Vacation Over!

For the last week, I have been in a remote location in Minnesota on Vacation.  This was a well needed Girls time.  My girl friends are here with me.  Jean who live here in  beautiful Northern Minnesota and Lynn who lives in Maryland with me.  Lynn and I flew into Minneapolis on Labor Day.  Jean picked us up from the Airport and we started our couple hour trek north.  

We have been having fun and relaxing time.  Hitting a few casinos.  I got lucky one night and won on one of slots on the second spin.  Yeah, me! Shopping, with Jean is a great adventure.  She has a nice since of style, just wish we had more time to do more shopping.  Love shopping in Minnesota, no sales tax on clothing. Learning how to shoot a couple rifles correctly.  Jean husband, took me out back of there house and we did some target.  I didn't do bad once,  I got the hang of it.  It was actually fun to do some target practice.  Thanks Jim!

On our downtime, while the kids are doing their homeschooling homework, I do some work designing,  and paperwork catch up from the weeks I was so busy getting my patterns submitted.  Work is also most caught up, thank goodness.

The weather has been great, in the 60's and 70's, with cool nights.  So nice to sleep with the windows open.  Tuesday, we took a nice long walk around Lake Superior, in Duluth.  It was such a beautiful day for a nice walk.  Ships coming into port was fun to watch. 

I so hate to leave this beautiful place and friendship, but must get ready for for market. Jean thank you for all you do for us while we were here.  Love you so much my friend and sister!

Tina

Little Time off!

Last couple of weeks, have been a little down time for me.  Tuesday May 13th, I took off to spend a week with my one of my dearest friends Jean Marie, in Moose Lake, Minnesota.  She and her husband have a great little place back in the woods.  So, I got spend time with her and beautiful 8 year old twins for a week.  It was great to get away from the business for awhile and just have some girl time.  We had fun shopping, talking and just overall spending time together. I did get to go a couple quilt shops while I was there, and came home with lots of fabric to make my youngest a quilt and my friend Jean a nice table runner. What a blast! This is the second year, we have done our girls week and we love it.  I had to return to the real world last Wednesday evening. 

I took Thursday off, due to it was my birthday so I spent it with my hubby and oldest son.  My youngest called me that evening and we had a great talk.  My other dear friend, took us out to dinner to celebrate all of our birthdays.  My husbands is the day before mine and my oldest son turns 23 this week.  It was a great day!

Friday, I was back working on my patterns.  I spent a lot of my time working on the applique pattern which it is in it final stages.  Just waiting on the mail so I can get final pattern pieces into the computer.  But, while I was in Minnesota, I did get a little work done, when we had some down time.  I got my first pieced pattern typed up and just about ready to go.  So, yesterday I spent the day with my husband working on the pattern and remaking it to make sure everything is correct.  Then, I will send it off for some proofreading and clean up.

While I was gone my husband did a great job running the online business, even though we only had one customer for the week I was gone.

Well I guess my fun time is done for now, so I have to get back to work.  Reminder:  Spring Blow Out Sale has started and ends May 30th.  Check out our sales Items, here!
Live, Inspire and Create,

Tina

Minnesota Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week last week.  I know I sure did.  We went with our friends to Minnesota for Thanksgiving this year to spent time with  more friends and their family.  The adventure start early Saturday before Thanksgiving, we piled into my friends Rav4 and drove for 2 days.  We drove through some patches of snow to get there.  We were all very excited to see the snow as everyone but the driver was taking pictures of the snow as we drove through it, Lol!

We got to Moose Lake, Minnesota, mid-afternoon on that Sunday before Thanksgiving.  I was cold outside, even my husband was wearing a winter coat, which he never does here in Maryland.  Monday, we went to Duluth and drove around, having fun taking pictures by Lake Superior.  At Lunch we went to Grandma's Restaurant in Duluth.  They have the best food and especially the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is to die for.

Tuesday, we drove to the Twin Cities and spent the day at the Mall of America.  They are not kidding it takes days to see everything in there.  There is something there for everyone, between the Amusement Park in the Middle to the Shops.  On the way back we stopped at Culver's Burger shop and the Casinos, what a great day.

Wednesday, we stayed around the house and watched the snow start to fall, until late afternoon.  Then we all went into town and watched the new Hunger Games Movie, Catching Fire.  It was great movie.  As we walked out the movie theater the snow was now couple inches deep, so we made the long and slow trek home.

Thanksgiving was nice we ate dinner at our friends Jean's mom house.  Plenty of football and family and friend time.  Wonderful day!

Friday and Saturday, was our drive back to the real world.  It was a great trip and I would do it again in a heart beat.

Sunday, I started working on my new t-shirt quilt job.  I will blog about that starting tomorrow.

Tina

Minnesota Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week last week.  I know I sure did.  We went with our friends to Minnesota for Thanksgiving this year to spent time with  more friends and their family.  The adventure start early Saturday before Thanksgiving, we piled into my friends Rav4 and drove for 2 days.  We drove through some patches of snow to get there.  We were all very excited to see the snow as everyone but the driver was taking pictures of the snow as we drove through it, Lol!

We got to Moose Lake, Minnesota, mid-afternoon on that Sunday before Thanksgiving.  I was cold outside, even my husband was wearing a winter coat, which he never does here in Maryland.  Monday, we went to Duluth and drove around, having fun taking pictures by Lake Superior.  At Lunch we went to Grandma's Restaurant in Duluth.  They have the best food and especially the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup is to die for.

Tuesday, we drove to the Twin Cities and spent the day at the Mall of America.  They are not kidding it takes days to see everything in there.  There is something there for everyone, between the Amusement Park in the Middle to the Shops.  On the way back we stopped at Culver's Burger shop and the Casinos, what a great day.

Wednesday, we stayed around the house and watched the snow start to fall, until late afternoon.  Then we all went into town and watched the new Hunger Games Movie, Catching Fire.  It was great movie.  As we walked out the movie theater the snow was now couple inches deep, so we made the long and slow trek home.

Thanksgiving was nice we ate dinner at our friends Jean's mom house.  Plenty of football and family and friend time.  Wonderful day!

Friday and Saturday, was our drive back to the real world.  It was a great trip and I would do it again in a heart beat.

Sunday, I started working on my new t-shirt quilt job.  I will blog about that starting tomorrow.

Tina

Another Quilt Top Finished

This evening I have finished the Summer Solitude Quilt Top.  Today, I add 3 more borders. First was the 60 half Square border.

Then, I added a  2 1/2" strip of black all the way around.

Lastly, was the 7 1/2"  strips of the Bear Minnesota Fabric, which finished the top off. The final size was 82" x 82"!

Now to get the backing prepared and get it on the longarm for quilting.  


Tina

Another Quilt Top Finished

This evening I have finished the Summer Solitude Quilt Top.  Today, I add 3 more borders. First was the 60 half Square border.

Then, I added a  2 1/2" strip of black all the way around.

Lastly, was the 7 1/2"  strips of the Bear Minnesota Fabric, which finished the top off. The final size was 82" x 82"!

Now to get the backing prepared and get it on the longarm for quilting.  


Tina

Minnesota Quilt Shop

On Wednesday, My friend Jean Marie took me to a quilt shop that was recommended to us by her husband's aunt who is a quilter. The Hingeley Road Quilt Shop, located in Floodwood, Minnesota, has Minnesota Exclusive Fabric designs, made by Hoffman Batik Fabrics.  They have fabric that has logging, lake Superior, Minnesota Black Bear, Walleye designs made exclusively for the this quilt shop only.

The store was neat and clean and has a huge selection of fabrics with over 6,000 bolts.  They have a large selection of beautiful batiks.  A huge variate of Moda precut fabrics with the several pattern books that give great ideas on how to use them.   They also have a nice selection of kits, that have everything everything except the backing. Check all of it out on the Minnesota Charms webpage.

The quilt shop has great customer service.  Both of the lady's working in the shop were very friendly and ready to help.  I needed to figure out how much fabric in needed for the 3 kits I bought, they helped figured out the yardage and cut the material.  The owner, is also very friendly with customers asking questions and showing them different ways to use layer cakes and charms.

I highly recommend that you check out the Hingeley Road Quilt Shop, if you are in the Duluth, Minnesota area or if not make sure you check out their website, which has just about everything you can find in the store.  I will surely be going back to them when I visit again.

Tina

Minnesota Quilt Shop

On Wednesday, My friend Jean Marie took me to a quilt shop that was recommended to us by her husband's aunt who is a quilter. The Hingeley Road Quilt Shop, located in Floodwood, Minnesota, has Minnesota Exclusive Fabric designs, made by Hoffman Batik Fabrics.  They have fabric that has logging, lake Superior, Minnesota Black Bear, Walleye designs made exclusively for the this quilt shop only.

The store was neat and clean and has a huge selection of fabrics with over 6,000 bolts.  They have a large selection of beautiful batiks.  A huge variate of Moda precut fabrics with the several pattern books that give great ideas on how to use them.   They also have a nice selection of kits, that have everything everything except the backing. Check all of it out on the Minnesota Charms webpage.

The quilt shop has great customer service.  Both of the lady's working in the shop were very friendly and ready to help.  I needed to figure out how much fabric in needed for the 3 kits I bought, they helped figured out the yardage and cut the material.  The owner, is also very friendly with customers asking questions and showing them different ways to use layer cakes and charms.

I highly recommend that you check out the Hingeley Road Quilt Shop, if you are in the Duluth, Minnesota area or if not make sure you check out their website, which has just about everything you can find in the store.  I will surely be going back to them when I visit again.

Tina

Minnesota Vacation

I just returned home from Minnesota where I was visiting a dear friend, Jean Marie and her wonderful family, for the past week.  We had a wonderful week of catch-up and girl time.  Jean and I have been good friends for about 12 years now.  She watched my two boys grow-up and now I get the pleasure of doing the same for her. She has two wonderful 8 year old twins.  Last Thursday, I flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul airport where she picked me up and drove me about 2 hours to her home in Barnum, Minnesota.  I brought the twins each a quilt I recently made for them, Meadow Friends and Star Wars Rail Fence Quilts.  They loved them, what a perfect gift.  The weather is still cold at night and snow on the ground, so they need warm blankets still.

Saturday was the first really nice warm day they had in a long time.  So we went into Duluth and spent the day along Lake Superior, where there was lots of ice on the water.  It was much colder and we were freezing most of the day.  We had a great lunch at Grandma's Restaurant which is close to the shore, wonderful food.  I was introduced to Chicken and wild rice soup, which is very tasty.   Then we took a nice drive along the shore up to Split Rock Lighthouse.  By the time we got up there the visitor center was closed, and so we quickly went up to the lighthouse and looked around, due to it was really cold up there also.  I would love to go back when it is warmer. It was a great day, to spend with her family.  

Jean and I had some fun, on Wednesday the day before I left to come back home. We drove to Floodwood, Minnesota, a short distance from her home to go to a quilt shop that was recommend to us by an Aunt of her husband called Hingeley Road Quilt Shop.  This shop has exclusively made Minnesota Fabric  that I will be writing more about in tomorrow's blog.   That evening we took her church youth group to a musical in Duluth, called Godspell.  It was a very nicely done musical, I loved it.

I was really sad to leave yesterday morning, I could't believe the time went by so fast.  It was a great time and we both needed the girl time together.  I'm ready to go back and enjoy the slow pace in Minnesota.

Now, time to get back to my quilting again.

Tina

Minnesota Vacation

I just returned home from Minnesota where I was visiting a dear friend, Jean Marie and her wonderful family, for the past week.  We had a wonderful week of catch-up and girl time.  Jean and I have been good friends for about 12 years now.  She watched my two boys grow-up and now I get the pleasure of doing the same for her. She has two wonderful 8 year old twins.  Last Thursday, I flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul airport where she picked me up and drove me about 2 hours to her home in Barnum, Minnesota.  I brought the twins each a quilt I recently made for them, Meadow Friends and Star Wars Rail Fence Quilts.  They loved them, what a perfect gift.  The weather is still cold at night and snow on the ground, so they need warm blankets still.

Saturday was the first really nice warm day they had in a long time.  So we went into Duluth and spent the day along Lake Superior, where there was lots of ice on the water.  It was much colder and we were freezing most of the day.  We had a great lunch at Grandma's Restaurant which is close to the shore, wonderful food.  I was introduced to Chicken and wild rice soup, which is very tasty.   Then we took a nice drive along the shore up to Split Rock Lighthouse.  By the time we got up there the visitor center was closed, and so we quickly went up to the lighthouse and looked around, due to it was really cold up there also.  I would love to go back when it is warmer. It was a great day, to spend with her family.  

Jean and I had some fun, on Wednesday the day before I left to come back home. We drove to Floodwood, Minnesota, a short distance from her home to go to a quilt shop that was recommend to us by an Aunt of her husband called Hingeley Road Quilt Shop.  This shop has exclusively made Minnesota Fabric  that I will be writing more about in tomorrow's blog.   That evening we took her church youth group to a musical in Duluth, called Godspell.  It was a very nicely done musical, I loved it.

I was really sad to leave yesterday morning, I could't believe the time went by so fast.  It was a great time and we both needed the girl time together.  I'm ready to go back and enjoy the slow pace in Minnesota.

Now, time to get back to my quilting again.

Tina