Upcoming "I Sew, So I Hop" Shop Hop

The 7th Annual I Sew Shop Hop is fast approaching! Here are the dates, details, and fun:

May 6 & 7, 9am-7pm daily
9 Quilt Shops in North Idaho and Eastern Washington
Fantastic Prizes! Prizes are drawn at random from all completed passports. The Grand Prize includes a $25 shopping spree at each participating shop. There are tons of other great prizes. (I got to be the prize collector this year and they are making a mountain in my office!) Prizes include fat quarter packs, charm packs, books, patterns, rotary mat/cutter, a custom sewing machine table, and more!
Great fun, friends, and food, plus door prizes at many of the shops along the way.

All hoppers will receive a goody bag. In addition, all hoppers will get a free fat eighth and pattern at each store they visit.

Need a map, more info, or have questions about any of this? Feel free to email me at crazyforquilting1@yahoo.com! Grab your friends and carpool to fun!

As Promised, Mug Shots of a Moose Killer

It turns out, if you're going to committ moose murder, you probably want to be driving a Chevy Cobalt. The car, despite hitting Mrs. Bullwinkle nearly square center, drove to the body shop 50 miles away from the scene of the crime.


Sadly, Mrs. Bullwinkle did not fare so well.

As usual, I haven't failed to find a silver lining. Hitting a moose is one way to sweet talk my way into this ride for a day or two! Why do husbands gotta be so protective with their cars, anyways? It's not like I'm gonna drive it into a moose or anything.

OK, even I must admit that I can see where he might have gotten that idea.

It's Friday!

It's Friday! Hooray for the weekend, hopefully you find some time to visit your sewing or quilting machines. I have a light load for homework, my kids are visiting their dad, and other than working I will be spending time with my quilting machine for sure.
I have finally made time to upload the new Holly Taylor fabrics from Moda. You can find them under Dragonfly Summer in the online catalog. They are beautiful!
I also invested in a new camera recently. It is just a simple Kodak model, but it will do the job and I should be able to put pictures up much easier and more often now. I decided that repairing my Nikon was probably going to be more hassle and expense than it is worth right now, considering I'm not exactly an expert photographer. So, I will be posting pics again soon.
First up? Maybe a picture of the tablerunner I made Wednesday, followed by a picture of what my car looks like after Wednesday night.

No, I didn't make a cute quilted car cover for it.

Instead, I drove it into the broad side of a moose. Now my car is crunched and sad and needs major surgery. I, thankfully, am not crunched and do not need major surgery, but I am sad. And you should see the hot rod I get to drive 100 miles/day until my car is fixed....

Countdown to Quilt Market

I added a new widget to the right sidebar of the blog today! It is a countdown calendar counting the days, minutes, seconds until I leave for Quilt Market. It's not too pretty right now, but it's what I could come up with in 5 minutes, and now I can check it whenever I need a reminder of the happiness that is Quilt Market, made even sweeter by the fact that Quilt Market conincides with the beginning of my summer off from school!

Upcoming for Spring

Spring will hopefully start here in North Idaho soon, and with it comes a load of events and fun! Here is a quick run down of some of the spring quilting events at The Crazy Quilter:

April brings 2 quilt shows, Clarkston, WA and Moscow, ID. I will have a booth at both this year. The Clarkston show is over Easter weekend, the Moscow show is the weekend before. More details for times and dates is available at the store. Considering they are barely a month away, I'm starting to get that panic feeling of not being able to get everything done for them I would like. A surprisingly large amount of work goes into creating a booth and attending the shows, so it's high time I get myself in gear!

May brings the I SEW shop hop. Over Mother's Day Weekend, May 6, 7, and 8, visit nine quilt shops around the Palouse and Eastern Washington for fun and prizes! A large amount of work goes into this project as well! Food treats, give-aways, free patterns, prizes, advertising, phew! Even spread over 9 store owners it is a hefty task.

The weekend after the shop hop is Quilt Market! International Market is being held in Salt Lake City this year, which is fantastic for me for a few reasons. First, it's close enough to home to be a fairly easy trip, a short plane ride, and inexpensive. Plus, my sister lived in SLC for awhile, and we are familiar with getting around there. Last, I'm super excited that Bailey gets to come with me this year. I told her when she was old enough I would bring her, and this is the year! It will be great for her to see what Market is all about.

Considering that the week between the Hop and Market is my finals week, I have some work to do! But won't Market be sweet knowing that I don't have to worry about school work for a few months. I'm hoping that means I'll find extra time to make some of the great new projects we always find.

Link to Pattern from Terry Atkinson

As many of you might know, The Crazy Quilter holds a Groovy Girls Meeting the first Saturday of each month between 10am and 11am. It has been a lot of fun trying out new patterns and learning so many great and easy ways to use the new zippers! Now, here is another great benefit, a free pattern from Terry's blog! Click the link below and scroll through the blog to find a link to the "Sweet Zip" pattern. Happy Quilting!
Terry's Blog Link

Marbles Back in Stock

I've just finished adding the Moda Marbles that are back in stock. You can view them under Moda Marble Cottons on the website. This updates my badly needed supply of some great basic colors! Some of these seem to work with everything. If you're looking for a great background color, try the Flag Ivory, one of my favorites for getting the perfect contrasting look to make other fabrics stand out. Or, need a black but don't like it solid? Try the Jet Black. They make great accent colors in your quilts.