Road Trip to the Hen House

My girlfriend Marilyn and I take a road trip to a primitive quilt shop every three months or so, and this last Saturday was the perfect day for it. The trip takes an hour or so, but you'd never know it the way we chatter. The shop is called The Hen House, and it's in a little town southeast of here called Charlotte. The Hen House carries lots of wools, homespuns, and Jo Morton fabrics, as well as basket making supplies.





We usually go in and let Nancy know we are in town, then go across the street to Eaton's Pub for one of my favorite things, Pot Roast Panini and steak fries. It makes me wish we made the trip more often. :)




Then back across the street for some shopping. The store is so jam-packed, it takes quite a while to work our way through it all, checking out the new stuff. Here's the owner, Nancy Conn, standing in front of Primitive Gatherings Settler's Pride wool quilt, which Marilyn and I did as a BOM from her shop. Nancy always has a million WIP, and about that many ideas for new ones. We always have a lot to gab about.





I picked up some shirtings and Jo Morton fabrics for my Blackbird Designs Trick or Treat quilt. I did this as a BOM from Homestead Hearth, but there are a few fabrics I want to substitute.





I have 90 blocks done, and only a couple hundred yet to go. :)







I'm leaving tomorrow for Pennsylvania for my family reunion, and I'd hoped to have the first three weeks of Lisa's Garden to show you before I left, but I only have two weeks done, and week four arrived today! I don't have the stitching on the wool blocks done, but my threads should come tomorrow, and they will make a nice travel project.





Happy Fourth of July, and see you next week!

Sue Spargo's Crimson Tweed

I usually stick with reproduction fabrics and quilts, and more primitive stitcheries, but I just can't pass up Sue Spargo's annual BOM. I have been with her from the beginning, and am on my sixth one. Here is this year's quilt, called Crimson Tweed, a Christmas one on frost grey background fabrics. A couple of the blocks need additional embellishments, but these are the first three, with the fourth on the way. In additional to wool, Sue uses hand-dyed silks and velvets, linen, cotton, and lots of buttons and different fibers, including rick-rack and ribbons. She makes up each month's block as we go along, and her sister Wendy dyes the wools needed for that months block. Each month is a surprise, but I have never been disappointed.



Here is last year's quilt, called Silk Road. Of course, with the purple background, this was one there was no way I was going to pass up! It needs another border yet, but I couldn't wait to start the next one. :) Besides, it requires using the sewing machine, and, as those who know me know, I'm sewing machine challenged.



I have made many of Sue's other patterns, including pin cushions, sewing caddies, and purses. She sells wonderful Genziana wool threads, made to coordinate with her wools, and Tre Stelle cotton threads, which seem even finer than 60w, a dream to sew with. She teaches locally at Smith-Owen Sewing Center every year, and is already booked up to 2012!