Did you come by our booth at
Quilt Festival in Houston
while we were sold out of Apliquick Rods?
Well, they’re back in stock, fresh from Spain!
You can order yours today on my website.
If you don’t already know how wonderful they are,
you can watch a short video demonstrating them below.
I don’t know what I’d do without mine!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
I hope you have many blessings to be thankful for today!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
We’re back from Fall Quilt Market and Quilt Festival
and most of my catch-up work is complete, whew!!!
What a busy, tiring and fun trip.
It took most of our kitchen to hold all the “stuff” that I packed into the van…
Everything was labeled & packed tight for the 15 hour drive.
Nothing worse than listening to things rattle for hours on end.
Ask me how I know!
My super booth helpers (market slaves), Robin (Nestlings by Robin)
& Chloe & I had the booth set up in no time!
That’s a bit of an exaggeration.
It did finally get set up Friday evening after
a schoolhouse session with Pepper Cory & Studio e Fabrics & her Designer RSVP Blocks that
Robin & I participated in, making blocks with her Peppered Cottons:
Yes, Robin the overachiever made 2!
Then, 2 Schoolhouse sessions showing my new Tiny & Mini Dresden plate book & patterns,
and then the C&T Schoolhouse session introducing the
13 new quilts from Dresden Quilt Workshop:
Then there were book signings introducing Dresden Quilt Workshop.
A couple of mornings before market opened,
we walked part of the show to see what else came to Houston besides Suzn Quilts.
Here’s a look at my fav… Jo Morton’s newest line, New Hope, yum!
I’m pretty sure Jo designed this collection just for me ;)
(Spoiler alert—-You’ll be seeing a lot more of this collection!)
Betsy Chutchian’s new collection was very pretty.
French General’s new collection was lovely too.
Lella Boutique also very pretty.
Tim Holtz, always super cool!
Jen Kingwell, WOW!
Her newest collection, more yum!!!
Oh, & a new book…
a little close-up in case you’re not sure what I’m pointing at, lol!
Then there was Festival!
That will have to wait for another day.
Until then,
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
I found a magical fabric collection!
It’s Circulus & Lollies Sweet by Jen Kingwell for Moda fabrics.
There are lots of dots,
but the cool part is all the stripes from just a handful of prints!
Each stripe will accommodate my Tiny & Mini Dresden petals and my Tiny Dresden background squares too.
It’s not my usual color pallet you might say, but I sure am loving the bright variety of these fabrics!
New ideas are in store for you here on my cutting table!
These are some Mini Dresden petals.
A nice bold, fun contrast don’t you think?
I’m working on the new pattern samples but it’ll be a bit before they’re ready for you.
Look at this sweet mess!!!
I can’t wait to show you all of it!
In the meantime, what are you up to?
I hope it’s something fun.
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
As the sun streams through my sewing room windows this morning I’m not sure which I’m enjoying more, this lovely new “Timeless” collection by the extremely creative and talented Jo Morton for Moda, or the extra light in my room so early in the morning.
The colors and designs are very “Jo Morton” I think.
Pretty, creative and new, yet they feel like the civil war prints that I also love.
Coming to a quilt shop near you soon I hope!
You can see the whole collection here on Moda’s website.
I’ve got work to do.
I’m dreaming of Dresdens.
But today is my mom’s birthday, so I’m looking forward to spending this day with my parents and whatever that entails… hopefully ice cream!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
We traveled to Pigeon Forge, TN last week for a much anticipated summer vacation.
We love going there!
Dollywood, white water rafting, outlet mall shopping, lots of good restaurants & tourist shops & this year plenty of antique shopping & a trip to The Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC!
Early in the week I spotted an old quilt with lots of feedsack prints in an antique mall.
They closed at 5:00 and we showed up at 4:50, but the woman offered we could shop since there was another couple already shopping so we took a quick look around.
Whoever made the quilt had done a nice job & the quilt was most likely not used but had been washed (probably by whomever had it for sale).
I wasn’t crazy about the binding on the quilt so I didn’t buy it.
The rest of the week I couldn’t stop thinking about the quilt,
so Friday, Chloe & I ventured back to the shop to see if it was still there.
It was still there and so I bought it!
If you didn’t look closely, it was perfect.
But alas, I’m a quilter so some things are blatantly obvious even from a distance…
This binding was horrid & not original to the quilt!
So while sitting on our back porch with this wonderful view, I set to work removing the ugliness from my quilt.
Fortunately I had a small pair of scissors along with me in my hexagon go-bag.
I had made a couple of these in some down time on our trip.
In less than 2 hours all signs of ugliness were history!
On our drive home we stopped at one more antique mall and I found the perfect replacement binding fabric from the same era as the fabrics in the quilt.
It was even on sale!
No comparison…
With the removal of the binding, the smallish size of the quilt and the odd binding made a lot more sense.
You don’t see many quilts of this era that aren’t bed size
unless its’a baby or doll quilt & this is a bit smaller than twin.
I knew there had to be a story.
There ALWAYS is.
Look how the unbound edge of the quilt is so ragged.
Someone took scissors to it.
I don’t know if a dog got hold of it or something else tore into it.
In two places the edge of the quilt had bites out of it that would not be covered by typical binding.
Instead of putting a wide binding on it like the previous “quilt preservationist” did,
I went to my feedsack stash & pulled out a piece that would work OK and appliqued little patches in those two areas.
It’s by far not a perfect (or even a really close) match but after I had them on,
I couldn’t tell where I had put the patches because all of the fabrics are so busy;
the reason I was drawn to the quilt in the first place.
I straightened the edges of the quilt & sewed on the new binding that I had made.
As I was photographing it I noticed this cutie patootie print.
How cute is that Jack-in-the-box?
Now I love it just the way it is.
I can’t wait to look at every patch of fabric in it
& when I do I’ll look at it I smile instead of wanting to rip the binding off!
What are you doing this summer?
I hope it’s a fun time.
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
I can’t wait to share with all of you
my tips, tools & techniques for perfect little Dresden plates.
Just look at the pretty cover models!
It will be here soon
(not soon enough for me),
but while you wait you can learn a bit more about
me from today’s blog post over at C&T.
Just click the link below:
http://www.ctpub.com/blog/interview-with-susan-r-marth/
Here are some snippets of some of the 13 projects that are included.
August 30, 2017 cannot get here soon enough!
You can pre-order your copy today on my website
& be the first on your block to own your very own copy!
Until then I guess we will have to
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
From our quilted home to yours,
Happy 4th of July!
(Old Glory in mini Applecore #129 large)
I love displaying my quilts in our home.
(Dresden Flags #256 small)
I hope you do too!
(Old Glory in mini Applecore #129 small)
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
We had a great show in Kansas City!
We met so many nice quilters & sold lots of patterns & templates!
Our rental was a new mini van, so our travel was very comfortable.
I’ve taken to photographing our rentals in case I need to know the license # I have it on my phone.
Our drive started off a bit rocky just 30 miles from home when we had to sit over an hour on the interstate because of an accident where a semi was perched on top of the guardrail & blocking all lanes of West bound 70 shutting it down completely…
What a great venue though when we finally got there.
The convention center is in a very nice area, with free parking!
And there are two hotels on either side of the convention center that you can walk next door to.
Very nice!
Hauling all of our “stuff” was very convenient.
We went to work quickly setting most everything up so we could relax that evening.
Clare was great help.
She was our cashier, tech support,
inventory control & dinner coordinator!
Fiorella’s Jack Stack BBQ was our favorite dinner spot.
Their BBQ is delicious & the atmosphere is outstanding!
There is a location in Overland Park very near the convention center, but we’d been to this location before & wanted to eat there again because it’s so cool!
Now we’re back home & back to the grind.
Summer is in full swing here & I just noticed that today is the longest day of the year!
It makes me a bit sad knowing the days will start to get shorter, wahhhhh.
Our best seller was my new “Dresden Flags” pattern.
It contains 2 sizes of flags that just happen to have Tiny Dresden plates in the field.
Besides the notions that we have to help your quilt along,
we also have the 12″ stand by Ackfeld that you can display the smaller flag on.
See my website for all this goodness if you didn’t get one in Kansas City!
I’m needing to show you all of my new patterns.
Stay tuned!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
It’s a beautiful sunny morning here!
It makes it easy to get up & start to work when the sun is streaming through my sewing room windows.
Did I mention that I’ll be vending at the Kansas City Festival for Quilters next week?
If you’re in the vicinity you should come out & see us!
Thursday, June 15 10:00am – 6:00pm
Friday, June 16 10:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday, June 17 10:00am – 5:00pm
I noticed that I was running low on some of the Tiny Dresden Seasonal Series kits so this morning I’m finishing those up.
Do you need a new little project???
These are some of my best-selling patterns right now!
They’re each 6″ x 8″ & there’s one for every month.
I also sell the adorable little wire hanger to display them on each month.
The patterns that include the button(s) each month, the kits and the hangers along with the notions that I love to use to make them are all on my website.
You can see them all here on my Tiny Dresden Series page.
I hope you’re enjoying summer!
Just Keep Sewing…
Susan
Quilting my way through life! 