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The Northern Illinois Quilt Fest runs July through September and during this time some of the local barns and gardens are either featuring a painted quilt block or a quilt block garden, or both. Paige and I decided to hit the road yesterday for a little break from sewing and check out the ones that were being displayed locally in Crystal Lake.
First up was our local community college, MCC. The college has a small walking flower garden on campus. This was such a delight to me because I didn’t even know it was back there. If you’re a local, you should definitely take a little tour.
Everywhere we looked we saw perfect areas to drape a quilt, so we asked permission to come back and take pics. We had just finished up with one of our shop samples from the Pick A Bunch line. What better quilt to display in a flower garden than a sweet little quilt with colorful daisies on it.
This quilt was made from the Heather Mulder Peterson book, Living Large and the pattern was called Pretty In Pink.The original pattern had several appliqued flowers in the corners but we choose to leave them off. It was so sweet, it didn’t need any extras…it’s a Pick A Bunch of sweetness!
We took Summer Tweets along with us too. The Wrenly fabric was also perfect for these outside pics since it’s full of birdie artwork. There were two perfect spots to display it.
The quilts looked beautiful hanging in the sunlight surrounded by flowers and trees. This little garden would have made a perfect place for a small quilt display. MCC was featuring the quilt garden block on the tour, but to be honest, we still can’t figure out which block it’s supposed to be.
This barn is our local community space for people to plant a veggie garden who don’t have the space in their own backyard. There is acreage behind it and I always see the people back there tending to their garden. This block was the Weather Vane Variation.
Countryside Nursery hosted both the garden and painted quilt block…the St. Louis block.
And this one was a private participant in the tour. Their block was Ohio Star Variation.
I’d like to see them leave the painted quilts on the barns even after the show ends. Hopefully, Paige and I will be able to see more of the barns, gardens, and festivities in the other cities in the quilt fest through the next few months. We’ll be sure and take the camera along so you can follow in on the fun!
Have a great weekend everyone!
I hope everyone had a great holiday. It was pretty relaxed here. Some sewing, some embroidering…..what better way to celebrate Independence Day than stitching up these cute patriotic birdies.
I definitely should have used a muslin backing before stitching this block because you can slightly see my threads traveling behind the fireworks and that kinda bugs me…ugh. I changed the Birdies from holding sparklers to holding flags. Then put smaller sparklers on their breasts instead of the stars and stripes.
Thanks for a great 4th of July block Little Miss Shabby!
Tweet, tweet…
Valori Well’s newest line arrived last week! We have 11 bolts. The artwork is what’s really amazing. I was even thinking of stretching some on canvas to hang on the walls.
Aren’t these mamma birds cute?
We spent an entire Saturday ooohing and ahhing over these fabrics & Paige came up with a great pattern design to show off the big prints. The pattern will be available in the Etsy shop next week.
I picked up these rockers for my patio this weekend. The weather has been so nice. This is where you’ll find me if you stop by. So come on over. We can chat and sip some iced tea.
I’ll be looking out for ya:) Enjoy your weekend everyone!
I created our first Etsy Treasury the other night, Cordial Serenity, inspired by the SewMod colors…robins egg blue and chartreuse green. I choose the title based on robins egg being serene and chartreuse being named after a French cordial with a green color.
We’ve been in several Treasuries so I thought it was time for me to return some of the Etsy love. It was time consuming, but fun! To get a better view & description of what the items are, just click on the pic and it will take you to Etsy. I hope y’all enjoy!
‘Cordial Serenity ‘ by SewModDesigns
A pleasing collection of robins egg blue and chartreuse green inspirations.
 Pretty Paper Flowers – … $2.00 |  Chartreuse green – Duo … $5.98 |  13 Blue Green White Dis… $75.00 |
 L’Amour Dress Robin… $200.00 |  Small bowl in emerald g… $26.00 |  Handmade Turquoise/Robi… $19.50 |
 Oversaturated leaves O… $23.50 |  Green Linen Tea Towel -… $16.00 |  Vintage Shabby Blue Ste… $55.00 |
 ROBINS EGG BLUE Cotton … $22.00 |  Tiffany Blue Place Card… $30.00 |  Green with Blue Dots Ha… $15.00 |
 SET OF TWO – 16×16 inch… $30.00 |  Bubble bracelet $60.00 |  Summer Sky Collection -… $11.25 |
 White Lily Handmade Boo… $30.00 |
Do you ever get something in your mind and can’t stop thinking about it, wanting it? No, this isn’t another food post. I’m not talking about cheesecake or chocolate:)
It all started with this cute bicycle embroidery I drew.
Then, I found out that my neighbor, Mary Lou, from Customphotopics was selling this beautiful greeting card of a yellow bike with flowers, and well, my interest grew a tiny bit more. I bought two of them and placed one in the studio for inspiration. I get to look at this yellow temptation every morning. Be sure and check out her site. The card was even more beautiful when I received it!
An Etsy search turned this up. An 8×8 print called Basket of Tulips by Simplyhue. Seriously, now I’m just torturing myself with all the vintage goodness.
And this one from tresureagain.
Many of you locals will remember this in front of Tammy Tadd’s quilt store.
My Google results turned up these..
A wedding pic found here.
It didn’t stop there. I did a bad thing and did a Craigslist search for our area and found this. All that’s missing is the flowers. I need someone to talk some sense into me.
Help…
Or…I could try to win one & you could too! Riley Blake is having a quilt contest. Get a chance to win a Cruiser by making a quilt with Riley Blake fabrics and enter it in the contest. Details found here..Woo-Hoo!
As promised I’m back with the results from mine & Daisy’s stroll.
Here is my neighbor, Gloria’s, flowers. Baskets of Geraniums and Cranesbill Geranium ground cover.
My flowers aren’t so impressive yet. July/August seems to be my best bloomers. Daisies, Cone flowers, Daylilies, and last year my Impatiens were a whopping 30″ tall. So, we’ll have to wait for mine to catch up. This is my Clematis. Pretty decent this year but not loaded with blooms. Why? Too much shade maybe?
This is one not too far from my house…beautiful.
Daisies and I can never remember the name of the hot pink ones… Coreopsis maybe?
I visited the pond and saw this crane across the way.
And a mamma and daddy duckie protecting their babies. You can barely see them..I didn’t want to get too close.
If you really want to see some beautiful pics of flowers, you should check out my tea buddy, Joyce’s, Flickr photostream set. Just beautiful! Thanks for sharing Joyce:)
Sorry for our lack of blog posts lately. It’s summer here in Chicago…finally, and I gotta say, it gets harder and harder to do any work inside when you know that you only have a short window of hot weather to enjoy.
But, I have managed to make some more gumdrops:) We had a couple of custom orders last week. This one is a large gumdrop made from the Hoo line. Alternating pink plaid and sweet flowers with the strawberries on top. So cute!
And my neighbor requested a small volleyball one for her 13 year old niece’s birthday.
Since it’s so nice out, I think I’ll take Daisy and my camera out for a walk and see if we can get some good flower shots…I’ll share my finds tomorrow.
Birdie Block #6, finished!
While, I thought Little Miss Shabby’s June block was cute, I wanted to stick to a June theme. And what better thing to do in June than go to the beach. Birdie loves to surf and soak up the sun.
I continued with the summer theme by whipping up some summer tea towels. Umbrellas in the sand, flip flops and palm trees.
But you wanna know where I really like my umbrellas? In my drinks:)
susan enjoying her drink
It’s time to relax on the patio now with a Lemon Drop Martini and some black bean salsa. I hope y’all enjoy your sunny summer day…talk to ya tomorrow friends!
LEMON DROP
1 part Absolut Citron
1 part Triple Sec
1 part fresh lemon juice
Mix ingredients, shake and strain into sugar rimmed glass
SewMod