Virtual Retreat 2016

[Jules M.]

Oh I'm so glad he didn't call it a blanket! Smart young man!!

[wendy w.]

Hey was that Nancy I've just seen on TQS on the Jenny Bowker show

[Lorna B.]

Geneva, It is a "nice quilt"! Hope he heals quickly.

Rosemary, glad to hear the work is wrapping up in the lounge. I'm sure it looks great.

Marianne, great placemats and love the skirt you embroidered!

[Annis C.]

Beautiful embroidery, Marianne.

Geneva, that's a good story about the quilt. Broken ribs are a pain to get through. My DH has been there several times. Getting up and down is the hardest, and with a cold on top of it that's tough. Hope he heals quickly.

The binding is on the mini quilt. I'm letting my fingers take a break before adding a hanging sleeve. Then I also want to add some beads and buttons. That will be time consuming sewing them on one at a time since they will be too far apart to travel with the thread which will probably be monofilament which is difficult to work with. Now I know why show quilts are quilted so densely. The more quilting there is the less chance of noticing all of the imperfections and the more quilting you do the less you care about the imperfections as it would take a lifetime to unsew and resew every errant stitch. I'm sure there are way too many in this quilt to win a grand prize but they aren't noticeable on the front of the quilt and I'm happy with the results as I can barely see the stitches anyway without looking closely with my glasses on!

This is a closeup of the feathers I did in the final scalloped border. As you can see they are quite small and I sewed them with a walking foot rotating the quilt over and over again while trying to stay on lines that weren't marked. I did make a cutout template for the outside edge of the design and made registration marks for where the stitches should start and end. It was a challenge with the backtracking which had to be done just right in order to have a double row of stitching all around. Out of the 28 repeats I only lost my way a half dozen times. There were more than 112 thread ends to hide in this border alone, no telling how many in the whole quilt. Thankfully a few of the borders had continuous line sewing with only 4 thread ends.



Now to move on to other things. I'm not sure I would ever make a quilt this small and detailed again. I'm sure I will make more mini quilts but probably stick with simpler designs and keep them under 18" if I plan to quilt them this way. This one finished at 23" which is almost twice that size in square inches.

[Marianne G.]

Wow Annis - that is amazing. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
Geneva - love the quilt; hope your DH gets better soon. I've only bent two ribs once - that was so very, very painful, can't imagine what it would be like to break them.
Rosemary - congratulations on getting the books in from the garden! Hope they will be all right

Thanks for all the nice comment about the skirt embroidery. Today I have been playing with orphan Christmas patches and cut HST left over from a Christmas tree quilt and another quilt. I came up with this really crazy OTT 18"x19" mini

I had such fun trying to get all the bits and pieces fit together. All I have left now is one 1 1/2" strip and one green and holly fabric isosceles triangle patch. I also put out some other orphan patches and cut HST and squares from another quilt that I will try to puzzle together for another mini. They really are too big for mug rugs but who cares they are such fun to make and I love that feeling of using up bits and bobs
Marianne

[Betty J.]

Lotti, what great pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Betty J.]

Annis, Magnificent quilting. Can we see the whole quilt?

[Betty J.]

I love your skirt! Also admiring your Christmas block

[Nancy R.]

Hey was that Nancy I've just seen on TQS on the Jenny Bowker show

Yep, that was me, chubby cheeks and all! I think I attended the tapings of the last 3 shows that were aired. I'm really looking forward to a new show!

[Dawn S.]

Marianne, you are one busy and productive gal! The skirt is my favorite! The embroidery is beautiful. What machine did you do the enpmbroidery on? I recently bought a plain lavender t-shirt that would probably look really cool if I put some embroidery on it. I'll have to see what my new machine can do with a t-shirt!

I hope your husband is much better by now, Geneva! My daughter cracked a rib when she had a coughing spell during a cold. (And, she still had to care for her three kids and her DH.) I love the "nice quilt" comment. My female primary care doctor still calls what I make "blankets!" I made her grown twins T-shirt "blankets." And, now she wants a "blanket" made from all of her mom's old clothes. :side: your quilt is great!

Rosemary, I'm glad everything is moving along with the remodel of your lounge! I don't have the energy to do anything like that, but would love to ooh and ahh over yours. Pictures, please!

I spent the weekend sewing about 150 of my circles together (think clamshells here) and am super pleased with the results so far. I'll post a photo tomorrow. They are going to be fun to quilt, too. Easy peasy!

Good to see you checking in, BJ! What have you been up to? Are you doing the Hoffman Challenge this year? Are you designing digital embroidery? I have the software for that, and a couple of Craftsy classes, but haven't gone any further.

Annis, I admire someone who isn't afraid to try the insane! Your mini is going to Wow! everyone at the quilt show!

Guess I need to watch Jenny's TQS show, so I can see Nancy's smiling face again! :P

Dawn

[Dawn S.]

Geneva - glad to hear DH is on the mend.
Annis - love the quilting can't wait to see the front side after the show!
Marianne - fun to see your Christmas orphans!

Barb

[wendy w.]

Hey was that Nancy I've just seen on TQS on the Jenny Bowker show

Yep, that was me, chubby cheeks and all! I think I attended the tapings of the last 3 shows that were aired. I'm really looking forward to a new show!

:lol: and now I see you on the Mickey Lawler show. What a great life you lead!!!

[E.M. T.]

Lotsa pluses living that close in Colorado ! :woohoo:

[Anne B.]

Good morning all,
I have wanted to join this retreat for a while, but you know how life can throw you a curve! I brought my father in law to our our home, (southern Arizona), for the winter, when he became terribly ill. He's still not out of the woods, & who know if he will ever be, (probably will spend the remainder of his days in a nursing home), but he's not as critical as he was. I had spent many long hours in his hospital room, (he had been in the hospital for close to a month), just waiting, when I decided to bring in my machine in & sew, which I did. Sewing made me feel better, I could my eye on him, & when he was awake, he could see that I was there & not feel that he was so alone.
I had been working on 2 projects that I wanted to enter into a local quilt show, but they will not be finished in time, which is fine, (there's always nest year), but I thought what a great way to show off my progress to you quilters out there. The jacket is an old UFO that I had inherited & pretty much finished except for little things, I had never quilted clothing before, this might be a new thing for me! The quilt that I'm working on in a Jenny Beyer kit, Lotus Quilt...it is turning out so cool!!! I really learned a lot making that quilt. It will be a wedding present for my nephew, (lucky boy), who's getting married in august. Thanks
Anne

[wendy w.]

Sorry to hear of your father in laws I'll health. Great idea to take your sewing in and a comfort for him. Hospital visiting can be very tiring and draining.
Now I love your colour choices and beautiful work. I hope you're going to wear your jacket but not sure Arizona is the right climate, do you get cool weather?