Tennessee Quilts is a wonderful shop in Jonesborough, TN, owned by Linda Crouch-McCreadie and Breand Crouch. Their booth at the AQS Show was full of Kaffe fabrics – bright and cheerful. They had a quilt posing as a rug on the floor. It looked great but it was hard to make myself walk on it. Linda had Scotchgarded it though and it was not getting dirty. It's an interesting idea for a floor that doesn't get walked on much.

There is a lot of good fabric in the vendor mall. This display of rolled, color-coordinated fat quarters at Stitch On Needlework Shop was eye-catching

The ladies at Handbehg Felts had done some festive things with felt beads. I especially liked the "flower" stalks made with heavy galvanized wire, cut felt, and felt beads. Very cute – and they would never wilt!

Knoxville is a lovely city and the AQS Show is full of great quilts, exhibits and vendors. A good time is being had by one and all!

One exhibit that is getting talked about a lot is the Artfull Bras. There are 50 one-of-a-kind "art" bras made by the Quilters of South Carolina to raise public awareness of breast cancer, to remember those lost to the disease, and to honor the survivors. Each artist began with a 36C padded, underwire bra. The design had to completely cover the bra. There wasn't a theme and no two are alike.

Mimi and Fifi by Mary Kate Horton is very touchable – and pointy!

Hooters by Sherry Sadler is… feathery and has a 1970s attitude.

I'm a fan of sock monkeys to Monkey Business by Anita Bowen was a personal favorite.

Pastel Party by Judy Twitter is perfect for a Victorian lady don't you think?

I got an idea from Heather Bailey's blog. She let her 4-year-old daughter, Charlotte, loose in her good beads. Charlotte did a great job and it made me realize that I've been holding out on 7-year-old Elanor. I've given her "little girl" beads when we all know the big girl beads are way better.

I separated my jumbled beads into different colors so that it would be easier for her to see what was there. We used Tiger Tail which is stiff enough not to need a beading needle.

She was really careful with the little pans of beads. So who spilled them? I did!

She's really happy with her necklace and it looks lovely on her! And, if (when) she tires of it, we can take it apart and use the beads in other projects.

I've often told classes that it takes longer to applique little tiny pieces than it does "normal-sized" pieces. That's true for quilters who are beginning to intermediate appliquers. But I can honestly say that if you know what you're doing, appliqueing these 5" blocks is fast. I'm spending 2-3 nights per block. I know it took me 5-8 nights to sew each of the bigger blocks. I stitch 2-3 hours each evening.

You can see the the sashing and inner borders that I think I'll be using. I'm doing my best to make this mini quilt look as much like it's full-size cousin as I can.

I've been working on my mini-quilt for the Alzheimer's Quilt Challenge (I made that name up). It is going to be so cute!

In a recent class a student, Alice, showed me the "paper" dolls she had made for her granddaughter. They were seriously cute. The two fabrics, by Sheryl Rae Marquez for Windham Fabrics, have dolls on one piece and clothes on the other. There may be other colorways.

I had never seen this fabric and Alice was nice enough to send me some of what she had. Thank you, Alice! She suggested that I fuse the two pieces to fusible flannel which I couldn't find. I found some Pellon fusible fleece and used it instead. Elanor and I both did lots of cutting…

She's enjoying playing with them! Alice made a very nice folder for her granddaughter's paper dolls. I'm afraid Elanor is going to have to make do with a gallon-sized Ziplock.