Quilt Show Part 1

I attended 2 quilt shows this weekend.
The first one was in the Tampa Convention Center and I have been waiting for months to attend this one.
I have no pictures to post about the Tampa one because it was a complete disappointment. 1 row of quilts and they were traveling art quilts.
I like art quilts but I prefer to see quilts that are more to my level-usable, daily life quilts.
So, my husband remembered that there was another quilt show in a town called Crystal River and it was being hosted by a guild. I love the guild hosted shows because I can buy books and magazines and quilt blocks for delightful prices and the quilts displayed are not artsy but comfortable quilts that I may also have in my home.
I mainly took pictures of the quilts that were hand quilted because those are the ones I favor the most.
I have to break the post up into 2 sections because it is picture heavy.
Enjoy.

It's growing...

Oh I bet you thought this post was about plants.
Nope.
My mini hexies are growing.
I see a potential problem.
How on earth am I going to quilt these tiny hexagons????

A Surprise in the mail

I won a prize from Paula at Coffee Time stitches and I really thought I had won some fabric.
I know Paula from a postage stamp swap she hosted in the summer . Now I use the tiny blocks for my mini hexagon quilt.
Well I was expecting just a fat quarter or 2 and this is what I got.
A cute bag which I will use to tote my hexagon quilt, a wallet with dividers inside, a needle case, a flower magnet(she knows my passion for flowers) a darling card, and the fabric one of which is orange my favorite color.
I was in awe, I could not believe Paula created all these goodies for me.
Thank you so much Paula.

Some summer towels

Finally completed the summer towels I started in December.
These take such a long time but are well worth it to me.

Salud

My neighbors simply love wine.
I designed this towel for them and embroidered Salud which is the Spanish word for health and is used when toasting with liquor or wine.

Birthday towel

Of course no birthday is complete without a kitchen birthday towel to add to the occasion.
Finally found a pattern in Quick quilts March 2007 issue.
Thanks to everyone who sent me links and ideas for the towel.

Selvages

My friend Diane wants to make her daughter a quilt from selvages since they seem so popular now a days.
I decided to help her out . So far I have 26 pressed and ready for her.
I am hoping to get into my fabric stash in the upcoming days so I can mail her a bunch while I am on spring break.
Give Diane an email if you too are interested in joining me in this endeavor.

Happy Birthday

My baby girl had her 18Th birthday a few days ago.
She needed a new bag to carry her textbooks since she is now taking college classes at night.
I have been designing this bag for over a month and finally finished it.
Now I want to make her a couple more so she can switch them out. They just take me a long time because I am busy working, gardening, hand stitching, do I need to go on, and on???
I cannot finish this post without thanking Helena she was my bag swap partner last year and the bag she made me was to die for,. She made the handles with binding and that is how I want to make all my handles forever. Thanks Helena.

The 1st row

OK, we will all agree that I have completely lost it!
A co-worker has the Cricut die cut machine and she made me a sheet of 3/4 hexagons.
Here is my 1st row of 10.
My husband says this will be a quilt for Barbie.
These hexagons are tiny . I put a sample of one next to my allergy pill to show the size.
It is alot of fun and I'd like to see how far I will take this.
I am using all the 1.5 inch charms I collected for the postage stamp quilt I was going to make. I have to trim these squares to 1-inch but this is alot more fun than the postage stamp quilt.
Stay tuned.
Join me in this crazy endeavor.

Lilybugs quilt

I blogged about the birthday quilt I was making for my granddaughter's birthday several weeks ago.
I purchased the pattern from Nanette
and I finally finished it.
Though Lilybugs birthday is not until October, time is never on my side.
Being that October is not around the corner, I was able to roll the quilt in an empty craft roll holder that was discarded at my school.
It is not quite big enough but it will prevent it from getting creased in the center.
I need to go to the carpet stores and get bigger rolls to roll up my bigger quilts.
Thanks Nanette for such a fun and easy project.