Quilt and a neat Fabric shops in Amsterdam

Now how about this shop.
It is "Nieuwe Hoogstraat"
They do not have a website.  It is listed as a haberdashery.
Just look at all these trims

Then there are more trims and ribbons!

Embroidered motifs.

How about fabrics?

and more fabrics.

and will you look at this,  Flamingo Fabric.
Of course I just had to have some of these.

Now how about these buttons?  I was in seventh heaven.
We found this shop at the end of the day, so only had about half an hour before closing.
I didn't get to get any buttons, but I know I could have done some damage.  We just had run out of time.
  These are so much fun to shop. 

While we were in Amsterdam, Jan and I made it our mission to visit the two known quilt shops.
They happen to be next door to each other and are each with their own personalities.
This first one, Den Haan & Wagenmakers BV.
What a lovely shop.  It had traditional dutch fabrics as well as several unique patterns.
I did have to buy a little bit.
There was a panel fabric, so I purchased several coordinating fabrics to go with it.
I think I am going to make pinwheels to fit as the borders.

Love, love this antique quilt they had on display.
I think those finished blocks are about 3 inches square.

Here is what the pattern looks like that I am going to try.
It sure will not be a full size quilt.  Just a mini.

Loved this flying geese quilt too.

The other quilt shop was right next door.
Birdblocks Patchwork & Quiltshop
This shop was bright, and had a lot of fabrics we see in the United States.
Loved all the mini quilts that were displayed around the shop.

Their business card has the Bird Block pictured in the top of this photo.
I love it.  I think I need a bird quilt.

I was fascinated by this one as well.  What a fun use of the Attic Windows pattern.
I was good and did not purchase a lot of fabric between the two shops.
I did get a cute Windmill pattern that is paper-pieced.

How about this for a "House Boat"?
I said they do all sorts of fun things to them.
It is just like having a home on land, not floating on a river.

And unusual building.
How about this one.  You can actually walk on the top of it as well.  It is the NEMO  museum.

Well that is about it for Amsterdam.  We headed to our hotel for the night.
The next day, Sunday the 14th of August we set sail.

More adventures to come.  This trip was truly a once in a life time.
As I look through my pictures and try to get my souvenirs and postcards in order,
so many memories are coming back.  I kept a written journal, and now doing my online journal.
I can't say enough how glad I was able to go on this trip.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend.
Mary 

"Mahalo" a new quilt

Sherry McConnell, of A Quilting Life visited our guild in July.

Her latest pattern "Mahalo" was the focus of our workshop.

What a pleasant lady.  She was so helpful, and full of tips,

on putting the block together.

This is her version of the quilt, with her newest fabric line.

She was so helpful on how the assembly worked for this quilt.
One block is made up of 16 smaller blocks.  How the 16 blocks are arranged
is what creates the overall pattern.

Sherry helping us out.

Someone in our group had purchased an antique quilt using a design similar to the one we were doing.

Everyone had different color choices.

How about this color combination.
I think it will be stunning.

I can't wait to see how everyone puts them together.

This one is so much fun.

How about this color combination?

Can you tell, this is what I am working on.
What a great way to use some of my Hawaiian fabrics.
After all, "Mahalo" is a Hawaiian expression for Hello, Goodbye, and Thank you.

Another great one.

Here are eight of my blocks together.
I need to cut more Hawaiian fabric for handwork while I am on the quilting cruise.

I am off to cut more fabric.  I have the background fabric cut and ready, it is the blades
that need to get readied.  (Even my background is a white on white Hawaiian fabric.)

Time to get busy again.  Have a great week.

Mary

Garage Sale prizes

Here is what I scored this past weekend.  There was an estate sale in the community where I live. There were a few things in the garage, not terribly impressive. The gentleman manning the cash box said there was more in the house. So inside I went.  Look what I found!  I love buttons.  These were the 2 baggies I picked up. They are old, and I just know I can use them on something. 

This is the second baggie I bought.  Don't you just love them?

And, she had fabric!!  Just what we all need, more fabric.  Some were older pieces, fat quarters, good size hunks, and a bunch of 2 1/2 strips all ready cut!  There were these 3 wonderful blocks that she had pieced.  This was so much fun to sort through when I got home.  It is not that I needed anything, but it was FABRIC!  I just could not bare the thought it might end up in a landfill. (I don't think so, she is a quilter. She just did not want to have to move this to their new home in Arizona.)

I am going on a retreat in Racine, Wisconsin this weekend, and some of those scraps and buttons are going with me.
I have been pulling projects and fabrics to work on.  The clothes are packed and ready to go.  It is so hard to decide what things to play with.  I hear we are right on Lake Michigan, there are views from the windows and a beach to walk on.

The retreat is from 4:00 on Thursday until noon on Sunday.  I am so looking forward to this. 

Have a great day sewing.

Mary

Fun purchases

I hand pieced 40 of this little guys while we were on the road. I really need to get this quilt done.  Time to move on it!!

Here is what I bought at the Aurora Sewing Center in East Aurora, New York.

These Christmas fabrics and a couple of fat quarters came from The Carriage Quilt Shoppe.  It too is in East Aurora, New York.  It is a small shop, but packed with a lot of fun things.

Here is my Vidler's haul.  I said it was a 5 and 10.  There is fabric, rubberbands, M & M's, airmail envelopes, bandaids, buttons, magnets, a package for Dummies, Beef on Weck, and measuring spoons for a pinch, dash, and smidge. They have everything under the sun.  I absolutely love to go there.  You never know what kind of good things you will find.

Heartworks Quilts and Fabrics in Fly Creek, New York.  The tied up Christmas fabric is for a cute set of placemats, that are quilt as you go. They showed they for every holiday. Simple and cute.

Last but not least, Pennington Quilt Works, in Pennington, New Jersey.  Ron picked out the two blue fabrics. I picked out the flamingos and pink to make another zipper pouch.  The Little Red Riding Hood, is actually a notebook with plain pages and graph paper.  Then a couple fat quarters, just because.

That is it.  I could have put a lot more pictures but that could get way too long.  I love to take pictures and am always trying for that one great shot!

Have a great day. More later

Mary

Fabric I got fabric

I wanted a variety of colors from Caribelle Batik.  I ended up purchasing some scarves,( 1/8 yard pieces). I picked up 4 triangle kerchiefs. These are about half of a fat quarter. The reason for these strange purchases is because their fabric is made up into clothing and accessories.  Quilting fabric was limited.

The piece in the back is a 2 yard cut.  That is the only way it was sold. That was a $40.00 purchase.  The smaller blue pieces are half yard cuts, 5 pieces for $50.00.

As I was checking out a lady was folding these pieces.  Had to have them!

Thought this piece would look nice in a small quilt.  The custom pieces beautiful.

In St Lucia, and St Maarten I saw these plaids. Loved the color combinations, one piece is a caftan, and one is a scarf.  I don't have a problem cutting these pieces up. I thought the colors were wonderful.  I really wished I could have found a fabric store.  I could have done some more damage.

See the two cute pincushions in the back, two ladies.  Love them.  These are things I brought back. I do love that batik.  It is so soft and wonderful.

Here is my coolest purchase.  A lady in Marigot Bay in St Martin made that cool sack purse, a water bottle holder, a scrunchie, and a headband all for $15.00.  Now that was the buy of the day!  These are all made out of rayon batiks. 

While on the ship Kaitlyn, our party planner, had craft sessions. I made a lanyard, cards, a travel journal, and  ribbon bracelets.  One of the dining room servers taught up origami. I made penguins, bunnies, a fish and a butterfly.  It was so much fun.  He said he can make 70 different origami animals and objects.  Then to top it all off, we got to decorate our Holland America totebag.  She had all sorts of things we could use to glam them up.

I love, love all my purchases and fun things.

Today is Thursday, and sew day.  Yea!  Can't wait to go and see my quilt friends  We have decided we are a "bee". We need every week and have lunch and sew and of course talk.  We have so much fun.  I miss them when I am not home.

Happy Day, Happy Sewing!!

Mary

What fabric should I use??

Decision, decisions, what fabric should I use?

When we decide to work on a project, something as small as a little table topper, we agonize over what fabrics we should use. This weekend I worked on making this little topper. The pattern and kit were purchased in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Attic Window Quilt Shop. It was easy. Here was this cute pattern, and the brown kit, using pumpkin fabric with accents of brown. Love it. It turned out great. Then I decide to make it again.

This time with Halloween fabric. I don't have a lot, but you think I could come up with 4 fat quarters that go together.

Then there is Christmas fabric. Now I do have quite a stack of various styles and colors of Christmas, but again 4 fat quarters that I thought go well together?? And last but not least 4th of July, or red white and blue. Surely that should not be a problem. After all I made 3 scrap flag quilts after 9/11. I have lots of basic red, and blues, and do have more patriotic fabric, with stars and flags and other symbols of patriotism.

Should I use this or this, should I uses contrasting fabrics, maybe it should be from a certain collection. Can I use a batik with a 30's, or how about with a civil war with it. Sometimes we just over think what we are doing. Are we afraid if we cut into a fat quarter, we could have used that one piece with something else down the road? Maybe we can never find that fabric again. Decisions, decisions. simple or complicated, we put our heart and soul in to our quilting.

Tomorrow we leave for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit with friends. Pat and I will leave Thursday morning to travel to Iron River for a quilt retreat. Several of her quilting buddies will be going too. Our husbands will have to fend for themselves for a couple of days while we are sewing our way to new quilts! My fabric is packed, and so are my sewing supplies, now I need to think about clothes! What should I take, will it be cool, or hot, capris, or jeans, t-shirts or sweatshirts? Again, decisions!

I will update when I return home. So looking forward to several days of sewing with quilting friends. Have a great week.

In quilting friendship

Mary