March Retreat Projects

I had my "Sisters" retreat this month, three days of stitching at our local quilt shop, Twisted Sisters Quilty Pleasures.

The major project I finished was adding the sashing and border to my Kauai Chicken Salad quilt.

I wanted the quilt to be a little smaller than Lori Holt's design so I simply went with 2 1/2-inch squares for the sashing and border. It finished at 50 x 64-inches, which will be a great size for my kitchen breakfast nook wall.

 My granddaughter wants to know who this quilt is for??? She's been watching me make this for several months.

 My retreat had a border focus. I also managed to get the borders done on two tops.

A simple border for the "Tapestry," quilt. I didn't change anything on this pattern by Tamarinis. The Free Spirit Fabrics website had a listing of the fabrics used in the pattern designer's version that I used as my starting point for searching out Kaffe fabrics. I bought all the fabrics for my quilt at Hancocks of Paducah. I think all Kaffe fabrics sell out pretty quickly at all the local quilt shops in my area. The finished size of this quilt is 60 x 71-inches.

My third finish was Banana Quilt from the book, "Perfect 10 Quilts." I made the piano key border and added it to the top at the retreat. I consider this to be a "couch quilt." that will look great on my gray leather couch. This is made with a Hoffman Batik Bali Pop and matching layer cake set in the color way, "Sparrow." So I have named the quilt, "Sparrows on the Couch," It measures 76 x 76-inches.

I have two more tops in my stash of "Couch Quilts," that are patterns from the, "Perfect Ten Quilts." All of the "Couch Quilts," were made with Bali pops and matching layer cakes with background fabrics from my stash. The Hoffman batik sets had bird names which are very appropriate for the colorways. 

This is, "Parrots on the Couch." It measures 70 x 90-inches. This is the pattern, "Birthday Cake Quilt,"  with a piano key border added to the design. 

And the last, "Couch Quilt," in my To Be Quilted stash is, "Sandpipers on the Couch," The center of the quilt is the pattern, "French Vanilla Cake." The finished top measures 70 x 82-inches.

I've been spending a lot of time organizing in my studio. I am trying to update my notebook with all the quilts that are done...quilted. And I am also making a notebook for all the tops that are awaiting quilting. I have been making sure I have a photo of the completed top and the measurements. Yes...I need a notebook for all the tops waiting to be quilted! 

On to my evening handwork projects.

I just finished making this Christmas Polar Bear. There are two penguins included in the kit.

 

I finished stitching a Spring project, "Scatter Eggs," from Shepherd's Bush. It will finish at  3 1/2 x 9 1/2 -inches. I ordered the fabric from Shepherd's Bush as the design called for an unusual size of 19 count. They substituted a 20 count piece in a light blue. I used the DMC floss colors but had to change a couple of colors. It was also unusual in that it called for stitching with three strands over two fabric threads which makes it nice and big for the buttons.  I love the buttons from Just Another Button Company. 

I also started another series of cross stitch ornaments from my older stash of patterns designed by Pat Thode of  Heart Strings, "Noah and Company." 

I had a comment on a previous post recently regarding my 12 Days of Christmas series from Heart Strings. The comment was from Angela but she is listed as a, "noreply-comment," on Blogger so I cannot answer her question. The "no-reply-comment," setting is the default setting in Blogger. I learned the hard way too that you must go in and change that setting if you want a personal response to your comment.

With a bit of sadness, I took down all my Christmas decorations last week. My house feels so empty! 

I also had a birthday this month. Yipes...my body is not cooperating with my mental age! I have too much to do and no time for little health issues that appear to be about my actual age. 

February - Busy!

 “I think my mom will want this quilt.”

My four-year-old granddaughter, Kate, tried to claim this quilt when I was hand stitching the binding. GP (grandpa) told her we were keeping this one. 

We had four inches of fresh snow and a sunny day so I managed a picture outside where the colors look great and you can see the quilting. 

This was a free pattern through the Moda Bake Shop, "Sky Full of Stars," designed by Kristina of Center Street Quilts. Unfortunately all the links to the quilt design don't go anywhere so I can't share the pattern.

*** update***

Two readers found the link to the pattern. Sky Full of Stars

** many thanks **

I added the last 12-inches to make a border that finishes the stars and adds a drop for the sides on a bed setting.  This quilt finished at 104-inches square. 

I took me several weeks to finally get another quilt top loaded on my quilting frame. I've got one border almost finished. Of course the hardest part of the quilting process is deciding what to do.

This is my version of the 2016 Quiltville mystery, "En Provence." I think I dropped a column. Bonnie Hunter's mysteries are always so amazing and big. This is the one and only mystery of hers that I have made. So Much Piecing!!!

I do like a bit of challenging piecing but this was so hard to keep up with when I had no idea what the final quilt would look like. A big commitment...but fun to be a part of the online quilt along. My version finished at 69 x 87-inches. All batiks.

I know I am repeating myself...but I think kitting up projects is my favorite part of the quilting process. My stash is overwhelming and I really am trying to use it. I have a lot of gorgeous fabrics and they should be made into quilts. 

Everyday I have about half a dozen quilt shops I visit...checking out daily sales, new releases and just generally getting inspired. Connecting Threads is one of those websites and I decided to check their free quilt patterns and instantly downloaded this fat quarter friendly pattern, "Weekend Fun." 

It takes 21 fat quarters and I immediately thought of a set of batik fat quarters that were in my stash. There were 20 fat quarters in the set and I easily found one more in my stash that looked like part of the set. 

 I'm thinking about treating this like a Leader and Ender project.

My next quilt start was a project kitted up last fall. It is a layer cake project. I had a older set of batiks that were released by Hoffman called, "Sparrow." I had a layer cake and Bali pop in the colorway. I also had a great background in my stash. 

The pattern is, "Banana Quilt," from the book, "Perfect 10 Quilts." This is at least the third quilt I 've made from this book. Kind of a cool layout. I'll add a piano key border with the Bali pop.

My table mate at the February quilt retreat gave me a sweet present, a set of Tutto project bags to match my sewing machine Tutto trolley. She offered to add some fun ribbon to the bags and I told her I had some Tula Pink ribbons at home that would be perfect so I would do it. 

It only took me a couple of hours to unsew the sides to add the ribbon and sew the sides back up again.  I love them! 

On to some evening handwork projects. I finished two of the 2023 Jim Shore Gnome series. 

Evergreen Gnome

Rabbit Gnome

My current Bucilla kit project is Santa's Ark. Once the ark is finished I get to make all the animals.

When I finish this I plan to do a dedicated post of various steps so it will help others. These Bucilla 3D kits are always pretty challenging and I often read the directions and decide to do things differently.

And finally...a project for Kate. A little binder she helped to pick fabrics for. 

By Annie patterns are so well written. I find the key for me is not to rush and make sure I read every sentence!!! So I just do a little bit every day. I have three more days based on how I like to break down the project. 

Lots of critters spotted in the last three weeks. I saw an ermine run unto the dog run but I wasn't fast enough with my iPhone. My neighbor texted me with her first black bear sighting in her yard. Several of my neighbors spotted him too and posted photos on our neighborhood Facebook page. A tiny black bear. Sometimes bears wake up and wander around before the snow is gone but they usually go back for a lengthy nap until temps warm up so I don't expect to see that one for several more weeks.

Hope you have had a February full of fun projects! I have a three-day retreat coming up in March. Sweet!

Material Girls February Retreat

I love retreats!

 I belong to a couple of retreat groups but this is my only overnight group. 

The Material Girls rent out a B & B in Wasilla for a long weekend. Each room sleeps three and has a private bath. There is a full kitchen and a small kitchen so pretty nice for hunkering down for three or four days. Our retreat starts on Thursday at noon and runs through late Sunday afternoon. We have two quilt shops in Wasilla to shop at plus lots of restaurant options. 

I have a little tradition of starting my retreat with binding a quilt. I'm usually one of the first to arrive and have four tables to myself for several hours...lots of room for binding a king-sized quilt.

I still need to finish hand stitching the binding. 

I'm sharing photos of some of the projects from the weekend. Quite a variety of projects.

Mary made a spring Kuspuk...traditional clothing for Yui'pik Alaskans. Summer parkas are made with colorful cotton fabrics and trimmed with ribbon and rick rack. Winter kuspuks are made of fur.

My other projects were two Kaffe Fassett quilts. The first had paper pieced sections. I ordered the border fabric when I got home. 

Everyone got very tired of hearing me complaining about the flimsy quality of this fabric. 

My second Kaffe project had some Indah batiks from Hoffman mixed with the Kaffe fabrics so I was a little happier sewing on these fabrics. 

My husband was taking care of the pets while I was away. When we leave the house, the animals stay in my sewing room since it has a tile floor and doors that close it off from the rest of the house. One day, Logan got bored and grabbed a roll of toilet paper to rip up. 

The toilet paper was tracked all over the house. 

Thankfully...easily clean up.

The next Material Girls retreat is in late April.

Mid January Update

 I've reached the halfway point on my Blue Sky Full of Stars quilting. 

I am also halfway on my Mill Hill kit. Time to add all the beads...and there are a lot.

We made a trip to Las Vegas so I worked on a couple of Mill  Hill ornament kits which are my preferred travel projects. I got all of the cross stitches made on one kit and it just needs the backstitching and beads. I don't like to add the beads while on the road so I started a second ornament kit. 

Just a little about our Vegas trip. We stayed at the Park MGM...a budget friendly hotel. The entire hotel is smoke free!!! There were so many families at this hotel. It was the weekend with Martin Luther King Day so there were kids sports tournaments taking place...girls soccer and boys hockey. It was nice to walk around the casino and restaurants and see families as opposed to scantily clad ladies with loud folks who might have had a little too much to drink. During the football games some of the bars were loud but pretty normal sports fans. 

We like to attend Golden Knights hockey games and the arena is right outside the front door of the Park MGM so that's the main reason we stayed at this hotel. We saw two games and loved being able to just walk a few minutes to get to our seats.

Back to projects. I started the Noah's Ark Bucilla kit. 

And I started a hand embroidery project. Just six little blocks with a spring theme designed by Lynette Anderson. 

The next big event on my schedule is a quilt retreat the first weekend of February. Too many projects to pick from as I try to decide what to bring. I am hoping the first project of the retreat will be adding the binding to Blue Skyfull of Stars. 

I like to make kits...I just realized that a couple of years ago. I also like blue and white kits. Every year, Robert Kaufman fabrics releases a set of batik metallic blue fat quarters as part of their Christmas collection. I buy them every year. Many of those fat quarters were used for the Blue Sky Full of Stars. I still had many fat quarters It was finally time to start cutting and making some kits. I decided to make them into 2 1/2-inch strips. I have enough to make several quilts! 

My first plan is a pattern I've made before in autumn colors and loved...always wanted to make a winter version.

I'm also going to take at least one UFO...lots of those to pick from too! I think I will take two UFOs and two new projects. I will have four sewing days and I like to work on a different project every day. 

Quilting Underway

I've had a good start to 2024. 

My number one priority is quilting!!! After six days of working on my latest quilt top in the frame, I have figured out what I am stitching in all places on the quilt top. Deciding what to stitch is always the hardest part. I know from experience, the more regular I am at quilting the easier it is. 

Just loading the quilt onto the frame was a little bit of a nail biter. The top is 104-inches square and of course I bought a wide backing for it. Once all the fabric was washed...and squared up...that backing was a tight fit. I had about an inch on the front of the quilt and maybe two-inches on the bottom. I basted the entire quilt which is what I like to do most of the time because I like to jump around when quilting certain motifs or changing thread colors. 

 

I am giving a thumbs up to running the batting on the steam setting of my dryer to relax the wrinkles from packaging. If the batting shrunk it wasn't noticeable to me but it was 120-inches square so I had way more than I needed.

With the patchwork border a nice cross hatch pattern looks great and is super easy. The snow flakes in the white inner border are pretty easy too. I just have to mark the center line.

Alas...I did spend a full day ripping our some areas. I decided to create an outline border around the white stars. I had only stitched two border stars and setting blocks but had to rip those out to make that change. Never fun but I happier with the change. This border layout is on all four sides. Sometimes I let a block or area stay as initially stitched if I change my mind but I plan to use the quilt on my bed next winter so it will get looked at a lot. 

I finished my first Bucilla project of the year. 

This was a re-release of a previous design which I just realized today...rummaging through my stash of kits...I have the original release from 2002. Wow...it's been over 20 years...no wonder I forgot I had the kit! I wouldn't mind making it again. It would make a nice gift.

I wanted to have a Bucilla kit plan for the coming year. I do find when I have a plan...I get more done. 

I've picked two dimensional kits and a wall hanging that will be a nice little challenge. Noah's Ark and a biggie-sized polar bear and set of penguins. Not a lot of embroidery on those two kits...it's just the awkwardness of working with a 3-D piece that makes them challenging. The Snowflake Santa wall hanging is a Mary Engelbreit design and will be a big embroidery laden project. 

I had opened an ornament set of mice last year and just never got back to finishing it. I don't like mice. I have to deal with shrews and mice living in a rural area. But...those ornaments would make really great gifts for my sons and their families. 

I also want to make more ornaments for friends...like the other grandmother of my granddaughters, She is a fantastic cookie decorator so she is getting some Christmas cookie ornaments.  And my grandson needs a stocking!!! His dad says a stocking with an airplane would be best....I just happen to have one in my stash. I actually bought a couple of these kits for my stash since so many pilots are in our family and friends' circle.

More stockings are needed for my granddaughters. Kate is outgrowing the Llama stocking and since she has taken a few horseback riding lessons, we agreed on the Santa on a horse. It has a companion ornament set with six gorgeous horse ornaments. 

And Kara needs a stocking at her other grandma's house so the Christmas cookie theme is being continued. Santa's Sweet Shop is a kit from 2009. It also has a companion ornament set. 

Finally, a little update on my current cross stitch project. I've finished the three darkest blue colors of floss in the kit. I'm working on the light blue floss. The last color of floss with be white and since this is a full coverage piece...there will be a lot of white stitching. Lots of pretty beads to also add. 

My February quilt retreat is getting closer. What will I work on that weekend???

More planning needed.