Love!

Happy Valentine's Day (very late).............

This was my gift from my hubby!  A little something he made in his shop!

I just returned from a quilt retreat in the brand new (we were the first people to sit in the sewing chairs, sleep in the beds, shower in the awesome showers, etc) retreat barn in Brunswick.  And I have the t-shirt to prove it!

It was great to have all that time just to sew and visit and see what others were doing.  The food was fabulous as well and it was really nice not to have to plan anything to eat.  It just appeared and was delicious.

I did get quite a lot accomplished, the first of which was sewing Sarah's Christmas Quilt together.  This pattern is from the Wendy Sheppard Christmas book.  It was done with scrappy tree blocks, but Sarah isn't much of a scrappy girl, so I did hers like this.

Since sending her the photo (she loved it) and getting the measurements for her bed, I have added another sashing row along each side and have plans for a small green (same print as the green sashing trees) border.  I will hopefully be able to pick that up at Marshall Dry Goods when we go in March...........and something for the backing too.

Then I put the Show and Tell quilt together.  I also made the binding for it (same blue as the background) and will try to find a backing for it on the March trip as well.

I worked on the fox blocks and now have half of them (12) complete.  I'd like to get backing for this quilt at MDG as well, so probably need to be working on getting the foxes finished and set together.  Show and Tell and Foxes in Flannels are Elizabeth Hartman patterns.

I made all 16 of the flower blocks (lots of little pieces) that go in the Snailin' Around Town quilt from the Wendy Sheppard Scrap Quilting book.

I pieced this little table topper called Tea Time as a leader/ender in between projects.  I actually quilted it this morning and have it ready for the hand binding.

This was the project I threw in at the last minute (in case I ran out of things to work on!).  I didn't run out of things, but it just popped up in my stuff, so I did it.  It has now had a border and sides added to it to make it a placemat for our charity placemat project and is even quilted and ready for hand binding.

And I worked on my O Christmas Tree quilt which is also from Wendy Sheppard's Christmas book.  I need 72 of the king's crown blocks, but I got all of these done at the retreat.  This is another quilt I'd like to shop for a backing for.

And here are the cute little four patches I did as leader/enders.  The little squares start at 1.5".  My box of these was overflowing, so I've decided to start making some four patches and nine patches from them.  No definite plans for them yet.

This is my friend, Gina's quilt that she got put together while we were there.  All of those little triangles are prairie points and are 3 dimensional.  

Since I had emptied some project boxes, I decided it was only fair to purchase fabric to fill one of them back up!  This is the Show Me Waves pattern that Sarah and I found at the Quilted Cow in St. Peters.  

And here are the 2 project boxes that didn't get opened (one never got out of the car).

And here is the free stuff!  Part of this is a prize that I won from another quilter's blog and part was in the goodie bag from the retreat.

And I bought this 5 yard quilt book to use with the fabrics on the left (I already had the fabric) and a friend gifted me this bird pattern that I had been eyeing for awhile.

And this is the jelly roll that was in my goodie bag.  The quilt shop takes their end of bolts (after they can no longer get a fat quarter from it) and cuts them into 2.5" strips and makes their own jelly rolls.

And the cats were very happy to have me back and enjoyed snooping through all the stuff.

This was my "proof of life" photo from David while I was gone.  Mabel and Harry have a hard life, don't they?

I  LOVED my time at the retreat, but it's good to be home.  I plan to go back for another retreat later this year.

Christi 

Jury Duty, Shadows, and Curling

 Well, let's get right to it!  I was eliminated from the pool of potential jurors.  I'm pretty sure it's because I have the prosecuting attorney's daughter as a piano student.  I talked with him at a ball game after the trial and he warned me that there are lots of things coming up on the court docket this spring and I'm in the pool until July!  I informed him that being on a jury is NOT on my bucket list and it would be fine with me if he settled cases out of court.  I am a little concerned about a change of venue trial that has been moved to our county because it won't be our local prosecutor, so I won't have the "piano student" excuse.  Time will tell.  I have notified the clerk's office about dates we will be out of town, so I know I won't be called then.

After spending several hours waiting to be eliminated, I was exhausted, but suddenly had nothing to do.  Another piano student's mom texted me and invited me to her cookie decorating class and I went.  It was so much fun and here are the cookies I decorated...............it was a dog theme.

And speaking of dogs.............

Look who joined Willow on her dog bed!  Actually, I think Esme was already asleep there and Willow came in and flopped down and then Esme was too frightened to leave.

Someone else was not happy about being shut outside.

Mabel is very good at holding down a chair.

Sometimes Harry joins her.

And sometimes he stretches out and claims the chair for his own personal napping spot.

But if you get really lucky, someone might leave their quilt in the chair and you can really snuggle in for a nice warm nap.

Of course, napping isn't the only thing they do............sometimes the laser light comes out and zooms around in the shadows and must be caught.

And sometimes you just need to go fishing!

And here is my latest quilt finish.  It's called Jimmy John, which I think is a stupid name for a quilt, but it was a free pattern, so I shouldn't complain.  It will be gifted to a young lady at church later this month.  

Well, the Olympics are underway (ok, the opening ceremonies are tomorrow).  We've already watched our first curling match!  Our US team has won both of their games so far.  We'll probably watch another this evening.  You know, seeing a live curling match or even trying curling IS on my bucket list.  

Christi