Virtual Retreat Aug thru Dec 2015 Info on first post

[Marianne G.]

Belated Happy Birthday to Switzerland, Lotti! Love your batiks - never see batiks in the two quilt shops I can get to without driving for hours and hours :: so thank you for the eye candy AND the Lindor chocs you added to our stash. Wish I still had easy access to Neuhaus chocs! Love your hexi quilt.
Dorothy, thanks for the info re tie de-construction. I'm sure you will have a great looking bag that will be very, very special.
Margarita, looking forward to seeing the baby quilt - good to hear your are slowly getting better!
Terrie looking forward to seeing the charity quilt
Hi Linda, welcome! I'm trying very hard to just use my stash but it always come up short so I have to do a bit of shopping ops:
Ooooh Rosemary, mint M&Ms! You'll have to move the bowl out of my reach now because I love, love, love mint chocolate. Good luck with the mini this week - keeping my fingers crossed!
Managed to make a t-shirt yesterday so am off on my August list - now to keep the wheels rolling
Marianne

[Marianne G.]

like your garden Luann, yup the kind I can live with. :silly:
gotta try those mint m&m's, rosemary, might be a chocolate i like :P
think i should iron that quilt one day - might actually see what it will look like - and not lay it out on an old quilt to photograph... :blush:

Lotti,
When you finish it send it to me for ironing! Oh, but I suppose you'd expect to get it returned,,, foiled again! I do like it a lot. Have you ever tried doing fussy cutting for hexies, or this idea of paper piecing your individual hexies from other fabrics, I think they call it millefiori hexies. I'm impressed with the original type, and blown away by all the work to get those done, can't imagine how long and how dedicated one must be to do a full quilt. I'm thinking perhaps a journal cover?? That's about how long my endurance would last. But I will certainly enjoy watching your 'garden' grow!

[wendy w.]

Amazing hexies Lotti

[Pamela N.]

Lotti I 'm loving your hexies and the Lindor chocolates. Hi Linda nice to meet you and welcome. I'm still FMQing my TQS 2014 BOM, I'm slow so I will take a while with this and hope to get it finished in my lifetime. I have just made my Grandson a quillow; he's almost 3; I let him choose the fabrics, I'll be polite and say the colours are bright (or hideous). One side of fabric is cartoon snakes in primary colours and the other side of the quillow is fleece multi coloured frogs :woohoo: :woohoo: He loves it. My new book arrived last week from America, DAR "Eye on Elegance", I saw a trailer on TQS for the exhibition. It's the most beautiful eye candy and a fascinating read - the postage was an eye watering $39. Present from my DH.
Best Wishes Pam

[Pamela N.]

Lotti - awesome hexies, I especially enjoy your batik fabric I do recall your traveling handwork.
Rosemary - please pass the mint M&M's!

Barb

[Annis C.]

I love mint and chocolate, pictures of flowers, and mini hexies if I don't have to make them. I may have some snickerdoodles to share later today. My first time to make them from a box (Krusteaz) instead of from scratch. My treat for spending time in the dentist chair today.

The spring rains brought lots of sunflowers and also an abundance of crickets. They keep finding their way into the house. They would be safer outside, or at least food for birds, etc. instead of being swept up and thrown away. The barrel in the middle of the picture was washed in with the flash flood in May. It will probably stay there until time to plow the field for the fall hay crop. The barrel reminds me of the lazy summer days of my childhood. What fun we had standing and rolling on a barrel (not quite that big), twirling pails with a little water in them, and so many other things you do for entertainment when you live on a farm and there is no TV, no internet, no cell phones, no air conditioning, and the list goes on.



My last 5 red and white wall hangings are designed. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel slowed me down some but I should still finish before the end of the month. The next one I make will have 3 large duck and duckling blocks with sashing (inspired by the 8 ducklings that hatched in the shop building behind the retreat center, or the 3 that didn't survive the wild so far), a bargello with 8 fabrics and 3" finished strips for something that will be fast and easy, hexagons with 2" sides with alternating vertical rows of light and dark, a double wedding ring with 3 blocks (pattern from A Very Special Collection, with blocks enlarged to 15"), and the last will be a New York Beauty unless I decide to do something easier by then. The ones that didn't get made were redwork, embroidery, applique, school house, oak leaf and more. The school house may replace the New York Beauty. I'm quilting all of them the same with a simple meander. Now to get busy.

[Annis C.]

I'm sitting in the dr. office waiting to see what will be done with my torn rotator cuff...hopefully just a simple procedure :blink:

[Annis C.]

Oh man--I love those Lindor chocolates; but, here is what I usually eat with my stress (and yes, this IS the size bag I get):



I did manage to get the four quilts done before August so that was an accomplishment. This was the last one that was giving me all the trouble:




AND apparently, still giving me trouble :silly:
Baby day is on the 13th of August so we will be heading down for that very soon. Kathy, this first visit will be with DH so I won't see you this time but I will be back down to help with the babies for a bit and I will try to meet up with you then.

[Annis C.]

Ritzy, my DH buys me that size even though I tell him not to. It's a good thing it's not the chocolate mint. Please don't tell him. I only buy one serving at a time of my favorite candy when I'm out and about. Enjoy the baby days.

[Annis C.]

Not caught up on all the posts, but Life is good - hope all who are ailing get better, babies will be born swiftly and all healthy. Lotti - that picture Otter be a winner. Annis - good for you girl - keep going - red & white. I still have mine to make.

Right now, I am frozen with 'things to do', so I am paralyzed to do any.
Guests coming this weekend - the newlyweds! East coast/Montreal wedding reception for all those who couldn't get out west, making a 'rag' bunting for over the pie table, have to make 3 pies - blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb and pecan. Then finish the charity quilt's binding and send it off for the golf tournament at the end of August. I'm parsing up the directions for the mystery quilt, have volunteered to be president for the guild, as 'nobody else' wanted to do it, and today the treasurer resigned! I can't figure out how to send an excel file to all the guild members and have begun to phone them individually - which as, a new president, I felt I wanted to do anyways. I have completed the first two steps of the mystery quilt, so it will be 'fair'; to send out the instructions that I have read and followed myself, so I need to tweak them a bit. Of course, that meant going and buying a bit of fabric to go with the fabric from my stash (I'm using 4 out of 6 fabrics for the mystery from my stash). Now my DH is out, the phone is ringing and I don't really want to talk to anyone else today, so I just checked in here, have blown off steam, and thank you all very much. Maybe time for chocolate? I received some chocolate truffles on my trip but had to re-gift ops:
Plus, my iron is dead.
Praying for those babies, Ritzy.

I am SO thankful, because a year ago I could not even think about doing any of this. God is good. Life is good. But I'm pooped. :cheer:

[Annis C.]

I'm sitting in the dr. office waiting to see what will be done with my torn rotator cuff...hopefully just a simple procedure :blink:

Dorothy,
Hope all goes well and you heal quickly
Luann

[Annis C.]

Well, today's procedure was easy enough...Just a cortisone shot...gonna wait till after our trip to Europe to have surgery as recovery takes awhile :S

[Annis C.]

I've been busy getting acquainted with my new machine. I ordered a set of the Red Snappers and side clamps. They arrived and we got them together after using bar soap on the screws to get them to turn into the rods. I have finished quilting my first quilt on the longarm. And using those red snappers really saved time and no blood was lost. I'm a bit of a finger poker when there are pins involved!!
I will pass this quilt on to the trimmer, and then to the binder. I'm only the sandwich maker on the charity quilts at the moment.
This top was pieced by another member of our guild, so I'm only taking credit for making a proper sized backing and the stitching it into a sandwich!






I've been checking things off my todo list for the last few days. I even got a blogpost up with a tip about those 'snappers'.
Doing another giveaway, this time each comment throughout August will be put into the basket and I'll draw the lucky one (s?) at the end of the month. So, if you have a few minutes, drop on by, make a comment, and perhaps you'll be the winner.
www.letscreatetoday.blogspot.com
Luann

[Annis C.]

WooHoo Tribblemom! Thanks--except now the second part of the post doesn't make sense--lol.

[Annis C.]

So much inspiration in this thread already! I love being a part of this community, seeing all of you progress, try new things, stretch yourselves....very inspiring to me!

I made some more progress on the curved piecing that I started in July, then we went on vacation to San Diego and now home, haven't sewn yet in August due to vacation laundry, one son is sick, also husband is sick (but doing better), and many errands getting things organized for the all-too-soon start of school. Today is an at-home day, though, so I should get some sewing in; I'd just hit a really good groove on the curved piecing, so would like to get back to it ASAP!

It's a fun project in & of itself, but also a stepping stone/skill builder for a big project that's been in my head for years, since before I owned a machine....I think I'm getting close to ready to tackle that, soon, which will be a huge deal, but I'll keep you all posted if/when I start it.

Here are the latest progress photos on the curved piecing blocks (from the Radiant Suns pattern); they aren't pressed yet, so excuse the slight lumpiness....