She's Published!

Okay, I'm going to be the impossible proud parent here.  My daugther was published in the April/May issue of Sew News! She made this amazing reversible raincoat from laminated cotton and wrote an article on how to work with the fabric and various tips and tricks. She really stretched herself with this project and executed it most expertly.  It really is a kick when your children surpass you with their talents.  Honestly, I would not have even attempted this project.  Way to go kid - can't wait to see what's next!

Yeah Retreats!!

Once again I had the privilege of spending a weekend with fun and talented ladies!  We started on Thursday night and finished up Sunday morning.  I especially enjoyed that I got to sew this weekend.  And sew we did!
Of course, we also got to laugh.  Cathy is obviously having a good time here as she sews her cute little chicks for a baby quilt.

Lucinda finally got

started on her daughter's wedding quilt.  It will be a king size and she finished half the squares in just a day! 

And what do you get when you have five quilters arranging the squares for the final design?

A REALLY cute baby quilt!  This quilt was not only bright, but soft looking - it made me want to hold a baby!

 There really is order to Teresa's "mess" - and she merrily sews her way through it.  I'm just sorry I did not get a pic of the quilt being laid out in the other room - it was truly beautiful.

Jean is one of those intense creative types - and creative she is.  She put together 20 crazy quilt squares amongst other projects she brought.

Sewing buds forever!

We had a "block building" competition.  Each was given 9 squares to put together a nine patch, cut it apart, and sew it back together.  Of course, this only makes sense to quilters!  The end result was 4 large blocks to put together as a project Linus quilt (baby quilt for a hospitalized child).  See the determination on Lucinda's face?  She was the winner! And yes, she won fabric to cut apart and sew together.

This was a nice little quiet moment as Cathy did some handwork.  But the best part - check out her footwear!

I came home tired and energized all at the same time.  I can't wait for the next retreat this fall.

99 Blocks Not On The Wall

Three years ago I started a scrap quilt. I think I had this romantic notion that I would delight in going through my scraps and watch them disappear.  Fast forward to the past few months.  I finally dug this project out and began to cut more strips from the 4 color groups I had chosen.  I sewed, sewed, and sewed some more.  There was also much ironing and trimming.  I wish I kept track of how many times I empties my little trash bag. I stopped counting at 12!  Why so much sewing and trimming?  They are 6 1/2 inch squares with 13 pieces in each square. It is a wacky log cabin, thus all the trimming.  And I needed 99 of them!  The squares are finally all complete, but they are packed away to take to a retreat this weekend where I plan to sew on the 240 sashing pieces! What amazes me most about this project is...my plastic containers with all my color sorted scraps are not at all visibly leaner than before I got busy with this project. And, at this point, I am left with

99 Blocks not on the Wall!