Just Stitchin Retreats

I mentioned a while back that I will be attending a retreat in Feb....as the resident massage therapist!

I just got an email from the gals running the thing, and they have put up the beginnings of a website. I wanted to post a link for Just Stitchin Retreats so that any of you south east gals can pass the info on to your guilds if you are interested in getting retreats together!

The retreat I'm doing is a "Quilt Camp" style retreat where you work on your own projects. A mystery quilt and some other fun stuff will also be offered if you want to participate in that. The Palm Key retreats are where they bring in known teachers to teach special weekend workshops.

Bonnie

Tshirt Quilt Sunday!

I have a friend who wants to give her daughter a Tshirt quilt made from her "Girls on the run" shirts...for CHRISTMAS! She asked me to help her just the other day and my mind was trying to figure out HOW in the world we can get this done before Christmas with all else that I have going on here.

I told her to pick up the interfacing for stabilizing the shirt logos, and we would raid my stash for the fabrics to go with it. I had the perfect fabric (thanks to Finn!) for pulling it all together in the border...all the colors of the window framing we used come from the colors in the border, and the words RAH!! will continue to cheer her daughter on as she continues to run.

It was fun having her here yesterday....she fused, I cut, we sewed...and by 9pm last night the top was done.

She how has the job of picking up some backing fabric so we can get the quilting done on it..I have already told her that the binding will be HER JOB! :cD

It was an easy quilt to make. The tshirt blocks were cut 12.5"..the frames and sashings are 2.5" cut strips....the cornerstones are 2.5" squares from the ends of the framing strips....I busted stash and we had fun!

Bonnie

Playing Hookey!

I was supposed to be quilting from home today as I have no massage clients scheduled....but...I wanted to play! And yes, the border is still NOT done on the blue quilt, but I have plans to take that with me to hilton head over thanksgiving...

Today I wanted to do something quick and fun! So...I dug in my "pieces-parts"...little string pieced trimmings, etc. And there were a few blocks I had crumb pieced..left from a little crumb quilt top that I had made. The blocks were 3.5". Very cute size for using up little stuff.

I also found they are a good size to have stashed back for coming up with a quick project! How many of you have books you love...be it a cook book, a favorite novel, a quilt book, a hymn book...an anything book? Make a cover for it using your leftovers!

Some may think this is corny, and too "martha stewart" ish....but I had a couple beat up books I wanted to make covers for. One was a small paperback with inspirational thoughts for the day, 365 days a year...and I really like it. It was worn and dirty and looking pretty bad though, so this was a good candidate...and another book became the second guinea pig.

I had fun doing these, they were easy...and FAST! I added ribbon book marks sewn into the seam at the center.....I didn't even bother to quilt them!

A little bit of what's going on here:

Music has always been such an important part of my life and I can really feel the holiday spirit (especially through the Christmas season) when I am singing in a choir.

When we lived in Idaho I sang with the Boise Master Chorale. And went to NYC and sang Brahm's Requiem in Carnegie hall. I loved singing with the Boise philharmonic orchestra and the Manhattan Philharmonic orchestra. I also sang with the Treasure Valley Chorale in Eastern Oregon, and the Twin Falls Chorale when we lived in Burley. Since moving to TX, and then to SC....I stopped singing. Life took over. But I missed it.

I love the traditional classic music, like Handel's Messiah. I could get lost in that music. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I do.

Last week I auditioned for the Cathedral Chorale in Columbia, and I made it! Tonight is my first rehearsal, and we are working on a Requiem by Maurice Durufle...all in latin. It is SO beautiful. It feels good to have a place to sing again. Since we left Idaho, I turned that side of my soul off because there was not a place for me to really sing.

Jason is doing well here, and it is wonderful to have him HOME. He has doing some checking for jobs. He was working at Olive Garden in Mankato,MN and has been to the Olive Garden here to talk to them about transferring. They want him! He just needs a couple of phone calls to take place between the two places for references...and hopefully he will have a job in the next day or so. It is great for them because he is already trained.

It's been good for Jeff and Jason to spend some time together too. This past weekend was Dave's company picnic....it was at the ZOO! What a fun place to have a company picnic. We ate burgers and hotdogs and all the fixins, and got to walk around and see all the animals. We had a great time. I'm sure Jeff would NOT have come with us unless Jason was along,and since he was...we all had a very enjoyable time.

I have joined a knitting group that meets on wednesday evenings, and I go to that right before I go to choir practice. I'm still working on that afghan that I started last Christmas when we were at the cabin in the Smokies. I hope to finish it..and then perhaps I'll start bringing a hand work quilting project. Just fun to sit with the ladies and talk and sew. I'm bringing the books and their new covers to see if I can get anyone interested ;c)

Bonnie

Teenage Daycare!! (I'm Lovin It!)

Jeff (my 16 yr old son)got a job!! He actually got a job! (See me doing the happy dance of joy joy joy!)

Mc Donald's called him today to come in for an interview. Dave had to take him since I had a client at 4pm...I told Dave that if Jeff got a job we would have to work out the drop off/pick up schedule because I couldn't lose ALL my afternoon clients to come from the other side of town to pick up Jeff and take him to work, but I would be willing to SHARE the responsibility.

They hired him! And they wanted him to start IMMEDIATELY! So....Dave left him there, and called me. He needs to be picked up at 11pm. That means my son will have worked from 4:30pm until 11pm!! That is 6 1/2 hours of gainful employment where I didn't have to wonder where he was, worry who he was with or what he was doing.

He will come home exhausted and I am sure he won't be sneaking out of his window in the middle of the night!

I came home from work to find the IRONING BOARD set up in the middle of the room..which means he IRONED his clothes before his interview!

Hahahahahahahahhahha....I've been waiting for this day for a long time!

It's almost 8pm now...let's see...that still gives me three hours to do what I want until it is time to pick him up...oh happy day!

On the other hand....Jason and Shanon have split up. Jason is moving back home.....more on that as it unfolds.

Bonnie

Border Ideas?

I'm still thinking on the borders for "My Blue Heaven" I have these left over hour glass units. What if I were to make more of them and use them as the second border?

I tried to put them right up against the quilt center and they got lost.

I don't feel like making more flying geese units, they will just add to the busy-ness, but I thought that the hourglass blocks, all being blue...would darken the edge but still have some spark to them...more than a plain slapped on border, you know?

And....I can use up more blule 2.5" strips this way? what do you think?

Bonnie

More My Blue Heaven

I've got the top center together! Yesterday I sewed the blocks into rows, this morning I sewed the rows together. I like it!

The close up shot shows you the weird variety of fabrics I used in this quilt. Really, when I pull fabrics, I just go for color/light/dark...there are 20 years of fabrics in this quilt including such weird things as a western fabric with cowboy boots, ropes and hats...and a cutesy farm animal print with cows and chickents and pigs. It is just what was IN the scrap bin. I use it. I don't care how old it is, how outdated it is, how ugly it is...I just use it.

This quilt has batiks, hand dyes, 1988 paw prints and pin dots, novelty prints, shirtings, white on whites, cream on creams, plaids, ginghams, stripes, lots of 1990 calicoes, music prints....EVERYTHING. If you are new to making scrap quilts, please dare yourself to use everything! I see a lot of quilts out there where fabrics are separated so much by "kind" (all 30's repros, or all civil war repros, all batiks, all tone on tone or whatever) that there is no punch or whimsy to them.

I feel that my scrap quilts refect who I am because they have EVERYTHING from my whole quilting life in them. When sewn up, even fabrics that seem to not go together, GO TOGETHER!

I now have to contemplate borders..do I take the easy way out and just slap a couple on there, or do I do something fun? I'll have to think on it a bit. This is as much time as I can spend on it today as I am working on a customer's feathered star quilt that needs to be done ASAP and there are several others in queue pressing to be done too. Taking a week off put me a week behind, but it was a break I desparately needed.

The weather is gorgeous and glorious here....makes me want to be out in it!

Bonnie

My Blue Heaven

I finaly decided to sit down yesterday and push towards the completion of this quilt top! You may remember several posts earlier I was going gung ho on this, but then life got in the way. Yesterday afternoon I was off work early and decided it was time to sit and POWER SEW!

I had 180 1/2 square triangle squares to piece...did those in one long chain...and then started adding those to the remaining flying geese units that had been done earlier. Added these units to the sides of the star units I already had constructed, and voila! 45 hour glass star blocks and 45 hour glass puss in the corner blocks!

They are now laid out on the floor ready to be assembled into the top. Remember those piles of blue and neutral strips I pulled out to make this quilt? (See way below, oscar the cat is inspecting them) I am amazed to say that this used maybe...1/2 the strips?There is still A LOT left! I'm not sure what I'm doing for borders yet, so maybe they will be used there, but once again it reiterates to me just HOW MUCH fabric I have and how far scraps will/can go in a quilt...farther than you think!

I had fun making this quilt with only two rulers: Companion Angle and
Easy Angle. The flying geese tris and the 1/2 sq tris are all cut from the same 2.5" strip. When you cut the pieces one corner is notched so they fit together PERFECTLY. I'm a big fan of these rulers....they've been around forever and I don't think they've ever got the attention they deserve.

Bonnie

Back from DC!

Actually, I arrived back home on sunday night and am now just getting round to posting. You know how it is when you've left your family (MEN AND BOYS..MALES of the species..)for a week and what it's like to come home to...

I did have a wonderful trip. PERFECT weather for driving. It was sunny, leaves just turning on the way up. On the way back they were even MORE beautiful, though not quite at peak, that is okay for me.

I arrived in Bethesda on tuesday afternoon, about 1/2 hour after my dad arrived, so he got all the checking in done at the hotel :c) How is that for good timing? I really enjoyed Bethesda. It is lively, busy, and very diversified! There are more restaurants than anyone could ever explore in a week's time...but suffice it to say that we ate out at a different 'nationality' every night! FUN!

We met up with Tonya on wednesday morning and we all toodled in to the smithsonian area of DC. If you aren't familiar with the Metro, and without a guide...I think it is easy to get turned around, you might have the right train, but going the wrong way! And then have to figure out how to get to the other side of the platform, do you go under? Or up and over? And having to put MORE money on your little ticket (exit fare) so you can actually get OUT of the Metro? Oh yes...it was fun for all, but by the time we were done, we had it down pat!

We toured the natural history museum. My fave was the dinosaur exibit. That always amazed me...SO BIG....and extinct. I remember being afraid as a child that something could happen to make me extinct too...pretty deep thinking for an 8 year old. And sometimes I still wonder. :c)

We also toured the Air and Space museum, which was also a big hit for school field trips! It is fun to people watch. So many nationalities and walks of life. I was so amazed at comparing how far things went...from the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1904, to on the MOON in the 60's. in a period of 60 years, all that happened. It really is amazing. This pic is one Tonya took of me and my dad inside the air and space museum...see the big rocket behind us? :c)

Thursday we spent all day at the Holocaust museum. My dad is a big history buff, and he had to read every little display, watch every film, after lunch, Tonya went on home (I don't blame her! *LOL*) and I toodled with Dad while he explored everything. It really does make an impact. Especially with what is going on in the world today. That was a completely insane episode in history, and hopefully thanks to things like the holocaust museum, it won't happen again.

Friday we took a bus tour from 10am til after 4pm and saw ALL the monuments. It was a beautiful day to be out, a bit chilly, but a light jacket and all was well. There was no better way to get all these in. And since Dad is moving slower, being on a bus was GREAT for him.


Saturday morning Dad left to continue is motorcyle trip around ther perimiter of the US....and I headed over to Tonyas to play with fabrics...and kitties! I brought some show and tell, we played with that..discussed how we were going to quilt one of her quilts, and then we headed out for lunch, and then to do some quilt shop hopping! I actually BOUGHT fabric. But it was stuff I needed, including a 2 yrd piece of a fabulous black with colored squiggles on it. I see this as a border....it is perfect to pull a bunch of odd stuff together and make it fit. So I indulged.

I also bought the feathered star book by marsha mccloskey that I've been wanting.

Sunday morning I left Tonya's in Bethesda about 9:30 am and made it home by 5pm so I made good time. I am wanting sewing time, but yesterday I had to jump right back to work at the clinic. This afternoon/evening my Dad will be coming through here and staying the night at my house after a few days ride down the blue ridge parkway in VA and NC....so...no sewing time!

And this post is plenty long so I'm going to stop it here :c)

Bonnie