Happy Sewing Room

Greetings!

2011-12-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

Wishing you and your Family peace, joy and love during this holiday season!

Jean

Antique Christmas Block Drawing

2011-11-26T13:13:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Angie! You have won the Antique Christmas Block Drawing. I hope you enjoy your blocks! I can't wait to see what you do with them.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Christmas Eve

2011-08-25T13:08:00.001-04:00

I know you might think that it is a little early to talk about Christmas Eve, but I am talking about a new line from Quilting Treasures called Christmas Eve. It is never too soon to start on your Christmas gifts or decorations. Time goes by so quickly.

This line has a wonderful panel featuring Santa putting some last minute touches to his packages. He looks so intent on his work and making everything just perfect before starting out on his rounds. :-)

There is a free pattern available to make a lovely Christmas throw approx. 58 1/2" x 66". You can download the pattern here. I have all the fabrics available to complete your quilt!

Dashing through the snow----

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Quilt Odyssey Show

2011-08-13T10:51:00.000-04:00

Last post I talked about the challenge that we did for our booth in Hershey. In this one, I would like to share some of the quilts that were exhibited at the show.

Of course, there were so many more beautiful ones there. The talent of some people is just amazing. These pictures do not do the quilts justice. The piecing, applique and quilting was exquisite.

There was also a fantastic antique applique quilts exhibit from the private collection of Pat and Arlan Christ. Those quilts were fabulous! I love seeing antique quilts and wondering exactly what their history is and why their maker made that particular quilt. It was amazing to see some of them in such pristine condition. No fading, stains or signs of wear. Those quilts must have been stored away for a special occasion.

I hope you enjoyed my mini online show. You can see more pictures of some of the winning quilts from the past few years here.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Hershey Challenge

2011-08-06T18:54:00.001-04:00

Last week was Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA. It was a great show! Thanks to everyone that stopped by to say "Hi!"

Besides offering our wares for sale, we also featured our second booth challenge this year. For those of you who may not be acquainted with this challenge, let me explain. A couple years ago, those of us who work the booth, decided to do a challenge that we could display for the next years show. The first year we each had a different fabric that required us to make something outside of our box. It was so much fun, that we decided to do one every year. We display them in the booth and ask for those who visit our booth to please vote for their favorite!

This year the fabric was a beautiful floral. We all worked with the same fabric. The only requirements were to keep the projects small and use a noticeable amount of the challenge fabric.
Thank you to all that participated! I think the challenges were great! It is always so interesting to see what each person comes up with using the same fabric.

Here are the challenges from this year:

Melissa

Rick

Jean (Me)

I am thrilled to say that I won this year! :-) Normally the only thing that we win is bragging rights. But this year we decided that the winner will pick the fabric for the next year. Now, I must tell you that we had already picked the fabric for next year. So I will get to choose the fabric for the following year.

Here is a sneak peek at the challenge fabric for next year!

Quite different from our last one, isn't it? It is definitely outside of my box, but I love the colors and am anxious to begin my project. I already have a pattern in mind. There are 5 of us doing it for next year.
Hopefully you can stop by our booth next year and vote for your favorite!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

June & July Club Show & Tell

2011-07-21T09:40:00.000-04:00

I thought I would try to get caught up in my Club Show & Tell pics. The ladies are all so talented, so I don't want to miss anyone.

Momma did another block for our BOM.

Judy is working on a cute baby quilt and she also finished the BOM Club quilt from last year.

(Sorry the picture is sideways. )

Mary Alice made a beautiful baby blanket and is starting a lovely lacey scarf.

Melissa made these 2 cute wall hangings along with an online quilt group. She also did this adorable Bee Hive
wall hanging from the pattern Calendar Quilts.

Judy made this lovely bag from My Favorite Bag pattern by Kati Cupcake. She made it a little smaller than the pattern.

Karen made these neat blocks of beige and tans for the Heart and Home Quilters Guild from Kutztown.

After a Club meeting, I am always so inspired and am anxious to work on one of my many projects. I may even finish some! :-)
Thank you so much for sharing ladies!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Janie's Show & Tell

2011-07-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

One of my customers makes a number of quilts for craft shows and also sells them online. She makes many beautiful things and I thought I would share some of them with you.

I really like the fabric that she chooses. Of course, some are from the shop :-) but there are a lot of Thimbleberries like fabrics and reproductions, which are my favorites.
Thank you Janie for sharing!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Moose Quilt

2011-07-19T14:06:00.000-04:00

Stacey made this wonderful quilt featuring an appliqued moose for the Moose Lodge here in town. It is beautiful! The quilt was made from Jo Morton fabrics.

Happy sewing,
Jean

Breakfast Buddies

2011-07-14T17:15:00.000-04:00

Once a week I go out with a few of my friends for breakfast. We call ourselves the Breakfast Buddies. It is always so nice to get together and catch up on what has been happening since our last visit. Once in awhile, we even have some show and tell.

Karen made this lovely jacket when she lived in Texas. She is currently working on quilt blocks from Indygo Junction called Through the Seasons.

Kim is working on an afghan made from leftover sock yarn. Isn't it so cool?! Kim is the owner of the yarn shop in town Yarn's R Us. You can check out her website. She is also on facebook if you would like to check her out there.

Cold Spring Village Quilt Show

2011-07-07T09:08:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Cold Spring Village in Cape May, NJ. It had been years since I had visited this lovely historic village. Last time I visited I went with my Daughter. This time I was with my DH, Son, DIL and new Granddaughter. It was a wonderful visit both times, but this time they had a Quilt Show on display. What fun!
I'd like to share it with you too!

Of course, there were even more quilts there to enjoy. I always find quilt shows very inspiring. I hope the show inspired you too!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

My Favorite Bag

2011-07-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

I just finished making my tote bag and clutch. I just love it!

My Favorite Bag by Kati Cupcake Pattern Company is just that. It has become my favorite bag!
It has lots of room inside along with 6 pockets on the inside and outside! It uses a magnetic clasp in the center to close the top. It is 18" tall by 15" wide and 5" deep. The clutch is 11 1/2" x 7 1/2".
Both of the items made up very quickly. All the pieces have fusible fleece added and the bag is put together with minimal stitiching. It has easy to follow instructions and some very pretty details, such as curved front and back pockets, grommets and a lovely sash. If you don't want to do the sash and grommets, it would make a beautiful space to feature applique or embroidery.
Besides it being a great project bag, you could also use it for a diaper bag, a quilt show tote bag or your favorite purse.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Shop Hop

2011-06-22T13:25:00.000-04:00

The 9th Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop takes place November 5 - November 19, 2011. This year we are featuring American Valor Fabrics, proud partners with Quilts of Valor Foundation. www.qovf.org
The fabric line is by Jo Morton called Hurrah. It is a wonderful line of fabric in rich reproduction colors of reds, blue and neutrals.

This is just a sampling of some of the fabric used in the shop hop quilt blocks. The quilts will be a sampler of star blocks, making the perfect blend with the fabric.

We have some fabric available for sale now. Stop by and check it out!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

May Club Meeting Show & Tell

2011-06-15T08:43:00.000-04:00

Here are some show & tell highlights from May's Club Meeting!

Judy was busy stitching again. She made this very cute pin cushion (It almost looks good enough to eat!:-)). But then I love cake! The next pic feaatures blocks from our block of month this year. The last one is from a wall hanging class that Judy took here from Jo Killian. Jo designed this beautiful wall hanging. Great job Judy!

These are some antique blocks that Judy bought and was wondering about the best way to set them. I can't wait to see what she does with them.

Pat showed some beautiful projects that she was working on. The first one is a log cabin made using Marti Michell's Log Cabin Ruler. Look for a future post on how the ruler works. The second pic shows the appliqued center for our Block of Month quilt from Lori Smith's Family and Friends Sampler. It is gorgeous!

Thanks so much for sharing girls! Is is always so inspiring!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum

2011-06-06T14:59:00.000-04:00

I finally got a chance to visit the Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum in Lancaster, PA in May. I had gone, of course, to see the Amish Quilt Collection. But to my surprise, they also had an exhibit of Christmas scenes depicting living rooms from the 1800's through 1970's. They replicated a typical living room as it would have been decorated from that time period. It was very interesting. You could tell the era as you looked at the room, before even reading the sign. I really enjoyed it.

Of course, this was just a sampling of what they had displayed.

Afterwards, it was on to the quilts! The Amish Quilt Collection is from the 19th-20th century and was formerly know as "the Esprit Collection". Doug Tompkins, a founder of the Esprit Corporation, began collecting the finest Amish quilts he could find during the 1970's. The Heritage Center acquired the collection in 2002. It is a wonderful collection and I am happy to share some of my favorites with you.

If you ever get a chance to get to the Lancaster area, be sure to stop by the museum. It was such a wonderful place to see! For more information you can check out their website.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

And the Winner Is!

2011-06-06T08:51:00.000-04:00

The winner of the free membership to www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com is Zlaty!
Congratulations! I know that you will enjoy all of Benita's patterns and projects.
Thanks to everyone that participated.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Victoriana Quilt Designs 10th Anniversary

2011-05-31T11:28:00.000-04:00

Benita from Victoriana Quilt Designs is about to celebrate her site's 10th Anniversary with a Fabric Party.

She has designed a Jacquard Quilt Pattern which consists of 18 parts and will be presented from June 1, 2011 to May 1, 2012. For more info on her new pattern for the fabric party check out http://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/VictorianaQuilters/BlockoftheMonth/VQDFabricParty.htm

Benita is also offering a free membership ($22.50 value) to her site. By leaving a comment for this post, you are entered in the drawing to win the free membership. The drawing will be held on Sunday, June 5, 2011.

So go to www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com and see everything that she has to offer quilters!

Good luck to everyone!

Happy Sewing,

Jean

April Club Meeting

2011-05-23T15:25:00.001-04:00

It's time for show & tell from April's Club meeting!
We had a special treat this month. Pat shared her favorite method of doing hand applique and Karen showed us how to use the log cabin ruler by Marti Michell.
Thanks so much! You both did a super job! I know everyone enjoyed it!

Judy was busy. She made a new bag, pincushion box and lovely scrapbooking cards.

Momma made another block for our club sampler. Great job!

Pat made another great fun and done quilt and more beautiful blocks for the club samplers that she is making.

Angie made a beautiful bag from lovely metallic fabric.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Homemaker's Country Quilters Quilt Show

2011-05-10T13:49:00.000-04:00

I attended a very nice quilt show a few weeks ago in Creamery, PA presented by the Homemaker's Country Quilters. There were so many lovely quilts.
I would like to share some of my favorites with you.

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Retreat

2011-03-18T12:59:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was our annual girls retreat. We had a great time! It is always wonderful to be able to spend time with dear friends and do something that is so much fun at the same time like sewing and quilting! Here is a sampling of what we were working on.

Kathy was working on these two quilts.

This was Mary's.

These were Melissa's.

These were mine.

I also worked on part of my challenge for the Hershey Show. I will have to wait until after the quilt show to share it with you, just in case you attend the show and stop by my booth to vote.

Of course we ate well and visited some quilt shops. It doesn't get much better than that!

Happy Sewing,

Jean

March Club Meeting

2011-03-14T20:16:00.000-04:00

We had a lot of wonderful show & tell this month! I am always so inspired after a club meeting. I hope you will be too. Enjoy!

Karen is working on a beautiful scarf.

Angie made a beautiful nativity scene using her embroidery machine.

Momma was busy working on her club block of the month. She made 2 blocks which look lovely.

Carol made this beautiful quilt using a Bonnie Hunter pattern Patches and Pinwheels which can be found here. I just love scrappy quilts!

Pat finished her shop hop quilt. Isn't it just great! I love reproductions!

Pat also made this table topper from Atkinson Designs called Happy Holidays. The pattern contains directions to make a table topper in 3 sizes and you can even make one into a tree skirt. This is a new pattern that we just got in.

We had such a great time at our meeting. We had a special treat of Pat showing us her favorite method to applique. She will be showing us Part 2 next month. Thanks Pat! It was great! I look forward to next month's meeting.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

New Books

2011-03-05T11:49:00.000-05:00

We just got in 2 new books. Bonnie Hunter's Scraps & Shirttails II and The Civil War Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy.
Many of you know that I am a huge Bonnie Hunter fan. I could not wait to get her new book. There are so many new projects that I would love to tackle. I just love using up my scraps! This book continues the art of quilting green with 13 new projects that help you reuse, re-purpose and recycle your scraps into beautiful quilts!
You can find more patterns and info on Bonnie here.

The second book is also dear to my heart since it features quilts patterned after ones made during the Civil War. I love reproduction fabrics & quilts! There are 16 easy projects, including large and small quilts, plus a pincushion, sewing box, and needle case. Learn how women's efforts during the Civil War led to increased civil and political involvement among women. See historical photos and read excerpts from letters written to and from soldiers during the Civil War. A part of history with wonderful quilts!

I can see that my to do list of projects is growing! :-)

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Tulip Time!

2011-03-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

I am so anxious for Spring-warm weather, green grass and of course the beautiful flowers that Spring always brings!
I decided that I needed to have Spring begin indoors!
I made a tulip wall hanging in 2 colorways to help celebrate Spring! A beautiful paisley print tulip and a brighter batik tulip.

I made kits for each colorway. The kits are $9.95 each and contain the pattern and all the fabric needed to make the quilt top, backing and binding. These are perfect for the scroll frames as shown with the first picture or just hung on the wall or a door. They would even be great as pillows!

My DIL, Zlaty made a cute wall hanging that would also work well on the scroll frame or hung on a door or wall. It is from the book "Be Attitudes" from Art to Heart. This book features 12 different blocks for each month of the year. They are just adorable!

Isn't this just too cute! I love it!

Now it's time to dig out your spring fabrics and bring a little bit of Spring cheer into your home.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

A Quilt for my Grandson

2011-03-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

I just finished an I Spy quilt for my youngest Grandson, Gabriel. He loves trucks and cars, so that is what I used to make his quilt. I always make the I Spy quilts small so that the kids can drag them around and just love them!

I hope he enjoys finding all the trucks, cars, buses, and campers. I even found a fabric with roads on it for the back.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

February Club Show & Tell

2011-02-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

Since January's meeting was cancelled due to weather, we had quite a bit of show & tell at February's meeting.
I just love show & tell!

Pat made these sampler blocks and center for our Club BOM called Family and Friends by Lori Smith.

Mary Alice made a tumbler quilt and is busy knitting a scarf.

Anita made this very special memory quilt for her Mother.

Pat made this quilt for a challenge for the Heart & Home Quilters Guild in Kutztown. The challenge was called "Name that Tune". Her quilt was made for the tune "I Heard it From the Grapevine". Very Clever!

Stacey is making a raffle quilt for the Moose. This is the quilt so far. It will have a moose appliqued on it after it is quilted.

Judy was busy again making bags!

As you can see, we have very busy Club members! They are all so talented and make wonderful things! I look forward to seeing what they have done till next time.

What are you working on right now?

Until next time,

Happy Sewing

Jean

Club Members Show & Tell

2011-02-24T14:58:00.001-05:00

I thought I would try to get caught up on some Club Show & Tell. These are from December's meeting.
Enjoy the show!

Pat made this cute penguin quilt.

Zlaty made these two quilts. A cute snowman quilt and a beautiful coffee quilt for her Mother.

Pat made this darling quilt for her Grandson Dexter.

We also had a surprise baby shower for Zlaty from the Club Members. Everyone made her a 6" block using a common fabric in each block to use for the baby. Some even made more blocks. They were beautiful. I'm afraid that I didn't get pictures of them, but will be sure to add pictures at a later time.

Thanks Pat for the lovely idea! And Thank you to everyone that made such beautiful blocks and made this such a special meeting!

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Baby Quilts

2011-02-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

I made a wall hanging for Zlaty's baby shower in November and finished the quilt for my Granddaughter after she was born. For the wall hanging, I used Zlaty & Scot's favorite colors for the Mommy & Daddy bears and then combined the two for the baby bear. For the quilt, I used a pattern from Possibilities and added my own border to it. I also made the Sunbonnet Sue half the size of the original, so that I could keep the quilt smaller. I hope that Veronica will always treasure the quilt that her Grammy made her.

Customer Show & Tell

2011-02-09T18:55:00.000-05:00

I am always very happy to see what some of my customers and friends have been up to.

Here are pics from some of them.

A beautiful jacket made by a shop hopper.

Anita made this wonderful Easy Striped Table runner.

Leisa knitted this beautiful sweater for my new grand daughter Veronica.

Stacey made this cute latch hook teddy bear rug for my grand daughter.

Aren't they all just lovely?!

Well, until next time.

Happy Sewing,

Jean

November Club Meeting

2011-02-09T18:01:00.006-05:00

Hello out there!

Yes, I am still here.

I am going to try to get a little caught up in my blogging.

I thought I would share some of the pictures from the November Club Meeting. Maybe I should say the November 2010 club meeting. :-)

Enjoy!

Pat Christ made this beautiful baltimore album quilt block which was part of the quilt shown in the picture above from Elly Sienkiewicz's new book called Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts!

Congratulations Pat!

Mom made these wonderful Christmas quilts.

Edna made a darling Christmas quilt putting a twist on my pattern "Pumpkin Spice".

Wishing you all Happy Sewing,

Jean

Quiche

2010-12-29T07:25:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

I had lots of ham left and have been trying to think of ways to use it up.

Last night I made a quiche using a recipe that a friend gave me.

It is delicious and you can add whatever you would like to it to make a tasty dish!

Quiche

1 - 9" pie shell baked for 7 mins. at 450 degrees

2 tbs. butter

2 tbs. flour

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 cups milk

4 oz. (1 cup) swiss cheese

3 beaten eggs

1 cup chopped ham, spinach, mushroom & crumbled bacon - whatever sounds good

Melt butter. Add flour & nutmeg & stir into a paste.

Add milk all at once. Cook until thick.

Add cheese, eggs and ham or your chosen ingredients.

Pour into pie shell.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25/30 mins. Cool 10 mins.

Yum! Delicious!

There wasn't even a piece left for my lunch today! :-)

Enjoy!

Wishing everyone a very Happy & Healthy New Year!

Jean

Block of Month

2010-12-17T16:01:00.004-05:00

We are starting a Civil War Chronicles BOM in January. You will receive very detailed pattern directions for the blocks each month and also very unique stories of military wives of the Civil War Era. You provide the fabric to make this quilt in your favorite fabrics. This quilt was designed by Homestead Hearth. The cost is $15.00 per quarter.

You can either stop by and pick it up or we can mail it to you.

Send us pictures as you go along and we will share them with others so that they can see your beautiful project as you go.

We are starting a new block of the month for the new year. It is called Family and Friends by Lori Smith. The cost is $14.00 for the year.

Each participant receives the cutting and sewing and pressing directions for both setting arrangements with the quilts finishing at 73 1/4" x 73 1/4". The quilt contains 12 sampler blocks that finish to 12" square. You will receive instructions for creating both quilt centers. You can choose to make either one or do two quilts if you like. The star block center can be machine pieced and there are no set in seams.

We will be starting this program in January. If you would like to join us for our meetings, we meet the second Wed. of every month at 10am. You will receive the block pattern for that month, see the latest products that have arrived at the shop, share show and tell and of course have cookies and coffee!

If you cannot join us, you can stop in the shop and pick up your block of month patterns or we can ship them to you.

Be sure to send us pictures of your blocks as you go along, so that we can see the wonderful colors that you have chosen to make it special to you. I will post them on the blog to share with others.

Note: Registration is needed for whichever block of month program that you choose.

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Shop Hop is Over!

2010-11-30T19:51:00.008-05:00

Hop was great! It was wonderful seeing so many of you again! I sure hope you had fun hopping! For those of you who did not get a chance to hop, here are pictures of the other quilts that were made by the other shops on the hop, with the same blocks that I used in my quilts shown in an earlier post.

Aren't they beautiful! It is amazing how different they can look with different settings and additions of other fabrics!

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Shop Hop Time!

2010-11-06T10:13:00.007-04:00

It's time for the Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop! The hop runs Nov. 6 - Nov. 20, 2010.
The passports are $5.00 and you will receive a free block kit, a passport with many coupons to be used after the hop at each shop, and a tote bag, while they last! It is so much fun to go to each shop and see the quilt that they have made from the shop hop blocks! It is like a quilt show!

Here is a peek at our shop hop projects!

This is Springtime Sue!

I also made a bed runner which I named Floral Fantasy Bed Runner. It would also work well as a table runner.

If you live close by, maybe you can HOP on in!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Parmesan Sage Pork Chops

2010-10-27T18:09:00.006-04:00

Don't these look delicious?! I made these for dinner tonight and they tasted so yummy! The recipe is by Martha Barnes on www.allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
dash pepper
1 1/2 c. soft bread crumbs
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 T. rubbed sage
1 t. grated lemon peel
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 bone-in pork loin chops
2 T. olive or vegetable oil
2 T. butter or margarine

Directions:

In a shallow dish, combine the flour, salt and pepper. In another shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, sage and lemon peel. Place egg in shallow bowl. Coat pork chops with flour mixture, dip in egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture. Let stand for 5 mins.

In a skillet, brown chops in oil and butter for 2 mins. on each side. Transfer to a greased 11" x 17" x 2" baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F for 10-15 mins. or until juices run clear and a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F.

Note: I did not have sage, so I skipped that and I was out of lemon peel, so I added lemon pepper. Lemon pepper is one of my favorites. I also used boneless pork chops and made fresh bread crumbs.

Until next time,

Happy Sewing,

Jean

Quilts from the Heart of Berks

2010-10-21T10:46:00.007-04:00

This past weekend was the Berks Quilters Guild Show at the Leesport Farmers Market. It was a lovely show. I was one of the vendors there and got to enjoy the show all weekend! I'd like to share some of my favorite quilts.

Pat and Arlan Christ had an exhibit of some of their antique quilts called Stars and Bars. This was one of my favorites!

Sorry this one is sideways. After 4 tries, I decided to leave it this way. It apparently wanted to be on it's side. :-) This was a birthday block quilt that my bee group did for my friend Linda. She asked each of us to make a red violet flower block. She embellished them all with embroidery stitches and put the quilt together and finished it. It turned out great! She got a blue ribbon! Congratulations Linda!

Hope you enjoyed the mini quilt show!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

October Club Show & Tell

2010-10-20T13:41:00.006-04:00

October's Club meeting was full of inspiring show & tell.

This lovely card was made by Sue's daughter.

These fall projects were made by my DIL Zlaty. They are beautiful and really get me in the mood for Fall! If you would like to see more of Zlaty's quilts, you can visit her on her blog.

Judy made a beautiful flower pin and some wonderful rag style bags!

Pat showed a beautiful applique quilt and a whimsical dancing birds quilt!

Thank you ladies for sharing your wonderful projects! I look forward to seeing what you have to share next time!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Cheddar Potatoes Au Gratin with Ham

2010-10-06T19:32:00.006-04:00

You might be asking yourself why i would be posting a recipe in a quilting blog. Well, the answer is simple. Quilters also love to eat! :-)

I made this recipe tonight and it was a big hit. I must say I loved it and I am a very finicky eater!
I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it fresh out of the oven, however I only thought of it when I was eating it.
The recipe came from southern foods about. com. You can check out a picture here and more wonderful recipes.

A perfect dish for a chilly Fall evening.

This recipe was by Diana Rattray About.com guide

Cheddar Potatoes au Gratin with Ham

4 cups diced potatoes
salt
6 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cloves garlic, halved
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups diced cooked ham
8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (about 2 cups), divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 cup soft fresh bread crumbs

Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, cover the potatoes with water and add about 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and boil gently for about 10 minutes, or until just fork tender. Drain.

In a large saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Remove the garlic and discard. Add onion and cook, stirring, just until onion is softened. Add the flour and cook, stirring, until well blended and bubbly. Add the milk and cook, stirring, until thickened. Add the ham and 6 ounces of the cheese (about 1 1/2 cups). Cook, stirring, until cheese is melted. Stir in the parsley. Gently stir in the potatoes until well coated with the cheese mixture. Turn into a 2-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the reserved 2 ounces of shredded cheese.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and toss with the bread crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the casserole. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Serves 4 to 6.

I made a few changes as I made due with what I had on hand. I used garlic and onion salt in place of the real thing. Those of you that really know me, know that I would not have a fresh onion around. :-) I also used 2% shredded cheddar cheese and margarine in place of butter. I also made my own bread crumbs.

I served it with fresh broccoli and rolls. Delicious!

Back to quilting!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

September Club Show & Tell

2010-10-06T19:02:00.004-04:00

At September's Club meeting we had so many inspirational show & tells!

Pat is working on this wonderful quilt for her Grandson. Just too cute!

Judy was busy making many beautiful purses. The purse pattern that she used was called the Towne Purse by Lazy Girl Designs.

Sue made this wonderful sewing organizer!

I love this punch needle Pennsylvania German star! I think that is what it is called, although I was not able to find more info about it.

Karen is working on this fun quilt for her Granddaughter!

Two more Christmas Surprise blocks. One from Pat and the other one from Angie. Just beautiful!

I just love show & tell. Don't you?!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

20th Anniversary

2010-09-28T16:16:00.005-04:00

HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TO US!

We are celebrating 20 years in business! The time has passed so quickly. We have made many wonderful friends throughout these years. Thanks so much for your support!

We are having our Anniversary Celebration Sale!

Stop by the shop
Wed., Sept. 29 - Sat. Oct. 9 for special discounts and fun.
We'll also have cake & coffee! YUM!

Hope to see you soon!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Table runner Classes

2010-09-24T17:29:00.006-04:00

We are introducing a couple classes for this Fall.

Candy Table Runner

Sat., Oct. 9; 10:00-2:00

This table runner was designed by my DIL, Zlatka. She loves candies, which is what inspired her to design this table runner. The table runner will work great in every candy flavor such as caramel, peppermint, licorice, strawberry...you get the idea. Why not try a dark background to make the candy pop! the table runner is a calorie-free eye candy that will make a "delicious" gift for any lover of sweets!

Teacher: Zlatka Boyd

Easy Striped Table Runner

Wed., Sept. 29; 2:00-5:30

This is a very easy runner to make. Five seams and the top is finished! No need for binding. The magic is in the 60 degree triangle ruler! Perfect for your home or it's not too soon to think about making a gift for someone special for the holidays.

Teacher: Zlatka Boyd

If you would like to see more pictures of these projects you can view them on Zlaty's blog. She has made many beautiful ones.

If you would like to sign up for a class, you can call the shop at 610-562-7173.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Bear Paw Traditions

2010-09-04T12:18:00.005-04:00

I have a new pattern and kit available called Bear Paw Traditions! It is a fun little quilt that measures 20" square. It is perfect for a table or to hang on your wall. Both the pattern and kit are available on my website. The kit contains the pattern, all the fabric for the top, backing and binding. You just need to add batting! The colors and the pattern really put me in the mood for Fall!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Sewing Day at Norma's

2010-09-01T13:29:00.005-04:00

Every month my friend Norma hosts a sewing group at her home. She has been doing it for years. I have always enjoyed being there with friends and doing something I love, quilting! I used to go faithfully, but then life happens and I hadn't been there for awhile. My Mother and I got a chance to visit this month and we had a great time.
Below are pics of projects that the group has been working on:

Evelyn made these cute gift stockings and a wonderful wall hanging called Quilter's Wash Day by MH Designs.

Lorrie made this adorable Christmas stocking.

Millie embroidered this cute dish towel.

Peg was finishing up the binding on this beautiful quilt!

It was a wonderful day visiting with old friends! Thanks Norma!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Show & Tell

2010-08-26T17:31:00.005-04:00

Stacey made this Thimbleberries quilt. It is beautiful!

Leisa made this potato pouch for heating potatoes in the microwave. How clever!

Karen made this beautiful applique block for her quilt guild and a wonderful redwork ornament!

Thanks for sharing girls! They're great!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

August Club Day & Picnic

2010-08-25T10:59:00.012-04:00

In August we had are club meeting at the shop in the morning, but in the afternoon we had the pleasure of having a picnic at Pat's house. What a wonderful day! It was a beautiful day, beautiful gardens and beautiful hospitality from Pat and Arlan and just a beautiful time spent with friends!
Here are just a few of the highlights from our day!

These striped table runners were all made by Zlaty. She took the extra triangles cut off of the longer runner and made this cute table centerpiece!

Carol made these two quilts. The lower one had the neatest sparkle to it!

Melissa made these two fun quilts!

Sue shared a picture of a rag quilt that she made inspired by the fabrics to the right of the picture.

What an inspiring day of show & tell! Just beautiful girls! I love all your projects! Thanks for sharing!

Below are pics of the beautiful gardens!

Thanks Pat and Arlan for a wonderful day! And thanks to all of you for your friendship!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

New Samples

2010-08-13T13:54:00.005-04:00

We have some new samples in the shop to help inspire you!

This is a new pattern designed by my DIL Zlaty called Candy Tablerunner. Isn't it great! It looks just like a piece of candy! I love it. It is so whimsical. This makes up quickly and would look great in your kitchen, dining room or even on a bureau in a kids room! You can see more of Zlaty's quilts here.

Zlaty also made this Ashley Bag by Sew Unique Creations and the Brasstown Star by Pacific Pachwork is seen below. The colors are wonderful! The Brasstown Star is a pattern from Paula Stoddard's Block Party Fun! You can join the party for $9.00 a month and receive her pattern and a special newsletter with measurements for a 6" block to use in a sampler, and alphabet block for an alphabet quilt and a smaller quilt project made from the same block of that series! A very fun series!

This is Topsy-Twosy by Quilt Queen Designs. It was constructed by me and quilted by Zlaty. The two quilts are made using the 7 1/2 inch x block ruler. The neat part about this pattern is that the wedges that you cut off of the main block become the block for the second quilt, eliminating hardly any waste. These were fun to do!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

3 More Christmas Blocks

2010-08-05T15:36:00.005-04:00

Three more Christmas Blocks were turned in for the Christmas Surprise Drawing.

This one was done by my DIL, Zlaty.

These were done by Melissa and Mary Alice.

Aren't they all just wonderful! It's so exciting to see the blocks as they come in. You still have time to pick up your fat eighth and complete your block by Oct. 30, 2010.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Annapolis Maryland Quilt Show

2010-08-04T14:41:00.004-04:00

In June we ventured to Annapolis, MD for a quilt show. It was a lovely show! It was the Annapolis Quilt Guild's 28th Annual Quilt Show. They certainly have many talented members there. I'd like to show you some of my favorites from the show.

The next two quilts were miniature quilts. It was amazing to see the detail on them.

Just look at the closeup of the celtic applique.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

8th Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop

2010-07-31T11:42:00.003-04:00

This coming week passports will go on sale for the 8th Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop. Buy a passport for $5.00 and receive a free block kit, passport with coupons for each shop to be used after the hop, and a tote bag while the supplies last. The quilt blocks feature Andover's Charisma Fabric collection by Gail Kessler. Visit 12 shops and purchase additional blocks.

This is the tote bag, passport and my block.

This is the free block that comes as a kit with your passport.

If you get all the shops to stamp your passport you will be entered in a drawing for our grand prizes.

A Brother Innov-is NX-2000 Laura Ashley Limited Edition Sewing Machine

Hand Quilted Queen Size Quilt
$1000 Shopping Spree
Hand Crafted Quilt Hanger

The shop hop runs November 6-20, 2010. Have fun visiting all the shops and see 12 different setting options of the blocks to create a stunning quilt designed exclusively for you. It is like seeing a quilt show at each shop!
I hope you can join us for 15 fun days!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Gabriel's Quilt

2010-07-30T12:21:00.002-04:00

My DIL, Zlaty made this cute quilt for my grandson, Gabriel's birthday. It is just adorable. I love it! I know Gabriel will love snuggling with it.
If you would like to see more of Zlaty's quilts you can view them on her blog.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Quilt Odyssey

2010-07-29T18:57:00.007-04:00

I wanted to share some of the highlights from Quilt Odyssey with you. It was great to see so many of you there and getting a chance to stop and chat with you.
There were so many beautiful quilts there.

There were so many beautiful quilts. I took many pictures since I only had 15 minutes to see them! I figured I could study them when I got home and looked at the pictures.
Pat and Arlan Christ's antique quilts were even more beautiful in person. You can find out more about their quilts in a previous post.

One of the biggest highlights for me was being able to attend a lecture by Bonnie K. Hunter. It was her Scraps and Shirttails lecture. It was wonderful! It was great to meet her and to see her quilts up close and personal. Unfortunately, I did not get the best pictures, so I will show you 2 of the better ones.

This quilt says "The fabric food chain". Too funny, but true!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Challenge Winner

2010-07-29T10:21:00.005-04:00

We had a great time in Hershey! I will share more in my next post, but I wanted to be sure and let you know who won our challenge which was on display at Hershey.

Congratulations Tricia! She is the winner of this year's challenge "Thinking Outside of the Box".

This is her quilt.

Everyone did a super job! I know it was very tough for people to vote since they were all so different and great looking, I might add.

My hubby chose our challenge fabric for next year. We will all be using the same fabric this time.

It is called texas wildflower by Michael Miller. It should make for some very interesting quilts!

You can find pictures of all of our challenges in the previous post.

Next post I will share pictures of the show.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

"Thinking Outside of the Box"

2010-07-20T14:01:00.009-04:00

In our booth at the Quilt Odyssey Show in Hershey, PA, we will be featuring a challenge display “Thinking Outside of the Box”. Those of us that work the booth decided to do this challenge last year while we were working at the show. We each had a half yard piece of fabric chosen for us that was not our normal fabric selection. We could use that fabric and add whatever we wanted to in order to complete our quilt. Our goal was to have it finished by this show and then display it and ask for your help to vote for your favorite! Each one is so different!

The fabric is shown with the challenge made from that fabric.

I hope you will stop by and vote and that you will enjoy seeing what we came up with!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Bonnie K. Hunter Fan

2010-07-15T14:30:00.009-04:00

I am a huge Bonnie K. Hunter fan! A friend of mine introduced me to her website a few years ago and my view of quilts has never been the same. I have always loved scrap quilts, but I mainly did coordinated quilts or coordinated scrappy quilts. Bonnie has taught me that anything goes and makes the quilt even better! By mixing so many fabrics, it adds more interest, texture, light and shading. She has a fabulous website which you can check out here! She has many free patterns and tips and techniques available on her site. Her 2 books are great! They are Scraps & Shirtails and Adventures with Leaders & Enders! I own both and really love them!

Here are some of the quilts that I have in various stages that are from her patterns:

This is the first Bonnie Hunter quilt that I made. It was called Orange Crush Mystery. If you join the quiltville yahoo group you will be notified of any mysteries that Bonnie will be doing. One of the great things about doing her mysteries and using her colors, you get to play with colors that you would not normally use.

The second one was Double Delight Mystery. I did not use the same colors this time, but had so much fun doing it. I still need to finish the border on it. I just laid it along side of the center so that you can get an idea of how it will look when it is finished.

This was the Christmas Lights Mystery featured in Quiltmaker magazine. I still need to put the borders on it. The green fabric used in the stars was a reproduction Christmas print which I always wanted to use and I thought this would be the perfect project for it.

This is Jared Takes a Wife. I only have some blocks made so far. It will be a small wall hanging with 9 blocks.

This is from the pattern Sister's Choice. I had great fun using an embroidery design in the center and mixing reproduction prints with batiks. Years ago, I never would have done that, but I love it!

This is called Bow-Dacious from Bonnie's Adventures with Leaders & Enders Book! I love bowties and had to make at least a small wall hanging. Of course it needs to be quilted yet. I'm a little slow on finishing some things, which you may have noticed. However I enjoy them just the same! This sample will be hanging in my booth at Hershey.

My friend Melissa made this sample Crabapples from Adventures with Leaders & Enders and it will also be at my booth. I love the mix of fall colors and the trees in the corners!

As you can see, I am a little addicted to Bonnie's patterns! :-)
Bonnie is teaching at the Quilt Odyssey Show in Hershey PA which runs July 22-25, 2010. I would be thrilled to see her there. I can't take her class, but maybe I will be lucky to see her in the vendor marketplace.

If you read this Bonnie, thank you for your inspiration, patterns and love of antique quilts. You have taught me to have even more fun with making my quilts!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

July Club Show & Tell

2010-07-14T18:09:00.007-04:00

Today was Club Day. What fun we had! It is always great to see everyone and chat and share ideas.

Eleanor was a sweetheart and made this table runner from a new border stripe, that just came in, so that I would have a sample for Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA. My DIL, Zlaty showed her how to make it.

Karen is working on this applique block for a quilt for the Schuylkill County Quilters Guild. Beautiful!

Carol shared this wonderful pumpkin wall hanging and a beautiful star quilt!

Sue and Karen turned in their blocks for the Christmas Surprise Drawing! Aren't they great!

Melissa just finished this Apple Jacks Sample. So cool! Just in time for Hershey, too!

Trisha finished this quilt top so that I could use it at the Quilt Odyssey Show in Hershey. It looks great!
Pat shared a new book that she and her hubby Arlan have just published called America's Appliqued Quilts - A Treasured Pennsylvania Tradition. Pat and Arlan have been collecting quilts for years and are now sharing their love of these quilts by lecturing and doing special displays of their quilts. This special collection of quilts will be on display at Quilt Odyssey in Hershey PA July 22-25, 2010 at the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center.
I hope you get a chance to see these beautiful quilts!

I am so blessed by wonderful family and friends. Thanks so much for all you do!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Club Show & Tell for June

2010-07-02T15:47:00.006-04:00

Here are some pics from June's Show & Tell:

Angie & Sue are checking out the purse that Sue made. It turned out great! I love all the pockets!

Melissa was busy sewing! Awesome! I'll take one of each! :-)

Judy made a cute teapot quilt! Did I ever mention that I love teapots!

Wonderful job everyone! We have such a talented group of ladies!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Show & Tell

2010-07-02T15:36:00.005-04:00

Jo Ann stopped by and showed me a quilt made by the confirmation class of the First United Methodist Church in Schuylkill Haven, PA.
They did a super job! I love how they did the blocks and the colors!

Great job class!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Colonial Quilter's Guild Show

2010-07-01T15:12:00.005-04:00

The beginning of June, my hubby and I went to the Colonial Quilter's Guild Quilt Show in Palmer, PA. It was a lovely show. Here is a sampling of some of the quilts!

I hope you enjoyed the show!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Stacey's Show & Tell

2010-07-01T15:07:00.003-04:00

Stacey made this quilt to donate to Quilts for Kids. You can find more info here.
Great job Stacey! The kids will love it!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Feline Friendship Quilt

2010-07-01T14:42:00.005-04:00

My DIL Zlaty made a quilt for a friend of hers using the Feline Friendship fabric panel. It turned out great!

Just beautiful!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Club Show & Tell for May

2010-07-01T14:22:00.004-04:00

Here are some highlights from Club Show & Tell in May!

Pat showed us some antique quilt blocks and her fun and done quilt! What a neat design!

Zlaty showed us her beautiful Welcome quilt! I love pineapples! You can see more of Zlaty's quilts here.

Judy made this great purse organizer!

Beautiful job girls!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Friendship Star Quilters Guild Quilt Show

2010-07-01T13:50:00.007-04:00

The end of April, hubby and I went to the Friendship Star Quilters Guild Quilt Show in Gaithersburg, MD. It was a lovely show with so many inspiring quilts.

While we were there I stopped in the guild's boutique. I fell in love with a wall hanging that was for sale. I had to have it! I was fortunate to meet the artist that so lovingly made it and asked her to sign it for me. Thank you, Jane.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Seattle Trip Part 2

2010-06-11T16:16:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pics of beautiful scenery we saw along the way.

Montana was pretty flat for some of the distance across, but then the mountains began. They were absolutely awesome! It was so cool to see the snow capped mountains when we were in 60 degree weather as we drove across the state. The mountains looked so close, but were many, many miles away.

We stopped at the quilt shop Fiberworks in Billings, MT.

This quilt shop is owned by Laura Heine who designs fabric for RJR Fabrics. She also designs her own patterns. The day we stopped she was doing a demo on her new pattern for tablerunners and placemats using raw edge applique. Lucky me! She designs and uses a lot of florals. I had to have a piece of her fabric. The design is large scale, which I normally do not use, but I could not resist the beautiful flowers and colors.

The next shop that we stopped at was the Parkland Parish Quilt Shop in Tacoma, WA.

A very cool shop. It was neat to just look at the building, besides the fabric! The building was over a century old! Very cute with selections mixed with antiques.

We then headed to Seattle! While we were there we rode the DUCK! Such fun! We got to see some of the city by land and by sea! One of the highlights in Seattle was visiting Pike Place Market. This is a huge marketplace with every kind of food imaginable. There were so many people there and so many things to see! I loved the flower stands and they even had a quilt shop there called Undercover Quilts!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the highlights from my trip! It was just awesome!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Seattle Trip

2010-06-03T09:50:00.001-04:00

The end of April, hubby and I went on a trip to Seattle. We drove out and took a train back to PA. It was the most awesome trip. The scenery was absolutely beautiful! It is so interesting to see how each state has it's own characteristics and beauty. Of course, we got to stop at some quilt shops on the way out too! Great fun! I would like to share some pics with you of some of the beauty that we saw and also some quilt shops and fun purchases.

This is Abigayle's Quiltery in Olmsted Falls, OH. It was a wonderful quilt shop. The house was full of fabrics and they also carried Pfaff sewing machines which are my favorite machine. It was located in a village with other shops and was a great place to relax, shop and eat ice cream!

We saw this sign in a town in Ohio or maybe it was Indiana, which unfortunately, I forget what town, but I thought it was a great sign. My hubby went around the block and parked, so that I could get a picture of it. Isn't he great!

Next we stopped at the Quilt Foundry in Maumee OH. A very cute shop with a variety of fabrics. I had stopped there many years before and looked forward to seeing it again.

This framed quilt was actually in a gas station's bathroom. You never know where you will find quilts!
We stopped at the Old Bag Factory in Goshen, IN. In that area was a shop called Quilt Designs. Quilt Designs specializes in selling original designed quilts.

The designer is Kris A. Shenk. She does many beautiful quilts. While we were there I fell in love with a beautiful wall hanging. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to get it. As we were getting ready to leave, hubby asked if I would like it. I couldn't say no! So he bought it for us. Isn't he great! He does spoil me! As hubby was buying it, I happened to think that the day before was our 37th wedding anniversary, so we decided that it would be our gift to ourselves.

In the factory was also a pottery shop. I also love pottery, so I needed a piece of that. I bought I mug, which I just love. I use it all the time.

We took a little time to look around in Milwaukee, WI. This sculpture brought so much emotion to us. It was of children pledging allegiance to the flag. If you click to make it larger, you can see more of the expression on their faces. Beautiful!

This was the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was fabulous! This is the outside of it and the thing that looks like sails or a fin, is on the roof of the museum. At certain times of day, it actually folds down and goes flush with the ceiling. Amazing!
This was the inside. Awesome!

There were so many wonderful things to view in the museum, but my favorite was a special exhibit of a painting called The woman with the Veil by Raphael. It was absolutely breathtaking! You could get within 2 feet of it and really study it. It brought tears to your eyes. You just expected her to start talking to you, it was that real. You could even see a tendril of her hair hanging into her forehead. I loved the drape of the fabric, just everything about it. If you ever get a chance to go see it, please do. It is awesome!
Of course, while we were in WI we had to try the Wisconsin Cheese Curds. Absolutely delicious! I highly recommend them. They are available at A & W's here in PA too.

This is Gruber's Quilt Shop in Waite Park, MN. A wonderful shop filled with all kinds of fabrics, books, patterns, etc. I purposely stayed out of the reproduction area, so that I would be good. After all, I had a lot of shops to see yet! :-)

I could not resist this pattern called Flower Girls. Who knows when I will get it made, but I had to have it.
This is a close up of one of the girls. Each one is different.

This was a pic of the Badlands in ND. What a beautiful site.

Well, that is all for today. I will continue our trip in the next post.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

April Show & Tell

2010-06-02T13:50:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd better get a move on and try to get a little caught up on happenings the last couple of months.

Towards the end of April my hubby and I took a trip out to Seattle, WA. It was the most awesome trip! I will post more about that in my next post.

I wanted to share pics of April's club Show & Tell. My DIL, Zlaty ran the club for me while I was gone and took these pictures for me. Thanks so much, Zlaty!

Stacey made a quilt for Quilts for kids. You can find out more info about these quilts here.
So cute!

Mary Alice was busy making her guild name tag. Great job!

Judy finished her Cottage Garden Quilt from last year's club. Beautiful!

These are step by step photos taken by Zlaty and made by Pat to show us how to use Fun & Done patterns and the Batting Buddy Template.

First step - Cut the backing using the Batting Buddy Template Frame. Cut the batting using the Batting Buddy center square. Sew strips diagonally across the block in a flip & sew manor.

Sew the blocks together.

Fold in seam allowances and stitch.

Stitch the rows together.

And Voila!

Thanks Pat! Thanks Zlaty!
What a fun way to make a quilt and it is quilted as you go!

If anyone is interested in the Fun & Done Patterns and the Batting Buddy templates, I just got some in. There are many wonderful patterns that you can use with the Batting Buddy.

Here are some more wonderful quilts shared by Pat.

Thank you to all that shared their projects. I love them!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Florida

2010-04-30T15:15:00.000-04:00

The end of March we went to Florida. My husband and son had business there and we wives got to go along. I just love road trips!
We stopped in Savannah on our way to Orlando. Savannah is definitely one of my favorite places. My hubby and I have been there before and find it to be just beautiful! I love the architecture, the stately trees with spanish moss hanging from their boughs, the beautiful flowers and friendly people.

When we got to our hotel in Orlando, Florida we found out that there was a home and garden show in the convention center adjoining the hotel. My DIL Zlaty and I decided to see the show. We saw many interesting and beautiful things.
Beautiful orchids!

Wonderful metal sunflowers!
I love the rabbit and the flowers!
And would you believe it, someone was refinishing a sewing machine!
There was so much more there to see.
We had a busy day. After the show, we were very tired from walking and decided to try out the hotel's spa. This is something I have never done before. So I proceeded slowly by just using their relaxation room. It was heavenly!
There were soft lights, relaxing music, water, fruit, pillows, blankets and whatever else you might need. I took my book along and read for a little while, but became so relaxed, I just felt like closing my eyes and going to sleep. If you know me at all, you know that I can't sleep during the day, so this definitely was nice.
I told my hubby about it and he suggested I set up a place at home where I can just go and relax. What a guy! I now have a room designated for relaxing. Ahhh!

After the spa, we headed to Universal Studios. What a phenomenal place! We didn't have much time there, so I just shot as many photos as I could while we walked around.
This was my favorite street!

Such fun!
Of course I did get to visit a couple of quilt shops.
This one was called Fireside Quilts. It was a cute shop in a house which I loved. The ladies were so friendly and they had many fabrics to choose from.

I hope you enjoyed my trip to Florida.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Retreat

2010-04-30T14:15:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone!
Yes, I am still around. I have so many things that I need to post and just not enough time!
First I will share about a retreat I had with friends back in March!
A number of friends and I rented a house for a sewing retreat. It was a great weekend! I highly recommend doing this with your friends if you ever get a chance.
We take projects that we would like to work on and just gather around a table and sew, talk and of course eat! Sometimes we even visit quilt shops! It doesn't get much better than that.

Mary is having fun working on her project.

Melissa looks like she would like me to put my camera away! :-)

Leisa is hard at work on her wool quilt.

Kathy was putting the pedal to the medal!

Here are some of the projects from retreat:

See, we actually did get some sewing done!

Zlaty from Zlaty Sews awarded me this Beautiful Blogger award. Thank you so much for thinking of me. Stop by Zlaty's blog and see the many beautiful things that she makes!
If you would like to pass this award on to someone, please feel free to do so.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Show & Tell

2010-03-16T17:24:00.001-04:00

Janie stopped by with some lovely quilt projects that she is working on.

Great job, Janie!

June shared this beautiful wall hanging. It is so peaceful looking. Just wonderful! Love it!

Club Day was last week and some of our members have been very busy.

Mary Alice made these lovely pillows.

Zlaty made this beautiful wall hanging.

Pat Christ designed this beautiful quilt.
Angie made the first block for her sampler. Beautiful colors.

Wonderful job everyone! They are absolutely beautiful!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

A Hint of Spring

2010-03-16T17:13:00.000-04:00

I know that Spring is definitely close when I see my crocus start to bloom. I just love the colors of spring. The beautiful colors of all the flowers and the blossoms in the trees, the greens of the grass, bushes and the trees, and the beautiful blue sky.

My quilting also turns to colors of spring. I am working on a Spring wall hanging right now and am in the mood for adding Spring colors to my stash! :-)
Try a quilt in Spring colors and brighten up your indoors!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Bunny Hop

2010-03-02T13:18:00.000-05:00

We just got in from Andover Fabrics, "Bunny Hop" by Kim Schaefer. This line features a cute bunny panel and springy coordinates. I just love it! Zlaty made a sample for me and it is beautiful. It makes me even more anxious for Spring to arrive! We have fat quarter packs, kits and fabric by the yard.

The pattern for the quilt is a free download from www.andoverfabrics.com.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Club Day Show & Tell

2010-02-18T17:45:00.001-05:00

We had some wonderful show & tell this week at Club meeting. I'd like to share some pictures with you.
Karen was busy knitting a couple of beautiful scarves and a hat. I just love the pattern of the hat! Beautiful, Karen!

My DIL Zlaty made these wonderful projects. I just love her log cabin wall hanging. It looks so warm and cozy! The lower quilt she made and is donating to Quilts for kids. For more info you can click here. Wonderful work Zlaty!

Brenda shared her antique dresden plates with us. She replicated the patches and made two of them from fabric that she had. She did a great job! It is difficult to tell which are the old patches and which are the ones that she just made. The yellow sashing is perfect! Next she needs to add the borders and the top will be finished. It looks wonderful!
I love old quilts. Have I mentioned that before! :-)

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Washington DC

2010-02-17T14:07:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we went to Washington DC with friends. We had a great time! While we were there we visited the American History Museum at the Smithsonian. Of course the first thing that I wanted to see were the quilts that were on display. If you ask at the desk, they have a list of the quilts, their history and where they are located in the museum. They had 3 on display at this time.

The first one I saw was Mary C. Pickering's Quilt. This quilt had appliqued floral baskets and vines with trapunto style quilting in elaborate fruit and floral designs.

The second quilt was a Hawaiian quilt. This quilt was made as a wedding gift for Rosina Georgetta Kalanikauwe-kiulani Ayers, who is said to have been a descendant of King Kamehameha.

The third was a reproduction of a cradle quilt. The original was made approx. 1836.

Next I went to see the First Ladies Dress Exhibit. They had some fabulous dresses on display. I really loved the inaugural gown that Helen Taft wore. It was from 1909, made of white silk chiffon with appliqued floral embroidery in metallic thread and embellished with rhinestones and beads. It looks so elegant and graceful.

Afterwards we visited Julia Child's kitchen. It was so cool to see where she prepared so many wonderful dishes! I have watched the movie Julie & Julia twice now. And each time I just want to go home and COOK!

While at the museum I also saw this beautiful embroidered pocket. I know from a trip to Williamsburg that women wore these to keep their sewing things in and I'm sure whatever else they needed. I love the idea of having one of those today, since I do not always have a pocket and it would be a great way to keep what you need to work on a project so handy.
We also attended a concert at the Kennedy Center and visited the Washington National Cathedral. They are both awesome places! I did not even see everything at both places and I was in awe of them. Hopefully we will get a chance to visit another time and see even more.

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Show & Tell

2010-02-03T14:40:00.001-05:00

I'd like to share some projects with you that some of my very talented customers made.

Tricia made this lovely bag called the Catalina Sling by Pink Sand Beach Designs. She added some extra pockets inside and one on the back of the purse. It turned out wonderful!

Stacey finished her Cottage Garden Sampler quilt top. It is beautiful! She did such a great job!

Carol stopped by and shared her star quilt with me. It is made with wool applique. Absolutely wonderful!

My Mom & Stepfather made this quilt many years ago. Mom wanted to put it on her bed, since it had been a while since she had gotten it out of storage. It was put together using a quilt as you go method. Don't you just love the old fabrics! It's wonderful!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Birthday Gift

2010-01-20T15:14:00.000-05:00

Hubby received a beautiful Birthday gift from Zlaty, our DIL. She made him a wallhanging with ships and lighthouses. He loves the ocean and ships, so it was just perfect for him. And for those of you who don't know this, I love lighthouses. She did a beautiful job with the quilting and even finished the quilt with a coordinated wavy binding. That could not have been easy to do. Thank you Zlaty. He loves it! It is beautiful!

You can see more of Zlaty's quilts here.

Philadelphia Trip

2010-01-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went away with friends to Philadelphia to celebrate my hubby's birthday. We had a great time! While we were there we stopped by the Comcast building. They have a huge tv screen built into the wall in their lobby. It is incredible! The screen just keeps changing and it is hard to tell that it is not a wall, but a screen. One of the things that they showed were some windows. I was so excited when I saw one of the windows had a quilt hanging in it, with a dress form in front. It's the little things in life that make us happy!

Here are a couple other scenes that appeared on the wall.

If you click on the picture you can see the detail of the people in some of the sections, like they are pushing the pictures across the space. They look so real, just like they are up there on the wall.

It is truly mesmerizing!

January Club Day

2010-01-15T10:55:00.000-05:00

We had a great turn out for club day. It was wonderful to see everyone! Many of the girls shared some show & tell. I just LOVE Show & Tell! Here are some of the great projects that the girls are working on:

Brenda has some antique dresden plate patches to put together into a quilt. I just love antique patches.

Leisa is working on a beautiful wool quilt!

Zlaty is working on beautiful tablerunners. I am so lucky. As you may remember I got one for a gift this past year and just love it! She also had two cute snowman blocks from Art to Hearts's "Be Attitudes" Book. I'm afraid that the picture turned out too light. I will share pictures of that project when Zlaty has finished them. They are just too cute!

Stacey got another row finished on our past year's club project "Cottage Garden Sampler" It is just beautiful!

Box of Chocolates. I just love the colors!

Pumpkins and Spice.

Clementines Secret!

Spring Tulip!

Winter!

Melissa shared many projects that she finished lately and some that she just is starting. I just love this mini quilt she made from her leftover scraps from one of the Happy Sewing Room Challenges.

Our club members have a choice of doing 2 projects this year. Southern Stars or Block Party by Paula Stoddard of Pacific Patchwork. Paula has wonderful patterns. You can see her designs here. The ladies doing the Southern Stars can make one block a month and the ladies doing the block party will receive a pattern for a quilt and newsletter featuring each letter of the alphabet each month. The newsletter contains directions for a 6" block of the featured quilt and the alphabet letter for a separate quilt and also a small project using the featured quilt blocks. If anyone is interested in doing block party and would like more info, please email or call me at 610-562-7173.

I hope you enjoyed the show!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

PA Farm Show

2010-01-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my hubby and I went to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. It is a great show with so many things to see. I am particularly interested in the Family Living Center displays. They feature cooking, needlecrafts, photography, nature and I'm sure more that I am missing. Of course, I headed right for the quilts and needlecrafts area! They had a nice selection of quilts and smaller quilted projects on display. I also really enjoyed some of the embroidery and cross stitch projects. If it has anything to do with needlecrafts, you can't go wrong! :-)

They also have a project where you can make a quilt block and enter it in their quilt block contest. They do have monetary prizes, but the best part about doing this is that the blocks that they collect will be put together and quilted the following year at the show and then the next year that will be their raffle quilt. The funds earned from the quilt raffle benefit the Farm Show Scholarship Foundation. I think that is a great idea!
This year they have designed a Pennsylvania Quilters Patch which features a picture of the raffle quilt on the patch. This year is the first in a series of them. I have started my collection and look forward to next year to purchase the next one.

They also have fashion sewing, knitting crocheting and so much more.
There are also many other areas of the show that we enjoyed. They do have many animals to see, things for kids to do, a great food court! and too much too mention.
Below are a couple other things that we saw.

Here is the link if you would like more info about the show.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-07T14:59:00.000-05:00

Wishing you and your Family a very Happy New Year!

Thank you so much for your support over the past 19 years! I have made so many wonderful friends throughout the years and I look forward to seeing you all this year!

Happy Sewing,
Jean

Card Tricks

2010-01-07T14:51:00.000-05:00

Sylvia stopped by for a visit and brought a quilt to share. She had chosen the fabrics from the shop many years ago and when I spoke to her, I asked if she would bring it along the next time she stopped by. She did, and I am so glad that she did! It turned out beautiful! I love the small and large card trick blocks mixed in the same quilt. Beautiful job Sylvia!
Thanks so much for stopping by. It was great to see you again!

Chicago

2009-12-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

We just got back from the windy city of Chicago! The one day it was -10 to -20 wind chill! That was not enough to keep us from going shopping on Michigan Avenue! My DIL and I had a great time shopping at many of the stores on Michigan Avenue. (Maybe I should say window shopping.) For those of you that may not be acquainted with that area of Chicago, I will tell you that they have many, many, many stores within a mile! Stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Cartier, Nordstrom, just to name a few. It was great fun just looking around. The shops were really decorated for Christmas, which I enjoy so much! I love to take pictures of Christmas decorations. They are just so festive and happy!

We went by train and had a stop at Union Station in Washington DC. This is their Christmas Tree! Absolutely beautiful!

These pics were from the train station in Chicago!

The view from our hotel room at sunset.

Just one of the beautiful shop decorations that I saw.

We did get to two quilt shops. The one was Quiltology, which I blogged about earlier and also a shop called The Needleshop. It was a very nice shop with prints from Amy Butler designs and similar fabrics. They also carried some fashion fabrics. They run many classes on dress making and bags. I didn't just window shop at these stores. :-) It's always great to add to the stash!

The Needleshop.

Winter Wonderland & Lebanon Quilt Show

2009-12-17T10:26:00.000-05:00

In early December we had a beautiful snow fall. The snow just coated everything and made everything just glisten. My hubby and I walked a trail and got a chance to enjoy all the beauty around us.

After our walk, we decided to head to LebanonPA for a quilt show. The Lebanon Quilters Guild had their show at the Fairgrounds and Expo Center. It was a very nice show with many beautiful quilts. They are very talented ladies. Not only was there a quilt show, but also a display of wonderful gingerbread houses and beautifully decorated trees! It was a very enjoyable day, indeed!
Here is a small sampling of some of things we saw.

Club Christmas Meeting

2009-12-02T15:39:00.001-05:00

Today ended another Club year. It was a fun year with much show & tell, sharing stories, laughter and eating! Today we had a Christmas celebration. I even baked cookies! Well, at least I baked them in my oven, I just didn't mix them up from scratch! Isn't it great to be able to buy cookies that you just break apart and then bake them! :-) There was a time, I used to bake from scratch all the time, but now time is at a premium and I go for simpler methods. I did get creative though and actually sprinkled cinnamon on the sugar cookies! :-)
I'm not sure what the club will be next year, but I will keep you posted. Meanwhile we will meet same time, the 2nd Wed. of the month. Thank you for your support through the year! You guys are great!
Hope to see you in January!

Notice the beautiful scarves knitted by Mary Alice for both her and her sister Eleanor. They are beautiful!

It looks like someone told a funny story!

Orange Crush Quilt

2009-12-02T14:57:00.000-05:00

I have been following Bonnie Hunter's website and blog for a while. I am hooked on her patterns. She is so talented and makes the best scrappy quilts! I just finished her Orange Crush pattern and thought that I would share a picture of it. The quilt pattern made a much larger quilt, but I decided that I would do one for my kitchen table for fall. I had figured out how many blocks to do and then the border, so that it would just hang over the edge of the table a few inches. I finished piecing the blocks and sewing them together and then decided on my best approach for the borders. As I looked at it, I thought why not make the border strips the same size as the cornerstones that I made for the corners of the borders. However, I forgot about adding extra for hanging over the sides of the table. Yes, you guessed it. I sewed it, then quilted everything and not until I tried it on my table, did it dawn on me what I had done. Well, all I can say is that I either have a wonderful extra large table runner :-) or I can use it as a wall hanging or throw for the fall season. It's still beautiful to me and I love it!
Bonnie offers many wonderful free patterns on her website. Be sure to check them out! Thanks Bonnie!

Here is a close up of a quilting pattern that I used from my favorite embroidery site.
Here is my quilt on the table, but no hangover!

Stacey's Christmas Quilt

2009-12-02T14:49:00.000-05:00

Stacey has sewn a number of Christmas Quilts this year. She just finished a lap size one for her Aunt. It looks wonderful! Good job Stacey!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-11-25T14:18:00.001-05:00

I just celebrated my Birthday last week. It was a great day! I received many well wishes, gifts and cards. Thank you! I wanted to share a picture of a table runner that my DIL Zlaty made for me. I absolutely love it and will cherish it.

To see more of Zlaty's beautiful creations, check out her blog here.

More new fabric!

2009-11-25T14:14:00.000-05:00

Thought I would share a pic of new fabric from Henry Glass & Co. called South Hampton. I love the rich fall colors and in particular the large floral print!

Shop Hop is Over!

2009-11-25T14:00:00.001-05:00

Our shop hop is over! We had a great time! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! Thanks to those who shared some Show & Tell too!

Janie also brought some show & tell:

You can buy some of Janie's things here.

7th Eastern Pennsylvania Shop Hop

2009-10-29T14:52:00.000-04:00

It's shop hop time! I just finished binding my shop hop quilt. The theme is Stone Cottage Baskets featuring the Stone Cottage fabrc line by Renee Nanneman for Andover Fabrics. It is a beautiful line featuring pinks, reds, browns, soft greens and cream. The blocks were designed by some of the ladies from our shop hop shops. Each shop sews the blocks and puts them into a quilt of their own design. It is like a quilt show, but you must travel to each shop to see their quilt. It is so much fun! The shop hop runs Sat., Oct. 31-Sun., Nov. 15. For more info, you can click here.
Here is a picture of my quilt and I also made a tote bag with my extra block. I hope you like it. My daugher in law, Zlaty quilted the quilt for me and I think it looks beautiful! Thanks so much Zlaty. I love it! Zlaty has a great blog! Check it out here.

Berry Basket Quilt Show

2009-10-28T16:59:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went to the Berry Basket Quilt Show in Marlton NJ. It was a very nice show. So many great quilts. I took at least 50 pictures! I will share a few of my favorites with you.

This one was at the entrance to the quilt show. It says "They touched the quilts at the quilt show." Too funny!

More Fabric!

2009-10-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

We just got in more fabric! I wasn't sure where I was going to put it, but I managed to find space. I love it all! When will I find time to make projects from all of it! :-)

Friendship and some Days to Remember by Mary Koval.

Folk Art Favorites by The Buggy Barn.

Batiks by Fabrics that Care.

Hopefully in future posts, I will have samples to show you made in all these fabrics! It won't be right away since shop hop is beginning next Sat., Oct. 31. When I get my quilt back from being quilted, I will post it on the blog.

And More Show and Tell

2009-10-19T16:08:00.001-04:00

I just love when my customers bring in their projects for show and tell.

This beautiful lady was made by Anita. She did a great job with the applique.

Brenda finished this bow tie quilt. She bought the blocks and put them together in this wonderful quilt. The bow ties are 3D. I love bow tie blocks!

Winter Blessings was made by Bev. She used needle punch for the lettering.

Sue made this great tote bag using part of the Pumpkins and Spice panel.

Great job ladies!

Quilt Retreat

2009-10-19T15:06:00.001-04:00

The other week I got a chance to go on a quilt retreat with a couple of friends. We rented a house in Lititz, PA and had our own private retreat. It happened that on the weekend that we chose, there was a chocolate walk on Sat. We bought a pass with a button and starting visiting many of the shops located in town to sample their chocolate wares. There were 30 participating shops. We made it to 24 of them! The samples were delicious and it was a lot of fun. Some places even had samples for your dog. Lucky Jasmine! She not only got some treats from me, but my friends as well. After the walk, we went back to the house and started sewing!

Chocolate Mice from the Chocolate Walk.

All of these are made from chocolate.

I got a chance to work on a surprise for my daughter. She loves Halloween and I saw a cute 12" wall hanging in the Fall issue of For the Love of Quilting by Fons and Porter. I started it when I was on the trip with my hubby to Illinois and just about finished it on retreat. I finished it when I returned home and thought I would share a picture of it.

Lots of Show & Tell

2009-10-15T09:01:00.001-04:00

Janie stopped by and shared some more show & tell. She is one busy lady! I love all of her projects.

Janie has a website where she sells some of her crafts here

The Shop is Overflowing!

2009-10-14T15:44:00.000-04:00

We got more new fabric in. We have gotten so much in lately, we now have to display it on the floor! It looks great! Here are some of the new ones:

Black and whites from Henry Glass & Co. called Masquerade.

Feline Friendship

Glow

Neutral Territory from Atkinson Designs

I have not gotten these new fabrics on the website yet, but if you are local, stop by and check them out.

Illinois trip

2009-10-14T13:44:00.000-04:00

I haven't had a chance to post for a while. I went on a business trip with hubby and we headed to Illinois. We stopped at a quilt shop in Chicago called Quiltology. A very nice shop with modern fabrics such as Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett and other similar styles. It is nice and bright with great samples. One sample that caught my eye was a stack and whack from Bethany Reynolds book
"Magic Stack-n-Whack Quilts". It was beautiful. I just love the colors!

We stayed outside Chicago and for two days I got to just sew! It was great! This is the first time that I took a sewing machine along on a trip. While hubby was at his conference, I sewed. I can't show you what I worked on right now, but I will try to get a picture on the blog by next week.