puppy love, etc.

Here is an update on what's been happening around here lately--

I have been spending a bit of my time in my sewing room developing ideas for new patterns and projects that make use of the 2012 Quilt MN fabrics.  We have bolts of the fabric at the shop which can't be sold until August 3, but I am using them now to come up with some good ideas for our customers.  Here's a sneak peak at some of it:

4 large printed panels will have 4 border choices

the 'words' fabric makes a great decorative border

When not in the sewing room, I have continued to work on the photo wedding quilt that I shared in my last post.  I guess scotty dogs play an important role in the lives of this couple, so Tiffany designed a custom pantogram for me to use.  This is a continuous line drawing on paper that fits two border areas.  I was a little skeptical of how successful these would be, they are more detailed and smaller scale than other pantos I have worked with.  It can be hard to capture the detail when converting from paper to fabric.

But I gave it a shot, and looked how nice they look all stitched up!  The only change I had to make was in the little boy dog's collar, which was drawn as a bowtie to complement the little girl's collar of beads.  The bowtie came out looking pretty much like the beads, so I converted it to just a straight collar.  Much more manly.  Looks like puppy love to me!

But the sewing and quilting comes to a halt when it's time for family--

We had the pleasure of a weekend at my parents' house in Iowa, and Brita, Ben and Ian made the trip, too.  It was his first big journey and 2 nights away from home.  Ian did a good job of entertaining his great grandparents with his little smiles and baby noises.  He is 3 months old now, and I love watching him develop new talents all the time!

He also visited several of the other side of the family when we attended a wedding party for nephew Andy and his bride, Kira.  It was a fun event held out on the farm where Bob grew up, and 5 of his siblings were there, too.  Many thanks to Larry and Denise for putting it all together!