Sunday, April 25, 2010

Grand Lake Retreat

From Thursday until Saturday of this past week I was sewing in a beautiful lake house on Grand Lake, OK. My stitch group is so blessed by the Bland family. You see, Colleen is part of our stitch group and her son and daugter-in-law own this beautiful house on the lake. For the second time they have allowed us to use it for a little retreat. We mostly worked on charity quilts for children. But we also worked on some of our own projects. Some months ago we decided to bring some orphan blocks to our group meeting to see what we could do with them. June brought a few of these:
I brought a few of these:

Leslie brought this:


And Emma provided the background fabric and the backing. Look what we came up with!

Emma and I quilted it and Colleen cut and put on the binding. We decided to leave it in the house for a table runner in appreciation for the use of such a beautiful setting.


Here's a quilt that Leslie is working on: I'm encouraging her to hurry and finish it for the show. I think it's a prize winner. It's all hand wool applique on flannel. Here's another project Leslie is working on. It is a signature block quilt from her parent's 65th wedding anniversary. She's trying to finish it for her dad's 90th birthday party in July.


Before we left on the retreat we all made a few 9 patch blocks in bright colors. Here are some of them. I had to leave the retreat early on Sat. morning and Emma was working on putting it together when I left.


And here are the rest of the 9 patches that June put together in a little quilt.



Colleen was working on this signature block quilt. A few years ago our stitch group exchanged these. Our intention is to display them in our booth at the Green Country Quilters' Guild show on June 4 and 5. I think some of us need to get in gear and get it put together (I'm talking to myself here)

Here is one of the quilts that I made. It's a flip and sew project that is also a "quilt as you go" quilt. I even got the binding "mostly" on. It will go to Hearts and Hands which is a group within Green Country Quilters' Guild that provides quilts to children in need.

Now here's a little cutie that June put together.


June again. Prolific, isn't she?


I like this one so much I posted it twice (really, I just don't know how to delete it!)


This one was so much fun! I wouldn't let anyone know what I was doing until I finished. I wish I could see the look on the little girl's face who gets it.



AND....Here it is AGAIN! I REALLY like this one!


I've been working on these little "feeder, ender" blocks for a couple of months or so. SOOOO much fun!



Here's our "Binding Queen" finished with another binding. I think she cut binding for and bound at least 4 little quilts on this retreat. Thank you Colleen for doing the work that no one else wanted to do!
Here she is ironing some more binding.



Emma made three quilts like this--same fabrics in different positions. She machine quilted them and Colleen (who else?) bound them.



Here are Loella and June hard at work.



Leslie...making some "feeder/ender" blocks.



Just to prove we were on a lake....Emma and I went for a walk. Or maybe I should say a climb. The road went down to the lake at about a 60 degree angle. Perhaps I exaggerate, but the next day my legs did not feel like it!



What fun it was hearing 7 machines running at the same time!





If you don't have a big board that fits over your ironing board you should get one. It's my new favorite tool! Two can iron at once and it holds the entire width of your fabric. Love it!

Colleen, Leslie and Donna.


No retreat would be complete without some of this:

What a great time we had! By the time I left on Saturday morning there were 4 complete quilts and 9 other tops for Hearts and Hands. Maybe some more tops were completed on Saturday. We'll be displaying them at the quilt show before they go to their new homes.
Next: I went to the Little Lighthouse Garden Party and Silent Auction where one of my quilts was sold. Pictures soon....









Saturday, April 24, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010

I've Been Gone

We've been gone for more than a week--first in Dallas and then in New Orleans. Tim had business to do in Dallas, so I spent a day lounging around the hotel (getting a massage and a facial) and working on little "quilty" things. Then we headed to New Orleans for the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Convention. Although Tim was "working" most of the time, we managed to get some time together and to eat our way through the French Quarter. We lived in the New Orleans area from 1981-1988 so we were really looking forward to some good food.
Here we are on our way back home yesterday (thus, the untamed hair). We stopped in Natcheze, Mississippi to see the old homes and enjoy the flowers in bloom. The azaleas were at their peek.

I just love the color of the houses in the French Quarter. We ate, and ate, and ate.....Etc. But we also walked A LOT so hopefully the scales won't surprise me too much. I dread stepping on!

There were Mardi Gras "heads" all over the convention center. They're getting ready to move the place where they build the floats close to the convention center.





All in all, we had a great time and I managed to sneak in visits to 3 quilt shops. One of them was going out of business so there was a big sale! (FUN)
We got home at 2 a.m. this morning --just in time for me to rest up a tiny bit and hit the road again tomorrow. Leslie and I are the tour guides for a group of 50 going on a bus to Oklahoma City and Guthrie for a shop hop tomorrow. Then next week our stitch group goes to Grand Lake for a three day "sew-in". Busy times. I've missed ya'll!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Done!

Drum roll, please...... After almost 2 years of (off and on) work, I've finished this quilt top and it's ready to go to the quilter.
The pattern is from American Patchwork and Quilting Feb. 2007 and is by Kim Diehl. Mine looks very different from hers just because of the colors, but I also added the purple birds and made my inside sashing wider than hers to accomodate a few extras. I didn't use her border treatment at all.


I'm so excited to get it done and hope to have it quilted and bound in time for the Green Country Quilters' Guild show June 4 and 5 in Tulsa.


Here's where I almost got sick (above). I appliqued the purple bird on, cut out the back behind the bird and then realized it was on upside down! I ended up fusing some background fabric over the hole (matching the plaids the best I could) and reapplying the bird. Was I ever nervous! Hopefully, it won't show much and the quilter can "nail down" that fusible product and no one (except you and I) will ever know!


It's completely hand appliqued.

Yippeee! For another one done!


Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter--Past and Present

We had a great day yesterday with all our kids here for Easter. There is an obvious difference between ages 10 and 5!
Here are all 3 of my grandsons (you just can't see one of them! Just wait until July 1) with their parents, Calista and Chris.



And my handsome son...


and my daughter Andrea who really CAN bake!...




and with her husband, Patrick.




Now this one goes back a few years. It's 1961 and I'm five years old. The dress was red (still my favorite color). Mom always made me a new dress for Easter.





Jump forward a few years to 1987. These are my three kids in LaPlace, Louisiana (2 of them were born in New Orleans). The 2 kids on the right are Sarah and Josh Bryant, our next door neighbors. Thanks to Facebook, we're in contact again. They were the best neighbors in the world. We even took boards down from the fence in the back yard so the kids could go back and forth. Sure wish I had neighbors like that now!


My girls' dresses were the most favorite I ever made. I remember being up till midnight sewing the lace on their socks. I kept the dresses and if I ever have granddaughters, they'll be forced to wear them! haha





Friday, April 2, 2010

The Five Hour Quilt Top

School was out today (which was really yesterday since it's now after midnight), so the grandboys were here. It rained hard all morning so it was too wet to go outside until later. Here they are with my creeping phlox.Calista and I got busy and put together this quilt top. We did it in 5 hours and that includes 3,459 interruptions by Timothy.
After it's quilted it will go to the Little Lighthouse for their annual Garden Party Silent Auction to benefit the school which is for children with special needs.


Now here's a sneak peek of what I've been working on for about the last 2 years (and that's without 3,459 interruptions by Timothy). I got the last 2 borders on today and tomorrow I will put in the last few hand stitches to connect the border to the corners. More on that later. For now, I will say, "Happy Easter, He is Risen!"