Busy Week!

Tuesday was Shipshewana day!.  United Airlines, Mainliner Club, sponsors a bus trip to Shipshewana every year. The bus leaves the reservation office in on O'Hare's grounds.  7:00am sharp is take off time.  We make a pit stop about an hour out from Shipshewana.  The driver lets us off at the entrance to the Tuesday Flea Market.

I immediately head to Yoder's to see what new and exciting things they have.  They have expanded their fabric department, and seem to be adding new things all the time.

The Cotton Corner, is a fairly new addition of fabric and sewing machines.

At the Davis Mercantile, in downtown Shipshewana, where Lolly's Fabrics is, was this beautiful quilt on display.
We arrive back at the reservation office about 9:00pm, after a full day of shopping and food.

Harriet Hargrave was the guest speaker at the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Guild on Thursday evening. WOW! what beautiful machine quilting she does. She gave us insight on using different types of batting, and types of thread to use when we use our home sewing machines for quilting.

This is the quilt on the front of her book, and was done on her home machine.  It is incredible.

Here is a sampling of her quilts.  It was a great evening.

This week a made this little Sunbonnet Sue quilt.  My friend Linda, in Elgin and I had cut these on her Baby Go, back in January.  She got hers done right away, but not me.  I was a bit afraid, as this was all machine appliqued and machine quilting.   Don't look close on the machine quilting.  I had to twick how this went together. It does lay flat!! Yea for me.  I need to work on the backside tension, but  all in all I thought I did pretty good. Definitely learned a few tricks.

Got this pincushion finally done.  It is from Kansas Troubles Club last year. I had gotten the wool sewn on the top, but no buttons, and not completed.  I had carried it around with me for a couple of months with the idea of putting the buttons on so I could complete it.  Did not happen until this week.  Another project done!

Monday, when my friend Jane was over is when I worked on Sunbonnet Sue, and the pincushion. I got these two zipper bags done as well. Liked how they turned out, too.

Like to work on hexagons when I get the chance.  These are great take along.

Sharon and I at our Thursday sews made these hexagon pincushion, tool caddy. They turned out a tab bigger then we thought they would.  Now I want to play with a couple of different sizes.  This one is using a 2 in hexagon.

This is one of the things I have been working on with my little hexies.  Now to applique and quilt this. Another great take along.

Treasures from my trip to Shipshewana.

It has been a great week. The weather was in our favor. Warm with a light breeze.  It has been great having the windows open  and letting the fresh air in.  The reports are that we are in for a hot week.

Have a great weekend. Happy sewing!

Mary

2012 Celebration of Quilts

Saturday, June 2, the Village of Oswego and Prairie Stitches Quilt Shop, staged their first ever, Celebration of Quilts.   Prairie Stitches was one of the featured shops in Better Homes and Gardens, Quilt Sampler in 2011. They had over 200 quilt entries. Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts, was the featured speaker. There was a bed turning of beautiful antique quilts. Jinnie of Lots of Fabric 2, blog has great pictures of the antique quilts.
There were raffle baskets, quilting demonstrations, quilt appraisals and a few vendors.  The weather turned out to be gorgeous. Not too hot, sunny, and a light breeze.
There were quilts everywhere.  The stores on main street, even got in on the fun.  They had quilts displayed in their windows, and  on the fence along the sidewalk.
Our local Senior Center, had a garage sale in the old firehouse building. They were doing a booming business. The Seniors, and another local organization set up food tents. I think every ones needs were covered.

Quilts were even on the side of the old firehouse.

Prairie Stitches, created a raffle quilt, using the pattern, "Scattered Stars" they had created when they were in the Quilt Sampler magazine. This one was done in red, white and blue.  It is a great quilt. Tickets are still available. The drawing will be July 3. Proceeds from the sale of tickets are going to a local charity.

As you can see, there was a great turn out of quilters and friends.

A wonderful rendition of "Stitchers Garden".

Love the colors in this one.

Wonderful shades of pink and brown.

The wonderful ladies from Yellow Creek Quilt Designs, in Pearl City were there with their wonderfully small hexagon and log cabin quilts.

This beauty is using Australian fabric. The blue set it off.

Love the 9 patches and appliqued flowers.

One of these days, I would like to make this quilt.  I have seen it a few times in magazines, and loved it.  Seeing one in person makes me want to do it even more.

Our town has a fence along one side of main street.  A perfect place to display smaller quilts. Love this one too.

In front of Prairie Stitches Quilt Shop

Another street view. The quilts were wonderful.

One of the signs at the quilt shop. Have scissors, will travel!
As you can see, it was a great day for an outdoor quilt show.  Prairie States with the Village would like to make this an annual event.  You go girls!!

Have a great Sunday.

Mary

Mark Lipinski

Last evening I had the pleasure to go to the leacture and trunk show featuring Mark Lipinski. Prairie Shop Quilts in Batavia was the sponsor for this event. Most of our bee "Prairie Friends" were in attendence. He had a lot of neat quilts and fun stories. He walked amongst us while he was talking. He talked about his son Evan, his starting in quilts, about his magazine and life in general.

His quilts are vibrant, color abounds. His silk quilts are beautiful. He talked about the "shocking quilts" that were a story that was heard around the world. One of the quilts in the story was from Diane Johns, who was a member of Dekalb County Quilters Guild. "The L Word" quilt was not allowed to be shown at the quilt show. Several of the guilds members were at the lecture. It is ashame when quilts cannot be shown because they are not"traditional".