AQS Purchases

I could NOT walk away from all the cute children's quilt patterns I saw at the AQS show.  

I snagged just a few (gross understatement, LOL)

I thought about trying to embroider some dish towels for hubby for Christmas.  

I bought two different patterns.  

I thought some would be cute in the camper too.

I love this book and can't wait to make things from here too.

 I bought some cute cat fabric and found some awesome Petosky stone fabric too.

The rock hound in me could not walk away.  I used to hunt for these every summer up north.

I hope to start on a new baby quilt soon that will be using these colors.  

I need 1/2" and 1" rick rack for the quilt as well. 

I found some half inch so bought that.  Now to look for the 1".  

Anyone got a source for that??

By far the BEST find of the show is this original Heather Ross Mendocino!!  

I could not believe my eyes when I spotted this. 

It is the original NOT the reprinted stuff! 

 Could it get any better?  

You bet, it was on the clearance table too!

Stopped at Stitched Studio and found these beauties.

VERY productive trip.

I can't wait to dig in and sew.

I really need my "have to" projects to be done, LOL.

~XOP~

AQS Grand Rapids

On Wednesday I went to AQS with my SIL in Grand Rapids.  

We had such a great time!  

I took a few photos of some of the quilts I really loved so thought I would share.  

There was a guild challenge and it was to use the Bow Tie block in your quilt somehow.  

I took pics of a couple I really liked.   

The Mary Poppins quilt was pretty sweet.

I loved the geometric hide and seek of this one.

By FAR my favorite was this one using the Bow Ties for the body and heads of the black cats!

I LOVED seeing this quilt that featured Tula Pink's Neptune line

P is for Pokemon!

I thought this was stunning.

I found this interesting as I have considered making a quilt along this line.  

THIS was my favorite quilt of the whole show.  My photos do NOT do it justice.  A giant flowering snowball with Ohio stars inside.  The quilting was amazing too.  LOVED THIS!

The Cherry Wood fabric challenge had all these gorgeous blues.

I fell in love with the cat.

Big surprise right?

This was in a fairy tale challenge quilt.

I love how they pieced this cat face!

I bought a few things and will share about that tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into the show!

~XOP~

Catching Up

I feel like I have so much to catch you all up on and have been too busy to write anything much! 

 I went with a friend to the AQS show in Grand Rapids last week and we had a blast! 

 So many beautiful quilts!  I think this one was my favorite. 

 I want to make a Viking quilt some day too and this one was fabulous!

There were so many beautiful quilts!  These are just a few of the ones I liked. 

 Hubby is a pilot to this depiction of the Blue Angels was pretty cool.

My best friend has a Double Yellow Headed Amazon so I took this shot for her.

The Koi pond was striking.

Of course I loved the cat ones!

As much as I loved all of the quilts it was very exciting to me to get to see Sylvia's original 

Epic Halloween QAL quilt. 

 It is the one that inspired my Hallowedding quilt!

Here is my Hallowedding Quilt so you can see the differences.

Of course no trip to a show is complete without visiting the vendors!  

I picked up a few patterns and this amazing seam ripper/stilletto combo.  

This shows it fully opened.

Then pull them out and turn them around and it is all closed up!  So cool!!

I found a cool pattern for a cat bed too. 

 I already had the insert so now I need to put this on my short "to do" list for the kittens!

Last but not least were some patterns. 

 I bought the two Lynette Anderson patterns on the left and the fox quilt on the bottom at the show.  The other two I bought last weekend on our camping excursion to Shipshewana 

(more to come on that soon)

I am so excited to tell you all about the camping trip too.  

Soon!

Stop back tomorrow for WIPs With Friends!

~XOP~

AQS In Grand Rapids

Last Friday my friend, Judith and I drove to Grand Rapids to attend the AQS quilt show.  

We drove right there and we got there just as it was opening. 

We had a fabulous half day at the show.  

We met up with my friend Windy and she is always fun to hang out with.

 In addition, I got to meet one of the founders of the national Modern Quilt Guild, Latifah Saafir!!  What a sweetheart!  I did take some photos but not too many.  

First were some of the guild challenge quilts. 

 I tried to catch the tag with the info on it as to who the artist was.

I loved this one called When Raven Dreams, by Stacy Hurt. 

I have seen a photo of these bees before but they were even cuter in person.  

I believe this peacock quilt won best in show.  It was hand quilted and gorgeous!

Close up of those birds!

This one had peacocks too!

This Storm at Sea was pretty sweet.

 This quilt was simple but the quilting was just stunning!  

I really loved the way it looked like plants in the background too.  

After we looked at the quilts we hit the venders.  

I have to say that I was disappointed in the fabric selection at the show.  

Almost no modern designer fabrics. 

 Also, Bloc Loc rulers (which I love) always sells out of their show specials and 

this weekend was no exception.  

That was disappointing.

There was a cool new Creative Grid ruler called Stripology that you can use to cut strips and squares with and both Judith and Windy bought one.  

I was sorely tempted! 

 I did buy a pattern to make this beauty.  

Designer Laura Heine (Fiberworks) had the BEST booth at the show.  I love her patterns!

We left the show and drove to the Westsider for lunch. 

 I seriously love that place!  

Windy rode with us so we brought her back to the downtown and headed out to Stitched Studio.  

One of the best modern fabric shops. 

 You can see Judith buying some fabric here.  

I picked up some Tula voile and a little bit of her True Colors line.

One of the fabrics that we had been on the hunt for the entire trip 

is this Zinnia in lime, by Kaffe Fassett.  

We made one stop on the way home at the quilt shop in Holt, as I wanted their Row By Row pattern.  We were shopping and when Judith looked down, there was a bolt of this!!!  

Unfortunately she was still 3 yards short (it is for the back of a quilt she is making). 

 I found the additional 3 yards on ETSY this weekend!

We arrived safely back at Judith's house, looked at her garden (so jealous), had a cocktail, did some consultation on her latest 2 quilts talked for awhile then headed home.  

All in all it was a fabulous outing.

I worked on the Bee Positive quilt all weekend and got the top put together, 

embroidered the label and put the back together. 

I dropped it off with Kathy at lunch and asked her to work her magic.  

I even got the binding all set for when I comes back!  

How was your weekend??

~XOP~