Friday, March 30, 2018

A Thank You, 1st Quilt Retreat and It's beginning to look a lot like Easter



I need to start this post with a huge Thank You to  Lynette of What A Hoot Quilts . She was the winner of my Rice Bag give away in February.  She sent me the most awesome thank you note in the form of a mini/post card.



Heck it's way better than the rice bag she got.  Thanks so much.  It's a treasure.

Last week I experienced my first quilt retreat.  What a hoot.  I spent Monday through Thursday with 17 of my Quilt guild buddies.



This is some of what I took.  I had no idea what I might need or how many different things I would like to work on. This photo does not include clothes.

I have been avoiding quilt retreats for several seasons because I didn't think I would like to be cooped up with the same group of people for any length of time.  You know, like having to spend too much time with family  ;-}

I'm glad to report that it was nothing like that.  There were enough people and space that it was just a giant sewing party.  We stayed at the  Luther Spring Camp and Retreat Center in Hawthorne FL.





Beautiful grounds for walking and thinking when you needed a break. Great porches for reading or making calls with out being bothered or bothering others.  Sewing at all hours of the day was amazing.  I think I made it to about 11 pm each night and one morning I was sewing at 7. I understand we had people sewing at 2AM,

Meals were served in the same room in which we were sewing so no time was lost if you were on a roll.  Or if you were in need of a snack.




When in need of a quilty break I found people knitting, beading, reading. I worked on some paracord bracelets and some knitting.

I accomplished a lot.  I made a quilt top that will be going to Canada for the H2H 2018 Challenge. Can't show it today as it is my  post for the 30 in 30 Blog Hop on April 27. Here is a little peek.



This top was started in October after a sew in with Amanda Jean of   Crazy Mom Quilts   It is her pattern Ladder Leap. I had the blocks done when the holidays arrived and they were put in a box and we all know what happens then.


I was so pleased that I got it completed on retreat. Pleased that is until I looked at the picture and noticed I forgot to put on the 2 outside green border strips.  I hope to get to them this week.

We also got some of our guild chapter project, Preemie Blankets for FHFC Nicu for the 4th of July, passed out for sewing. We brought home several completed Mini's (small are 11 inch square, large are 17 inch square) . We do 4 deliveries a year, Halloween, Christmas, Easter and the 4th of July.  The hospital arranges for the little ones to have professional photos taken for these holidays




I also started my Easter sewing of these Bunny bags.



Several members saw them and asked for the link.  When I started looking for that tutorial I found tutorials for this Carrot





and this Cute little Chick



Which turned into this basket full of sweet treats when I got back home.



Well I think I'm all caught up. So now is the time to wish you all Happy Spring Holidays no matter which one you celebrate. In my house we will celebrate Easter and Passover.  Sounds like a food fest to me.

Posted by at 4 comments:

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Small Smaller Smallest Blog Hop

Small Smaller Smallest is brought to you by Carol from Just Let Me Quilt  our fearless leader.  We thank you Carol for keeping our band of merry hoppers, hopping.

When Carol sent out the word about this hop I jumped in immediately.  I thought from the start that I would do 3 pieces, one of each size ( only had to do one small item to participate).  I thought I would maybe do something like a place mat for Small, a mug rug for smaller and a coaster for Smallest. All using the same type of design, say a house for example.


I started right away with the coaster. I had wanted to try to do some of the raw edge applique for awhile and this was a perfect opportunity.  I had an issue.  I think I liked the back better than the front.


Well at about the same time  that I was pondering my smallests direction I discovered that I needed something to make ironing seams open  a little easier.  I've seen the sticks covered with fabric, but me who is into tools, really couldn't justify the price for a stick wrapped in fabric and making myself one really isn't the type of sewing I wanted to do.

My brain had a flashback to high school sewing class where I kinda sorta remember using a tailors ham. Do any of you remember them?  Well I didn't see one at JoAnns or the local quilt shop so I Googled them.  There are several You Tube video's about them, their uses and their construction. Yes there were Tailors Hams available for sale too, but by that time I didn't care. I was now up for a new challenge.

                                         I found a nice size piece of green fabric in the stash.


I used wool to back the ham as is tradition.



One of the videos showed not only the making of a tailors ham but also of a tailors sleeve.  The video was called Ham and Sausage. 





Well I watched most of the videos, jumbled them all together and came up with my version of Ham and Sausage. I was able to make the tops match but I didn't have a piece of wool big enough for the back of the sausage.  So the sausage is backed with muslin also from the stash.

You get it, I now have a small and smaller.   In my readings I found that hams are not only backed with wool but are filled with saw dust. In one of the gazillion comments I read someone suggested using bunny litter which is made up of wood shavings.  While I don't have anyone handy who saws, I was able to find bunny litter in my nearest grocery store. Win, win.


The toughest part of this project was stuffing to the max.  I did pretty well on the Ham but the Sausage really needs to be opened and have a little more stuffing added.  It will work as is so it may never get fixed. 

I must say that this was  a really fun project to take on and I believe much more satisfying than covering a stick with fabric.

OK, so from the beginning I wanted to do 3 pieces for this hop.  I still needed a smallest.  Silly took over.   My brain started buzzing with the phrase "Green ham and eggs" but when I said it out loud it didn't sound right. I don't have kids or grand kids  so I had to do research on this next piece. Google straightened me out, it's  Green Eggs and Ham.

                                                                          Taa Daa





OK, it was silly but I really enjoyed making this over sized mug rug. It just makes me smile. 

I hope you got as much enjoyment from this stop as I had creating the goodies for it.

Please stop by and visit all of the other creative ladies posting today and if you haven't done so yet, stop in and visit all of the hoppers.  I'm listing them all here for your convenience.

March 5


March 6


March 7


March 8



Posted by at 42 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)