Hello, Again!

It’s been a while since I blogged about our life changes, moving to Hawaii and then returning to the mainland to Naples, Florida. We are either Hobbits or Gypsies, we haven’t decided yet. I’ve shared photos of quilts I’ve made or those treasures I quilted for others.

However, this site had limited space and we have wanted to include a web store front to compliment our blog. I had a worldwide audience, but no real way to deliver products. Now, I am expanding to offer digital quilts and embroidery designs for a large number of machine formats.  Because of the growth of my long-arm quilting services, we are taking on a new adventure which to offer embroidery services. We didn’t stop there though, my husband has taken the opportunity to retire as a CPA and use his wide array of technology skills to add design and digitizing for quilting and embroidery machines, giving us a world wide presence for our brand of products and services.  He also built this site completely by himself integrating numerous plugins for email campaigns and eCommerce.

What this is all leading to is that we now have a much better internet presence than before, offering products that can be ordered and shipped, delivered as downloads, or as a virtual service.  Without further adieu, let us say hello again and we look forward to hearing from you.  If you are new to The Beachy Quilter or have not signed up for our newsletter, we urge you so that you can receive our newsletter filled with coupons and FREE stuff, such as free pattern downloads, videos, etc.

I hope you will visit me again at https://thebeachyquilter.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs and Kisses Block 4

Hello all! Here is a promise of Spring for those still digging out of snow!

I am re-blogging a post today from Simple Bird Studio. I was thrilled to be asked to quilt this beautiful top made by new friend, Joyce using an applique pattern called Peggy’s Puzzle! She won a 3rd place ribbon in the Naples Quilt Show this past February!

What are you sewing for Spring?

Be happy wherever you are!
Tracy

Simple Bird Applique

Before I post pictures of Block 4 of Hugs and Kisses, I want to show you something really special.  Joyce Dickens-Loffree from Naples, Florida sent me these photos of her quilt, which won a ribbon at her guild’s show.  Do you recognize it?  The pattern is Peggy’s Puzzle, a free pattern available on my website.  I am so honoured that Joyce chose to make this quilt.  Congratulations on a spectacular finish.  And the label is a wonderful addition.

Block 4 of Hugs and Kisses is a nice, simple block.  I am thoroughly enjoying making this quilt for a second time.

As I mentioned, I am making this quilt again, but in browns and pinks.  For some reason, I have a rather substantial amount of both brown and pink in my stash.  So I thought this would be a good time to use some of these fabrics up.  Even the…

View original post 153 more words

Quilt Shop Discovery

We’ve been in Florida “officially” since May 15 and would you believe that I just now went to the local quilt shop in Naples?!? What?!?

Is that some will power or what!? Actually, since the longarm wasn’t re-assembled and we had house hunting, then furniture hunting, then wall painting, then company…well, there just wasn’t enough left in me to look for a quilt shop. Fear not, however, I knew where it was! As always, my thanks to Mr. Google! 😉

Flash Quilt and Sew is in our new favorite part of town…conveniently located near The Home Depot, Bed, Bath and Beyond, the bank, and other necessity type retail establishments! Flash Quilt & Sew is a Janome and Baby Lock dealer.

Mr. G suggested we stop in on our way back home from a quick shopping trip! Yes! 🙂

The classroom is as large as the shop space! I recently joined the Naples Quilters Guild and they meet here once a month to work on charity quilts!

Here is some additional eye candy from the classroom!

Flash Sew and Quilt has a second location in Ft Meyers. Click here for their website.

I think I can find just about all I need in our new home!

Do you have a new quilt shop discovery!? Let me know! 🙂

 

 

The Artistry of Sheena Norquay, Part 3 — Scottish Highlands Collection

Last of this series. This has been so interesting to read!
I hope you enjoyed the talents of Sheena Norquay. I can’t wait to get back to creating!

auribuzz

Sheena Norquay’s Scottish Highlands Collections were inspired by the colours of mountains, forests, moorlands, and lochs of the Scottish Highlands as well as native animals such as Highland cows, Red squirrels and Red deer.

The colors are rich and vibrant and well represented in 2 small boxes — 1 in 50wt and 1 in Aurifloss.

The colours are:
2309 (cream), 2612 (pale blue/grey), 2566 (light mauve), 6735 (dark mauve), 2885 (dark green), 1246 (grey), 2775 (dark blue), 2155 (rust brown), 2975 (ochre), & 1147 (light green).

Please visit The Artistry of Sheena Norquay, Part 1 for more details + the full interview with Sheena.

GIVEAWAY
To enter-to-win the two Scottish Highlands collections by Sheena Norquay, please leave us a comment on this post letting us know which of Sheena’s pieces below is your favorite and why. Entry will close at 11:59pm on Friday, August 18 and a winner will be…

View original post 1,021 more words

The Artistry of Sheena Norquay, Part 2 — The Beach Collection

Well, I’m not gonna lie…I love everything in this post!
Sit back and enjoy!

auribuzz

Sheena Norquay’s Beach Collection was inspired by the colours of shells, stones, pebbles, sea glass and sand. It is a box of 12 Large Spools of 50wt thread.

The Colours are:
2524 (light blue/purple), 2564 (light pink/lilac), 4150 (yellow variegated)
1248 (dark blue/purple), 2311 (cream), 2375 (peach)
2610 ((dark grey/blue), 2312 (light beige), 2340 (light rust)
2615 (light grey), 2805 (light turquoise), 2326 (dark beige)

Please visit The Artistry of Sheena Norquay, Part 1 for more details + the full interview with Sheena.

GIVEAWAY
To enter-to-win The Beach Collection by Sheena Norquay, please leave us a comment on this post letting us know which of Sheena’s pieces below is your favorite and why. Entry will close at 11:59pm on Friday, August 18 and a winner will be announced here on Saturday, August 19. This giveaway is open to all of our International friends!

INTERVIEW (con.)
Tell us about The Beach…

View original post 1,008 more words

The Artistry of Sheena Norquay, Part 1

I know,…I know…it’s been a L-O-N-G time since I blogged! I promise we are alive and well here in Naples, Florida! Our move from Kauai in May has kept us busy with finding a home, getting our things shipped from Hawaii, buying new furniture and beach combing. We’ve been in our new home just over a month now and things are starting to gel. We have even had a weekend visit from the grandsons with their mom and dad! Yes, Stella the Statler made the trip just fine. She is getting a spa treatment (reassembled) this weekend! In light of that fact, I’m sew ready!! I have things to share but this article seemed to be the push I needed to get on with it!
This Scottish lady hits all my favs right now…the beach and the soon-to-be-aired Season 3 of Outlander! Enjoy!

auribuzz

I first met Sheena Norquay shortly after I started working with Aurifil, a mere 4 years into my time in this industry. Up until that time, I’d never seen anything quite like her work and was immediately taken with her artistry, her vision, and her undeniable quilting genius. She is adventurous in her work, always up for trying something new, while remaining meticulous and measured in her experimentation. Every time she creates a new piece, she sends along thoughts on that piece… what she tried and why, which threads were used, and what she thought about the process. It is both fascinating and breath-taking and I’m excited to share some of that with you over the next few days.

In the last year, Sheena has released 3 new collections… 2 last Fall and one just this past Spring. Each collection has its own voice, its own purpose, and its own…

View original post 1,743 more words

Finishing 4th

Aloha and Happy Wednesday! Have you all recovered from the time change? Thankfully, here in Hawaii, we don’t have to do that! I’ve appreciated that for the two years we’ve been here. Moving back to the mainland will bring change enough but then we’ll “enjoy” that stupid time change again! 😦

Anyway, things are progressing towards our April 4 house closing. We still haven’t worked out all the logistics with shipping but we are getting closer. One thing we have learned is that crossing the ocean creates an “international” event. Moving over sea and land enters a whole new realm of logistics! More on that as it happens.

As I have done in the past, when a move is about to happen, I start sewing like crazy! Somehow packing finished items feels less weighty than moving boxes of stash fabric. Yesterday, I finished the fourth project from last summer’s retreat.

Jump Rings by MSQC which is in this edition of BLOCK magazine. The Hawaiian fabrics were selected and kitted for the retreat by Vicky’s Fabrics here in Kauai. This was my first time to work with poly-cotton fabric, which is commonly used in Aloha shirts and clothing. It was easy to work with and quilted beautifully as you’ll see.

Making snowballs to form the inner ring…

Then I attached the matching sides all around to form the ring…forgot to take a photo of that part but you can see the result below. Next, the outer corners are nipped to make the final ring appear.

Fast forward and the top is made and the quilting is in full swing…

A close-up of the quilting design…

And the end result…ready to trim and bind! I am going to call it “Haku Leis” for the head-pieces commonly worn by the bride and her attendants during weddings. Here is a link that explains that a bit more as well as the photo below shows. Aren’t they beautiful?!

Here’s how it looks from the back! I think it is a great way to start Spring! (Apologies to those suffering from the winter storm Stella! My Stella sends her best wishes for a quick thaw!)  😉

I have a customer’s top in-house to quilt next. If I work really fast, I can get the last two tops I have made quilted before Stella has to be disassembled to move.

Next week, we have these two coming to visit! I can hardly wait to see them again! This Gigi needs to make a baby doll quilt, quick!! 🙂

Aloha!

Finishing 3rd

With another move ahead of us, I am going to finish up some UFO’s before we disassemble the Gammill and pack up the fabric stash.

The house is in good shape from repairs, cleaning, etc. for the appraiser and we enjoyed having friends over on Sunday for brunch. I had several bits of time this past week to get this UFO top complete. It is the 3rd of 4 projects from last summer’s retreat with Jenny Doan. These were the blocks I made at the retreat…the pattern is “Chopped Block” and can be found in the MSQC magazine BLOCK, Late Summer 2014 Vol. 1, issue 4. The fabrics are from jelly strips in the Desert Rose collection by Island Batik.

With all the blocks made, here was the design laid out (hung up?!) on the design wall…

The next step was to sew the blocks into rows…then sew the rows together.

I used my super (cheap-o) row numbering pins to keep from losing my (mind) place…

as I sewed the rows together…

And now the last side of the outer border is sewn on…the end is close!!

A little pressing and ta-da!!! One almost queen sized FINISHED quilt top!! Woohoo!! 🙂

It measures approx. 81 x 90…a generous full size but add another row and it would easily fit this queen bed. The pattern stated it would finish 82 x 93″…well, close enough! Finishing the 3rd project is better than perfectly sized. Once it is quilted, bound, and washed…it will be so super soft and warm…and perfect for someone! 😉

It is so colorful and bright after a gray, rainy weekend! Now to get the backing fabric and batting so I can let the quilting magic happen! I hope your Monday was just as productive!

Have a great week!

Aloha!

 

 

Change at the Speed of Life

March is here and with it comes change. For most people, it just means a change in the season…are you slowly thawing out where you live? Are your favorite things starting to bud and bloom? For us, it means another adventure!

Recently, Bonnie Hunter posted this photo on her Quiltville Facebook page…

Thanks, Bonnie! What a timely phrase! Change is scary but it’s also sometimes just the thing you need to do.

If you have followed this blog for a bit (or know us as friends and family do), you know we have moved a few times in our 36 years of marriage. For the most part, the reasons have been (mostly) economic conditions and/or chasing a dream. Our move to Hawaii in 2015 was a big dream…and guess what!? we sat in the front row and did it!!

But, things in life have a way of changing…not that we WANT them to change, sometimes they just do all by themselves. As much as we would like, we can’t control everything life throws at us.

Yet the things we CAN control do take action. So, most of our friends and family know that we are action-taking types and know when to make things happen.

Moving to Hawaii was a big risk…it would be a 50/50 chance. Should we take it on? We weighed all the pros and cons and took a deep breath, and did it. We knew there would be things we couldn’t control but it was worth a shot…this one chance to live our longtime dream. Reality can be harsh, however and we found we were on the second part of that 50/50 chance…the part that usually stops most folks in their tracks.

So, now what do we do? Where do we go? When do we leave? What’s the plan?

Well, then it’s time to start a new dream!

When we first considered moving to Hawaii back in 2014, Florida was our backup plan. Now its THE plan! And we’ve taken action! Watch out Florida…here we come!

Our beautiful Kauai home is already under contract and we are set to close on April 4! Most of February was spent making it ready to sell and fortunately for us, our buyer was renting across the street! They love our neighborhood and all the upgrades we have done to the house was greatly appreciated. Just this week, Mr. G sold his 1-year old Tacoma pickup in less than 24 hours!

After we close on the house in April and yet another tax season is out of the way, we will take some time to visit Maui and the Big Island…we might not be this close to them ever again…so we are taking advantage of that! Then, we’ll take some time in May to visit our parents as we make our way to Florida.

We hope to be in the Ft. Myers/Bonita Springs area by June 1st.

Yes, Stella (the longarm quilting machine) will cross the Pacific, again, and I will continue the blog and quilting. I’ve read there are 120 quilt shops in Florida! And, of course, I can still quilt barefoot and get my toes sandy!! Woohoo!!

As Bilbo Baggins said, “I think I’m ready for another adventure!” Let’s go!!

Stay tuned!

Barefoot Beach!

Kauai Quilt Show Winners

Here are photos of the top three favorites as voted on by visitors to our show!

First Place Viewers Choice by Toni W. – gorgeous batiks in tropical colors

Second Place Viewers Choice by Carole W. – gorgeous bird of paradise

Third Place Viewers Choice by Cheryl B. – stunning indigo and sashiko

We had a great show! We sold several quilts! We received such nice compliments from our visitors!

I personally sold SIX items!!!

Paradise Time

Wall Hanging – Calm Waters-Dusk

Wall Hanging – Calm Waters-Blue

And THREE wall hangings similar to this little turtle!!  🙂

I’ll take a bit of a break this afternoon, but tomorrow I gotta get busy…!!

Aloha!

Save

Save