Quilt Retreat in Lakeside

A four day quilt retreat with five friends was a wonderful break last week We stayed at a beautiful retreat center the Arizona Creative Connection owned and run by the delightful Frances Howe, gourmet cook and outstanding hostess,

Frances  has provided every possible convenience for a woman's comfort including gourmet but healthy meals and snacks.

Brunch one of the days.

 I worked on this little baby quilt and since have added a pieced border of the 30's repros.

Another  set of blocks, a UFO I took along hoping for design ideas and Jennifer took up the challenge. These blocks I had put together completely wrong and decided they would do, not caring enough about them to undo all that sewing I was unable to find a coherent arrangement until Jennifer took pity on me! Now they only lack setting triangles.

It really wasn't all that hard Jennifer said!

 I began to rotary cut these flannels for a rag quilt for my SIL in Australia then discovered I did not have enough of the burgundy fabric so that project came to a halt. 

 

I had exhausted my stock on hand so went off and purchased this kit which I had briefly considered and was available in a quiltshop in Sholow for a reasonable price. 

Jen and Limbania also purchased the same so we three sat down on Saturday afternoon to begin construction

It turned out to be quite the challenge, a few booboos in the instructions and for two of us a less than perfect fourth inch foot on our machines. 

The pieces above cause some grumbling and unsewing but we eventually got the idea and from then it was smoother sailing! Notice I said smoother, not smooth!

 This looked a bit intimidating but with the skills learned from the first little bit I was able to put together this piece and then it's mirror image

 to make up the center piece below which is not sewn, only attached to the design board.

 This will be an ongoing project, as for the next few weeks we have my dear brother visiting from Australia.

The above beauty is another of Jennifer's projects.

 Anne's project a little zippered bag for her quilting tools.

One of a few that Susan brought along, it only lacks the final border.

Celeste and one of several projects she completed.The last two ladies were I think, the most productive, they came very well equipped for an extended sewing binge!

 Our spacious workroom, large individual work tables and this huge cutting area. There are design boards on every wall so we never ran short and a flat screen TV.

This was such a wonderful experience that we are planning two a year, the next in May and another the following October 2017.

Highly recommended, Arizona Creative Connection!

My Garden Fence Quilt

Linking with Needlework Tuesday

Something strange happened to a blog post I wrote about this quilt, it has disappeared! So I am starting over now that the quilt is bound. The couple of people I found on the 'Net who have made the same quilt call it Garden Fence but I have not found any mention of the creator of the design. I hung it to take a photo as soon as I took it off the long arm I was so anxious to see it even before the binding!

But now upon the bed and I am very pleased with the way it turned out, just as it looked in my mind!

The version for my bed is very similar to the one I made for youngest son and DIL's wedding last year- it is said that imitation is the most sincere form of admiration, I hope that they feel that way!

The binding is one of the prints in the quilt I chose it because it has both the grey and yellow/gold

The bottom border from the back

 And finally the label, in hindsight it would have been better embroidered in a dark grey thread it is difficult to read in yellow.

Garden Fence

Made by Roslyn Atwood

For myself

Phx. AZ 2016

Tomorrow I am off to the mountains with six other quilters for a 4 day quilting retreat, I hope there is WIFI!

A Quickie Quilt

This little quilt for my guild's charity efforts was done start to finish in just a few hours. 

 Minimal piecing and superfast peacock feather quilting.

The fabric arrived today for second grandson's wedding quilt that will go on retreat with me next week.

Linking with Needlework Tuesday

The Borders Are On!

Finally this quilt top is ready for the longarm and I discover I have no more KS wool batts, argh! Not very good planning on my part but I ordered a box and it should be here Friday from the East Coast.

The quilt will be plenty long enough for a generous pillow tuck, DH hates frou frou pillows never knowing what to do with them at bedtime! I am very pleased with the overall result, the colors blend perfectly with the rest of the room's decor, wall color, art over the bed and the beautiful barn door made by DH with "blue-stain beetle kill pine".

The backing  for this quilt is already here and I have no excuse not to embroider the label before I quilt it. My dear brother arrives from Australia in two weeks for a visit and I want to have  as many  projects as possible cleared out by the time he arrives.
Meanwhile there is a small charity quilt I need to complete for my quilt group and that goes on next,  followed by the construction of another KS for second grandson and wife recently wed last month! I ordered the fabrics and they should be here by Wednesday, unfortunately I had insufficient stash fabrics for a blue Tumbling Blocks quilt.

 These are what I have ordered, I am going for a specific look that requires little contrast between to two lighter fabrics so I am hoping these will work or else I will be searching some more!
The meet-up group I recently joined has a retreat in the White Mountains the end of this month and the tumbling blocks quilt will be a good project to work on.

Progress On My Bed Quilt

I was able to spend some time this week finishing the piecing of the center of my bed quilt that has been on hold for months. It will get wide grey borders on three sides to fit a Cal.King bed but I need to wait until tomorrow to lay it on my bed to check the necessary width for the borders.

After the struggle at the end of piecing to press the seams in the chevron quilt I was more meticulous step by step this time to press every row back and front  as I sewed and now all my seams are perfect and perfectly flat. It did take more time stopping between each row and carefully pressing but the pay-off is worth it and when piecing was done so was pressing!

These are the two grey fabrics I am considering for the border

 Seen together there appears to be a marked difference in value,

 but when apart oddly they seem much more similar.

 I am leaning towards the darker though the lighter one has a more pleasing pattern - I will look at them in the daylight once I lay the quilt out on the bed.

Chevron Delivery!

Grandson Daniel and his lovely wife Ashlee came for dinner this evening, they had requested "the real Shepherd's Pie" so of course GM obliged. I roasted a leg of lamb last night and used the rest for the Shepherd's Pie. I meant to take a pic and forgot but did remember when I gave them their quilt!
They are so excited to have a quilt that fits their KS bed, and just in time, they moved into their condo last weekend. Daniel said "Finally my feet will be covered!"

May they sleep happily under it for many years until it is worn out - and I will need to make them another!

PS. I sent them home with enough Shepherd's Pie for another meal!

Chevron, Bound And Labeled!

Only three more rows to attach to mine and then the grey borders. Should be ready to quilt it by the weekend.Yippee!

Linking up with Needlework Tuesday

Black And White Chevron Take Two!

Tada, it is quilted and I am very happy with it. 

 Quilted with my absolute favorite and fastest E to E design, the peacock feather.

And it seems to compliment about any piecing design.

Now for the binding with the white print.

Linking up with "Needlework Tuesday"

A Little Aussie Quilt

Linking up with Needlework Tuesday, a bit late!

The collections of fabric in my stash seem to age to a certain point where they begin to cast resentful looks at me every time I go to the stash, "use me" they say "please make me into a quilt". Yes, that is why they were purchased and every so often the nagging succeeds and results in a quilt!

Such is the case with the Aussie fabrics in this quilt. I have made a dent in them but a lot of others yet remain awaiting inspiration! All those in the square blocks are hand dyes from a now defunct business in Queensland called Oz Dye-Arts. I was very sad when they ended the business and so ordered a lot of things like the kit below, before they finally closed their doors. 

Their iconic hand dyes were the only thing of the kind available and so quaintly Aussie I just loved them but unfortunately had not the foresight to buy more than a fat quarter of each in every color severely limiting quilt design choices. I was able to utilize a lot of the FQs and now am mostly left with yardage in my Aussie fabric collection.

 I quilted it up with a repetitive modern design happy just to have it done!

 I will need to switch from quilting and do a bit of binding after this next project as the black and white chevron goes on the longarm. I really do need to quilt up the last few completed tops of my own and have done with the backlog maybe then I will tackle the true UFO's!

How do you handle aging fabrics, do you feel guilty allowing them to lay around unused?

Black And White Chevron Quilt

This may not seem enough for a KS quilt but there are 272 seven inch HST's here for oldest Grandson and wife's quilt.

 Here it is ready for the final pressings, once from the back with a hot dry iron to be sure every seam is flat and laying the way it should be and again from the front with a spritz of water on every seam to ensure that there are no folds.
Then I can be sure that there will be no surprise pleats or lumps to misdirect the quilting or break a needle, put my timing out of whack and waste my time fixing it! Better to spend the effort pressing though it is certainly not my favorite part of the process.

 Although I have a large Polder ironing board it's still awkward and labor intensive. pushing all that fabric around

But the results are worthwhile, now it hangs straight and flat and perfectly prepared for quilting. I will order the backing tomorrow and hopefully have it all finished up for delivery next week. I am planning to make shams to match but they will be a fast project.
Now back to the longarm to quilt up a couple of tops while I await the backing.

Bella Verona

Jennifer's beautiful quilt was a bit of a challenge to quilt - I had planned a semi custom but due to the complexity of the design just could not see how to smoothly transition from a custom border to Edge to Edge, it would have looked ungainly and clumsy, IMO!

I defaulted to feathers, an elegant choice when no other theme seems obvious. The outside borders are a reverse feather design, the large top border and the similar blocks forming the central cross pieces received a feather curl. It's hard to see with the neutral thread but any other color might have been too distracting from the intricate piecing.

Three different feather designs for the various border areas

I was then left with a T shaped area at the outside end of the cross pieces that lacked quilting and considered several options before I settled on crosshatching. I am quite pleased with it, honestly,  I was rather tired of all the feathering!

View from the back shows the feather curls and the space I needed to fill between those and the borders.

Quilting always shows better on the back and makes a whole quilt effect for a reversible quilt!