Last UFO and Retreat!

 I finished my last UFO for 2024 in August before going to the Missouri Star Retreat in Hamilton.  I had made a list of all of my unfinished projects at the beginning of the year.  I have done this for the last few years, but this is the first time I got everything on the list completed.  Last year I worked really hard and got all but one completed.  That made it possible to get everything done this year.  I took the quilt to Hamilton with me to photograph it there since it was a Missouri Star pattern called Solstice.

This quilt was also part of my goal to work on curved seams in 2024.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

While at the retreat, I also pieced another Missouri Star pattern with curved seams called River Path.

I pieced the center at the retreat and then added the black border when I got back home.  I was really happy with how this turned out.  I love the striped binding as well.  This hung in the quilt show and now it's headed to Sarah's house to hang there.

I also pieced the blocks for a quilt called Marbled Cheesecake while at the retreat.  This one is now waiting to be quilted.

Another person from Florida who was at the retreat shared this quilt that she had pieced.  

We got to tour the quilt museum in Hamilton.  This was the most unusual quilt.  You had to stand across the room to see Einstein.

One of the workshops at the retreat was for this quilt called Into the Woods.  I pieced the entire thing at the retreat.  I love this quilt.  The sample quilt was made in Christmas flannels, but I went with a fall vibe.

I got it quilted and finished in time for the quilt show.

I did a mystery project at the retreat.  It was this table runner.  I made one in patriotic fabrics and one in fall fabrics.  

The retreat was fun and I'm really glad I did it.  

Christi

In like a lamb???

I can't quite believe it's March!  I can't decide if we are getting Lion or Lamb weather today.  It's very windy, but at least it's sunny.  

It has been a long week.  The hubs did have the flu.  It was pretty quiet around the house as he just didn't feel like talking for several days, and now is still coughing (and talking leads to coughing), so I have been thankful for Jason and Cici.  I did spend 3 nights sleeping in the spare room, which was sad since hubby felt so bad.  I did get to sleep under a different quilt though!  And, I discovered where Cici spends the night...........on the spare bed.  I think she was quite glad to see hubby improve and me move out of her bed.

We enjoyed some warmer days this week.  However, this seems to have awakened the lady bugs.

Cici did her best to corral them for me.  

Aloha! from Quilt Retreat!!!

So I'm still doing good at one of my New Year's resolutions...........my fabric scraps are getting cut up and stored appropriately, BUT I haven't been blogging like I intended too.  I guess 1 out of 2 isn't bad..............but, I'm hoping for better.

This past weekend was our quilt retreat at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop and retreat center in Brunswick.  It was wonderful.  We tried to think warm thoughts and get lots of sewing done while having amazing fun!

Here is a photo of the grass skirt competition!  There was also a family feud game, strip poker (2.5" fabric strips - I won the pot twice!), door prizes, Hawaiian quilting and freezer paper piecing demonstrations,and lots of great food!

Happy Birthday!!!

Well, yesterday was my birthday!  Look what I got for my birthday...........

Note the bow on the step...........truly makes it a gift, don't you think????

Welcome Lizzy!

I did not need another sewing machine, but when this bargain opportunity came along, I just couldn't pass it up.  Meet Lizzy!

Lizzy is a Singer 201.  The machine was in great shape and runs wonderfully.  Lizzy has a great stitch.  Notice the cute little pin cushion I found in one of the drawers.  I got the silver polish out and shined it up!  The cabinet (which I love) needed some cleaning and a little repair (thanks hubby for the repairs!).  And, I have moved further down in the attic room.  As I was doing a little work on Lizzy yesterday (sorry, I was having too much fun with Lizzy to blog!), I got to thinking that if I moved DD's books out of that book shelf, it would be a great place to store quilt books and maybe even MORE FABRIC!  Friend Gina and her hubby Dennis stopped by to give Lizzy their stamp of approval and Dennis commented on my stash.........it's not very big!

State Fair, Back to School, the Eclipse, and Quilts!

It has been a busy week.  I have been working taking reservations for people coming in to see the Eclipse next Monday.  There are about 100 plane reservations to fly in to the little Marshall airport (including 3 jets and a helicopter), and over 200 people coming to brunch in the Martin Center.............the visitor from the furthest away will be Melbourne, Australia!  I probably won't get a blog done next week, but will have many stories and photos to share later.

We had a quilt guild meeting this week and had a trunk show from Liz Granberg.  She does some beautiful work, very different from anything I've done.

Aren't these interesting!  They are much more "art" quilts than what I do.  

Retreat!!!!

This past weekend was my quilt guild's retreat at Sew Sweet in Brunswick.  It was a Friday-Saturday event, but I was only able to attend on Saturday.  When I carried my stuff in on Saturday morning this was the first thing I noticed on a design wall.........

I immediately asked who was working on this and it was Michelle.  I am working on the same pattern.  It's a Bonnie Hunter mystery from a few years ago and is a free pattern on her website called Old Tobacco Road.

Michelle is obviously a little further along than I am.  I worked on the green/neutral pinwheel blocks.  Now that I've seen hers, I can't wait to get mine to that stage to see it come together.  However, this is supposed to be what I'm using as Leader/Enders, so I'm trying to keep myself in check and work on the other things I need to do.  

Getting things finished (or at least making progress!)

Many thanks to Cici for filling in for me on the blog last week (I think!).  Fortunately, things are going a little better.  I finally have all of the En Provence blocks that I had to rip apart resewn (some more than twice, unfortunately), and have started putting them on the new design wall I made in my sewing room.  My sewing room is an attic room with sloped ceilings that are pretty low - I don't have to stand on ANYTHING to change a light bulb!  This made creating a design wall a little tricky, but I finally figured out how to do it and told the Hubs, and he had a bracket and rod up in no time.  I purchased a cheap vinyl table cloth and sewed a casing in one end of it and put it on the rod and PRESTO!  Design Wall!  It's at the other end of the attic room between the dormer window that is now a closet, so I get my steps in going back and forth!

You can see that I have 9 of the 16 blocks finished and some of the sashing pieces as well.  I finally counted and each block has 80 pieces.  I will be so glad when this top is done.  I can't wait to hand it off to be quilted and say something like, "I don't want to see this again until August at the earliest.........November might be even better."  I just want to be able to say I got it finished before our December guild meeting so I can scratch it off the list.

The best thing about this is the design wall.  The flannel on the back of the table cloth is great for sticking blocks to.  And if I need to get into the closet, I just slide the table cloth to the side, or can even lift the bar out of the bracket.

Be it Resolved............

It's still January, so technically, I think I can still make resolutions for 2017!  In my quilt guild, we have a UFO challenge each year where we list one UFO that has been around for awhile that really, really needs to get finished.  This year I listed my bordered periwinkle quilt that has been around for at least 3 years.  I should never have started it.  It is paper pieced, and I have never liked (trying not to use the word "hate") paper piecing.  Somehow, it always sounds wonderful, but when I get down to actually working on it, it's not so wonderful.  Anyway, that is my main UFO project to get finished this year.  

Happy New Year!!!

Where to begin?????

Christmas and its many activities has come and gone and 2017 is here!  I did start a new job at the chiropractor's office, but discovered that it just wasn't going to work.  While I really enjoyed the work, I was experiencing lots of foot pain (have had foot trouble before, but not for a long time) from standing from 8-6 every day.  So, I gave notice and am now currently staying at home this week.  I may be returning to work part time at the Martin Community Center.  In the meantime, I'm gearing up for piano lessons to start next week, both at MVC where I will have 2 students and here at home, where I may have as many as 9.  

In early December, David and I participated in Journey to Bethlehem, a joint effort put on by 2 local churches.  The set design was amazing.

I was the village basket weaver.  Here is my station.

Over 400 visitors came to Bethlehem (they all had to register for the census), and it was a busy night.  I got 3 baskets woven to the rim stage that evening.

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!

 Or maybe it should read "Turkey, Wild Indian, Turkey"!  DD is home for the week and brought her Thanksgiving decorations to share.  She's not fond of Cici batting the turkeys around the table.  At least she's entertaining Cici.  Cici may actually enjoy the peace and quiet when DD goes back to school.

Sweet & Savory

Where has the month gone?????

I can't believe we are midway through November, Thanksgiving is on our doorstep, and Christmas will be here before we know it.  Fall is my favorite time of year because it is all about chillier temps (I'm still waiting for those), fall colors and leaves falling (still waiting for the leaves to fall), comfort foods, and making Christmas gifts!

Here is a basket I recently finished.........

This will be a Christmas gift.  The pattern has instructions for a set of 4 nested baskets. This is the largest.  I have everything ready to do the others, if I can find the time.  It has a round wood base and a rolled Gretchen rim.  It had been awhile since I did this rim treatment.  Here is what it looks like at the beginning of weaving the rim.....

Kind of messy looking..........so much fun to bring order into chaos!  Hard to believe it's the same basket.

Finally, Photos Worth Sharing!

I know it has been awhile since my last post, and while I have been really busy, I seemed to be doing lots of things that just weren't photo worthy............did you really want to see a picture of the big hair ball I cleaned out of the tub drain????  While I am really happy to get some things like that done, I didn't really feel like sharing the love/pain of those projects. 

The hubs did start combining when it was dry enough.  He even gave combine rides to some of my piano students.  One little boy carried his ear of corn in to my living room and laid it in a place of honor on my coffee table during piano lessons.  The weather hasn't been the best for combining, so the hubs has been at loose ends while waiting around.  One particular afternoon when he couldn't be in the field, I decided to entertain him by taking him shopping!  

Welcome to Rio!

Have you been watching the Olympics?  We have.  While finishing the binding on my Mom's Surprise Star quilt, we watched the first gold medal of the games go to a 19-year-old American young lady in the air rifle competition (yes, we tend to watch the less popular sports).  We also watched the end of the men's cycling road race yesterday and the exciting crashes on the steep downhill portion at the end of the race (not a good time to have a needle in your hand!), and the first swimming events (also not a good time to have a needle in your hand as you are yelling at the TV for them to swim just a little faster).  Mom's quilt binding is all done and I have started the hand-quilting project I had saved to work on during the Olympics.  This might not have been the wisest of moves as my hand-quilting is not the best, and then when paired with the exciting things happening on TV, well, let's just say I'm going for a "rustic" look on this wall hanging.  Watch for pictures of the completed project.

I'm so happy to finally have these Rudolph placemats finished.  This set of 10 (yes, 10) are going to my sister.  I machine quilted them myself.  The pattern is a take off of Bonnie Hunter's Fair and Square quilt (I refuse to do string blocks, so my setting triangles are solids).  I had 2 layer cakes of the Rudolph fabric and made a small throw/wall hanging and 2 table runners, and then used the scraps to create placemats for my sister.  I love the bias striped fabric as binding.  What little fabric was left has been cut up and added to the scrap bins.  One more thing to check off the UFO list!

Bricks in the Barnyard.........and so much more!

I'm so excited that Bricks in the Barnyard is finished!

I started this at our Bonnie Hunter workshop last September and it is now totally completed!  I backed it with flannel to make it a nice throw possibly for one of the nephews for Christmas.  I love how planned it looks and I got rid of so many scraps!  

Leaders and Enders!

I was so excited when Bonnie Hunter posted her new Leader and Ender Challenge today!  I had just finished binding my Leader and Ender Tumbler Quilt.  Mary D. did an awesome job machine quilting it for me.

Rabbits and Kittens and Quilts, Oh my!

Well, County Fair Week is over!  The projects are back home and mostly put away, the rabbits are back in their cages, and all is well.  The DD took 15 projects, got all blue ribbons, and 8 were selected for state.  She also had the grand champion meat pen of rabbits and won senior showmanship.

Aren't they cute!  Of course, when we were trying to pick 3 who were identical in body type and weight to have a uniform pen, I had to wonder why we always have 2 pair when we need 3 of a kind!  It's such a gamble!

Gettin' It Done!

Yeah!  I finally got the braided borders on my Bricks in the Barnyard quilt!  This quilt was started at my guild's Bonnie Hunter Workshop last September.  Bonnie is a quilter from North Carolina who designs scrap quilts, writes books, and travels doing trunk shows and workshops as well as using social media on a daily basis.  I don't know how she finds the time to get it all done.  Anyway, my guild had booked her for a 2-day event (over a year ahead of time) last September.  She did a trunk show, then a 4-hour workshop on Bricks in the Barnyard, and an 8-hour workshop the next day on Smith Mountain Morning.  I will admit that Smith Mountain Morning was a much harder quilt with lots of pieces, and a larger quilt, and somehow, mine is already finished - completely quilted and everything!  It has been for a few months now.  I had finished the center of Bricks in the Barnyard awhile ago, but got bogged down in the braided borders.  I really wanted the borders on there, so kept plugging away at them and finally yesterday decided they were long enough and started trimming them and sewing them on.