A Quilter's Day Out!

I am very pleased to announce that I will be the speaker at "A Quilter's Day Out" on May 2, 2012!

I am so excited, first of all, that I was asked to be the speaker. For the past 18 months or so, I have been less diligent with my patterns and my blog than I would like to be. Both my husband and my mother had some health challenges that needed to be dealt with, and thankfully both of them are doing much better now. I feel that this invitation is just the extra little push I needed to get me going again with my patterns.

The event is called "A Quilter's Day Out", sponsored by the Ohio Star Quilters of Warren, Ohio. The location is the DiVieste Banquet Room, at 754 North River Road in Warren, Ohio.

I will speak on how I got started with quilting/quilt patterns, how to pick colors for quilts and ideas for assembling.

The event also includes coffee and rolls, luncheon, mini mall with a variety of vendors, a display of quilts and smaller quilted items, and raffles.

Donation is $25. Contact Sher Johnson at 330-727-0631 for tickets.

Tickets are also available at these local quilt shops:

Just Quilt It, in Warren, Ohio (330-469-6956 or 330-847-0646)

Quilter's Fancy, in Cortland, Ohio (330-637-3106)

Quilting B's, in Cortland, Ohio (330-637-0002)

Olive Grace Studios, in Cortland, Ohio (330-637-0800)

Designers Two Fabrics, in Cortland, Ohio (330-638-3737)

Shaker Tree, in Garrettsville, Ohio (330-527-0112)

Bernina Store and Sew Much More, in Boardman, Ohio (330-726-9396)

Shaffer's Countryside Quilting, in Sharpsville, PA (724-962-9394)

Along with others, here are a few of my newer patterns that I'll be talking about on May 2nd:

Cucumber Harvest, Day 1

Day One of the cucumber harvest yielded 21 cucumbers! I just might have to buy a canner if this keeps up. There are TONS of baby cukes on my plants.

What have you been doing this summer?

In May and June I watched many baseball games--my son's team, Sharon Elks, came in first place in the Sharon Farm League with an undefeated record! We (we = me, my husband, my parents, my in-laws, my sister-in-law, my grandparents, family friends) really enjoyed watching the games--and really enjoyed the great coaching by my son's coaches, Coaches Voytik, Shaffer, and Weisen. These men were patient with the kids and really taught them baseball skills and sportsmanship.

For the Fourth of July we were at Kibbe's Island near Tionesta. This is a nice campground for families, and they have a tremendous firewords display. We went up last Friday and came home on Monday evening. It really was a relaxing weekend. Andrew was so busy with his friends--fishing, playing baseball, swimming, and riding bikes, that Michael & I hardly saw him! We all had a great time.

Now it's time to catch up with the weeding and the laundry! Followed by lots more summer fun.

2 New Patterns!

I have two new patterns for sale--"Crown & Tulip Four Patch" and "Bee Skep Pillow."



"Bee Skep Pillow" is made entirely of wool, although I think a Woolies flannel from Maywood would be terrific for the body of the pillow. If you don't have rick rack, or aren't a fan of rick rack, embroidery stitches would work just as well to show the 'layers' of the bee skep.



"Crown and Tulip Four-Patch" is wool appliqued on a cotton background. I had a nice plaid which I cut up to make the crowns. I used the colors in the plaid as a starting point for the other colors used for the applique.

These are both great applique projects for spring! They are both smaller, doable projects you can work on in the evenings after you've spent the afternoon cleaning winter out of the garden.

On an entirely different note and to follow up from my last post--Andrew's thumb is fine. Wrestling is over and now we're in the middle of baseball.

After a long time away . . .

Happy Valentine's Day! I realize I'm one day late, but compared to the fact that I'm 6 months late with a post, I think that one day isn't too bad--it's all relative.

To celebrate Valentine's Day I made my own "heart tree" using red and pink fabric scraps I had, and steam-a-seam 2 double stick fusible web. Basically I cut two squares the same size (5", 3", 2", etc) and made sandwiches of fabric, steam-a-seam, and fabric--with the wrong sides of the fabric against the steam-a-seam. Make sure you peel the paper off of the fusible web! After I fused the sandwiches together with the iron, I cut out hearts. I used regular thread to make a loop to hand the hearts. This was a simple, fast project. I really liked my "heart tree"--it added some color to our snowy winter. Here are some close-up shots:

Yesterday and today Andrew has been home sick with the stomach flu. He also has a broken thumb--he broke his thumb at wrestling practice about a month ago. This afternoon he gets an xray to see if he can stop wearing the splint. Fingers crossed!

Catching Up With Summer

Here's my small project for June--"Wool Pennies and Scallops"--it measures 8"x10" and is my interpretation of the traditional wool penny mats [patterns and kits are for sale at Shaffer's Countryside Quilting (http://www.shafferscountrysidequilting.com/) or by emailing me].







Where has the summer gone? I did have Wool Pennies and Scallops done and ready for sale before the end of June. As for my July project . . . well, it is still a work in progress:








I think I need to add something on the left side--a hummingbird? Bumblebee? I am waiting for inspiration!





During July I also made a wool picture:






The background is coffee-stained pages from an old book, and the flowers, leaves, vase are wool. "Wool picture" sounds so boring and not very descriptive. What do you think I should call these?


Now it's time to make the small project for August, which I haven't even started yet! Where does the time go?

New Pattern: "Summer Buds"

This summer one of my goals is to make one pattern a month for a small project. This is the first one of these patterns! I've named it "Summer Buds" and finished size is 21" x 27". I did wool applique on a cotton background--I also used cotton for the borders. I am very happy with the rick rack, and I also embellished the berries with seed beads, although that is hard to tell from this picture. As for the picture--honestly, this wallhanging is not crooked--my photography skills are crooked! Patterns are available at Shaffer's Countryside Quilting (http://www.shafferscountrysidequilting.com/) or by emailing me at darlenemccoychd@gmail.com .

The new Block of the Month started at Shaffer's Countryside Quilting last weekend. I am happy to say that I am designing this quilt for the store. No applique this year, though. If you are interested in signing up, call Judy at 724-962-9394. Here's the first block:

I'm working on my next small pattern--June is just around the corner!

Have a Happy Memorial Day!

Win "Fresh from the Garden Gift Set" from the Vintage Workshop

If you haven't checked out The Workshop Window, the blog from the Vintage Workshop, you are in for a treat! They have so many great ideas, and now they are having a contest to win one of two gift sets of bags, aprons, etc.--really, there are too many goodies for me to list them here--and all of them have images of vintage seed packs! Click on the link below to see the gift sets and to enter the contest! I know you'll be adding The Workshop Window to your list of favorites!

http://blog.thevintageworkshop.com/?p=1618#more-1618

I've been having a busy spring--not only sewing but gardening, too. I have a couple of new projects in progress. I'll be posting pictures soon!