Virtual Retreat Aug thru Dec 2015 Info on first post

[Jane R.]

Ritzy,
Would love to see the pattern for the snowflakes. I made some soooo long ago, I can't find the pattern anymore. I, too, like to crochet and knit (beginner stuff) along with the quilting.

[Jennifer D.]

Awesome tote, and beautiful grandbaby!

Lotti and Ritzy - I live about 4.5-5 hours south of Chicago (close to Springfield, IL). Don't know if I could make it up there - it all depends on if I'm on call, but would love to try!

~ Jen

[Annis C.]

Cute baby, Geneva, and nice totes, Dawn. Makes me want to do some embroidery, but it will have to wait.

I finished the bed runners except for hand sewing the binding. I managed to print the templates I needed on the printer with the old ink. It didn't print anything but yellow on the first try so changed all of the cartridges with at least 6 year old ink and everything worked but black and magenta. The black printed as light blue and the red as yellow, but the green printed nice and dark so I traced over the lines that didn't print well with green lines before printing. The template is from my pattern Zig-Zag Rainbow which is now a free download on my website as are all of my patterns. I'm taking the next year off from my pattern business so I can get caught up on so many things and decided to give my patterns away for now rather than just putting them aside. Depending on the interest I may or may not go back to writing patterns but hope to get back to doing tutorials again.



I did everything wrong making the block units, something to do with mirror images, pressing direction, and fabrics right sides together. But I made it work. Next time maybe I will make a sample block first as I tell everyone else to do instead of sewing them all at once, or maybe not. The colored blocks should have been made as mirror images as I wanted the darker fabric on the upper left. Repressing the seam allowances in the opposite direction wasn't that hard on the dark background as I should have put the light fabric on the bottom instead of the top and used the mirror image paper that I didn't use on the colors. And it wasn't hard to recut the background pieces that finished the edge of the quilt as only half of them were cut wrong.



The shower curtain for the bird runners worked out fine. I was a little concerned about how it would quilt as the machine sung a different tune going over the fabric but they look good and am glad they're almost finished. Now I've come close to finishing everything I started this year including some of my larger UFO's from previous years. There's still a lot of UFO's to go, mostly PBNQ's (pieced but not quilted), and I'm hoping 2016 will be a good year for those.





I'm avoiding the stores this month which is saving lots of time. Instead I'm designing some metal artwork for my retreat center which will combine wildlife with quilt blocks. I don't do a lot of drawing but I can draw quilt blocks and I can trace wildlife from free clip art. And if I stay busy maybe I will get the Lady of the Lake lap quilt finished that I'm making from 10" squares.

[Annis C.]

Ritzy,
Would love to see the pattern for the snowflakes. I made some soooo long ago, I can't find the pattern anymore. I, too, like to crochet and knit (beginner stuff) along with the quilting.

Jane--I have a book that has 100 snowflakes in it. Each year since I bought the book I have made five snowflakes for each of the daughters and myself. The name of the book is:

100 Snowflakes to crochet
Author: Caitlin Sainio

I have made some where I just picked up the thread and crochet hook and made up my own but I didn't make up a pattern for it and I wouldn't be able to pick them out from the ones made from the book.

[Jane R.]

Thanks, Ritzy for the information. Found it on Amazon and just put in my order.

[Jane R.]

Geneva - Awesome picture of Victorina Rose. (I'm sure we'll get together sooner or later too).
Lois - DH and I passed thru / stayed in your area couple years ago attending the Hershey Swap Meet.
Dawn - Neat totes.
Ritzy - I've not done much crocheting - snowflakes do sound fun!
Annis - Fun to hear about and see what you're doing the shower curtain bird runners look great!
Barb

[Jane R.]

Dawn, that's a lovely tote! Your grandbaby will love it!

Annis, that is a gorgeous runner (both of them!), and that pattern is delightful! I'll have to hunt down your website and download. Looks fun! (And I would likely also get it all backwards....I'm queen of that)

I finished the quilt for MIL, label is on just needs hand stitched down to secure it (fused, but needs stitching) and then a quick wash and wrap it up for her. It is quite imperfect, but she will love it, which is the point. I'm pleased with it for a first go at FMQing entirely. By the end, I was doing well Next time, will practice and plan more rather than just doing what strikes me at the moment. (planning is NOT my strong suit....).

I will have my boys help me take a picture in a bit and come show you all

We head out to Colorado tomorrow, be there until Christmas eve, so I'll not be around. Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

[Jane R.]

Annis...love the quilts!!! :cheer:
Ritzy...I have that book...made some last year
Heather...have a safe trip, and very Merry Christmas!!!

Dorothy

[Jane R.]

Heather - Hope you have a wonderful Christmas too. (Its sure to white in Colorado). Looking forward to picture of MIL's finished quilt. You by the way have more courage than I with FMQ. (I know practice, practice, practice).
Barb

[Marianne G.]

Great Winnie the Pooh totes - who wouldn't love those (I'm a big Eeyeore fan); Cute baby photos and lovely table runner very nice antidote to all the stuff that is around this time of year. Great shower curtain idea

I haven't been able to finish anything lately excepts some additions to my wardrobe but I really needed to relax the other day so dug out some place mats I cut out in early autumn and started piecing. Oh my; that was so soothing B) I'm using some blocks I didn't include in a quilt I made last year that I thought would be a starting point for another quilt but they are not very quilt-able due to thick seams so thought place mats would make good use of them. The pictures are of the two sides that will be one placemat once they are layered, quilted and bound





Heather, have a great trip to Colorado; see you around when you get back.

Marianne

[Marianne G.]

Very nice Marianne!
Barb

[Marianne G.]

Lately I've been smitten with the color combo of aqua and red. Today, I put together some mitered borders for a snowman panel I've been hanging on to for a few years. It's only the top but I don't have a lot of winter decorations, so I decided to pin it to the top of my poppy quilt by the fireplace. The aqua plaid borders of the poppy quilt surround the snowman and his borders. Now I'm giving some thought to adding a pieced border that would have some aqua in it! Oh my, when something simple takes on a life of its own I'm in trouble, again!



I'll enjoy it, as is, for a few days before I get myself in deeper.

Merry Christmas to everyone

Luann

[ANNE E.]

Luann, It's lovely. I've never done anything with panels but yours is so pretty I'm going to start looking out for them.
Merry Christmas
Anne

[ANNE E.]

Anne,
Just be aware that many panels are printed off grain. The other thing that happens often is: the design itself isn't necessarily a squared design. On the snowman I checked to see if the printed red border had square corners, so I could get straight edges to trim out from. They were not. So, I squared up the edges as far out as possible then worked my way in. Took some slivers off each side until I got to an inch away from 'most' of the holly leaves. I wish they would print panels with more background between them. 3" extra to a panel would only raise the price 1/9th and the sewist could work with it better. Oh well, when I print my fabric panels I'll remember that,,,

There are some beautiful ones out there. I'll post pics of two recent quilts I've long armed.

[Marianne G.]

>>Luann, It's lovely. I've never done anything with panels but yours is so pretty I'm going to start looking out for them.
Merry Christmas
Anne <<

I've never paid attention to panels in the past but just this week I read an article about "Framed Quilts" by a lady called Janet Rae in a supplement to a magazine. Apparently they were all the rage back in the beginning of 1800 in Great Britain so ladies used those panels as a starting point for large quilts adding pieced "frames" around the centre panel. At first I thought it was just a British name for a medaillon quilt but the panel is the difference and the fact it is never set on point like the early American medallion quilt centres were.
The article sparked all kinds of ideas in my head for uses of all the scrap 4-patches I'm churning out.

Luann, your snowman panel is very cheerful and the ones you have quilted are very nice too. How big are those panels? I'm interested to hear you are going to print your own. That was the idea that first hit me when I read the above article. I could use some of the artwork I make in Inkscape and have it printed to panels. Although I quite like to appliqué I'm terrible at it (Yes I know, practise, practise, practise :P ) but having a panel printed wouldn't feel like cheating too much inch:
Marianne