Virtual Retreat 2016

[Anne B.]

Southern Arizona gets very cold!! Last we were in the low 30's! When the sun drop so does the temps. We are at 4000 ft altitude, so we do get snow here on the Mexican boarder, fortunately it does not last more than a few hours, & it can last for weeks up in the mountains! Sewing/Quilting has been my sanity for most of my life, I pretty much sew every day, I even take sewing to my work, (I have a fair amount of downtime).

[Anne B.]

My precious mountains of southern Arizona

[wendy w.]

Wow the mountains are so beautiful. What a fabulous place to live.
I haven't been that far down. My visit was to racing in Phoenix then we went north through Sedona and up to Williams where the steam train to the Grand Canyon starts. We woke up in Williams to snow it was lovely but down in Phoenix it was hot. This was November but I guess Phoenix is in a valley. Such variation of scenery and climate within one State. Fabulous

[wendy w.]

Annis, beautiful quilting.

Ladywingnut, Love your jacket. You are lucky that you were able to take your machine into the hospital. I doubt that it would be allowed here in UK.

And here is our newly decorated lounge - this was taken before we got the curtains hung so DH had put the strips of spare carpet along the bottom of the windows to try to keep some of the warm is as they are original to the house and are not double glazed :dry: Unfortunately, what you cannot see is that the top section of them is made of stained glass panels, which is one of the reasons we haven't got around to changing them for double glazing because we want to keep the stain glass in situ and to do that is definitely outside our current budget.


And the reason for lack of sewing currently is......

[Dawn S.]

Well, Rosemary, at least the lounge is orderly! :lol: :lol: :lol: But, you can relax in the new lounge, during your breaks from reorganizing your sewing room. That's got to feel good!

Lady....your jacket is great, and way beyond my expertise! And, I'm loving the quilt! Beautiful colors, and beautiful appliqué. I would have a hard time letting that one go. I hope your FIL will be happy in whatever nursing home he finally goes into! Such a hard decision! Such a clever idea to take your sewing machine to the hospital! I'll have to jot that one down, for future reference!

Here are about 170 of my circles, hand sewn (appliqué) together. As you can see, I work it as a unit, and not onto the background.



And, here is the backside. I feel the stabilizer is going to make the quilt too stiff, since there are so many small, overlapping pieces. Sooooooo, I am trying very hard to remove the "fusible" stabilizer. Fortunately, most of it is coming out. It's leaving my edges a little raggedy, but that may make it even more soft.



It's slow going, but I'm having fun with it!

Dawn

[Geneva C.]

Anne, your jacket and quilt are wonderful! Love the colors. What a smart idea to take your sewing machine to the hospital. Good for both of your souls. If you need help deciding on a nursing home you can go to the medicare site. The info is dated, but it is at least something to go on. If you need help deciphering the info, I'm happy to help. www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare . (I hope it's ok to put this in this setting! hmy: )

Rosemary, love your new carpet. It's so nice and colorful. I can see what you mean about all the books. At least they are safe now. May we see the stained glass windows? And well, the mess isn't so bad. At least the iron is readily available!

Dawn, your circles are amazing! I can't wait to see how it all turns out. I admire your patience.

Just finished quilting the bed runner. I will get the binding on soon I hope.

Today is my mom's 87th birthday. We will have a nice cake-a-party for her tonight. I love cake!!

geneva

[Geneva C.]

I knew as soon as I mentioned the stained glass windows someone would be asking to see them - when I can get a photo in daylight which will probably be Friday at the earliest. And the mess & stereo is there sitting on top of my cutting mats - got to be shifted before anything can be cut for sewing, first two items Lotti's row & Terri's mystery quilt, plus lots of 3 d grapes for embroidering for an EG exhibition.

Dawn your circles look luscious.

[Anne B.]

Thank you Geneva for your link for nursing homes, I will be investigating that site.
Arizona is an beautiful state, we have only lived here for 9 years, but feel lucky to have landed where we have.
Any of you want to come visit, I will be happy to show you around!
Dawn your circles are absolutely wild!! What will you be doing with them? For my applique, I have been using Alex's 'Select Print & Piece', I got it free with my membership renewal, I am able to leave it in my applique, when I wash the quilt, it dissolves & my applique is completely soft, (I did samples 1st), Ricky has his 'Stable Stuff' as well as Sharon Schamber has a similar product, I have been really happy with the results. No worries about removing any of the backing!

[Anne B.]

Anne - really like your jacket and your Jenny Beyer Lotus quilt looks fabulous! (Great idea to work on projects while at the hospital).
Rosemary - the lounge looks great, I'd love to see the stained glass windows too!
Dawn - love the circles too.

Barb :-)

[karen f.]

Ooo Geneva I do like that quilt! Happy your husband is doing some better. I hope he continues to do so.

[Dawn S.]

Lady....I am not revealing what I am making quite yet, as others are also making a Hoffman Challenge quilt, and I don't want to spoil the surprise, until they are well under way. Once I get the main body of the circles done though, I will probably be so excited about it, I will share! Anyway, that is exactly what I am using....Alex's Print and Piece. But last year, I used Ricky's Stable Stuff, and even removing most of it, it became quite wrinkled once the Hoffman staff folded it. (It had not been washed.) My jester had a crease right down the middle of her face, making her look kind of distorted. So, I'm just taking added precautions this year. It is good to know that the small amount of stabilizer that I have left in this one will become soft upon washing. But, that's the kicker! A lot of us who enter contests seem to work on the quilt up to the last minute, and don't have time to wash it before mailing it. You'd be surprised how many quilt pictures have been submitted to shows with the binding glued onto backside. The hand quilting gets done after the last minute submission hmy:

Dawn

[Jules M.]

Dawn, what we've seen is LOVELY!!

LOL on the deadline! :silly:

[Lorna B.]

Rosemary, I really like your carpet. The color is very rich! I think I only have a bit of your stained glass in a picture from when we did the sorting of the reels.

Dawn, Can't wait to see your finished challenge.

[Anne B.]

Hey Dawn! I just looked up the Hoffman Challenge fabric...interesting interesting, I have never done any of these contest before, now that the children are long gone, I think that this is something I need to start to do...how have you done on these contest in the past?
Anne

[Dawn S.]

Anne, last year was the first year that I entered the Hoffman Challenge. And it was a very difficult fabric to work with. But, I managed to win a second place in Mixed Technique. The name of the quilt is Masquerade, and it is a jester. I was surprised this morning when I opened up an email from a friend, and there was my quilt! She was messing around on Intsagram when she found it. It was part of the advertising for the upcoming Mid Atlantic Quiltfest. She has two quilts in that show, so was looking for things pertaining to It.

This year's deadline is the end of June, so you still have time to make a quilt for it, if the fabric challenges you to do so. And, if you don't have another large project with the same deadline. You will find some of the big name quilters entering the challenge, along with unknowns like me. So, it's good to do your best work when entering. I think this year's butterflies lends itself to so many possibilities! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. I'm definitely seeing a few Kaleidoscope entries!

Dawn