Shop Hop Sunday Stash!

Um, that was fun! Last weekend the New Hampshire Modern Quilt Guild went on our first Shop Hop. We had four shops to visit with a scavenger hunt attached. Along the way we had things to find, places to go, and types of fabric that would get us points. The teams were made of four, ours was named TEAM WARP!  There was also Team Salvage, and Team Weft. 

The four stops along way: Button Box in Wellesley, Mass., Gather Here in Cambridge, Mass., Grey's Fabric & Notions in Boston, Mass., and Quilter's Way in Acton, Mass.  Each stop had a goodie bag there waiting for our arrival with cuts of fabric and other notions. Huge thank you to all the shops that let our craziness arrive. Also, Anna at Blackbird Donuts made us extra donuts so they wouldn't run out of their popular Blueberry Maple donut. We were also required to stop at the Happy Chocolatier for ice cream. Nothing beats fabric, donuts, and chocolate! 

Between all the shops we found a park with a four person teeder todder, which we capitalized on the opportunity. There was no shortage of fun happening. We all had quite the haul by the end of the day. Here is what I came home with ... 

Pinks, Art Gallery, Cotton and Steel, Dear Stella, Alison Glass

Backing cuts: Windham, Free Spirit 

Blues, Penny Rose, Moda, Dear Stella, Windham, Andover Chambray 

Low Volume & Greys, Moda, Cloud 9, Dear Stella, Lizzy House, Wyndham, Free Spirit 

And the days notions, I am pretty excited about all these new colors of No. 8 Perle thread! I have a Block of the Month quilt that needs some hand-quilting love. I also capitalized on Grey's being a Pfaff dealer and got a new open toe free motion foot! Also included in the picture is the swag we got from the shops! 

In total I ended up with an additional 19 yards of fabric!  I guess it's time to get sewing ... 

- Patch & Chels 

Stash Bee: September

Here is the next month for the Stash Bee. Michelle requested grey backgrounds with navy or orange plus signs. This quilt is going to come out awesome! Super easy block to make with charm squares, this might need to become a quilt for me :) 

Michelle asked how we store our stash.  Mine is color coded nicely folded in an IKEA rolling cart. I don't keep a very big stash, I like to clean it out frequently and keep it fresh.  Sorry I don't have a pictures (right now it's a disaster!)

-Patch & Chels

1930's Sunday Stash

Is anyone else as excited about the 1930's Farmer's Wife Sew Along hosted by Gnome Angel, Marti Michell, and Fat Quarter Shop? Let's say I squealed with glee when this was posted a while back. I quickly pulled all the 1930's print I had on hand. Then purchased a few more (shhh!). All the orange, yellow, and green prints got removed as I refined my final sections.

Here is the final line up, I did keep the aqua/teal colors but removed anything that was green.  I also included some brown and neutral prints to tone down the rest of the colors. Then I found a layer cake of Storytime Prints, circa 1930, so I added them to the stash.  This layer cake included some of those cute character prints that I love so much.  It was such a great free find! 

Then I pulled this chalkboard out and painted it a mint color. I had a wooden chalkboard for my 1920's Farmer's Wife Quilt, it got passed along as the "Traveling Chalkboard" so a new mint colored chalkboard is necessary for the 1930's round. 

My copy of Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird has arrived in the mail, and I have patently waited to start my blocks. Lets just say I am ready to take on this challenge! 

Anyone else joining in the fun?

-Patch & Chels

Blogger Backgrounds: Tech Tip

This post is not about quilting but about blog design.  In the past you may have noticed an absence of background from my blog, I happen to dislike all the "stock" blogger backgrounds and that got me wondering. There must be a way to put my own background on my blog, not just the stock backgrounds. I wanted something more personal that matches the overall look of my blog. Other bloggers are also using the simple blogger format and have pretty backgrounds.  Well there is a way. Here is what I did. 

First I needed to chose a picture that I wanted.  The site Comment Nation  had a good selection of backgrounds and they allow you to use them for websites. Make sure the image you pick is open source "can be freely used." I picked a diagonal peach pinstripe that went with the colors in my giraffe logo and downloaded it to my desktop.

Next, I had to upload my image to blogger. I am going to defer you to the Blogger Tips Pro website because there directions are visual and involve zero code! It was pretty simple and I followed the directions with no problem.  The result is the image above. 

Here are some other backgrounds that didn't make the cut, but are still good looking ... 

Also, while I am at it, here is another tip.  Want to center your title, or pages? While you are in template designer, three tabs below the background tab is an advanced tab.  Click the advanced tab and scroll down to the bottom and click add css.  Cut and paste the following code into the box add custom css.  Then click apply to blog.

.PageList {text-align:center !important;}

.PageList li {display:inline !important; float:none !important;}

.post-title {

text-align: center;

}

.date-header {

text-align: center;

} 

At this point your titles and pages should center :) Want to learn how to add social media links? Click on my earlier post to learn how. Happy designing.

- Patch and Chels