Quilt Show !

This post will simply be a little show of the quilts other S'mores were working on and/or finishing this week at retreat.  Please understand the lighting is not always the best and getting a good shot without clutter in the way is nigh impossible.

My tablemate, Sharon, has limited space at home so she uses her retreat time for borders and backs like I do.  She got several UFOs off her list.  First she finished assembling her Scrappy Sister's Choice, including a double border which I failed to photograph.  She got the final border on her Easy Street, as well.  And she worked so fast and well into the night that I missed a couple of finishes.

Sharon's Scrappy Sister's Choice

Sharon's Easy Street

Lisa is probably our most prolific quilter.  She has a high speed machine and a mind that runs even faster.  She made a couple of iron carriers and quilted a table runner before I could get my camera out of the bag!  She spent a couple of days working with Kansas Troubles' Loose Change. Such fun projects.  And managed to lay out and assemble a sampler of blocks we exchanged last Christmas.

Lisa's Loose Change variation

Lisa's CW Exchange Blocks

Deanna had a couple of finishes, including the borders on her Women of Courage.

Deanna's Women of Courage.

Rita spent her time working on a pictorial quilt to hang at Pennyrile State Park in Kentucky where their guild has annual retreats.

Rita's Pennyrile Quilt

Frances made a modern log cabin in Amish colors.  Then she dove into her first attempt at One Block Wonder.  It has very subtle coloring, but will be so lovely when all the blocks are made.

France's One Block Wonder

Shirley is very focused.  She managed to finish two projects from scratch and put a border on a UFO.

Shirley's Asian Snowballs

Shirley's Fractured Garden

Sandy took time out of her busy week to show us her Overhand Knot from Peg Bingham's class the week before.

Sandy's Overhand Knot Runner

Lucille came all the way from North Carolina to be with us.  She spent her time working on Twisted Bargello, but didn't get far enough along for a photograph.

Donna finished her Christmas tree quilt that she started last year, then began working on a 30's project, the name of which escapes me.

Donna's Christmas Trees

Kristen had to work a day at her EMT job, but still managed to finish a colorful rail fence variation.  Diana was a late arrival and used her time to clean a couple of her newly-acquired Featherweights.  Ever seen a pink free-arm?

Becky worked on receiving blankets for her first grand baby.  Sorry, Beck, I didn't think to photograph the classy flannels you were using.

Nancy plugged along on Jared Takes a Wife.  And Charley worked on Rock Island Campfires.  It was her idea for the Rock Island Rockers to make these and she's the last to finish!  Harrumph.  Thought I took pictures of these but can't find any.

Ari, also plugged along on Jared Takes a Wife and by the end of retreat she had decided Jared just needed a live-in.  Frustrated by how long it was taking, and unhappy with the setting, she held an early-morning coffee klatch.  This is the solution we arrived at..

Ari's Jared (expletive deleted)

Yes, we got a lot done.  But the best part -- the most important part -- of retreat is the companionship and camaraderie, the release of laughter, and the refreshment of just "being."

Friday Finishes

A Happy Dance is definitely in order!

The S'mores retreat this week was one of our best --  lots of hugs, reconnecting with distant friends, super projects in progress, and no drama.  The only thing that would have made it better is if all 20 of us had been present.  But life does tend to get in the way sometimes.

I went with high hopes of completing some UFOs -- and I DID!

Panel Posies

First, I completed a couple of guild project blocks. (Apparently I failed to get a photo of them.)  I have been doing a back-to-basics series this year and for each lesson I prepare two blocks -- one I finish to put on the board and the other I leave in pieces to demonstrate parts of the construction process.  Once I've done the demo I finish up the second block.

Next I stitched together some quarter-square posey blocks from a wild-and-crazy panel series.  They are far from perfect because little panels are never perfect.  Still, they yielded interesting results.  I plan to use a simple sashing and call it a quilt.  The blocks will finish about 6" so it will make a nice child's quilt, don't you think?

True Blue in Black and Cream

Next up:  True Blue.  This is a pattern by Carrie Nelson that appears on the cover of her Miss Rosie's Spice of Life Quilts.  I made mine with mostly black and cream batiks with a few black/multi batiks thrown in.  I love the graphic nature of it!

All I needed to do was add the last border and make the back and binding.  I generally save those details for a retreat where I have large tables at my disposal.

One UFO off the list!!!



Followed by another UFO, Elegant Garden.  The pattern is in 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy.  All it needed was a border -- or so I thought.  I managed to make it far more complicated with four borders and, to top it off, I mitered them!!!  This took far longer than I had anticipated, but I think it needed that.  I also cut the back.  I will need to make a little adjustment in one of the corners before it gets quilted.  This one is staying with me!

Elegant Garden

My next project was intended to simply lay out and pin the rows to sew at home -- supposed to take just a little bit of time so I could move on to something new.  You know how it is -- first you want to see how it will look and then you can't find a good stopping point.  I had originally planned to do something interesting in the corners but in the end I decided to just continue with the concentric diamond design.   By the end of the day I had Mary's Triangles completed except for an outer border.

Mary's Triangles

So Mary's Triangles is almost complete.  It just lacks a final border which I had not taken with me since I wasn't supposed to get that far.

And with just a few hours remaining I set about a new project, something very modern.  Tune in next week to see how that is going.

Tomorrow I'll give you a glimpse of what everyone else was working on.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Heading Out -- Again

The S'mores are holding their semiannual retreat this week. Seventeen of the twenty are expected to be there.  We have had a number of family crises within the group -- it will be great just to be together, hug, rest, and catch up with each other.

We might even get some sewing done!  I will be taking two projects that just need borders and backs.  I usually reserve this stage of a project for retreats where I have the advantage of large tables to lay out, measure, and pin.

True Blue

Elegant Garden

I also have a couple of projects that need a large design wall.  I may do no more than lay those out and pin the rows to be sewn at home.  My design wall at home is just a small flannel-back tablecloth, about 40" wide, which limits the size of what I can lay out at one time.

Mary's Triangles

And, finally, I'm going to start something new!  It's very modern and not my normal style, but I can't wait to get started on it.


I'll be linking up with Connie at Freemotion on the River for Linky Tuesday.  It's always fun to see the great projects other have completed or underway.

Stash Report and How I Spent My Saturday

I led a class in 4-Patch Posey at a local guild on Saturday.  It was such a delightful day -- so fun to see everyone's excitement as the posies revealed themselves.  Lots of variety in the fabrics yielded amazing results.

Probably the most interesting was this very large-scale dragon.

Pat's Dragon fabric

I felt like there was enough detail in the large areas that the results would be great.  And look!

Dragon Posies

 One fabric I had my doubts about (oh, Me, of little faith!) was a juvenile print with kids holding quilts in it.  I had visions of chopped up faces and legless bodies.  I wish I had taken a picture of her starting fabric because this is what she came out with.

So sweet!  It will be a child's quilt for a little boy.

Two ladies were using the same paisley fabric -- very vibrant colors and interesting results.

Paisley Posies

This student had a remnant with tightly-packed motifs and a very short repeat (about 6").  She was able to get 4 repeats out of the remnant and created these five blocks.

Some more pretties:

Another Paisley

Posies in Red

Soft and Sweet

In addition to the traditional 4-patch posey, I demonstrated how to do quarter-square triangle posies and mirror-image posies by turning the fabric over.

Mirror-image quarter-square and 4-patch posies

Paislies seem to yield sure-fire success, so as a door prize I gave away 1-1/2 yards of this luscious paisley.

Stash report this week:

     In this Week:            0.0 yards
     Out this Week:          1.5 yards
     In year to Date:         192.5 yards
     Out Year-to-Date:      138.0 yards
     Net Used 2014          -54.5 yards

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

My Not-So Friday Finish

The day began with fresh enthusiasm and high hopes of having a Friday Finish to report.



In my search for nearly-finished UFOs to take to S'mores retreat next week I came across a box labeled Asian Pinwheel.


I wrote about these blocks late last year, how I set out to make one for a comfort quilt and got carried away.  And ended up making a pineapple block instead.


Thinking all I had to do was lay out the blocks in a 4x5 setting and add the snowball corners, I jumped right in.

Oh no! Only 10 of the 20 blocks were finished.  One of the 10 had too-white corners.

Corners too white

And one had a totally different feature fabric from the cranes I had been using.

Whaaat??

The rest of the blocks were cut and it appeared I might have enough crane fabric to replace the odd block.  Now I'm running out of time -- need to prep for a class I'm teaching tomorrow......  Maybe I could make do with 16 blocks in a 4x4 setting.   Sigh.

Not happy with the look of the snowball corners coming together, maybe a sashing would help.  But what color, what fabric, how big, oh my!  This much thought over what will be a comfort quilt!

Asian Pinwheel blocks

Time to put it back in the box.  I ALMOST had a finish this Friday.  I was THIS close (holding thumb and index finger 1/2" apart) .....

Four-patch Posey class tomorrow.  Handbells on Sunday, then prep for guild program on Monday.  AND pack for S'mores retreat starting Monday afternoon.  AND make meals and meal-plan for my Main Man to have while I'm gone.  AND scrub the kitchen floor....

 Hope your Friday was better than mine.

A Little Time with Peg

I was blessed to be able to spend some quilty-quality time with Peg Bingham, known in quilting circles as "The Knot Lady," over the last few days.

Peg and Me

Courthouse Quilters had an all-day knot class with her on Saturday.  And I sat in on her lecture about the history of machine quilting today at Cumberland Valley Quilters Assn.

Unfinished  large table runner

Even though our class was the "Overhand Knot Medallion," I chose to do a table runner.  I started at home with the large size -- it's really large, almost covers my table before borders!  My plan is to expand it into a bed runner if I have enough of the brown fabric.


I'll have to remove the last knot section and add a bit more in the middle to make it work.  I got the pattern for the expanded version today.

So I started a small one.  I know, the photos make them look about the same; however, the large has 2" strips and the small 1-1/2" strips which makes a big difference in proportions.  

Small table runner before borders

I'm thinking of making several of these as Christmas gifts for the A-Team sitters.  This is one of those projects that almost takes more time to cut out than to sew.  Organization is the key, and Peg's instructions are very meticulous.

So this is what has been on my design wall the last few days.  And all the fabric is from my stash!

However, I did manage to add 14-3/4 yards to my stash last week.  One yard of Peanuts fabric will be gifted later this month.  Once I decided exactly what to do with the chocolate brown with sprinkles from the week before, I realized I needed 3 more yards.  And the paisley from the previous week -- it was just keeping me up at night thinking about it so I went back for the rest of the bolt.  Add to that 6-1/2 yards of Kona Snow (can't have enough of that!) from Hobby Lobby and a half yard of orange grunge from The Quilting Squares.

Stash report this week:

     In this Week:            14.75 yards
     Out this Week:          0 yards
     In year to Date:         192.5 yards
     Out Year-to-Date:      136.5 yards
     Net Used 2014         -56.0 yards

I initially resisted tracking my fabric usage because I thought there was no way to calculate what I had on hand.  Then I realized it's all a matter of relativity.  All I really should be concerned with is if I can use more than I take in.  I'm hopeful the S'mores retreat next week will yield a few finishes.

To see what other folks are doing this week, check out Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

How do I spell R-E-L-I-E-F?

For several weeks I've had something hanging over my head and today I polished it off -- at least for a time.  The relief I feel is indescribable.

Irish Grandmother

I have been writing a pattern for a class I am teaching at Peg Bingham's Fall Quilt Camp in October.  Being my first attempt at pattern writing, I want to have a professional-looking product with easy-to-understand instructions illustrated with clear graphics.  Easy-peasy, right?  Not for me!

My Beta test group gave me many good suggestions, but I was still grappling with the presentation.  The solution truly came to me in the dark of night and in the matter of two days I have it formatted and near completion.  Just need to add a few graphics to illustrate some key points.

My question for you:  How important is it to you to have detailed instructions for plain borders, creating the quilt sandwich, and finishing?  Seems to me those are basics covered in many publications.

I can see covering the borders.  Then is "Quilt as desired" sufficient?

I have until October to finish....