A few more fun pics from retreat

Just a few more pics from the retreat since I"m so busy with work this week and with the kids at home I haven't had time to sew anything to share!

A few more pics from my retreat

Thought I would share some of the eye candy with you from retreat! I'm slowly catching up with work and blogs, so thought I could take a few minutes to share some more pics with you. There were so many good things to share I probably won't ever be able to share them all with you!

The top picture was a quilt my roommate had been working on for a long time. But she loved it so much she decided to enlarge it from full size to a queen bedspread size! So she was working on more blocks and putting them and the borders on this weekend. I've never met Carol before but we had fun. She is a friend of some friends I know from the retreat. My buddy couldn't come this year, so I paired up with Carol.

Carol also was making an Eifel Tower wall hanging for her friend Nancy's daughter who loves France. The work she has done on this is unbelievable. The black was fused onto fusible webbing and then she is cutting out all these little holes with a small exacto knife! The background is that fabric "Paris Flea Market" with the street maps of Paris on it! She also designed the border idea while at camp!

And this is Nancy - on your right (whose daughter is getting the Eifel Tower). She made this really fun quilt top with the Moda Hanky's on it! What a fun idea if you knew someone who collected hanky's.

And this is Sharon Nancy's sister - on your right. She made this amazing blooming 9-patch quilt! The individual fabrics looked so ugly next to each other - but WOW - look how they bloomed in the quilt! It was amazing!

And last but not least my original project I was going to work on. I got this far (well I got all the star arms made - they just aren't hanging up) and realized I forgot the fabric pieces that go in the V! So this project got put away and Moonshine became my project for the weekend! Which now I"m glad - I love how moonshine turned out.

Moonshine is done!

Ok well the top is done. I got this one completely done at the retreat this weekend. I"m tired but happy. Isn't it great! I have so much to share with you, but work was busy and with being out Friday I'm a bit behind - so for today I thought I would share what I accomplished!

A bit of this and that....

Just a few loose ends to tie up before I go on retreat tomorrow!!!! YES!!!!! Above is my completed purse. I can't for the life of me find my may jar of fun buttons - so my purse got a just a round metal button for now.

And here is a full view of my stars quilt. I was in a hurry last night so wish I had gotten a better picture. I think part of the problem is my camera is getting old - or maybe it is the user is getting old!

I had to share this really fun quilt I saw at guild last night. Isn't it awesome! What a clever way to use Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks! It is in the book Quilts from Grandmother's Garden by Jaynette Huff (picture below).

And last but not least I just had to share this picture I sent to my kids for Halloween. This was Halloween probably about 12 years ago at our house! Look at how sweet and innocent they were! Not the rude teenagers they can be these days. But my oldest (20) did get a kick out of it - and even shared it with her friends at college. They couldn't believe Holly and Adam looked like that 12 years ago!

OK, so I broke down and did it.....

OK, so I had to do it too.....

Have You Ever?

1. Taken a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
(well I've had a designed quilt on the cover of a text book)
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting - like fabric origami
12. Made something using Thimbleberries fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16. Made a New York Beauty quilt
17. Made a baby quilt
18. Made a wall hanging
19. Made a journal quilt
20. Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21. Made a fabric postcard
22. Made a artistic trading card (ATC)
23. Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26. Made a twin size quilt
27. Made a full size quilt
28. Made a queen size quilt
29. Made a king size quilt
30. Donated a quilt to charity
31. Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32. Thrown away a UFO
33. Given away a UFO
34. Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35. Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36. Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37. Done any Sashiko
38. Quilted your own quilt
39. Did free motion quilting
40. Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41. Given away your quilt to a stranger
42. Swapped fabric
43. swapped blocks
44. participated in a round robin
45. Participated in an ostrich round robin
46. kept a journal about your quilting
47. Written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
48. kept a blog about your quilting
49. participated in a gift exchange
50. I have no idea what 50 was.....
51 sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 made a quilt using a pattern from quilterscache
54 joined an online block of the month
55 made a block of the month quilt
56 subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 bought fabric at an online store
58 bought fabric from ebay
59 own more than one sewing machine
60 have a room dedicated solely to sewing
61 hide a fabric purchase
62 finished making a holiday gift before July
63 spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 made a quilt using a book from the library
65 worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. Joined a quilt guild
67 become president of a quilt guild
68 taught a quilting class
69 helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 taught a child to sew
71 made a Dear Jane block
72 Made a miniature quilt
73 watch QNN - quilters news network
73 subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
(two # 73's! Bet I found what happened to #50!)
74 subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 buy fabric from another country
76 swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 asked for quilting help online
78 gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 used nontraditional fabric for a quilt - something other than cotton or flannel
82 made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 meet a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 had a quilting retreat in your home
86 own quilting software
87 made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 donated a quilt to a museum
91 bought a quilt from a thrift store
(does ebay count?)
92 made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 made a quilt using photos
94 made a pastel quilt
95 made a quilt using brights
96 made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country - African, Asian, etc.
97 made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. Submitted your quilt to a quilt show
100. Won any ribbons with your quilts
101 had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 made money with your quilting
105 had a job in the fabric / quilting industry

Lucy - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Lucy thought she should send a thank you for the books I sent her - silly girl! I've only been promising those books to her now for almost a year and finally got them sent off. Anyway, I got this WONDERFUL package in the mail from her Monday. I am in heaven!

The little dolls are so adorable! My pictures are bad, it was late so I had bad lighting and took them fast. Anyway, these are typical little dolls that children would play with about 100 years ago. Today the older ladies make them out of 100 yr old fabrics to sell at the museum in Marken. Aren't they just adorable! They are little, guess I didn't get a good guage of size. The big one is maybe about 4" long.

And the fabrics are antique fabrics of the "bows" the ladies used to wear on the top front of their dresses. Lucy explained this better than I can -
We have more places here where woman still wwear the costumes.. But they are not so colorfull as marken.
The fabrics you get we call here a Bow. It is the piece on the breast from the ladys. They pin it on their shirt! and they change it everyday. I lady told me once that she remmebered when she was little ( she was now 82) That on friday a man with a wagon came on 11 o clock .. it was coffeetime and the woman where done with their hosuekeeping. so the man came with a wagon full with fabrics!! The woman choose the most beautifull for their "Bow"!
Isn't that fun!

And last but sure not least - look what made it to my house! Her mini quilt! I loved it so much when I saw it on her blog! But I want to cry when I think she sent it to me and now she doesn't have it! You would not believe how tiny those 4 patches are! The 4-patch is smaller than a thimble! It is amazing!

Lucy sent me this information also -
Marken is my favourite place from the Netherlands. it is a island , a old fishermans village. The houses are typical from there and so also there clothes. The people lives for years in a close community!
here a impression from the island.

http://home.wxs.nl/~napel/diashow.htm
http://www.hofvanmarken.nl/www/html/ned/tips/museum.htm
http://www.hofvanmarken.nl/www/html/ned/tips/klederd.htm

Thank you so much Lucy!!!!!!!

And I had hoped to share a picture of my finished purse today with the fun button, but can you believe I could not find my jar of fun buttons last night! ughhh. So I have to rack my brain today where I could have put it.

Oh where to start?????

I don't even know where to start! I feel like I've been so busy but have accomplished nothing!

OK, first off is my new purse I decided Sunday I had to make! The picture up top is the front of it. I have a really fun wooden horn like button I've got to sew on it yet for the closure. But I couldn't wait to take a picture and share it! Right above here is the back. You can just make out the little green loop that will flip over and go around the button. Then below is the sides. The pattern doesn't have these side pockets but that is what I use for my car keys, so I just added them! They don't look bad! The pattern is a quilt as you go so there are no inside pockets. But that also I had to change. Where would I put my lipstick? And where would my cell phone go! So I quilted as I went just through the batting. Then I added pockets to the lining fabric and then put it together. I tried to get a picture of the inside but it was too hard, I couldn't get it to come out good. So all I need to do yet is finish sewing the binding down and put the button on and I have a new fall purse! Isn't it fun!

But what I have been mostly working on the last week is cutting brushed cotton plaids for my retreat projects this weekend! They are scrappy quilts so it takes forever to cut out all the pieces. But I"m done. This doesn't look like a lot, but there is enough for 2 quilts here! I have a note in each baggy what piece and quilt it is for! So I can just sew, sew, sew!!!!!! Now lets just hope I cut them right!

So I"ve been busy, but not much to show for it! Oh and I did go to the movies this weekend with Emily (Freshman). We went to see "Flicka". Oh it was such a nice movie and gorgeous scenery in Wyoming. And of course towards the end I started crying. Well it gets to a big point in the story and the girl has one simple line and I start sobbing and catching my breath! One silly line and I loose it! I won't spoil it for you if you want to see it - you'll know the line when you hear it! Well Emily wouldn't admit that she was crying, but she is fair skinned and has red hair - it wasn't too hard to figure out why her face was all blotchy and eyes red and puffy! So it even got to her! Go see it. Just a nice story and nice movie.

Look at my Surprise!!!

Look at the pictures Bonnie sent me yesterday! She finished my quilt! Isn't it just GORGEOUS! All because of Bonnie's beautiful quilting! I can't wait to get it in my hands and get binding on it!

Still busy trying to catch up from being gone! So this is short!

I"m back finally - but broke!

I'm back! I think some of you were wondering where I was! It was late Monday night when I got home, and Tuesday work was so back logged from me being gone I didn't have time to check in. Then yesterday I did the 3 hr drive up to Green Bay, did my meetings and then 3 hrs home! And needless to say I'm still playing catchup! Oh and Tues night and tonight I'm teaching classes at the LQS! So how is that for busy!

I had a wonderful visit with my mom and sister and her family! Mom wasn't feeling quite perfect so we stayed at home, ate snacks, ordered out and played games with the kids and watched movies! It was perfect! So I had lots of time to visit and just have fun! John and James had just gotten some new board games last month - so we had a great time playing them. My favorite was "Bucket King" in the top picture. It is mostly luck, so you can all play and everyone has a chance of winning! Plus you can visit and just have fun! We also played Alhambra. I bit more thought, but not too bad - and the boys liked building the cities.

I did take a trip to the quilt shops near them and now I'm broke! Look at what I came home with! First the Oriental Fabrics my sister bought. I went to the first quilt shop with my nephew (who is my Godson) and he HADDDDD to have a new quilt with these fabrics. I think it must be his Kung Foo coming through! Now he already has 3 quilts I made him but my sister says he LOVES them and when I asked why he needed another one his answer was "Well, it is getting to be winter so I could use another one!". So we decided something easy (thank goodness) was in order for all these fabrics. He liked "Turning Twenty...Again" and so I told him to pick out 12 FQs and this is what he came up with! He liked the Green for the border and the black will be the binding. And I'm sooo not into oriental fabrics! But he is going to LOVE it!

Then I went to the primitive quilt store I LOVE - Lil Country Shoppe! And had a field day! I found this pattern "Take 5" which is your same type thing like Yellow Brick Road or Turning Twenty, so I picked it up for fast charity or kid quilt gifts.

And then the main mission, to get some background brushed cotton plaids for my upcoming retreat projects - Horse Feathers and Moonshine! Aren't they gorgeous!

And then I found these for backings for them - so I couldn't pass them up. Now aren't those chickens just going to be too fun on the back of a quilt called Horse Feathers!

And then last but not least some fill-ins. I needed some blacks, so got some of those and then I've been dying for that green dot/stripe fabric for the background of a wall hanging I want to do - so I broke down! And I've been wanting the fun colored needle threaders, not just the brown ones, so got one for me and one for my friend!

So my suitcases were full! But I was a very happy girl! Tomorrow - another very happy surprise! I'll keep you in supense!

I"m gone for the weekend

Not even time to find a fun quilt picture! I"m off to visit my mom, my sister and her family in Delaware. I'll be back on Oct 24th - but probably so far behind in work I won't know which end is up! And can you believe I turn right around on Wednesday for a work trip to Green Bay - woo hoo, Green Bay - hot spot of the world! I'm just glad the Packers don't play on a Wednesday! I don't think I could take the cheese heads!

Another new blogger in OZ

Just wanted to let you know we have another new blogger in blog land. Stop by and say g'day to Tracey in OZ!

I love the chook quilt!

9 Patch with Borders!!!! (mitered even!)

Got my 9 patch done this weekend with the mitered borders. Not a lot of swearing, but there were a few tense moments! But I'm happy with the result! I think Finn asked what size they were. The 9 patches finish to 3" finished (so each square is 1" finished). I think the whole quilt top is about 32" x 32", somewhere around there. (Oh and it really isn't that wavy - for some reason when I hang it up with that lovely blue tape I just couldn't get it to hang flat!)

AND the big news is Laura and I finally talked Sossy into trying a blog! She still says she can't load pictures, but we can cure her of that! So today she took the BIG PLUNGE and posted her first post! Go visit her. Tomorrow she is going to have a really fun topic - I won't spoil it for you! Since she is so chicken to load pictures I thought I would share 2 with you that I have from camp. The above one was a pumpkin and snowman wall hanging I think she made - I could be wrong and it was her friends - can't remember for sure. But aren't they adorable! And the below one is Sossy with her "No pattern" pink candy quilt for her little boy! He loves Candy Land so she made this for him - but she can tell you more about that someday! Please stop by and say hi!

Getting there and my embarrasing laundry room

Here are my 9-patches now! I hope today to get the borders on - we will see how that goes. I want to miter the corners and no matter how much I "know" how to do it, they just never quite come out perfect.
And here is my embarrasing laundry room. It is basically what you call a mud room. My husband does landscaping and this is the room where everthing gets washed up, junk gets thrown in, and the kids just deposit whatever in it! To the far left you see just the corner of the wash tub. And what you can't see is on the right is the big dog food bin.
And in taking this picture I remember I had one more piece of flooring to "keep" someday. Jenna watched on TV this one time some guy who was giving out household hints on things. Well he made some concoction to remove pen from any surface. So she decides to try it. Well what she didn't think about was it was marker or pen - it wasn't permanent marker. So she goes in the laundry room and writes "Jenna was here" on our floor! Then tries to remove it and it won't remove! And Jenna at the time was about 15! Not a cute little toddler! Anyway, after years of wear and trying to remove it, we now have a black blob and you can barely read the words. But evertime I do laundry I remember my "little blonde"!

Tonights Progress

Well I spent just a bit of time and got my 4 patches laid out and together. Here is what they look like now.

In taking this picture I realized how dirty the rug is in our basement. It is an unfinished basement and this rug I bought 20 years ago when the kids were small to play on. It was just one of those remanent pieces - so it has held up well. Only one small problem - one day while my 3 oldest who were about 3, 4 and 5 and the time; decided to play miniature golf. Well they couldn't find the little cups with the little balls and clubs. So Holly got out an orange marker and wrote 1, 2 and 3 on the carpet! They are still there to this day! Whenever I get rid of this carpet I may just have to cut that piece out and wrap it up to give her! She's 20 now. Ahhh the memories.

And my little helper was right there checking out the layout of the blocks, so I snapped a quick picture of Chloe. At least tonight she was NOT laying on my foot pedal as she usually does. It still scares me when the machine takes off and I'm not pushing the foot pedal!

One 9-patch has to go! - REVISED

I finished my 9-patches last night! Here they are. I need 24 so one will have to go. Not sure if there is one I should just drop out now, or if I should wait and see what fits in once I lay them out the way they are going to go. What do you think? (the colors are not very true in this pic. I had to lay them out on the floor in the basement and the light isn't very good down there!)

Then after I posted I saw Karen's Sew Primitive post about the Jo Morton club finally starting in Atlanta. She posted pics of 2 quilts that I have made. I changed the colors in both from what she had. I love the little red and cheddar stars! The blue one turned out so good, and so different for me since I never work in blue, that I haven't had the heart to quilt it yet - now is that stupid or what! But I had to add this to the post for Karen to see!

A bit more progress

Well a few more 9-patches were done last night. I'm about at the end of my teeny tiny bits of scraps - I've had to start cutting small pieces out of my bigger chunks! I still have about 10 more 9-patches to go. It sure does take a long time to cut for these scrappy 9-patches (well that and finding the fabric!).

And I finally completely finished my own thread organizer! I showed you a picture of 2 I made last spring for gifts, but I just never got around to making one for ME! I made the large and small version for me! Isn't the fabric great! And I spent last night while watching "Lost" filling it up with my applique thread! Now isn't that pretty! I even have space for a few more spools! Guess I"ll need to go shopping for a few more colors!

And last but not least is an old small bargello wall hanging I made years and years ago. I even realized that I really didn't have a good picture of it while searching for one last night! All I've come up with is a picture of it hanging from the ceiling at a quilt store. But I thought of this quilt because while digging through my reproduction scraps I found a few strips left from this quilt - which made me think of it! It was done with my favorite darker colors and reproduction fabrics. Doesn't it look great! Now I need to take it out and hang it up somewhere for the fall!

Did a bit of sewing!

I found a few minutes last night to do a bit of sewing. Oh that feels so good! I have caught up on my house quilt. Just need to wait for the next months mailing now! Isn't it a really fun quilt! And the blocks are really large, so this will be a nice size quilt!

I also started some blocks for the quilt I'm going to use that awesome green border fabric with. A lot of people wanted to know what I'm going to use it for. Well I'm not showing a picture because I'm working on it next and thought it would be fun for you to watch it come together. The 9-patches all came from small bits of repro fabrics I have in my stash. It was so much fun to dig through my box of small pieces and see what I could use. I have a pile of some more for another night this week! So for today you get to see 5 9-patches!

And something "cute" for Nancy to go with her Bear pictures today!