Virtual Retreat - Join Anytime

[Lois B.]

AnnieLu, Your plants are just great. Reminds me to share some of my potted flowers. Perhaps tomorrow will be the day for the garden tour. Must mow the grass. Hope to get to the sewing room.

[Lois B.]

What's on the menu for lunch today at retreat?
Any ideas,,,
I know we're having chocolate for dessert!

Luann

[Lois B.]

Heather I want to see more of the piece poking out from under your pile o placemats. It has a fork on it?
And the piece on your design wall that appears to have buildings on it looks very interesting.
So glad you've decided to join in the fun

Luann

Luann, yes, a fork & spoon. I bought that pattern at Houston IQF this past year (that was so fun!!) and am working on the quilting of it now....I started it to match my Fiestaware dishes, but decided it doesn't match my dining room (it does match the dishes nicely), and so instead it's going to live with my sister. It's half quilted...just needs diagonal lines in the other direction and then binding.




The piece on the wall was a challenge some time ago, to do something based on something we see. That's a rough representation of Sao Paulo, from our time in Brazil. I started with the SP (seen as a large concrete statue/sculpture along the highways there) and then did buildings behind and rainforest/water in front. Something of an art quilt, sort of....




Today I took care of several errands that needed doing, and sewed trim along the top of my corset-top. That has to be ready for a trip I'm taking, but I think the next bits on it I can do by machine, so that should go faster and then I can work on placemats some more and finish the quilting on the fork/spoon thing.

It's very inspiring seeing everyone else's work!

[Lois B.]

Lois, your slip covers are wonderful! Very impressive sewing, for sure!

And those of you mentioning ice dyeing -- I'm intrigued. A friend of mine does snow dyeing; same thing, I guess? But you guys do it by buying ice?? Why didn't I think of that?! Sounds like a lot of fun! And the photos you've all posted so far of your dyed fabrics are just gorgeous!

[Lois B.]

You can use snow, shaved ice (like they use for snow cones), crushed pellets like they sell at Sonic, or bigger ice cubes. You do get differing fractures due to size of particle. My latest dyeing was with bigger ice chunks from a serve yourself site. You want the ice to melt, obviously, but,,, the speed at which melts has a direct impact on color splitting or combining. Mine melted so fast that I got few fractures, no splitting, and I'm just thankful they didn't turn out mud! I love Browns, but not when I'm going for lots of distinct color.
Luann

[Geneva C.]

Well, I took my mom her medications and groceries I was able to get home before lunch! Yay!
So I went into the sewing room and worked on the unknown art quilt. At 5:30 pm this is what I had completed.





This is a pattern from Derrick Lockwood. I made the entire quilt for my son when he graduated from college. Now I am making just the center. I spent a lot of time figuring out where to start and stop the pattern, how big it would be if I cut my strips 2" instead of 1 1/2" and did I have enough fabric? So far all this fabric has come from my stash. Boy, does that feel good!

My sweetie is off playing golf today so I will have the house to myself for awhile. I can turn up Van Morrison and quilt away!

Take care,
geneva

[Lois B.]

What's on the menu for lunch today at retreat?
Any ideas,,,
I know we're having chocolate for dessert!

Luann

Left over grilled chicken. Yum! But that's not the best. My girlfriend called me on her way home from the Jersey Shore saying she's bringing us crab cakes from Ship Bottom Shellfish, Long Beach Island, NJ. They are the best. If you go to LBI make sure you get those crabl cakes.

So I was picking cherries by 7:00am this morning. Temp is to rise to 90F with the dew point somewhere in the 70's. Even at 7:00AM I was soaking wet from dew on the tree and high humidity. But here's the prize.


The tree is quite young. This is the first year we've gotten a crop. That's enough for a cherry pie. They are sour cherries. No one seems to grow them anymore and I can't figure out why. They are not prone to disease. They don't get wormy. No spraying. Tomorrow there will be as many more ripe one with the high temps today.



Next week the blueberries will start to ripen. They are loaded. I have to find stakes to support the branches they are so heavy with fruit.



It's now rest time. Hope I don't sleep through my sewing time. Still have to mow the grass.

[wendy w.]

Rest well, I'm looking forward to the cherry pie. We've been out walking today by the canal and had lunch out so I've not got any sewing done yet. It's been a beautiful day and I feel so much better for it. I'm going to make a lemon drizzle cake in a bit so that will go well with a cuppa later.

I've never had crab cakes but googled them and they look yummy.

[Nancy R.]

Sorry I don't have time to join in, but I love what everyone's doing. Thanks for sharing!! I'm getting ready to drive to Kansas City bright and early tomorrow morning.....

[wendy w.]

Why are you going there Nancy?

[Annis C.]

Lois, how many of those cherries did you eat as you were picking them? I remember picking cherries as a teenager in Idaho and ate a few too, even the sour ones.

[Annis C.]

Lois - we'll be having temps in the high 90s today (it was 106 on Monday, but then it cooled off for a few days). Thankfully we don't have the humidity, it's very dry here. I do not tolerate humidity at all. My son graduated from boot camp in San Antonio last September and we were there to see it. Ugh, it was like a sauna even early in the morning. Nearly fainted during the outdoor ceremony at 9 am and then had to get quickly back to the car and air conditioning. Don't know how they survived the eight weeks of intense physical training in that heat. He is stationed in Monterrey, CA now, just a few hours from home. Lovely weather there. Next year he will be stationed somewhere on the east coast... so far from home...

A cold veggie pasta salad is good to eat in hot weather. Also making banana mini muffins for my guild's 'new member' luncheon tomorrow.

The new term for guild officers just started and I have passed off my vp and news editor hats and am chairing membership now. Sunday I will be attending my guild's workshop in fabric painting. I'll share photos next week. Not much time for piecing and quilting - busy cutting up about a dozen bolts of fabric for an upcoming TQS project kit.

Kathy

[Annis C.]

I can turn up Van Morrison and quilt away! ~ geneva

"Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I'm trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush"

Van Morrison - "Moondance"
One of my favorite songs

[Lois B.]

So much for the rest. Checked the weather report to find that if I wait for cooler temps later in the day it's likely to be raining so I mowed the lawn just now.

Sure could go for Lemon Drizzle Cake. Wow! That sounds good.
Nancy, Safe travels. I am sure you are headed to see family. I hope you have a wonderful time.
Annis, Believe it or not I refrained from eating many cherries. I so much wanted there to be enough for a pie. I'll indulge when I pick again tomorrow.
Kathy, You tease. Cutting bolts of fabric for a TQS project kit? Now we have to think about what's up.

Here's picts of what's waiting for me in my sewing room.



This is my Trash to Treasures Pineapple Quilt. 3/4 of the blocks are done. ESS. But that's all I am doing. It's too busy for anything else to show. Have to figure out what to do in the border.


This is cut and ready to sew. It's a "SewTogether Pouch" with 3 zippered pockets inside. Its suppose to be for sewing notions and tools but it's a gift intended to be used as a make-up bag.


Same deal here.



This fabric is cut and ready to sew into a cloth basket for my grandson toys. They have 2 dogs. BB is the spitting image of the little dog running at the base of the tuck. And Jet looks just like the dog sitting in the pickup. Couldn't believe I found that fabric. I got that stuff cut during the last 2 days.

Think I'll have a cuppa and see if I have any energy to find my way to the sewing room. If only I had Lemon Dizzle Cake. I have a Juki set up on the other side of the table from the T to T quilt where I can work on the bags. Who knows where the spirit will move me.

[Lois B.]

Not enough cherries for a pie? Cherry tarts would be a nice alternative.

I like your pineapple quilt, great way to use scraps with the unifying black fabric.

Kathy