Guild Retreat part 2

I promised more about my weekend retreat.  Some women started new quilts or spent the weekend on one quilt.  Many spent the weekend finishing UFO's.  That's what I did.  It looks like I did a lot, but most of these projects were almost finished and I took them along to put the finishing touches on.  It felt SOOOOO good!

The first thing I did was finish a quilt for my niece, Melanie.  She made the top and I told her to send it to me and I would turn it into a quilt for her for her birthday gift.  I'm such a good aunt.... I even put the binding on for her. (big smile, Mel!).  I really think she did a great job of grading the colors.

If you look closely at my tootsies, I'm walking around in my stocking feet... sporting the socks I finished last month.

And for my next project, I worked on a quilt that I have had 95% finished for at least 3 years.  I finally have my New York Beauty ready to hang!  I added a hanging sleeve and finished the binding.  I put a super skinny binding on it so it took a while to mess with it.  I still want to do a little embellishing with beads and fibers, but I can always take it off the wall and do that in the future.  For now-- it can be hung!  YEA!!!

There's a story that goes with the NYB, and it probably contributed to my hesitation to work on it this past year.  I showed this on my blog more than a year ago.  A customer saw it and asked me how to make it.  She had never paper pieced before.  Over the next month, I tutored her online, through emails, and she learned the basics of paper piecing.  She was working on some NYB blocks when her health failed to the point when she had to stop sewing.  She lost her life to cancer soon after.  Her last finished quilt is on the gallery on my website- it's called Melissa's Matchstick Marimba.  Somewhere along the line she crossed over from being a customer to being a friend.  I miss you, Joanne.

I made a pillow a few years ago and it was held together with a few safety pins in the back.  I took it to the retreat and tacked the back and took out the pins.

I started this table topper 2 years ago.  It's still not done- I've decided to hand quilt it.  But at least I finished up the top.

This was a big hit with the other ladies.  It's from Karla Alexander's new book.  I blogged about taking the class from her a few weeks ago.  I finished the top and it's ready to quilt.  I love this technique.  I'll show it to you again when I get it quilted.

Have you ever hear the term, "Six Degrees of Separation"?  That's the theory that everyone on the planet is separated by everyone else somehow by 6 people.  Well.... out guild seemed to prove the fact that there is something to the 6 degree theory.

First of all.... we had goodie bags and treats and special things for the ladies who attended.  One of my contributions was a cupcake pincushion.   Guild member, Paula, embroidered "WQG Spring Retreat 2010" on fabric pieces and I stitched them into pincushions and put them in silicone cupcake cups.  We made 20 of them.  I put an assortment of pins in them.

  So... here is the start of the coincidences.  I got the idea for the pincushions from Melinda in Georgia.  We read each others' blogs.  We exchange emails from time to time.  I had trouble getting the pincushions to stick (what was I thinking?  Nothing sticks to silicone... that's the POINT!) so I sent Melinda an email the day before I was leaving for the retreat.  She got right back with me.  Anyway.... Kathy (in the picture) spent most of Saturday making these Letty Bags.  They are a simple pattern that really looks a lot more difficult.  They came out absolutely great!  I just HAVE to make one myself!!!  Kathy showed me the pattern, which is by Two Wacky Women.  I remembered that Melinda has a sister who designs patterns.  Sure enough, Melinda's sister, Robin, is the designer of the pattern!  And just to make this a little weirder, I didn't know Kathy, but we discovered that she used to work with my husband at Intel.  SO... a lady I didn't know who knows my husband went to a guild retreat with me in Oregon, where she made a bag designed by a woman in California who is the sister of a lady in Georga who is a blog buddy of mine.

Enough coincidence?  I think not!  My DH and I used to live in Texas, where we were good friends with Karla and Steve Pendleton.  Karla is a well known china painter, teacher and author.  They moved to Silverton, Colorado a few years back.  Now, Silverton is a tiny town WAY up in the mountains, far away from anything else.  Most people never even heard of it.  So... my ears perked up when I overheard the mother of a guild member (who is visiting Oregon and came to the retreat) say that her home is in Silverton.  Since I knew it was a small town, I asked her if she knows Steve and Karla.  I'm thinking you can guess the answer to that!

Then the lady who shared a sewing table with me knows a good friend of mine... not too much of a coincidence, but I was beginning to think we all had some sort of connection.

I can hardly wait for the fall retreat!!!

Westside Quilters Guild 2010 Spring Retreat... part 1

My guild had a retreat this past weekend.  What fun!

These are my "buds".  I knew most of these women, but there are only a few I knew well.  That was BEFORE the retreat.  Now they are all very special to me.  Our guild is relatively new- formed a couple of years ago.  We have about 65 members. Eighteen of us went on the retreat.  We all worked on our own projects.  It was just a weekend to get some UFO's finished, and to spend time doing what we love in the company of others who share our passion for quilting.  We are fortunate to have a retreat center operated by the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon.  They feed us VERY well and treat us like their personal house guests.  As my aunt would say, they have the "gift of hospitality".  By the way--- I'm 4th from the left in the top row.

I'll share more about the retreat in another blog post tomorrow night.  For now.... enjoy looking at my friends' projects.  Aren't they great?!?!?!?

I've been nominated!

WOW!  This is amazing.  I'm so honored!  I've been nominated as having one of the best online quilt shops in SewGalCal's Golden Quilt Awards.  If you are so inclined, go to the link and check out the entries.  The other shops nominated are all amazing and I don't expect to win.  But I feel like a winner for being included in this list.  I have no idea who nominated me, but THANK YOU!

More fun....

More about my weekend....

In my last post, I told you how much fun I had on Friday morning in a class with Helene Knott and her wonderful Garden Patch Cats.  But the fun didn't stop there... oh, no!  On Friday afternoon,  after a yummy lunch with my friend, Sandy, I took a class with Karla Alexander, who took us through the steps to make a table runner from her new book, Color Shuffle.  I don't have the book on my website yet, but I will soon.  I do have a few copies- they just aren't loaded on the site yet.  And I have plenty more coming.  As with all books on my website, Color Shuffle will be 25% off all the time.  Shoot me an email if you want to pre-order a copy.

Here's the quilt that was photographed for the book cover.  It's even more wonderful in person!

And a closeup....

Here's Karla holding another quilt from the book....

And a close-up...

And another...

And a close-up....

Look closely at the above photo.... it's a 4 patch.  SOOOOO simple!  She stacks fabrics, slashes them on a slant, then rearranges them.  Great effect!

Now we get to MY project.....  First the pile of pieces (will it ever look as great as Karla's????)

She promises it will...... so I slashed and sewed and slashed and sewed....

And.....

VOILA!!  It was fun, fun, FUN!  Here I am (on the left) with Karla (on the right) holding my first 2 blocks.  I look happy.... she looks tired.  LOL. Karla is an exceptionally good teacher.  She really watches her students- not hovering, but being available when there are questions.  And the last picture is how the blocks look together.  The finished table runner will have 12 blocks.  It's going to look great on my dining room table.  Now how did she know these are "my colors"?   :-)

Class with Helene Knott

Mushcat

 

What a great day!  The distributor where I buy a lot of my product for the website has a buyers market, quilt show, and classes twice a year for business owners in the retail fabric industry.  Today was my day to take a few classes.  What fun!  Life has been pretty stressful lately and it was a pure joy to sew with a few talented pattern designers and a room full of friendly and totally enjoyable fellow shop owners.

This morning, I took a class from Helene Knott, who is a prolific pattern designer and talented quilter.  Her "specialty" is color theory.  Currently, she is designing the Garden Patch Cats series.  Pattern number 12 was just released and will be on my website very soon.  It's Mushcat-- a mushroom cat.  (First photo above).  The photo directly above is Gourdo Gato.

This was her first Garden Patch Cat pattern, and one of my favorites--- Avacato.

Here's a different Gourdo Gato.

Caulipus is one of my best sellers.  Isn't the fabric Helene used for Caulipus great?  It looks like Cauliflower (albeit blue cauliflower).

Kitt'ney Bean.

PodCats

Pumpcat

StalkerBoscat

And here's my creation.  I made this in class today.  He's "Yammy Cat".  Yammy isn't quite finished.  He needs another eye.  The missing eye gets embroidered- it's closed and he's winking.  It needs pressing.  Those aren't puckers at the bottom.  Helene gave us lots of great ideas for how to quilt the cats.  She's so creative and she's an amazing quilter.  I'm going to do a blanket stitch around the cat.  I'm not sure what kind of quilting design I'll do in the background.  I'll probably do some kind of cross hatching because the plaid fabric sort of sets it up for that look.  Yammy is made of really plush Woolies flannels.  I'm thinking of turning this into a throw pillow instead of a wall hanging.

Thanks, Helene- I had a great time this morning!

Socks and Meditation

I finished another pair of socks.  I'm officially a "sockaholic".  I can't stop!  I had these started when my DH had his little run-in with the table saw.  I had them in my purse and ended up spending hours at the hospital by his bedside knitting.  Knitting, hand applique, and other hand work projects are meditative to me.  While I can knit or hand-sew while talking or watching TV, I've learned that doing work that requires concentration can take my focus off of my worries and onto my needlework.  I can do simple knit-purl on autopilot.... and I can still have a conversation or worry or focus on fear or anger or any other emotions (including good ones).  But complicated or new patterns require my attention, and that means that my attention is not on life around me.  It's as good as a nap.  I have to count and concentrate, and before I know it, my blood pressure is lower and tension is relieved.

It really doesn't matter what I do.  Knitting was just easy for me to carry around and I just happened to have a pair of socks started.  But anything that requires concentration works.

These socks are the "Simple Sock" from "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi.  I lost the wrapper somewhere in the hospital so I can't tell you what the yarn is, but it's a wool blend sock yarn with long color runs.  I used size 2 circs.

 

 I made these... 2 at a time... on two circular needles.  I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.  I kept getting tangled up.  My niece told me to just be sure I turn every other row in the opposite direction.  Yea-- well--- I tried, but I still ended up spending too much time untangling things.  I think one-sock-at-a-time is for me.

 

Mystery Sock Knit-Along

 

Knitter's Brewing Company Social Butterfly Sock KAL.  This is a mystery sock.  What we know is that it uses beads.  You can use your stash yarn or purchase a kit from Knitters Brewing Company (see colors above).  Wendy (sock designer) is a super nice lady and she will be giving clues throughout the month on her Ravelry page.  No charge unless you want the kit.  The pattern clues are free.  There are prizes if you use her yummy hand dyed yarn and post pictures, though.

The first clue comes out tomorrow and I'm ready!

February Giveaway Winner

The winner of the February giveaway is DEBORA from Rhode Island.  Her blog is Wool n Sails.  Congrats, Deborah!  I love the things you create- your blog is a nice read.

I'll email you, Debora.

I'll catch up on my blogging and post a March giveaway this week.  Thanks to all who entered!