Retreating

I had my bi-annual girlfriends quilting retreat the first weekend of November up at Evergreen Retreat in Janesville, Wisconsin. We all had such a good time, we probably each gained about 5 lbs in 3 days!  Evergreen is really a fantastic retreat location. It's reasonable priced, not that far from where we live, they provide all the 'stuff' for quilting (irons/big boards, tall cutting tables, rulers, ott lights, design walls, comfy chairs.....) and they have 3 nearby quilt shops to explore! I felt that I got quite a bit done, so that was a bonus.
I made pillowcases out of Riley Blake's "Colorful Christmas" line  for DiscoJen's kids for Christmas.

I finished sewing on the binding on the 'Plaid About You' quilt out of Lakehouse's 'Fun Flowers' black colorway. And since Binding Guru Karen was at the retreat, I even got it hand tacked down in record time. I tell you, the woman is a binding genius!

I used my water-soluble interfacing technique to mark my quilting.

I quilted the big flowers free-hand. Just to be clear, this is a panel. I did not applique these fabulous flowers.

And since this is for a baby, I used bright, lime green minky on the back. This photo doesn't portray the color accurately, it's really a lime green, like the gingham in the flower above. I love how the quilting shows up on minky.

I designed and tried to figure out how to make a commissioned tree skirt from my extremely crudely drawn design. I specifically save this to do at the retreat since I would have others to help me figure out how the heck to put this thing together. My friend Carol is especially helpful with these types of things because she's an engineer.
I started with this pile of batiks and fairy frost:

I made a circle out of the beyond fantastic red diamond Hoffman Batik. I found a ton of tutorials online on how to do this. I then used my beloved 1/4" fusible web tape and ironed under the edge.

Then I pieced together the greens into large strip sets and interspersed some thin. white fairy frost strips here and there and used one of those 9degree rulers to make wedges. I had the idea that if I could get the angles right on a quarter of the circle, then I could just do 4 of those and connect them, but unfortunately it isn't that easy. I had to make some wider angled strips, some smaller wedged strips and so on. I'm not done with it yet, but I have a good start at least. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out too.

And last, but certainly not least, I FINALLY finished the last of my Hydrangea commissioned "You Go Girl" bags!!!! It feels soooooo good to get this thing done. It wouldn't be that bad, but I quilted the crap out of the material. It took me 10-12 hours just to quilt the material, and this is the 3rd bag I've made like this! I'm really over quilting the hydrangea material!



Seriously, what was I thinking when I started to quilt it this way?!?!?!

I have photos of what everyone else made, but I can't locate the SD card with them on it, so that will have to be another post!

Bag central

It's been a productive couple of weeks, mostly thanks to my quilt guild retreat last weekend in Rockford.
I made yet another Late Bloomer Sweet Simple Tote for Ashley's birthday (which I gave to her that night, so I don't have a photo. I'll have to have her send one to me).
I love that pattern so much that I've been cranking them out. I love how beautifully it show cases larger print fabrics. I made two chocolate themed, a fantastic black/white/hot pink from the Michael Miller Dress Forms fabric and am in process of a purple glittery bag made from MM's Antiquity collection.

The inside pockets:

The inside w/pockets

 

I also finished 2 king size and one regular pillow case from some of the Moda Chocolat wovens, which are amazing. If you have never had the chance to pet the Moda wovens, I recommend doing so immediately! They are sooooo soft and silky. I just love them. I have a really poofy pillow, and the cases I made fit them so very much better. I can actually get them on and off with out a major wrestling match with my pillows!

I also finished a Terry Atkinson Happy Holidays table centerpiecehttp://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/ which seriously only took me a total of two evenings, start to finish! I used a combo of Anna Griffin's Georgette Christmas, MM Fairy frost and a random paisley that we had at Tammy Tadds.  I quilted it with holly leaves and berries in metallic thread. Since I can't draw, I just blow up the fabric motif on the copier then use my handy dandy non-marking technique to quilt it. It's a sample for the shop as well as a Christmas present for Mom!

I've also spent some time working on the look of the blog, what does everyone think?

On my Honor......

Any woman who was a Girl Scout as a young girl will probably finish that saying without even having to think about it.
I found these at that Vintage show that Emily and I went to:

Girl Scout books from the 1940's! One of them even had a receipt in it,

50 cents! Can you believe it?

The 'Leadership' book has an interesting first page:

It's a reminder that everything was effected by The war. Rather sobering and thought provoking, I thought.
While I haven't really read either of them, a few things caught my eye as I perused them. I love the word, perused, don't you?

"Free time with nothing interesting to do leads to boredom, mischief, or unhappiness."

True, however I don't know of anyone who sat by garbage cans when they were bored.

And suggestions for solving boredom derived mischief:

Why "Constructive leisure-time activities" that "develop resourceful and responsible young citizens" of course! Just look at how happy those formerly unruley girls are working in nature. Working out in nature, away from smelly garbage cans makes me happy too.  Overall it's pretty good advice for everyone. If you have something creative and active to do, you won't be bored.

PittiPat and I were talking one time about our quilting projects, current and future and realized that neither of us has ever once heard a quilter say she/he was bored. Never. Not once.

I thought this was interesting:

The sentiments are good, however the whole calling and answering thing kind of wigs me out. Very, ummmmm, conformist? shall we say, to put it nicely.

And last, but certainly not least, the oath:

I love the Celticky look of it. A lot of thought and creativity went into this design.
Speaking of Girl Scouts, this is the bag I made to give to the girl who sold the most cookies in her troop. I just think this fabric is so stinking cute!

Look at that raccoon, isn't he adorable?

Bags, Bags and more Bags

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I've been working on bags, bags and more bags.

I finished another Carry Me knitting bag by Bunny Hill Designs for one of the ladies that I work with. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but it ended up being a Christmas/birthday gift. The pattern calls for ribbons for the ties on the side, I didn't have the right color of maroon ribbon, so I made my own ties w/leftover polka dot fabric.

The pattern only called for one pocket, but as far as I'm concerned, you can never have enough pockets. I made one of them extra long so that there is a spot for long needles.

I like how the button came out. I centered the swirl from one of the paisleys on it. I love covering buttons! Seriously, if you haven't tried it yet, you should. I know I'm a total sewing geek by admitting this, but it's ridiculously fun! I could make buttons all day.

I also started another Sweet Simple Bag by Late Bloomer Quilts.  Needless to say I think the plaid, from Sandy Henderson's Meadow Sweet line for Michael Miller fabrics is absolutely fabulous! I may have mentioned this in passing previously, but in case you missed it, I L.O.V.E. plaid!!! Really, it's tartan, a plaid is actually the material used to make the original Highland kilts way back when, but most people call the tartan pattern a plaid.  

And last, but certainly not least, I made two of my grocery bags for a charity silent auction at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois that my friend Jan's daughter is participating in. The charity is  Camp Kesem and it's a camp run by college students for the children who have, or have had a parent with cancer. 

I wanted to donate something for the fundraiser, so I thought a couple of my grocery bags would be good. Everyone can use a grocery bag, and Evanston is the kind of community where people carry their own bags and frequent their farmer's markets and such. Jan is going to get a grocery store gift card to put with it. So if you live in the Evanston area and want a grocery bag and to help a good cause, head on over to the University's club page for contact emails, or contact Camp Kesem to find out about the fundraiser.

The first of many

I'm so excited! My Rouenneries Stone Soup wall hanging is done! Thanks so much to all of my quilting and non-quilting friends for their border help. I went with the red, obviously. But then Shelleybean left the idea of a red flange with the tan block print (option 3) after I had the top all done. I thought that was a GREAT idea, because as many of you know, I love a flange!!!! If you don't know what a flange is, this is a great explanation (and it looks like they have some fabulous quilting how to's).

Binding Guru Karen dropped it off Tuesday night and I promptly washed it to get it all wrinkled and quilty. I was a little concerned about how the linen blend would wash, but it turned out nicely. I think the linen gives it a nice texture. I have at least 4 quilts I want to make with this fabric.  

I quilted straight lines through the light colored squares, which I think makes it look like the dark squares are more complicatedly (is that even a word?) pieced, like they are really a sqaure in a square instead of just blocks. I used my water soluble interfacing technique to quilt the feathers in the setting squares and the outer border.

The backing is from an old Moda 3 Sister's line called 'Wuthering Heights' that I had in my stash. 

Now I just need to find the right place to hang it! It will have to be somewhere where I see it often.

I also whipped up this cutie patooty bag. I don't think it's possible to not smile when you see Girl Scout cookies. The fabric is from Kaufman's 'Girl Scouts' collection. I couldn't resist it, having been a girl scout myself. I made the bag for my friend's daughter, who, it goes without saying, is a girl scout! I'm also going to make one out of the pink cookie material for her to give as a prize to the cookie salesgirl who sells the most cookies in her troop. And I have the green cookies to make myself a little something. I made the pattern up as went along to try to highlight the fabric. I'll have to make the little racoon badge stand out on my bag. I loved that badge as a child.

And even though I do not do the whole Valentine's Day thing because of my V-Day curse, the hubby suprised me with these gorgeous hot pink roses and sushi for dinner. Wasn't that nice of him?

Knitting bag fun

Thank you all so much for the input on the Rouenneries border dilemma. I went with the red, which was the favored fabric. I wish I had seen the comments about the flange and the inner red border before quilting it, and you know me, I love a good flange and multiple borders! Heck, I could have done a flange and a border! Drat, it's too late now since it's at Binding Guru Karen's getting, well, the binding stitched on. I'll have photos when it returns home to me.

The red is gorgeous in it's own right, and I'm quite pleased with it. I had a bunch of itty bitty 1.5" squares left over, so I made 9-patches out of them and am in the process of assembling them into a small wall hanging as well. I just L.O.V.E. this line of fabric! I think the last one that I truly loved this much were the Seaside Rose and Paris Flea Market collections by 3 Sisters for Moda.
My friend Sue at TTD would ask me if I want to marry it, and yes, I think I would marry Rouenneries, if it were possible to marry a fabric line. Of course I would bet that fabric monogamy would be difficult to maintain long term.

In addition to finishing up the first of many Rouenneries quilts to come, I also finished a knitting bag for a friend. My friend has had a rough couple of years with her husband's illness and his passing and I like to be able to give her something to smile about. She's a real trooper, but I know it's been hard for her. She recently took up knitting, and when I saw the 'Carry Me' knitting bag pattern by Bunny Hill, I thought it would be nice to make for her to kick off her new hobby. 

It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I didn't have time to finish it with all the other Christmas projects due, so I decided Valentine's Day would also be a nice time to give it to her.

I also included a lovely skein of wool that I got at Unique Yarns during my quilt guild retreat out in Rockford last fall. It's local grown? sheared? and spun.

I'll tell you, this store makes me want to take up knitting. I just can't possibly take up another thing now though.

I used the Minnick & Simpson 'Wiscasset' line by Moda. It's really more the colors in the side and button close up photos, then in the full frontal one. I had the flash on for the front one and it bleached the colors out a bit. The ribbon is from my Stampin Up! ribbon collection. I liked how the blue was the lighter blue featured in the fabric. Can I just say how much fun it is to make fabric covered buttons? I could make them all day!

I made this card for her as well.

And because everything is better with a Bumble: