School Supplies!!! yea~~~

Who doesn't like to see shelves filled with new school supplies at some wonderful prices??? Me, Me, and Me~~~ I was always like a magnet with school or office supplies.
Well after visiting Wal Greens today getting some good deals on school supplies for Caleb PLUS getting some for me as well. Nope not going back to school but to use in my quilt room.
Great deals on the following at area stores.
Binders great colors to use to store patterns, magazine patterns ( cut out and throw/donate the rest of the magazine), or articles. Plus a lot of the sleeves to put them in on sale as well.
Mechanical Pencils Yep a whole package for $1.00 great to use in the sewing room.
Glue Sticks - nothing like the washable glue sticks for Paper piecing.
Tracing paper to use for paper piecing and applique pieces as well.
Paper nothing like stocking up so you can print out those great patterns/articles on the web, then stash them in the binder you just bought
Calculators some in great flashy color that scream you, to do those math/measurement problems.
Notebooks nothing like using them to write your dream quilts to do, make a list of the books you have so you can make sure you don't buy another one. How many of us have done that.. plus they come in some neat designs/colors/sizes. I know one gal glues snippets of fabric in a small notebook to keep with her in case she finds something to go with it..
Post it Pads great for marking magazine patterns/ideas you want to go back through, or on in a book, or to use on tops to make their measurements so you don't forget.
Dry Erase Boards great to use to doodle machine quilting designs.
Totes great time to find some cool colors to store projects in, fabric, and lots more.
Labeling Gun label those totes and binders so you can quickly find that project.
File Boxes use to store patterns in there under purses/applique/seasons etc.

Am I missing any more???? Any other ideas???

Please feel free to share them, I'd love to hear some more...

Playing in the sewing room

Well been piddling out in the sewing room. I'm getting back to sewing and dollmaking. I hate being in a slump. Since I got a booth at the local craft mall, mostly to get my creative juices flowing & get me back into dollmaking. I miss the creativity of it all. Plus after going to the quilt show really give me the umph to sew....
So here is something I finished up today. I thought she turned out kinda cut. The quilt picture is one of the kits I bought in Tennessee, cut out and sewed together in a couple of days. I made this for my husband Clyde as a thank you for letting me have a week with some wonderful gals at the quilt shows. Now I just need to quilt it for him. This is the 3rd or 4th deer quilt I've made him. He loves to hunt deer. I'm lucky to have such a supportive husband, truely blessed.
Wonder what else I can get into later today before church tonight since dinner is in the crockpot. I love my crockpot, such a time saver especially when I'd rather sew something. :)

Home From AQS Knoxville show

Got home early Evening yesterday from the AQS Show in Knoxville, Tenn. Had such a wonderful time spending with friends, sewing, going to some local quilt shows, and the Quilt show as well.
So lets start with the AQS Show. Very nice show, nicely put together. Lots of different type of vendors, would have like to seen some different designers or quilt pattern companies. I'd like to see some of the shops lower some of their prices as well. Yardages were around $9.00- $10.00, fat quarters were around $2.50,not a lot of "deals" going on. I like going to a quilt show trying to find something different, a deal or maybe see a sample and think "wow" I gotta have it. Which I did have a couple of "wow" moments but they were sold outta of the kits, on the first day!! Which shows they had some great samples made up. There was a great variety of quilts on display.There was a lot of "bling" on the them, but my heart tugs on the traditional quilts. I do wonder where the ones that are hand quilted, with a spin on a traditional blocks. I do get tired of the contempory ones. I can respect them, enjoy the creativity, and appreciate them but they don't make me want to make them.
The area quilt shops around seiverville / pigeon forge area was fun. We stopped at machine quilting by Iva. Very nice shop, friendly staff, great selection, and very clean. Lots of patterns, not a whole lot of books ( but I'm not a book person so didn't bother me), lots of purse books, and nice selection of different kinds of fabrics. Now they do have a dog in there to greet you. The gals were nice/friendly and lots of help. Lots of nooks and crannies to check out. Would go back in a heart beat.
Stopped in to Pappy's Quilt Shop in Marysville. Worth the drive. Very opened area, clean, lots of selections. Like the type of fabric grouped together. ( 30's, kansas troubles, black/whites), not too much on machine quilting thread, no biggie there. Nice selection of samples to drool over. Have a indoor/outdoor gray cat there, so just a note on that.Prices on fabric were very nice $8.00 and up. Some great strips they did themselves. The owner was there and was very friendly and her staff was fun and helpful. Really like it.
The other one is the Cherry Pit down in Seiverville. I have this in my Quilt Sampler so was excited to visit it. They had some wonderful samplers, great fat quarter selection. Hardly any thread just one kind. Different selection of fabric. I wasn't very thrilled with the staff, seemed kinda snobbish in a way, which might have been because they were a little busy. One gal wanted to take a picture of the shop, & the one gal said NO, almost in a harsh tone which I felt embarresed the gal with the camera. Then the lady went on in a very harsh tone, we don't let anyone take pictures unless you buy a kit & you take a picture of that only. After that I was ready to go. I did however buy some oranges for pumpkins. Their prices were on the $9.00 plus end. I don't know if I would return there or not, maybe change my mind in another setting or if wasn't busy. wait and see on that one.
I know I had a great time overall..... can't wait to go next year I hope to asked back. :)
will post more later.

Arrived in Tennessee

So much has happened since I last posted. Let's see, I had a quilt retreat at the beginning of May with a bunch of wonderful gals from the Ohioquilters yahoo group. Shopped until we dropped at some great quilt shops, ate some wonderful food from some good restaurants ( plus our caterer we had at the hotel), laughed until we almost cried ( well maybe I had some tears in my eyes a few times) and just sewed our behinds off. I just love that retreat, nothing like it.
Then school ended for my youngest Caleb, he is moving on to the 7th grade. Yea him ended on the A/B honor roll. So I'm a very proud mom.
As you all know my step mom passed away in February, then my brother in law passed away at the end of May.
I've been helping my Dad go through all of my late step mom's sewing/crafting room, he decided he wanted to yard sale everything since he has no use for it. So down into the basement we go. Many days & tons of totes/cabinets/drawers/boxes later the yard sale finally arrived July 9 & 10th. After two days of bringing things up from the basement, out of the closets & cupboards it arrived. Just to give you an Idea of a portion of what we were dealing with, We ended up just in fabric 6 - six foot tables of nothing but fabric stacked up to my chest ( I'm 5'3")3 tables filled with assorted craft supplies from cross stitching, floral, dollmaking and tole painting. I won't even tell you about the books or Christmas items. My dad was very please with the outcome & so was I.
So after that is all said and done I leave with a friend to Seiverville, Tennessee on Monday. Had great traveling weather & traffic. Had to stop at a cracker barrel for some lunch, nothing like starting a vacation with either good food or a quilt shop. Unpacked my van with all of my stuff for the week & looking forward to the Knoxville AQS show come Wednesday. One of the funny things as I'm unpacking I run into a group of gals from Mt. Sterling here at the Condos we staying at.
Today heading over to Holloway Quilts, lunch & maybe the pattern place near the old mill. I'll keep you posted, hopefully I can upload some pictures if I can figure out how to do it directly to the computer without the card reader.
Pray for good weather and good times.