I'm All About Having Fun!

Business trips are just that......for business.  AND.........  when you can arrange to have some pleasure with some of that business, it becomes fun!  That's what I'm all about....having fun with fabrics, quilting, my GO cutter and my ETSY Shop.    

(Maybe I better clarify something first for my new followers.   I love my AccuQuilt GO cutter, and always use a larger font whenever I type the word GO.  There......does that answer your question?) 

With having to GO out of state recently on some business I was able to visit AccuQuilt headquarters in Fremont, Nebraska and even take a tour.  It's a fun business.....for sure. 

I'm telling you that company is nothing but FUN;   quilts on the outside, quilts on the inside, quilts in offices, quilts in the warehouse, fun people, fun colors,  everyone smiling, especially the employees.  It's a Happy Place and a Magical Place. 

Wait a minute......was I visiting Disneyland?  Sure felt like it to me!

Here's what you see driving up to their building.

 
A closer look showing the winning quilt design for their 2011 Barn Quilt Block design contest.

There's even fun on the back of the building with the 2nd place winner's design above the receiving dock.  

Lots of quilts everywhere.....here's a few of them.  (Some of the pictures are blurry....sorry.)

I loved this tree, with the dimensional leaves. 




Wish I had a close up of this one..... the Arabesque Die.



Simple block; circle in a square with corner
triangles.  Fun fabrics! 




Carolyn Robinson from Accuquilt talking about  a custom display.



Do you know which die was used for this butterfly?  Look at
the next picture & caption for your answer.



Close up of the feathers die being used as small birds!  Yes, lots of fun things you can create with some of the designs.  You just have to 'think outside the box'!   Just look at those tiny triangles......all using a GO cutter.


I'll share some more with you next time.....now GO 'like' the
AccuQuilt facebook page  and then GO to the LH sidebar and enter the Camp Quilt Along contest.

You can also get some great quilt ideas by clicking on the Free Patterns picture at the top RH side of this page.


Do I have fun with my GO? and do I like AccuQuilt??  You betcha!  Can't you tell?  I think every quilter should own one!


Thanks for visiting.

 






My Entry Pets on Quilts 2011 Contest

If you  are a follower of my blog, you know that I'm a cat lover, cat(s) owner, feral cat colony manager.  So, it was only natural that I wanted to enter Sew Cal Gal's 2011 Pets on Quilts Contest. 

 This is Roxie ....and oh, how she loves to eat.  She's sneaky too....and I hear her crunching in the night when I leave food in her bowl.  I raised her by bottle after her Mama abandoned her at 4 days old.  This particular quilt was made by my daughter as a gift to me after we had been to the International Quilt  Show in Houston.   It says "We went to the quilt show and all we got was everything!"

Here's a couple close ups of the details.....beads on the shoes, ribbon, threads, ribbons, buttons for the eyes....on the 3 Cats who went shopping at the Quilt Show.

Roxie was posing so well for me, I got another Kitty Quilt for her to "inspect".  You do know she's one of my "quilt supervisors", don't you?

This one is called Beach Kitties and I used it for a quilt class in applique that I was teaching. 

I hope you can see the fabric in the background of these blocks, as it's fish underwater. 

My other two cats, Braveheart (the KING)  and his sister, Princess, were getting jealous of all the attention Roxie was getting during our photo session, so here's  Kitty City.  I think this is my favorite quilt of all time that I've made, except for my King Size 1000 Pyramids quilt.

Each block depicts a different cat in a different profession; artist, beauty pageant winner, fireman, Dr., bird watcher, Sheriff, Chef, Pirate, Carmen Miranda, Amelia Earhart, etc.  I bordered it with dimensional prairie points and cat paw fabrics.

Sorry, they're a bit blurry 'cause I was paying attention to the cats....not on my picture taking.  Besides, I have to hurry and get this blog post finished to have time to enter it in Sew Cal Gal's contest...yikes! 

Here's a few close up  pictures of the Kitty City blocks.

Miss Kitty USA

Pierre' the Chef

The Sheriff.



The Bird Watcher

If I haven't bored you senseless .......YET, .....there's more to this Kitty City quilt than meets the eye. 

Did you notice the fruit bowl in the Carmen Miranda block? 

Well, after I was finished with all the detailed quilting (you can see some of the different background quilting in the close up photos) when I was trimming some threads, I cut a small 'v' shaped  hole in the sashing on the bottom of that block.   I was just heartsick, 'cause I was entering it in a Quilt Show that next week. 

I called my sister, told her what happened, and was almost in tears.  She came right over (we live about 1/2 block from each other) and took a look at it, and said......"well, looks like Carmen's fruit bowl spilled some fruit"   She told me to think "outside the box" and I did. 

The fruit appliques falling from her hat and underneath the block were added to cover up the small hole. 

 I added a fish bowl to the Chef's block, a bird's nest to the Bird Watcher.....etc., and what started out as a BIG boo boo, ended up  adding more interest and uniqueness to my Kitty City Quilt.

I was even more pleased when it won a 2nd place ribbon in the Quilt Show.

If I had a glass of wine, I'd  toast to everyone reading this blog....."Here's to quilting, here's to our beloved pets, and here's to winning a prize in the contest, but most of all ....here's to Sew Cal Gal for doing such a great job organizing this"! 

When it's time to vote on

Sew Cal Gal's blog, I hope you'll vote for me.  Thanks.

Thanks for visiting.