the stalks! Look at all the buds!



Blessings, Cathi

And they lived happily ever after.....

30 years today.....

And it just keeps getting better and better!

Love ya, babe, mean it!

A Quilt of many firsts.....

Finally!!!!! My FIRST quilt finish of the year. Geez, you'd think with all the UFOs and tops, I'd be whipping right through these. Dang, paying job gets me every time. But then again, how would I pay for it all?

This is after washing and drying.

FIRST #1
Finishing something!

FIRST #2
Using Shout Color Catcher....just in case with those reds. Thanks for the idea, Mary!

FIRST #3
Using an applique method that I love. Thanks to Judy for recommending and Wendy for posting such a great tutorial! I don't think I will have to look for another way to prep my pieces anymore.

FIRST #4
Using Aurifil thread to quilt it. Judy had mentioned that she used it to quilt her "Sweet Land of Liberty" quilt. Only one local quilt shop carries Aurifil and then only in 3 colors....grey, black and cream.....so I had to order the #1318. I bought two of them and if I go back, they will probably have the other two that came in the box! I love it. It showed up real well on the navy blue but it's just the perfect color. And my quilting wasn't so bad so go ahead and make the picture bigger, I'm not embarrassed.

FIRST #5
Quilting right over the applique. I always assumed (wrongly) that I needed to outline the applique with quilting, then quilt up to that outline. Well, who said so! I thought I was very brave.

Here's hoping my finishes come a little more often now!

Blessings, Cathi

The reason for my Happy Mother's Day.....

I thought I would show you why I always have a wonderful Mother's Day.

The first one is the "Married One" and her husband of 5 years.

Here is "The Wild One". She won't mind me calling her that.....she is and she knows it. But I love her!!

Then there is "Turf Boy". He graduated from Clemson in Turfgrass Management 2 years ago.

He'll never call me on Mother's Day again if I put just the mohawk picture on here so here is the serious graduation picture.

And finally, "The Computer Geek". Also known as the "King of Warcraft". He sure is handy, though, with html issues!

And finally a picture of them all last September.

Happy Mother's Day to all!!


Blessings, Cathi

I found my quilt shop !.....

I have mentioned before that while the greater Charlotte area has some great quilt shops, none of them are my taste exactly. They have some great fabrics and books and patterns and gadgets. But none have the prim/folk art look that I like. I like Jan Patek and Cheri Saffiote-Payne.

I have Buttermilk Basin patterns coming out of my ears and just about every one of Terri Degenkolb (Whimsicals) books. One of my favorite pattern makers is Lynda Hall of Primitive Pieces by Lynda. What glorious stuff she comes up with! And her house is decorated so wonderfully, too.

And there are so many others.....but none of them are carried in the local quilt shops where I live. There has been a quilt shop that was one of American Patchwork Top 10 shops a few years ago that I have wanted to visit. It's a little detour on the way to my in-laws but we have never been able to swing by. We are either in a hurry to get there (it's 4 hours away) or I've had too much testosterone in the car with me (ie: Dear Hubby and DS#1 and #2) or we would be passing by on a Sunday when they were closed. Well, this time the estrogen won out! It is the Whistle Stop Quilt Shop in Selma, NC.

Silly me forgot to take the camera with me but I did get some pictures of the "stuff" I bought. There was lots of Moda and plaids, flannels and wool. She had a few other things like batiks and 30's and brights LOL. I, of course, went straight to the plaids!



The plaids are brushed flannel. I got 1-1/2 yards of the red plaid. I figured that was enough for a small border. The rolled up one is a wool....maybe a good background. And the pattern.....well, I keep TALKING about making a collection of Raggedy Annies but so far the only collecting I am doing is of Annie patterns! You'd think that since I had found MY shop, I would have spent more but you gotta remember my sewing room is distributed between my dining room and my DD#1's garage.

They are only a mile off of I-95 so those of you traveling from north to south and vice versa should have no problem getting to it. And by the way, there is a great German restaurant down the street and plenty of antique shops.

Blessings, Cathi

What Goodwill did to me.....

Goodwill, the store, that is. I don't go to ours often because they have almost all clothing but once in a while they have something worth picking up. Case in point are these cute little......um...wall pockets? Not really sure what they are but thought they were kind of neat. Especially for 99 cents each. I will definitely take off the pink 'glass' beads and replace with rusted jingle bells. Maybe I'll save them for some sort of Christmas decoration.



Anyway, back to the post title. As I was paying for my large purchase, the clerk asked me if I would like to use my senior citizen discout. I said so shocked I almost couldn't get the words out of my mouth, "Excuse me?". Again she said those dreaded words. I asked her at exactly what age did Goodwill stores consider someone to be a senior citizen. She said 55. Now if you recall back in January, I posted about me being over the hill at 50! Now some of you are probably snickering welcome to the club or thinking what is the big deal. Well because it's a first for me, that's why. And I've always been told that I looked younger than my years. I was the only one in a group of 20-somethings that was carded at a bachelorette party and I was 30 with 4 kids for crimeny sakes.

I called Dear Hubby. He was very sympathetic in between fits of laughter. Well, haven't been back to Goodwill since and if I do go, I'll make sure I don't get that clerk. In hind sight, I should have just said yes, I would like to use my discount and saved a whopping 20 cents but I didn't. Maybe next time. sigh

Blessings, Cathi