Doxie love

Do you have doxie love in your house? We sure do. Here's our current member of the family, Seamus:

How can you not love that face? Short of his atrociously bad breath, he's a keeper. Seamus is the latest in the long line of doxies in our family over the years: Ginger, Heidi, Reesey, Tink, and extended doxie relatives Bella and Weenie.

 

Like most doxie owners, we love all things doxie so I just had to do this baby quilt when I saw the pattern. It's called "Baby's Bow Wow Blankie" by  All Through the Night Folk Art designs.




Fortunately for me a friend of the family was expecting just around the time I saw the pattern in one of my favorite local shops, Fabric-Etc. (thanks Carol!) and that sealed the deal! This one went to baby Sutton.

Look who's sneaking in on this one!

 
And what better way to close than with a Seamus puppy pic!

Here's to finding your stitching inspiration!

Happy stitching,

Tonya

Nine patch jazz

I just spent a lovely evening on the bay with my honey listening to live jazz and watching the sunset. A beautiful end-of-summer evening in my corner of the world. Here we are...at least part of us...

 
Can you see that lovely nine patch underneath? This is my quilt from my grandma. It's a humble nine patch, hand-tied, old school. I'm sure there's not an inch of quilt-shop-quality fabric in it, there's a sheet for the backing folded over for the binding, and even the ties are different colors throughout. She made quilts for all of her 10 grandkids and I'm sure my cousins' quilts look very much like this one. Mine is dated 1988. She hand-embroidered the year in the corner.

It has been our go-to picnic quilt for a long time and has seen many days in the sun. I know I should probably put it away to take better care of it as it's very worn and we're pretty hard on it. But that's kind of how my grandma made it. She grew up during the depression years in rural Pennsylvania, made do with what she had and expected whatever she made to be used.

I don't have my grandma with me anymore but I do have this quilt and I think of her everytime I use it. It's also how I feel when I'm making a quilt for someone else. I think of them a lot while I'm working on it. I like to think my grandma was thinking about me when she was making this one. It's kind of like a never ending hug across time.

Happy stitching,

Tonya

Moonlight Quilters Eye Candy

Well, the MQ show has come and gone and it was, as always, lots of work and lots of fun crammed into two days. I actually got some sewing time in front of a machine during the show in the Community Service area and the Demo area. Easy to volunteer for that!

Here are just a few of the many beautiful quilts that were on display (over 250+).

Spiderweb string quilt - love the red, of course! I didn't catch the name on this one.

Asterik quilt by my friend Sally S.  I have a block in there somewhere.

Scrappy pineapple quilt by Karen O.

May just be my show favorite. This liberated log cabin was done by Carrie U. in a Gwen Marston workshop. The back is done in a beautiful red silk - amazing!

Happy stitching,

Tonya

It's showtime!

Hanging out at the bi-annual Moonlight QuiltersGuild show, "Quilting By the Bay". Almost 300 quilted beauties, vendors, tea room and an awesome raffle quilt - "Bellingham Meets Baltimore". Beautiful design concept by Yvonne B. and Jan H. Such a privilege to be a part of this. One more day to get your lucky ticket at the show. Drawing tomorrow at close of show. Here's the link for show info: www.moonlightquilters.org

The fruit basket block was my contribution.

And some more lovely close ups.

It's a one-of-a-kind beauty and I hope it's coming home with me!

Happy Stitching,

Tonya

It's fair time!

One of my favorite parts of summer - going to the fair. I have to admit we are pretty spoiled here and we have a great fair (the Northwest Washington Fair, in Lynden.) When I say great, I mean really great. Super clean, yummy food, close parking and very family oriented. All things high on my list.

Also high on my list: the quilt barn! Always a good showing of lots of different quilt styles. I really like working in the barn as a hostess because there are a lot of people coming through, mostly non-quilters. It's nice to see the response people have and their appreciation of the craft.

This was actually the first time I have entered quilts myself. Finally got brave enough I guess. Happy with the results though I must say.

Red ribbon for Casey's "Leaves in the Breeze", a Piece O'Cake design, in the applique catagory.

And a blue ribbon for "Facet Diamonds"! From Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts, in the pieced catagory - what you can see of it!

Some other favorites I saw there:



An original by Darla.

 

Lovely mini-red by Tracey.



Super beauty by Yvonne. Best of division!

Happy summer stitching!

Tonya

Ready or not...

Well, here we go! Time to play techno-catch-up and enter blog-land. I have really been getting so much creative juice out of all the great quilt blogs out there in the last year I decided it was time to contribute. So I hope this space will be to share what's on my cutting mat, recent finished projects and those that are still but a glimmer in my eye.

I have been quilting for about 8 years now after deciding my baby girl needed a quilt on her first big girl bed. My dear friend Nancy Smith was my mentor and personal teacher on that first quilt and I have been hooked ever since.

I decided to call the blog Eye Candy Quilts because that's what they are to me. I love lush, vibrant color and even more, seeing how they come together to make gorgeous quilts. I think I fall somewhere between traditional and modern in both fabric and form and I try not to be daunted by any particular project by thinking something is "too hard". "Hard" would have been stitching handcut pieces by candlelight in a cabin out in the wilderness so my family wouldn't freeze to death for goodness sake!

What I do, I do because I can, on my own terms and I love it.

Happy stitching!

Tonya