When I got invited to participate in the Rustic Romance Project Tour, I couldn't say no.  It is such a pretty fabric line, I couldn't resist!  Pretty colors with lots of florals, plaids, paisleys and polka dots.  Yes, please!

Rustic Romance is a new fabric line by Gerri Robinson for Riley Blake Designs.  It's available in stores now.  Click HERE to see the whole line.

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I found the sweetest pattern that I thought paired perfectly with these fabrics.  It's the Kiss Chasey Quilt by Jemima Flendt.  I got the PDF pattern off the Cosy Project website (it's a site full of patterns and classes from Australia's well-known magazines, Homespun and Quilters Companion.)  And guess what!  I have a 20% off coupon code for you!  Just use "GIGITIM" at checkout to receive 20% off any patterns or videos!  The discount is good through 6/30/18.   

I knew I was using a solid grey fabric for my background so I chose several fabrics from the line that I thought would contrast well with the grey to make my hearts.

To get my bearings on my first few hearts, I used Lori Holt's Alphabitties to keep all the different pieces straight.

 I think the white floral fabric (above) is my favorite print from the line!

The pattern had lots of half-square triangles.  I just made a baby version of the Kiss Chasey quilt but it still took me a while to finish it because of all the trimming!

My little helper and I had lots of fun planning out the color placement!

This quilt was long-arm quilted by Cathy Barney in Alpine Utah.  She used the pattern Modern Loops and I love how it turned out!

For the back, I used one of the plaid prints - which makes me so happy every time I see it!  

And to finish off the whole quilt, I used some of the leftover red fabrics to make a scrappy binding and then machine bound the quilt.  Do you do your bindings by hand or machine?  I used to do all of my bindings by hand but within this last year, I learned how to do machine binding so it looks nice enough.  Plus I was finding that on some of the quilts that we use a lot at home, the bindings were coming undone in several places.  I don't think I'll start machine binding all of my quilts, especially heirloom or big quilts, but since this is a baby quilt, I thought it would be nice to do machine binding since it will probably get washed a lot.  It doesn't have an owner yet so I'll keep it on hand for the next time I need a baby gift!

Well, that was a fun little project!  Thanks for stopping by today.  

I hope you enjoyed this stop on the Rustic Romance Project Tour!  

Have a great day!

Downunder Diversions Road Trip - Part 4 - The Finished "Double D" Quilt

Weird name for a quilt, you say?

Well this scrappy little number is the result of all the fabric I bought on the 

Downunder Diversions road trip I went on last fall!  Downunder Diversions = Double D!  Get it?  It took me a minute too, to figure out why the hostesses of that amazing trip (Jina Barney and Moana Burgess) greeted us with bras over their clothing when we first arrived!  If that wasn't an indication of the fun we were about to have,  I don't know what was!

That trip was a mix of all my loves - home decor, good food, and quilting.  If you want to hear all about it you can read Part 1 (Magnolia Market) HERE, Part 2 (The Pioneer Woman Mercantile) HERE and Part 3 (Missouri Star Quilt Company) HERE.  

I didn't plan on using a sewing machine during the trip because I didn't want to haul mine across the country and I figured all of the ones at the Missouri Star Quilt Company Retreat Center (our final destination) would all be used that week.  So I just brought 1 applique project to work on.  But after buying so much fabric and realizing there were available sewing machines to use,  I decided to dive in and start this simple project during our last few days at MSQC.

I bought so many fat quarters/quarter yard cuts that I didn't even want to count how many total yards that was, total!

These are the simplest blocks to make and it was really fun pairing up colors!

This quilt was inspired by the Stack Scrap Quilt by Nettie over at the blog, A Quilt is Nice.  I have been a follower of Nettie's for a long time.  I love the scrappy, make-do feel of all her quilts! 

  

My rectangles were cut at 2.5" x 3.5" which was slightly smaller than Netties.

These pictures of me out in the country show how much I got sewn together while at MSQC.  My friend and roomie on the DD road trip, Amanda Niederhauser (@jedicraftgirl) walked just outside of town on the last night for a little photo shoot.  It was absolutely beautiful with it's rolling hills and green pastures.

 One weird thing happened as we were walking back to the retreat center after our photo shoot though.  We were basically in the middle of nowhere for the photo shoot and just as we started to reach houses again, a guy pulled up behind us in a pickup truck and asked us if we wanted a ride.  It was so creepy since we weren't soliciting a ride (I'm really paranoid about that kind of stuff!)  We immediately said "No!" and he turned around and went back to where he came from (the middle of nowhere).  I'm actually glad he didn't come upon us while we were out there!

Anyways, here's my Double D quilt all finished! 

I had my friend Cathy Barney quilt it for me with diagonal lines. 

I actually used wool batting for this quilt (I've never used it before).  The quilt is super lightweight but still really warm.  I was surprised at how expensive it was though!  I want to say the wool batting was about $20/yard (it's been a while since I finished this so I can't remember exactly).

The backing fabric is  Checkerboard Plaid Lipstick Ikat Woven Yardage

by Kaffe Fassett for Free Spirit Fabrics.

This quilt is kind of wild but it was really fun to make!  Most of all, I think it's a fun way to remember a special trip and all the fun shops we stopped at along the way.  It would be a great stash buster quilt too!

I hope you enjoyed this recap of the whole Downunder Diversions road trip.   It was fun for me to relive the memories!  It was the trip of a lifetime!  If you want information about upcoming Downunder Diversions road trips click HERE. 

And in case you missed my other posts from this fabulous trip, 

you can read all about them here:

Part 1 (Magnolia Market) 

Part 2 (The Pioneer Woman Mercantile) 

Part 3 (Missouri Star Quilt Company) 

Have a great day! 

Downunder Diversions Road Trip - Part 3

Good morning friends!!!

Welcome to Part 3 of the Downunder Diversions road trip I went on last September.  If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 click on the links at the end of this post.  You won't want to miss a thing!  It was one of the best trips I've ever been on!

So for the third part of the road trip, we went to the mothership of all quilt "shops" - Missouri Star Quilt Company.  But it really isn't a "shop".  It's a street, a town, full of quilt shops!!!

It's located in Hamilton, Missouri, population 1,809.

Just on the outskirts of town, you will find rolling hills and green pastures.  It's absolutely beautiful!

Each quilt shop is dedicated to one particular type of fabric.  They've got a shop for everything.  Batiks, wools, basics, holiday, vintage, modern, even a thread shop.  They've got it all!  

In every nook and cranny of this town, there is inspiration to be found! 

  

Even outside!

This quilt company has taken over Hamilton, Mo. and it's a quilters paradise!

[Photo cred: MSQC]

There is a Sewing Center at Missouri Star Quilt Company that can be rented out for retreats.  It comes equipped with lots of sewing machines, cutting tools, pins, etc. so there's no need to haul your sewing machine across country if you don't want to.  MSQC has everything you need!  They fed us great meals and the sleeping accommodations were really comfortable!  For more information on how to book a retreat at MSQC, click HERE. 

[My friend Shari Butler, the creator of Binding Babies and me at the MSQC Sewing Center.]

So, as you can imagine, we shopped our little hearts out every day we were in Hamilton (3 days total, I believe) and then came back to the sewing center and sewed, sewed, sewed every night!

[Meeting Jenny Doan for the second time!]

 One of the most exciting parts of retreating at MSQC was attending a trunk show by Jenny Doan!  She's the mom of the family-run quilt company.  She's a hoot and very inspiring!  After the trunk show she came back to the Sewing Center to do a private Q and A with our group.  It was such a treat!  Even a few of her kids stopped by (one of the nights we were sewing) and chatted one on one with all of us.  Such a fun, genuine, funny family!

[A little sampling of some of the fabric I bought while at MSQC.]

The great thing is, they will ship your purchases home for you for free! if you spend $100 or more (which believe me, is very easy to do!)  They also have daily deals (online and in stores) so we were able to earn some free Jelly Rolls the week we were there.

It was so sad when the time came to go home.  I definitely want to go back someday!  

I hope you'll get to go someday too if you haven't already been.

Tomorrow I'm sharing my finished "Double D" quilt (in honor of that trip) so be sure to stop back by!

Here's a little sneak peak.  It's very scrappy!

Click HERE if you missed Part 1 of the Downunder Diversions road trip.

Click HERE if you missed Part 2 of the Downunder Diversions road trip.
Click HERE to see the finished "Double D" quilt!

Click HERE for information about future Downunder Diversions road trips.

Have a great day!

Downunder Diversions Road Trip - Part 2

Hello and welcome to Part 2 of the Downunder Diversions road trip that I went on about 8 months ago.  I know it seems like it's waaay after the fact.  It is.  But I just finished my Double D quilt in remembrance of that amazing trip and thought it was as good a time as any to show you how that quilt came to be - but first I have to tell you about the trip!  

If you haven't read Part 1 yet, click HERE to read the general information about the trip as well as the first stop, Magnolia Market in Waco, TX.  It was my favorite part of the entire trip!!!

Part 2 of this fantastic trip included two great fabric stores and the Pioneer Woman Mercantile.

The first stop was Cabbage Rose Quilting and Fabrics, located in Ft. Worth, TX.  It's a quaint little shop filled with beautiful fabrics!  The employees there made us feel special by doing giveaways and serving us a delicious lunch.  We stayed for a few hours and had a wonderful time.   

Any store that has white planked ceilings and rainbow bunting has my heart.

The second shop we stopped at was Oklahoma Quiltworks in Oklahoma City, OK.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures there (because I was too busy shopping!)  But trust me when I say it was a fabulous store and you should go there if you ever get the chance!

Here's a horrible picture (taken in my hotel room that night) of my fun finds from the day!  

It's a happy pile of fabrics if you ask me!

The next day we drove to Pawhuska, Oklahoma.  Home of the Drummond Ranch - where Ree Drummond - the Pioneer Woman, blogger, cookbook author, host of a Food Network TV show and owner of the Pioneer Woman Mercantile lives! 

As you can see Pawhuska was gorgeous.  This is what my dreams are made of.

We continued on a bit further and stopped at the Pioneer Woman Mercantile for breakfast and shopping.  What a treat it was!

So many things to choose from but I finally settled on Edna's Pancakes with 3 different syrups (orange flower, sea salted caramel and vanilla) and 3 kinds of butter!  It did not disappoint!  Getting to eat at the restaurant of a Food Network Star was amazing!

Then we shopped.  And shopped.  And shopped.

The store was huge and full of mostly kitchenware but lots of other fun stuff too!

I would've taken one of everything but only went home with a few things - two bracelets and a sweet little porcelain, floral trinket tray for myself and two Aztec clutches for gifts!

Look at that packaging!  I die!

Well, it was a wonderful day at the Mercantile.  I'd love to go back again.  

Have you been?  Any favorite menu items from the restaurant?

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to come back again soon to read Part 3 of the Downunder Diversions road trip - when we went to Hamilton, MO to visit the mothership of all quilt shops - Missouri Star Quilt Company!

Have a great day!

P.S. If you want information about upcoming Downunder Diversions road trips click HERE.
OR
To read Part 1 of this Downunder Diversions road trip click HERE
To read Part 3 of this Downunder Diversions road trip click HERE
To read Part 4 of this Downunder Diversions road trip (the finished "Double D" quilt) click HERE.