Head For The Mountains (Spokane, WA)

Travel Day!  We are leaving Spokane and heading west over the North Cascades Hwy.  I have updated our map to include Concrete, WA.  You can see our travel plans on our 2012 Map page.

We plan to spend one night in Winthrop and four nights in the North Cascades National Park.  We should have WiFi when we get to Concrete.

Dusty sleeping with his tongue out.

Until we get there, I plan to close up my Etsy shop and of course, there will be no blog posts.   Recently, I have been needing more downtime from the computer.  It seems to be taking over my life!

And yet, I cannot stop for too long because I have made so many online friends.  I love to read about their latest projects and family outings...sigh, I miss them already!  In the meantime, I hope to get a lot of scenic photos and get some more projects done.

On The Cutting Board
I finished the embroidery on the bunny wall hanging.

You probably will notice the background is a little wavy.  Yep, the batting shrunk when I ironed the fusible webbing to the background.

I used the Wool setting, but apparently that was too hot and the batting shrunk.  When I tried to embroider the ears to the background...well, that just made it worse..  Bummer.  I'm going to do some heavy duty quilting on the background.  Hopefully, the quilting will flatten it out some more.

Whew!  It's a good thing I am making this for myself.  I don't think I would want to give anyone this wall hanging.

Mad Max close-up

Happy Trails!

Bunny Wall Hanging (Spokane, WA)

I was so excited about my little wall hanging kit that I decided to start working on it this week.  I'm glad I took inventory because I was missing an 8x12 brown background piece.  

I had two greens, but no brown.  Hmm, not a good start to my new project. 

I double checked the material included list...

No, nothing specific here.  So, I looked at the materials needed.....nothing saying I needed to provide the brown fabric.

Lucky for me, I have a small amount of golden brown floral print that I feel is a perfect match. 

So, after that first bump, things were moving along well.  I traced out the bunnies on double-sided fusible bonding.  Ironed it onto the appropriate fabric.  Cut them out.  Sewed the background together.  Ironed the bunnies together using my appliqué pressing sheet for correct placement.  I did not take a photo, but here's one from a past post if you would like to see the technique.  And I  placed the cut pieces on top.  Hmmm....the ears seem a little big... 

so I compared them to the pattern.  Yep, correct size.  

I don't know how I could have made them bigger since I traced them from the pattern, but you never know with me.  Looked at the picture to make sure I was placing the ears in the correct position. 

Measured the background to make sure it was the correct size.  That was correct - 10x16.5 inches.  

I tried to moving the ears more upright with the thought that the tips would be on the background.  No go.  Plus the ears made from batting is fused to the back of the hat.  When I tried to move the ears, the batting started pulling apart.  

Okay!  Back to the drawing board.  Should I make the background bigger?  Mmm......no and tell you the truth, I liked the ears hanging off the background.  I decided to fuse some of the brown floral fabric to the back of each ear and I will embroider the edges together.  I think that will work just fine.

Well, back to my project....    Happy Quilting!

Off To Buggy Barn (Spokane, WA)

Okay, you caught me.  I played hooky last Tuesday.  No blog.  No message.  I hung out my sign "Gone Shopping" on the motorhome and I did not look back!  My sister-in-law Kristy invited her sister Sue and I to join her in a morning of fabric shopping out in the country.  It's a good thing she called me instead of asking in person.  I was doing a lot of jumping up and down and dancing....yea, it probably wasn't pretty.

So, we headed off to Reardan....down a country dirt road...through rolling wheat fields to a farm.  Farm?  That's what I said...farm.  Our destination - Buggy Barn!  

The quilt shop is actually in an old carriage house stuffed so full of fabrics, kits, books, and quilts that I got whiplash trying to look in all directions at once.  There were quilts on the walls, doors, and on the ceiling!  Even the bathroom walls were covered with enticing wall quilts.  Sigh!  It was heavenly! 

The Buggy Barn Quilt Shop

 

After buying a few choice items, I took some pictures of the farm.....

Quaint country drive to the house

 Buggy Barn also has an Annual Outdoor Quilt Show on August 25 & 26.  It looks like a lot of fun.

For being a small shop out in the country, they certainly were busy for a Tuesday morning.  A testimony to Buggy Barn's friendly and very helpful staff.  Not to mention, a shop packed full of so many delightful items.

New for The Cutting Board

One of the items I could not resist was a cute Bunny wall hanging called Bunny "Door" A Doodle by Leanne Anderson.  It was hanging in the bathroom.  What can I say...I had some extra time to inspect it and the more I looked at it the more I wanted to make it.  The kit came wrapped up in this little box.  What a great packaging idea.

Here's a photo of the wall hanging.  Isn't it cute?  A perfect Spring and Easter greeting for our door.

It was hard to believe that all the fabric fit inside this tiny little box with the pattern and instructions.  Of course, I still need to come up with backing, binding, and batting to finish it, but that will not be a problem.  I'm sure I have something stashed away that will work just fine. 

Check out all the cute designs in Leanne's website "The Whole Country Caboodle".

I could not resist this embroidery and quilt pattern by The Birdhouse Patchwork Designs.  Natalie Bird's designs are so adorable!

 There are sixteen embroidery designs and four quilt related patterns.

Hitch wanted to help, so I let him hold the book open.

I was able to fulfill my fabric mission too.  One item I know I did not have in my stash was enough yardage to match the Fancy Sue blocks.  The material in the blocks were donated to Project Linus and I did not have a single yard of matching fabric.  With some help from Kristy and one of the staff, I found a nice shade of rose floral fabric.  I think it will help set off the blocks rather well.

I put the blocks aside last winter.  I still need to finish a few more blocks.  Now that I have fabric for sashing, binding, and backing, there's no excuse not to finish this quilt.  Unless...I get distracted with embroidery or a bunny wall hanging or ......

Happy Quilting!