Chip and Dale Designs

                                                                Productive Weekend

I had such a great day teaching Saturday!! I was invited to teach a Mystery Quilt to a group of quilters in Fort Collins. What a lovely group of women! They were so much fun and welcomed me with open arms. It made me realize how much I love teaching- thank you ladies!

Then, to top it off, hubby took me to one of my favorite seafood places for dinner- Yorkshire Fish and Chips. This ain’t your button up/dress up place folks. It is a place your order, go sit down and they yell your order out when it’s ready. Let me tell you-it is not heart healthy, but oh dear lord is it good. And this is from a person that grew up back east with access to fresh seafood. The fried oysters are my favorite- but the scallops rock, too. The fried oysters are THE best I have ever had. EVER.  But maybe I was too drunk when I lived back east to remember what they tasted like then.

  

This also reminds me of a story of long ago.  I was probably 16 or so, and I was peeling shrimp in the kitchen with my brother. I wasn’t paying too much attention to what I was doing, and then I looked down. I was holding a fricking shrimp head!!! They were supposed be all tails! What the hell!  I freaked out- and threw the damn shrimp head across the kitchen. I guess it was quite the sight. It is still one of my brother’s favorite stories. And he laughs every time he reminds me about it. EVERY TIME. I am so glad I am here to amuse my family. To this day I pretty much refuse to peel shrimp tails, or any other crustacean.  God love my friends’ hubby that lives in Louisiana. He peels all of our crawfish when we are there visiting. And that is a heck of a lot of crawfish! Hugs to Jeff!

And here I am off topic again- GEEZ . Look there’s a squirrel-

Anyway, Sunday was filled with sewing. I was able to get my little bags done. The video was wonderful- you can find it here-

http://www.pattydoo.de/2013/06/sewing-tutorial-pouch-susie/

I did change the zipper a bit. I love the way Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs inserts her zippers so I used her method instead of the way it is shown in the video. It worked beautifully.

 

Then I moved on to my Little Houses quilt. This is going to be a bridal shower present so I am just showing you a sneak peak in case the recipient follows my blog.

 

 I am going to add an embroidered letter to one of the doors reflecting her new last name. I used the new collection by Moda called Little Black Dress 2. You can purchase that from the Fat Quarter Shop-

http://www.fatquartershop.com/catalogsearch/result/index/no_cache/1/?p=1&q=little+black+dress+2

If you live in the Denver area B-Right-On in Brighton also carries this line as well as Holly’s Quilt Cabin. Of course other shops in town may carry it as well- these are just the 2 places I have been recently.  Thank you Bob for taking me to Holly’s- and damn you Steak and Shake for being too packed to eat there! The background fabric is not from that collection but I thought it worked well.

You can find the pattern for the Little Houses quilt here-

http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

I am also going to give the bride-to-be this little stand to hang the quilt on.

 You can find one at B-Right-On. It is made by Ackfeld Manufacturing.

Next weekend I am going to try out the Quick Curves Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful. You can get yours here-

http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.com/

B-Right-On also carries this ruler, and I have also seen the ruler and pattern  at the new little quilt shop in Loveland called Cotton Candy Sewing Shop

http://cottoncandysewingshop.com/

 I am going to start with the table runner pattern that comes with the ruler. I am going to use the Little Black Dress 2 line again. I really want to do her Metro Rings pattern but thought I should start with a smaller project. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Sew on-

Courtenay