I heart my local quilt shop!

Posted on January 24, 2013

nido

Today is visit your local quilt shop day, and this week I’ve enjoyed seeing many posts showing photos of local shops (since I’ll never have a chance to visit most of them, it’s nice to get a little peek, even just in photos). I thought I should tell you about my favorite local quilt shop, Nido, located in Burlington, VT.

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Nido is located in downtown Burlington, in a wonderful second floor space with exposed bricks and large windows. Phiona, the lovely owner, has added many beautiful antiques to the space, making it warm and welcoming. And of course then there’s the fabric (oh, there’s great yarn too, but you know I visit for the fabric)!

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Despite being a small space, there’s quite a lot of variety in fabrics, and I always walk away with something I didn’t even come in for. Phiona has you covered should you need solids, prints from the latest collections, Japanese prints, Liberty of London fabrics, or even unique hand printed fabrics.

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I couldn’t stop in today, but I did head down on Tuesday (close enough, right?) to pick up some laminated fabric for under Max’s chair. I snagged a great Echino laminated print, and as a bonus, it was 40% off. Then, while taking a walk around the shop, I discovered a basket of Umbrella Prints trimmings, and couldn’t resist adding a couple packs to my order. (I love Umbrella Prints – have used pieces in these mini quilts – but dislike the shipping costs from Australia, so I was especially pleased to be able to buy these packets locally!)

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I hope that if you have a chance to visit Burlington that you’ll stop by Nido! Maybe I’ll see you there!

Oh, and Nido also has an online shop, in case you’re not in the area! Use discount code WINTER2013 for 15% off your order.

Posted in Fabric | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

a colorful trip

Posted on January 23, 2013

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Can I blame the weather for my lack of blogging? I realize there have been a lot of these quilts pictured on blogs recently, but I wanted to get my finished quilt top up on the blog so I have record of it. I’ve tried to get photos of it for the last couple weeks, but the weather has certainly conspired against me – it’s been windy, bitterly cold, and of course, growing dark round about 4:30. Ah, winter in Vermont! Anyway, I’m giving up and admitting that this is the best I can do.

triparoundworld

Most ended up looking like this!

But anyway, the quilt… this is a trip around the world, made using this tutorial. I love it as a scrappy quilt, and I really love that I was able to use up many scraps, as well as many older fabrics that have been hanging around. It was really quick to put together, and strangely addictive. I woke up each morning excited to see some additional blocks come together. Now I’m trying to decide on a backing and a quilting pattern!

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Speaking of backings, I did well last week putting together backings for some older quilts. This one is a particular favorite – I used up a good portion of solid grays from my stash, as well as these cute rainbow blocks which I made previously, but didn’t end up using. Since my goal this year is to use up some stash, I’m really pleased with this one, which is made up entirely of stash fabrics! The quilting was pretty quick too. I went with this stem quilting again (previously used on my Glimma cross quilt) but on a slightly larger scale. Now let’s hope that we get some slightly warmer weather soon so I can snap a few photos!

Posted in Posts about Quilts | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

handknit socks!

Posted on January 15, 2013

I knit something!

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For quite some time now I’ve been obsessed with the idea of having handknit socks, specifically socks that I knit myself. I really knew nothing about knitting socks – I can knit a scarf or a cowl, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. Then last year Amanda started knitting the most gorgeous socks and showing them on Instagram (check out this post to see all the socks she made in 2012!), and with her encouragement, I ordered up some sock yarn, the needles, and Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up.

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Of course, this first pair was certainly no walk in the park – I figured out the toe without too much trouble, but just couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around making the heel. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of ripping out and restarting, along with plenty of thoughts of ‘I should really just buy socks instead’. I’m really glad I kept at it though (even though it’s taken me nearly a year to finally finish them) because I’m mighty proud of these socks, and super happy to put them on and know that I made them! I already have another pair started, and I’m happy to say that this second pair has been so much easier, now that I have an idea of how it all works!

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I’m trying to spend the week working on quilt backs for unfinished quilts, so not much to show on the sewing front. But hopefully soon there will be a quilting marathon, and then some finished quilts!

Posted in Knitting | Tagged , , | 25 Comments