SOME PICS OF THE SHOP.............

in Benton, PA.

Better grab some coffee....this is picture overload.

The herb wall.....about 175 jars of wild-crafted medicinal herbs.

I use these to make my herb blends.

Amber bottles used to store herb tinctures.

This is the kitchen and culinary herb and spice corner.

My herbs and spices are half the cost of buying them in the grocery store.

A close-up of some of my herbal blends

and some books to help you on your herbal journey.

That is only a small portion of the inventory in the shop.

Here are some pics of the quilt and stitching side of things.

Quilts on the walls.

Lots of seasonal quilt patterns and books.

Fat quarters and coordinated fabric packs

.

Some civil war quilt patterns.

 Fall and Christmas fabrics and applique pattern books.

Lots of bright wool pieces for penny rugs and rughooking.

I like the look of the traditional brown and black wools that were used in the old days. 

Sorry about the picture overload.

 I have a selection of perle cotton and floss to match the wools.

This wool pumpkin wagon was adapted from a "Country Threads" pattern.

I also have a lot of seasonal doll patterns.

Thanks for taking the time to peek into my shop.

SOME PICS OF THE SHOP.............

in Benton, PA.

Better grab some coffee....this is picture overload.

The herb wall.....about 175 jars of wild-crafted medicinal herbs.

I use these to make my herb blends.

Amber bottles used to store herb tinctures.

This is the kitchen and culinary herb and spice corner.

My herbs and spices are half the cost of buying them in the grocery store.

A close-up of some of my herbal blends

and some books to help you on your herbal journey.

That is only a small portion of the inventory in the shop.

Here are some pics of the quilt and stitching side of things.

Quilts on the walls.

Lots of seasonal quilt patterns and books.

Fat quarters and coordinated fabric packs

.

Some civil war quilt patterns.

 Fall and Christmas fabrics and applique pattern books.

Lots of bright wool pieces for penny rugs and rughooking.

I like the look of the traditional brown and black wools that were used in the old days. 

Sorry about the picture overload.

 I have a selection of perle cotton and floss to match the wools.

This wool pumpkin wagon was adapted from a "Country Threads" pattern.

I also have a lot of seasonal doll patterns.

Thanks for taking the time to peek into my shop.

TABLERUNNERS ARE A GOOD WAY TO........

............practice longarm machine quilting skills.

I can put together a tablerunner top in an hour or two

and load it on the longarm system.

For the center I did a 1" diagonal grid going first one way and then the other way.

Since the center fabric is so dark and busy I didn't think a lot of

detail quilting would show, so the grid was a nice option and I got to practice my straight lines.

I treated the narrow inner border and the wider outer border as one unit.

I quilted arches down the length and then added beadboard stitching between the arches.

I like how they look.

Now....I'm not sure why....I did a simple beadboard on each end border.

There must have been a reason for that but not sure what it is.

Even so....it still looks great!

For the backing I used a lovely Moda fabric.

It has holly leaves and berries and the binding matches perfectly.

So the front is autumn themed with pumpkins, acorns and fall leaves.

Turn it over and its Christmas.

Its a reversible double season tablerunner.

Ok...........now onto my next project.......hmmm....What could it be?

Here is a sneak peek.............

Happy stitching everyone!

STRIP PIECED TABLERUNNER...........

                                 ............IN AN ASSORTMENT of fall and autumn hued fabrics.

I have an awful large amount of scraps and I store them by color in bins

underneath the longarm system for easy accessibility.

Every once in a while I like to mindlessly sew strips together and

make tablerunners.

I say mindlessly because there is not a lot of thinking or measuring involved in

making simple tablerunners.

There are 25 ...1" strips across the center of this tablerunner so I used

increments of five and did some ruler work.

No rhyme or reason to the design, just some V shapes and then arches in between.

A view of the back....which is a cute candy corn pattern.

This tablerunner is reversible.

Use the candy corn side for October and Halloween and then turn it over

and use the striped side for Autumn and Thanksgiving.

My big wooden crate full of dried gourds came in handy for these photos!

Being a shop owner I always have to be a few months ahead of the seasons.

My next project is a more formal autumn tablerunner.

I'm off to the happy quilter's loft to load it

on the longarm system right now!

Until next time........

Happy stitching everyone!

A TEACHING PROJECT............

.......on paper piecing.

I taught a class on paper-piecing.

Not sure but I think the pattern is called something like

Friendship Circle.

I like to practice ruler work on non-customer quilts.

Still trying to master the continuous line of quilting with

minimum starts and stops.

Its hard because I don't like to do too much backtracking

over previous stitching lines.

Close-up of the block.

I used a light teal/green thread and it blended

really well even on the mauve pink.

Love the texture of the quilting on the back.

I used the same teal/green for the backing even though

the picture is not showing any color.

I like to use my projects but am not sure what to do with this one....

Maybe a table topper or wallhanging....except these are not really colors I like.

Oh Darn!!!!

My next two projects are tablerunners and they are both fall-themed.

Plus, I have another applique project cut out and waiting to start.

Until next time...........

Happy stitching everyone!