My Sewing Studio

Well Swooze wanted pictures, so swooze gets pictures....LOL

Here's the pics of my sewing studio...the room is not all that big (only 12x12) but I have ALOT packed in there! The closet is filled with my stash and my embroidery machine sits ontop of one of my drawer units.....and my HQ16 takes up the only wall without a window, door or closet....

A Fun Outing Today!

Well my 13 year old daughter's symphonic band participated in the District Band Festival today near Ocean City Maryland, so mom and I drove down to the school to see the performance....The kids did a great job!! We will find out their scores tomorrow :)

On the way back from the festival I decided that we would stop at the quilt shop that I rarely get to because it is 2 hours away in a direction that I rarely drive...Well boy am I glad I decided to stop there! I was walking around the shop and noticed they had a Madiera thread chest there....I have been wanting this thread chest since I got my first embroidery machine almost 2 years ago! So I asked her if it was for sale....She said yes and gave me a price, so I called hubby to make sure he hadn't spent money on anything big since he left for work this morning and went back in to buy it....Well it was the last one so she sold it to me and gave me a 10% discount :) Here's a picture of it:

And here's a silly picture of my daughter....She got a package in the mail today with a bunch of anime stuff (she's very into the anime) and decided to put everything on and have me take a picture of her....LOL (By the way, she's standing in the foyer and my new double doors are behind her - I love my new doors!!)

Here I am!

Well in case anyone ever wondered what I look like.....LOL......Here's a picture of me from the retreat last weekend....It was taken on St. Patrick's Day and I just had to celebrate in honor of my Irish hubby! Enjoy!

A New Toy for Me & Progress!!!

Well this certainly fits into the Stashbuster Ring Topic of the Week.....Machines!!!

I got an early birthday gift from my mom (my birthday isn't until May), she and I went out yesterday and traded my Janome 4900 in on a Janome 6600, complete with the 1/4" foot adapter for the AccuFeed system!! I just love love love this machine!!!

In total, I have 7 machines in my sewing room (but 10 total sewing machines in my home). My new Janome 6600 is my primary piecing machine and I also have an HQ16 system for long arm machine quilting and a Brother PE700 Embroidery only machine....The 3 machines are setup at all times in the sewing room and are operational on any given day depending on what I am in the mood to do.

The other machines in the sewing room are my Centennial Edition Singer Featherweight (which I intend to use for classes, but always find a reason to take my big machine), an Elna 9006 sewing/embroidery machine, and Elna 6003 Quilter's Dream (this was my first "real" quilter's sewing machine) and a Brother SE270-D embroidery machine. The Elnas are my backup piecing machines and the Brother is my backup embroidery machine...

I also have my grandmother's Singer cabinet machine (a 301 I think) in my dining room and my mom has a Singer sewing machine and an Elna serger in her bedroom...

So we certainly have plenty of machines in the house....LOL

So, in the world of progress.....This afternoon I finally finished the round robin that I have been working on for quite awhile, it took me forever to figure out what to do and I am very happy with the results and I hope the owner is as well when she gets it home :)

Back to enjoy the new machine some more :)

Back from Quilt Retreat aka "Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are"

Well I am back from a 3 day quilt retreat with my guild in the lovely mountains of southern PA!! As always we had a blast!! Our table is the "rowdy bunch" and we tend to entertain ourselves by singing anything and everything that happens to pop into our heads....LOL

It was certainly another weekend full of good fun, good food and great friends!! We even somehow managed to get some quilting done amidst to roaring laughter....First I'll set the scene for Friday.....

I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland....it's normally a 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive for me to the retreat center.....This time I left at 11am with plenty of daylight ahead....so I should have arrived by 1:30pm at the very latest.....I finally arrived a little after 3pm....When I left the house it was raining.....about an hour into my drive the rain turned to sleet....and I was climbing the mountains of western Maryland toward Chambersburg PA....Soon the sleet turned to snow....so I drove an average of 15 MPH on the interstates...surrounded by tractor trailers....sigh

When I finally arrived at the retreat center there was already 4+ inches of snow on the ground...and it was lovely....I was very happy to park the truck and set up to sew sew sew the weekend away!

I brought 3 projects with me.....A Pink and Brown Turning Twenty Again which I had cut out on Thursday night.... A pack of FQs and pattern for a Trip Around the World Variation called "Wanderlust" that I bought at the Hampton VA show a few weeks ago......and the rest of the siggy blocks that I needed to finish for a swap on my HQ16 list.....I am happy to report that I finished everything I brought with me (except for the quilting of course)....I was thrilled to accomplish so much.....I even managed to get some shopping in and a trip to my friend Nancy's house to "shop" in her sewing room....LOL

I managed to use up 7 yards of fabric......and brought home 35+ yards of new fabrics and a bunch of quilt books and some patterns....LOL...I also picked up my set of Black and Bright Pieced Tulips from a guild swap that I joined at the last retreat in November..

OK....so here are the 2 tops that I finished this weekend......

And here's Nancy showing off the Stack and Whack blocks she was working on.....

And here's Nancy's Coffee themed Turning Twenty Again (she sold me the other half of her fabrics so I can make one of my own)

This is Fran and her weekend project......This is a lattice quilt top that is designed as a fat quarter quilt...She used the "He Loves Me" line of fabrics from Maywood Studios and it is just STUNNING!

These "monsterous bugs" were the talk of the retreat! They were designed by Jane (one of the very artistic ladies in the guild and at the retreat) and she assures me they will be on the market at some point in the future....I just cannot wait to get the patterns and make my own!!
























Hope you all enjoyed seeing how I spent my Quilt Retreat Spring 2007!!!

Pictures of The King!

The King is Done!!!

Well it's official (finally)....The King is finished!!! YAY!!!

No pictures yet, but I will take care of that tomorrow afternoon/evening and post them!!!

Then it's gonna get packed up in a BIG box and mailed off to Swooze!!!

I'm so glad to have it finally finished!! I hope swooze and her mom like what I did :)

Now onto the next project!