quilty finds outside the quilt shop

I had the rare pleasure of going to the library without the kids this weekend. So I decided to peruse the craft section and see what I could find. Now I've requested specific quilt books from the library before, but never just looked through their shelves. I found some fun gems!

Some of these books are from the 80's, but they are still totally inspiring! And one reminder that as much as things change they still stay the same is the first page of Patchwork Portfolio (from 1989):

If you can't read that is says, "We often hear a distinction made between "traditional" quiltmakers and "contemporary" quiltmakers"....  As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to check this book out! I've been flipping through these treasures all week and looking at the beautiful work. I would encourage you to see what you can find at your library too!!

And, as an enabler, I felt the need to share. If you have been wanting this Rowenta iron for a while (like I have) and keep waiting for it to go on sale at Joann's? Forget about it! It's at Bed Bath and Beyond for $39.99 ($10 cheaper than my Joanns) and don't forget those 20% off coupons!

A little off topic.

Totally not sewing related today. But I know a lot of you are big readers like me. Did you read the Sweet Valley books when you were younger? I was obsessed with them. So I was really excited to see this....

Yup - she wrote a book about Jessica and Elizabeth as adults! And this really cracked me up. When you open the book, this is the inside cover.

That brings back some memories. haha! Just thought I'd share for any fans out there.  It's definitely a light and fluffy book, good beach read. (sorry for the crappy pictures, not sure what's up with my photo skills today).


That is all.

snow, ice and my first bee block

This is what things look like around here after our storm yesterday. It's pretty at least. But lots of branches are falling and causing destruction. Thankfully we didn't lose power.

I was able to get my block done for Sew Fresh Fabrics. They sent out the scraps I mentioned here. We could do anything we wanted as long as it was a 12.5 inch block.  I've never really worked with fabric that has pictures on it that tell a story. So I struggled with what to do with these. I knew I wanted those Castle Peeps to dominate, I love them so much!
It was fun to design a block around the fabric since I usually work the other way. Though I will say I was totally nervous cutting into these fabrics knowing that I didn't have anything to replace them with if I messed up my math! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope they like it!

Another bright spot in my day was when Fed-Ex showed up with this baby! I was a winner of Rachel's giveaway on P.S. I Quilt during the book blog tour. Wohoo! I'm so excited about this book, it's got some great patterns in it.

 

This is my favorite design in the book. I think I have a thing for diamonds.  This will be first on my to-do list from the book.

Definitely a bright spot in my yucky day. Thanks Rachel!