R-E-T-R-E-A-T SPELLS "FUN" & "TIRED"... here are a few pics

Hello Everyone,
Retreat was totally FUN, but golly it feels good to be home! Do you feel that way when you travel or take a trip -- long or short?

During Retreat, the squares for my Twister experiment were sewn together, sub-cut with the special Twister ruler, and sewed back together. OMGoodness but it does shrink a lot with this process. BTW, I threw in a striped fabric just for the heck of it to see what would happen.

Hopefully, I can trim up the "waste" bits and use them to add a pieced border. Right now it is just too small for anything. Fingers crossed.

Also made another SnapItBag. This one is in Lime Green for DD's boss who loves lime green. Hope she likes her "911 Bag". That's what I call them as they hold "necessitites" safely and cleanly in the girls' desks at work. Ooopsy, got a tad wrinkly in the suitcase.

The Quick Project at Retreat was a cute bag: Super quick and easy even with a zipper. Will probably use it inside my Featherweight machine case to hold cords, the foot, and so forth. It will protect my machine.  Right now I am using old socks - not very attractive! lol

The Retreat Center is lovely, very quiet and soothing. Below is a pic of just one of the many lovely areas we walked past on our way to the dinning room -- sewing requires sustenance! lol. This was a nice place to spend a weekend. All we did was sew sew sew, eat, chat, sleep, repeat! lol.

That's all for now... more later when I've caught my breath.  I hope where ever you are that you have the time to create something for yourself or someone you love.
Quilty hugs,

Embroidery, Beading & Quick "Hi"... going on 4 day retreat. . .

Just a quick note to say "Hi" -- I am going on a Retreat for four days so won't be posting again until next week. I am taking my Internet phone with me, but I doubt we will have any reception out in the boonies. lol. My DD Laura will stay here to "hold down the fort" and to take care of Missy -- there is no way I would leave her alone for 4 days! Thanks, Laura!

Finished most of the embroidery for the wonky October block I've been working on. My friend Bob's birthday is ON 31 October -- Halloween! So, this block will be a little something just for fun. Not sure if it will be a small WH, or perhaps a reversible pillow for his couch. I "inherited" this block from someone else who was "through with it". I think it's really cute. A few LC rounds on it and it will be finished.  Note to self: next time add a thin batt to the back of the block and quilt it while embroidering.

My long-time and wonderful BFF Joy made me this darling Scissor Fob for my recent birthday. It has a little 'lobster claw' finding that allows it to easily be moved from one scissor to another. Wow!  I am so blessed to have her in my life. Thank you again, Joy... I just LOVE my fob and it even has a little kitty charm... how sweet is that?!

I was so spoiled this year for my birthday. Family and friends were great and heaped on a lot of surprises. But now it is "official"... I am actually Older Thank Dirt! Next year I will start counting off the years going down instead of up! Only substraction from now on! lol

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something for yourself or somone you love.

Quilty hugs,

It's A Wonderful Day... hey, it's been a great WEEK!

No quilty projects to share with you today, but. . . Oh Happy Day! It's my birthday and I have been spoiled rotten so far! lol.

My sweet friend Marianna, in the Nederlands, sent me this darling card and quite a bit of gorgeous RED fabric. Love it! A girl can never have enough red in her life! lol. Thank you, Marianna!

Not a day goes by that I don't say a "gratitude prayer" that I'm lucky to have family and friends that care about me and say so. I feel so blessed. What are you grateful for today?

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something you love.

Quilty hugs,

LINKY TUESDAY at Quilting by the River... come join the fun

Connie, at Quilting by the River is starting a Tuesday Linky Party... come join the fun. All the info is on Connie's blog.


That's all for today... I'm off to the Tuesday Quilters' Friendship Group meeting.
I hope where ever you are, you have time to create something that makes you or someone you love happy!
Quilty hugs,

FLIMSY FRIDAYS -- even tho' it's Monday, we're talking about it!

Pat and some of her blogging buddies came up with a nifty idea: Flimsy Fridays. An effort to tackle some of those UFOs hanging about and other projects that only need a little of this-or-that to be complete. Go check out Pat's blog for all the info. Good idea, Pat!

This idea fits well with OPAM: One Project A Month. Please find the OPAM button on my side bar.  Flimsy Fridays can get us to One Project A WEEK! Yippee. Please give it a try and let's see how far this can go.

That's all for today. Thank you so much for dropping by to visit. I hope where ever you are, you have time to create something for someone you love!

Quilty hugs,

BABY GONE WILD - Minky quilt is done, fini, finished!

Sewing with Minky on both the front and back of a quilt required me to develop a new skill set. lol. A walking foot was a huge asset. I am glad this one is finished. I know I said I would never sew on this stuff again, but I hope to get a tiny quiltlett out of the scraps for my little kitty -- she likes the stuff!

The full pic didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but you can get a general idea of what it looks like. The back is all pale pink minky [the same as pink squares on the front]. Sandwiched into the edge seam is very large pink rick-rack.  The quilt is tied with pale pink floss at every square's intersection and has pink silk ribbon bows in each of the four corners. With all the animal prints, I figured it could use some "girling-up".  And I do have a thing for ribbons.

After a bit of hunting around, I found a bag big enough to stuff the quilt in. Tied it up a few ribbons, and voila! Done. Just something about ribbons. I love to tie and fuss with them. Don't know what it is, but they sure appeal to me. Probably just a girl-thing.

That's all for today. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something that makes you or someone you love happy!

Quilty hugs,

Happy Mail: a package from DJ SP

Happy Mail is so much fun to receive. My new DJ Secret Pal sent me a wonderful package for January. Just thought I would share it here. Wow... gorgeous F8ths, marking pencils, a tote pattern, and a beautifully hand written lovely note! Teriffic! I am a happy camper.

Update on Baby Gone Wild: All the squares are together. Now sewing up the last three rows. I hope to get the giant rick rack on the top tomorrow and even bat-it-up. Because it is Minkee on both sides, a simple stitch-n-birth will be the edge finish technique -- but with the rick rack tucked into the seam. After turning, I'm thinking of tying it with mini ribbon instead of floss or pearl, but will make that final decision Friday. After all, it doesn't have to be finished until Friday night! lol.

While sewing this afternoon, my little kitty Missy wanted to be in my lap, then on the machine, then on the quilt! lol.

Have you ever tried to sew with a "lump in your lap", or a cat in and on your sewing machine? I just couldn't resist - I stopped sewing & reached for my camera. lol

Take it from me, sewing with a kitty in your lap does not work out too well. I took the hint and stopped sewing so we could play for a while.

That's all for now. I hope you have time to stitch up something that makes you happy!

Quilty hugs,

BABY GONE WILD... sewing up some Minkee

It is almost "baby time" in our family again -- time to whip up another baby quilt. The new mommy-2-be has chosen Pink & Brown as her color scheme, but also wants animals. While strolling thru the aisles at Road2California earlier this month, I spotted a stack of  animal print Minkees and a light bulb went off! Eureka... this was it! lol.

So far just the 80 squares are arranged on this make-shift design wall*, but I think it might be ok this way and will begin sewing the squares together tomorrow.  The outside edge will be very simple -- large pink rick-rack tucked into the seam... then just stitch the Minkee backing on and birth. A little tack-stitch at the intersections in lieu of quilting, and voila! Done!

That's all for today... I hope where ever you are that you have time to make something that makes you or someone you love happy.

Quilty hugs,

* Make shift design wall: A large piece of flannel tacked to a piece of wood that can be draped over the open doors of my TV armoire in the living room... not fancy, but it works! lol. And when I'm done it can be rolled up and stored behind a bedroom door. ;-)

TA DAH! Done... a little sachet bag

Feels sooooooooo good to finish. This sweet little project only took a few bits of time off-n-on for two days and done! Super. I'm happy. Another notch on the OPAM list!

This project is from the "Little Bit French" section of Willowberry Design's site. Please find their button on my left side bar.

First I printed the design on some Sticky Fabri-Solvy -- just run it through your printer like paper. Peel it off the backing paper and stick on your background and begin stitching. No prep, no tracing. I love this stuff!

After the embroidery is complete, it is a good idea to carefully lift the excess Sticky-solvy from your project and trim it away.

Plop it into some water and swish it around for a few seconds and PRESTO all the stuff dissolves and nothing is left but your beautiful stitching! Super. Now just blot on a clean towel and leave to dry, or if in a hurry press it dry.

Trim edges to size -- I cut my background about 1/2 inch bigger than I needed. A slightly larger piece is easier to hoop. After a bit of a trim, I sewed the side seam - a French seam, of course! This one is about 1/8th inch finished.

Now, position the seam down the center back and create the bottom seam... again, it is a French seam.

This was a fun and quick project. I enjoy making small gift items such as this and keeping a stash of them handy for quick gifts.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Quilty hugs,

PLEDGE & A BLOG FACE-LIFT

Well it's about time I rearranged a few things on this blog. Now it has 3 columns: 2 are for gadgets, which hopefully will make it easier to read and find stuff -- like clickable BOM Buttons, etc..  The middle column remains as the posting and photo area.  It might take a few more tweaks before I'm happy with it, but this is a beginning.

PLEDGE: My sweet friend Marianna has written a Pledge on her blog and invited me to do the same. So, officially I have pledged to: STOP PROCRASTINATING... or, at least try not to. Marianna has a post on her blog and a button, too, I think. Currently we have used "list making" as a tool to stay on top of things more. This includes crafting and 'real life' stuff. Even housework needs tending to once in a while. lol. So... please wish us luck as we try to turn-over-a-new-leaf and make 2012 a more productive year with less wasted time. If YOU would like to take the pledge, too, please join us. All the info is on Marianna's blog.

I have a new embroidery project calling my name and I want to get a start on it while the light is still good. If you would like to join in with the "It's a little bit French" BOM, there is a clickable button on my left side bar.

That's it for now. Thank you for stopping by to visit.

Hugs,

PINCH ME! . . . I won

It is so exciting! I won the drawing over at Elefantz! Thank you so much, Jenny!  The fabric charms and the hand dyed cotton embroidery threads are sooooooo beautiful! And, it came in this gorgeous package all the way from Australia:

Jenny has a lovely blog and is currently running a BOM: "Promises & Borders". There is a clickable link on my left side bar. Go have a visit at Jenny's blog. You will find oodles of eye-candy and tons of inspiration!

I tell ya -- I am excited and thrilled all the way to my toes! lol. So, the next time you see a give-a-way or drawing, go ahead and sign up.  You never know -- you might be the lucky one!

Thank you for stopping by for a visit and I hope you will come back. Until then. . .

Quilty hugs,

IT BEGAN AS SIMPLE... then moved on from there

It really did begin as a simple idea: take 3 fabrics; cut into 5" squares; stack them up; make a couple of cuts; and, sew back together. Ok... I wanted to make more than two cuts b/c my beginning squares would be larger -- 6" rather than 5". Now I needed more squares [you need one more square than cuts you plan to make].

Well, so far so good, except I cut across a CORNER instead of cutting across the square! This tips the balance of the seam allowances which is why my finished 'squares' are rectangles.

I like to "clean up" the diagonal before sewing the last corner piece on... just keeps things neat and easy.

Now we have wonky sort-of-rectangles. Not to worry, a bit of squaring up and a touch with an iron will make them look pretty and neat:

I wanted to keep my blocks very simple, so I chose to do a feather stitch with my Janome6500 and King Tut variegated thread. The hearts are cut-outs left over from a H2H Swap I did a couple of years ago. I thought it would help settle the white areas down -- nope. Don't like it. Doesn't go well with my fabric, so I put them on my friend's blocks -- voila! Looks great [pic below]

This was a quick and fun project to do with a friend. We plan to take our "experiments" to Friendship Group with us tomorrow [Tuesday] to share.  Perhaps they will want to make some too.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back again -- leave a comment and say 'hello' -- It is always interesting to hear the thoughts of others.

Quilty Hugs,

HOOKING MY BRAINS OUT . . . or how to make a dozen coasters in one day!

Ok... the oodles of coasters are DONE! Yippee. The hearts were fun and quick to make. Truth be told, I do love to crochet! I started off by watching a YouTube vid by the Crochet Geek that my sweet friend Elly sent to me. Thanks again, Elly!  Then I veered off and did my own thing. 

The same process with the kitty coaster. One of the gals in my DD's office is just crazy about Hello Kitty, so instead of making her a heart, I tried to make a Hello Kitty likeness -- it's close enough, I guess. lol.

So now it's back to sewing. I still haven't started my little Scrap Houses yet! ;(  I want to get started on them right away. Then there is the Batik quilt in the design process. . . .

I am grateful everyday that I am retired and of reasonably good health so I can sew, create, play with fabric, and visit with all of you on the Net!  And, it's good that I can bend over again, because Missy really loves to play "chase the ball". Here's how it goes: I throw/roll the ball, she watches it intently, I go fetch it and bring it back to her! She is a cute and fun kitty, but we all know who is the boss in this house! lol

Have a wonderful day -- thank you so much for stopping by for a visit.

Hugs,