Virtual Retreat - Ongoing (started January 2019)

[Sharon E.]

Good Morning all!

This month has been a great deal of change in our life and not much of it involves sewing/quilting.
I went to Seattle the middle of Sept. to play Grammie for 4 days, also went to Pacific Fabrics and smoked my CC, hehe. When I got home our sweet little dog, Buddy, who we adopted 11.5 years ago developed lung cancer and we had to put him down. This has devastated both of us and we miss him terribly.





My stepfather was placed into memory care in August and my mom decided to sell her home they have lived in for over 30 years. We have been busy helping her go through stuff, get rid of stuff and clean. Jim stopped eating and on October 6th he passed. He was a wonderful man of God and was 89 years old, but suffered with that dang Alzheimer's for 10 years. He was career Air Force for 26 years and about 10-12 years he was logistics officer for Air Force One during half of Eisenhower, all of Kennedy and most of Johnson and then retired to become a private contractor. He had the opportunity to travel with Pres. Eisenhower when Hawaii became a state. He many interesting stories to tell of the entire Air Force One experience. He was in Iran in 1979 when Khomeini took over and it was a harrowing experience to escape from Iran. When he came home he became a pastor and that is when he met my mom; they made a great team. His memorial service was lovely and attended by many people. We thought very highly of Jim and how much he loved my mom and his care of her.



My sister lives in Arizona and my mom will be heading down there on Friday for the winter. I will miss her terribly, but it will be good for her to deal with winter down there.

I haven't been able to sew with all this, I believe my mojo has left the building. I did get a quilt accepted into Houston and will be there for the entire week. I am really looking forward to that. I am sure next month I will have Houston stories. If you guys happen to find a wrinkled mojo laying around, it's probably mine.
Have a great month everyone.
Sharon in Colorful Colorado

[Sharon E.]

Sharon,
So sorry to hear of your stepfather’s passing, but knowing he is in God’s hands will provide a little more peace each day.
Don’t worry about the Sewing MOJO, it returns when you’re heart has the energy to deal with it.
May God watch over you and your family as you face each day with His love and care.
Luann

[Geneva C.]

Oh Sharon, I am so sorry for the loss of your step dad and your little dog. It's been a rough time for you.

I hope you find some peace little by little each day. It takes time and there is no way to hurry the process. Please know that your TQS lounge lizard friends are standing by you with love. I hope you have a great time in Houston and your quilt wins! And you might find a piece or two of your mojo there in Houston.

Thank you for the nice compliments on my Compass quilt. Yesterday I ripped out all the silver quilting I did. It didn't look like what I wanted. I now have a new plan! I suspect it will be better than the original. Isn't that how art works? And for those of you that want to try facing a quilt, it's rather easy. It gives a different look to the edge of the quilt. Here is a link to a Bernina tutorial on facing a quilt. I use this method and it works like a charm. For the compass circles I cut out a black facing fabric the size of the compass, sewed a 1/4" seam right sides together around the outside, then cut a hole (carefully!) in the center of the facing fabric. I trimmed the facing fabric about 2" around the outside. I didn't even finish the raw edge of the facing as it will be sewn down to the quilt. It was a little tricky, especially for the smaller circles, but I did stitch on the facing/seam right along the outside edge. You'll see what I mean when you watch the video. It gives the facing a really nice, crisp edge. I took my extension board off my machine to use the small stitching surface to go around the circle. Sewing a square/rectangular quilt is much easier! https://weallsew.com/make-quilt-facing/ Hope this makes sense!

Hugs to you all. This season of our life comes with such joy and sorrow. But through it all, we continue to create. "Sewing mends the soul."

geneva

[Kathy H.]

Dear Sharon
My sympathies and condolences for you recent losses. May you find comfort in the memories of your loved ones and may your mojo return from its sabbatical very soon.
Kath in southern California

[Eileen K.]

Sharon, I'm so sorry for your family's loss. My Mom stopped eating about 2 weeks before she passed last year. I think they know when they're ready to go, I know Mom did. Doesn't make it hurt any less. Give yourself time for your mojo to come back. Maybe sew with some friends, take a class. Baby steps. It will return.

Thank you for the tutorial Geneva.

[wendy w.]

Sharon I'm sorry for your losses and so sad to hear the stories from all of you of your loved ones. I've seen it many times as a nurse but it doesn't make it any easier when it's your own.
Losing a loved pet is so hard I do feel for you.

[Terry K.]

Sharon--I'm sending you a big hug. I am sorry for your losses and missing them is okay. Geneva--those mariner's compasses are amazing and I love what you are doing with them. I've posted regularly on my blog in the last month. I did have some finishes: a machine applique project that I started in a Karen Kay Buckley class; a skirt for a granddaughter--but, I actually had enough fabric to make a second skirt for the second granddaughter; a baby quilt made out scrap flannell bits from my friend, Martha's stash.

I posted about the August embroidery lesson and the September embroidery lesson. I think I might be getting the hang of how to follow the directions for the lessons. Sorry for the sideways image. . .

I started a new project using flannel scraps from my friend's stash. The novel, "Little Women" inspired it and I used some embroidery from one of my lessons! I stitched the secondary blocks for Good Fortune. This was the Bonnie Hunter mystery last November. I wrote another post to support the Bust Your Stash Two Inches at a Time challenge. Is anyone here participating? I set my 4th quarter goals and posted about it. I've been doing better about completing or making progress on projects that have been hanging about my studio for years.

I'm off to a slow start in October; but, I hope to figure out solutions to some of the challenges that have been thwarting my progress! Life is good! At my guild show in September, my "Chickens" quilt received second place as member's choice and first place as viewer's choice. I was tickled!

[wendy w.]

Sorry Geneva I missed your compass quilts somehow. They're stunning, I will read your link about the stitching later.

Terry I'm so chuffed for you getting recognition for the chicken quilt. Is the writing across the blocks what you've been learning in the embroidery class?

[wendy w.]

Read it now. I'll try the no trim technique and tapering towards corners. Little things can make a big difference. I already sew the edge as in dress making and that's a good one. Cheers

[Eileen K.]

Our dear friend, Dana Lynch, is now on her last journey.Hospice has come. Please keep Dana and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

[Geneva C.]

I am so sad to hear this. I didn't know Dana was ill. She makes amazing quilts.

geneva

[Eileen K.]

Dana went home to God this afternoon. May she rest in peace and may her family find strength in their faith.
Dana, you were loved by so many. I'll miss your voice on the phone most of all.

[Terry K.]

I missed my day to report in yesterday. I'm catching up today! Last month, I went on vacation. We went to Maui, Hawaii and we had a terrific time. Our daughter met us at baggage claim. I was gob smacked shocked as I had no idea she would be coming! What a great surprise!! My favorite activity was snorkeling and looking for turtles! I shared four posts about the trip. I can't wait to go back! post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4

I made progress on the Bonnie Hunter Good Fortune mystery from last year. Stitching the blocks together, adding a border set and I can't decide if I should leave it or add more borders to make the top more bed sized! It is a square now. What would you do?

The oldest granddaughter made progress on her mermaid project. I recapped October activities and wrote a post to support my two inch bust your stash challenge.

Sadly, I finished NOTHING! I am making progress on a couple projects so perhaps next month I'll be able to share some finishes.

[Eileen K.]

Terry, if you don't make it bed sized, what will you use it for? Are you keeping or gifting it?
I've never been to Hawaii, it's a trip I mean to take Glad you had a good time and a good surprise from your daughter.

[Geneva C.]

Hello my friends!

Terry your vacation sounds wonderful! Your Good Fortune Quilt is so pretty. Whatever you decide about borders will look great. I like it this way too. The colors are great. Are you going to do Bonnie's new mystery Frolic?

I missed my day to blog last week as it was my actual birthday. After going out to a wonderful lunch with my sweetie, I somehow sprained my right thumb. I'm not able to do any sewing which has really been hard for me. And I'm learning how to use my left hand. It's not easy! But I did have a nice day celebrating with my family.

Luckily before I hurt my thumb I made the last two aprons for grandchildren. We will be seeing them all for the week of Thanksgiving. I plan to give them to the far away grandkids, as well as give the Christmas quilts I made for the 4 families, as well as the Santas I made! Finally! I get to give them all away! Here are pictures of the Ninja Turtle aprons for my grandsons, and one for my wild granddaughter.










I am at the point with two quilts that I need to do the hand sewing on them. I'm so disappointed that I can't work on them. I made the compasses, quilted them and then faced each one. Then I quilted the background and now I want to sew them to the background. I did finally find the swirls I want to embroider alongside the compasses. The photo shows the second trial of embroidery which I ripped out. The weird light thing on the left side is the light coming in and shining on the quilt. The little baggie at the top left are the colors of thread I am using to do the embroidery. The fabric on the right side is the backing fabric. The next picture is the quilting design I want to use.









While waiting for the compass quilt to percolate and figure out if I could use the embroidery design, I made random log cabin blocks with the left over fabrics. I went through my stash of backings and decided this next quilt needed to be made. I didn't want to cut up the dots and have them all mixed up (there is enough chaos already going on!), so I faced each log cabin block as well as the three little squares made with a stripe. All of these blocks are quilted and faced. I have quilted the background and backing. Now I'm stuck waiting for my thumb to get well so I can sew them all down. The white and black dot on the right side is the backing.





So that's what's up here at the Cairn Carroll sewing room! I hope you all are doing well and those in America, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.

Take care, geneva

PS. This took forever to write! I have a new appreciation for left handers! :blink: