Getting Back in the Saddle Again

Yikes..its been a VERY LONG DRY spell in these parts! Sorry for being absent so long.

I did attend Road to CA in January...took a couple of neat classes:

Tentmaker Work - I am almost done with this piece. It is going to be a pillow cover. This pic is how much I got done in the class...The class was taught by Egyptian Tent Makers..they are truly amazing applique-ers!

Images in Landscapes -
Loved this class but unfortunately, have not worked on this project very much since January. Class was in how to blowup a snapshot into a wall hanging sized quilt...which you then can add traditional blocks to make an interesting focal point..mine will not get too much bigger than this as I don't usually do very many 'big' quilts...but I am thinking of at least adding a border of flying geese..we will see how inspired I get! The small picture is the photo I started with and then enlarged...looks pretty darned close, eh?

Project Bag - This was a fun, quick bag class..I went to M&L a few weeks later and bought a yard of headliner fabric to make more of these. I think I even have enough of the clear plastic...just need time!

I did attend the annual Valley of the Sun Retreat in February:
One of the highlights was making this Mystery Quilt...I think EVERYONE loved the pattern and how their quilt came out! Still need to quilt it though...

And..just went on the annual So Cal Quilter's Run and stimulated the economy!

One of my additions is a Thread Director...supposed to help eliminate breakage when using metallic threads for FMQ...will have to play with that soon!

AZ Retreat 2012

I am back from the AZ Retreat...

On the way over, we stopped at KFC..I had wings and coleslaw..but they stuck a biscuit in the box..being wheat-free, I wouldn't eat the biscuit..and my traveling partner was way too full, so she suggested I feed the birds! A flock of mostly red-wing blackbirds eagerly devoured my biscuit...I didn't get a picture of the whole flock (every time I put the camera up, the birds took to the air..silly birds!) but here is one saucy fellow and a few of the bolder birds:

Here is a shot of the room before anyone started setting up.

Usually, when the two of us get to Retreat, only a couple of folks are there already..but this year, at least 1/3 of the Retreaters came the night before!! We were greeted in the hotel lobby by the whole group!

Here is a shot of the room after a few people had arrived...

I did a 'motorectomy' on Alis and turned her into a hand crank machine...I have a bit more to do - rewire the lamp to the plug receptacle and find a place to mount the plug or just connect the lamp to the cord or I could just remove the lamp (the hood is missing..and it may be too bright with a bare bulb)...and figure out how to move the hinges a couple of centimeters to the left so I can leave the hand crank attached - the hand crank is just a WEE bit too wide the way Alis is mounted into the case - I think I can do that without too much trouble - if not..I just have to leave the bolt tightener in the compartment under Alis..Oh..and I need to figure out how the heck the control box is mounted so I can remove it..I may need some 'manly muscles' to get it loose...

And I worked on stitching down the sashing on Heart's Garden...it's almost done!

 It was a fun Retreat!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Retreat I Go!

Its been a busy month..and I am SOOOOO ready for my week in Arizona!


A dove in the Arizona desert

Stuff for Show and Tell:
A Hug from Chris..quilt was made from bright wedges that I got last retreat from Chris's stash..(Chris was one of the Arizona Retreat's Hostesses..she passed away from pancreatic cancer just before last year's retreat...)

Will also be showing Heart's Garden and the table runner I made using Aurora.

Stuff I am going to work on:
Finishing the stitching except for the label ** on Heart's Garden..it has the borders on it and I need to hand stitch the joining strips down..it needs the binding cut and applied..and hand stitched as well..that will be my major project.

I am also taking Alis (the 99..I keep thinking maybe I should rename her to Agent 99, yanno like Barbara Feldon from Get Smart)...and am going to do her 'motorectomy'...and turn her into a hand-crank machine. Hopefully that won't take a bunch of time..

I also have both of my projects from the classes at Road to finish off..almost done with the Happy Village - just a wee bit more FMQ and it will be done..

And I have a couple of other projects I can work on..a pillowcase kit..a table topper using the wedge ruler from Phillips Fiber Art that I got for Christmas...my wee Hexie basket:



And..the OctiHoops..practice, practice!!

______________________________
**  I still don't have a printer to print the label with..the Epson I was using broke..they didn't have the replacement one I wanted at Fry's when we went shopping, so I have to wait for it to come in...

Arizona Retreat 2009 - Part 2

We had a grand time at there retreat..I worked on my string blocks for the Hearts Garden Quilt (its been in a few posts!)

Here are some sample blocks..

I THINK I am done with all of the blocks I need for the back and hopefully I can start working on putting the quilt together now..I need to design a quilting pattern and start tracing it, get some sashing strips cut (need to figure out if I have enough of the green fabric for the sashing left over), and lay out the back so I know which block goes where..

I also worked on the batik landscape that I made in a class at Road To California in 2008...I wanted to add a tree to the landscape..and that involved cutting the landscape..I have been putting off doing this for MONTHS! But..one of the ladies at the retreat encouraged me to 'just do it'...and so I did...another of the ladies gave me a wonderful strip of fabric for the border, and another let me dig thru her bag of scraps, looking for fall colored batiks to make leaves for the tree...I appliqued most of the leaves on the trip home. I have been working on embroidering on the seams as well...

Some of the fun stuff we did:

• learned how to make cathedral windows blocks
• one of the ladies taught a class on how to maintain your Featherweight sewing machine - she brought one that she auctioned off and another of the retreaters went home with a real treasure!
• Patrick Lose, a fabric and pattern designer that lives in Arizona, came to be our guest speaker...you can read about his take on the retreat on his blog...
• we had 'Secret Sisters' again this year...that was a blast again.. My SS gave me lots of wonderful goodies - including an organizer basket that I have wanted for a long time and lots of material and my very favorite tea (Stash Chai Spice)...I gave my SS (not the same person) batiks, a pink pincushion, a glass nail file, dark chocolates and a laser leveler (she said when she got home that she had to carefully explain to her DH that No, the leveler was NOT going to live in the garage, but in the 'forbidden room'!) In case you are wondering what possible use it could have for quilting, its used to square up large quilts...
• Went shopping several times at the 3 Dudes Quilt Shop across the street

Here is what my workstation looked like..before the madness and flurry of activity started! It looked considerably less neat as time wore on!

Arizona Retreat 2009 - Part 1

Well..I am FINALLY getting around to starting to post about the retreat..it was a couple of weeks ago now!

I went with another lady that lives a couple of hours north of me..its much easier packing when you don't have to worry about overweight bags, seperating out the liquids and just how much you can haul around! I took way too much, as usual, but I did find a use for most of it! Fortunately I took a couple of extra tote bags..judging from prior years experiences..I knew I would need them..and indeed, they came back stuffed to the brim!!

On the way over, we did not stop much..but did see some cool cactuses and wildflowers in bloom..I posted on the forum as we were driving that we had seen them and Sophie asked if I was going to blog about them, so..when the driver needed a break, we stopped at a rest stop and I went running around, looking very 'tourist-y', snapping pictures of cactuses, wildflowers and trees! We got a few more shots on the way home...

And, Old Glory, flying beautiful in the breeze!

Orchid Convergence

At the last Arizona quilting retreat, one of the activities was learning how to make a convergence quilt from Ricky Tims technique. Not knowing if I would like this technique - you never know till you are done with the piece if the fabrics you have picked 'work' for a convergence - I used some sample pieces that I had gotten in a Rosie's Quilt Cupboard run a few months earlier. The orchid fabric came in two sizes and I thought that might make the convergence look more coordinated...picked out a green and a black from the pile of sample fabric and made the convergence top at retreat. Its been sitting in a zip bag as a PIGZ (Project in a Gallon Zippy) with its backing and batting since I got home..kind of buried in the stuff on top of my cutting table..I was looking for a cable template that I wanted to use on the Butterfly Heart...and found the bag..but no cable template (I ended up free handing the cables..) Thursday afternoon, I was in the mood for a little machine quilting, and this was calling to me...so I added the borders, fused the scraps of the orchid material and trimmed out what orchids I could, arranged them on the borders, fused them in place and quilted the center of the quilt! The next day I added the viney leaf quilting to the border, and the binding..Went together very quickly! And..I like it!



















Here is a detail of the larger orchid in the corner:

AZ Retreat 2008

End of February, I attended the Arizona Valley of The Sun Quilter's Retreat...oh my, what a lovely time I had! It was wonderful seeing my quilting friends again...and meeting some new friends!

We had lots of great activities - the Hostesses outdo themselves each year, plotting and planning and creating a wonderful environment for our retreat...

Here are a few of the things I worked on:
Charm bag - this is the outside...if I do another one this size..I think the outside pocket would look better with 4 squares instead of 2...overall though..it's cuter than a bug's ear!



Charm bag inside...has a piece of plastic canvas in a slipcover to keep the bottom from getting too baggy looking. The inside pocket is a good size and has a magnetic snap. One of the ladies put her magnetic snap on the whole bag..this might have been a good idea too! This was an extremely easy bag to make..I will probably make more of them!



Here is the Hawaiian Wallhanging that I have been working on since our trip to Hawaii...I started the applique in Hawaii and finished it off to be a keepsake for my DH of the trip...Batting is wool - I love working with the wool batting..it's a dream to needle and I love how it springs up and creates a lot of definition...



This is a Whimsey Ball for my DGD for her first birthday...It was very easy to make also..had loads of fun putting it together...a few of the ladies wanted to take it home with them!


This is my convergence quilt top - I am planning on putting a black border around this and using some of the orchids from the smaller print to applique on the top corner...along with some ribbons...I really want to try one of the curved convergences...this kind has way too many fiddly seams to match and that is not my favorite part of piecing!!! It was amazing to see how different the result was for each person's fabric choices...


We also had classes on how to do paper piecing using the freezer paper method, how to applique using the basted method and how to draw feathers...I noticed I am doodling feathers all over the place now! Just have to get a test sandwich together and try them now on the machine...

One of the other fun activities was having a Secret Sister...you put stuff into your secret sister's bag when they were not in the room and someone else put stuff in your bag and on Saturday night we had the Big Reveal! The Secret Sister that was putting stuff in my bag gave me some really terrific things! I do a lot of hand piecing and did not have a sandpaper board..she made me a lovely one..in my most favorite green color! She also put in some great marking pencils, a needle grabber, some tailors chalk and made the cutest embroidered pin cushion out of a large bottle cap...She gave me a mother load of wonderful batiks for the reveal gift!




Inside the sandpaper board - sandpaper on one side to keep material from sliding around when you are using a pencil to mark the pieces and the other side has felt for arranging the block in the order you are going to sew it...


The gal who is my Secret Sister likes penguins...so I made her a penguin pin cushion - "Peircey, the 'Pin'quin"...unfortunately..ran out of time before retreat to take a picture of all of the things I gave her so I don't have a picture of it...but it turned out cute!

Charming!

This is the charm we made in the Craft Club today at work. It was the first time I had used 'hatpins' to attach beads. Managed to rip one of the beads off as it was dangling from my purse (it's supposed to be dangling from my purse!) so I had to try to fix it at home...but the danged needle-nose pliers have gone missing! So...it's gonna stay home, looking cute, until I can find the pliers or buy new ones.


The Arizona Retreat went exceptionally well! We had SOOOO much fun. Lots of laughter, lots of sewing, lots of inspiration from the other quilters...and many memories!

Here is my Challenge piece - it did not win any prizes, but WAS the only one that was made entirely from the challenge fabric!


Here we are in the retreat room during my ribbon embroidery class. I had seven students...and it was so cool to hear the squeals of delight when they 'got it'!


And..here I am during my 'Show and Tell', demonstrating my lovely tiara (doing a 'princess wave') and wearing my new ribbon embroidered vest. That's my retreat spot there in the left side of the picture and behind me are the pressing stations.