Retreat Time!

Just returned from a 3-day retreat to the cool mountains of northern California! The high was 70 degrees and when I tell you that it was 93 degrees when I got home, you'll know how welcome the 40 degree chill at night up there was!

This was a mystery class with Linda Ballard and it was the 12th retreat I've gone on with her along with my dozen quilting buddies. Of course, we bring other projects along and stay up late and get up early to work on them while enjoying WAY too much food and fun !

I really love this mystery quilt and only had to do a little border work after I got home to complete the top. This, I vow, will NOT become a UFO!

One of the many fun things Linda asks us to do on a retreat is make a 9" block for a drawing. This time it was to be "any color batik on a white background". I was the lucky winner of 11 of these blocks! Watch what I do with them in a future DWM post!


Have fun looking at all the other design walls on Judy's blog!

Wool-Work

I've recently been introduced to working with wool and I really, really like it! Using all wool in a project (like this) is very nice but when added to quilters cotton, there's a dimension I really love. I've hand blanket stitched around each of these wool pieces (which is how wool is usually finished), on to cotton squares. Considering how long it takes to prep and hand-applique regular cotton, blanket stitching wool takes a fraction of the time!

I have a project coming up where I'll use these blocks (taken from the book "Flower Festival" by Kim Schaefer) but I can't tell any more about it. . . I need to keep my quilting groups guessing!

Wool is expensive and not so easy to find but I urge you to try it sometime. I've had good luck finding small pieces of wool (5" x 7" or so) at quilt show venders' booths pretty cheaply.

Don't forget to take a look at the rest of Judy's Design Wall Monday participants.

Color Palette Challenge

Here's the block I made out of the colors for this month's challenge. I'm making the same block for each month and will put them together into a quilt at the end of the year. See a couple of my other blocks here and here.

Design Wall Monday

I have 3 things on my design wall this week: two blocks and a little dress. The first block is for Judy's color challenge. I'm making the block each month with the month's colors and at the end of the year, will make a quilt out of all the blocks.

The second block is for a retreat I'm going on in a couple of weeks to McCloud CA. About 15 of my quilting buddies go every year to the mountains of far northern California to enjoy a break from the Valley heat and to bask in the pines. We rent all the rooms in the McCloud Merchantile, a 100-year old (but updated) establishment where each of the wonderful rooms has a different theme catering to historical figures of the area. The enormous workroom is where about 30 quilters gather for 3 days of sewing, eating and fun! One of the fun things we're asked to do is make a block (this year it's a 9" finished made out of any color batik and white), put it up on the wall, then we have a drawing and someone wins them ALL! I really like the way this one turned out.

This cute little dress is for my daughter's best friend's daughter--turning 2 next month. She loves Sesame Street, especially Elmo, and she asked me to make a birthday dress with rick-rack. I asked her measurements: 10" across the shoulders, 19" chest and 18" from the base of her neck to her knees--Hee-hee--how tiny!! I think she'll really like this!

Take a look at what all the other creative quilters are making on Judy's blog.

Block Exchange

Once a year for the past 11 years, my Calendar Girls group meets to exchange blocks that we then make into quilts we reveal at another meeting at the end of the year. This year our theme was The 4th of July. We were to make 8 blocks that finished 9" square.

 I created this block with a pieced flag which I appliqued on, "Long may she wave" hand-embroidered at the bottom and a wool flagstaff hand-blanket stitched on to give it a little 3-D effect. They were well received.

Here's a photo of the blocks I received in the exchange. Now all I have to do if figure out a great way to display them in a quilt.

Aren't I lucky to be associated with such talented quilters!? Thanks to Judy for allowing me to show this to another wonderful group of quilters from design Wall Monday!

P.S. Long May She Wave!!

Serendipity

I'm in a small group of 9 quilters who call ourselves "Spring Chicks" because the first time we met as an official group, it was the first day of spring. We did a block exchange last year and are now working on 2 projects: a Row Robin and a small art quilt. For the latter, we decide on a word to inspire the project we'll make every other month. This time the word was "Serendipity". We agreed the quilt would be 18" x 18".

As soon as I heard the word I knew exactly what I'd attempt to make. About 5 years ago, I received a lovely birthday card from my good friend Lee, with an image on the front I loved from the minute I saw it as it reminded me of her joyful spirit. In fact, I bought a frame for that card as soon as I received it and it's been in my living room ever since. This friend passed away a couple of years ago and I miss her terribly but that image makes me think so fondly of her and how she was always optimistic and had such a great view of life even though she knew she probably wouldn't be with us long. She passed away of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the age of 61. I posted about a couple of quilts I finished for here here.

 The card's artist is Masha D'yans and I've reproduced her image in fabric, yarn and beads, for my own use and enjoyment which I'm sure won't upset any copywrite laws.

I think of myself as a traditional quilter but I try new things with fabric as often as possible to keep me from getting stale. Sometimes I try something that really works and it makes me feel like I've still 'got it', that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. Being part of a group that is not intimidated by possible failure is such a growth experience--I highly recommend it! I actually learn and am inspired so much by the blogs I read from Judy's Design Wall Monday. I feel like it's one of my fun quilting groups!

Color Challenge

I'm just loving this challenge. I'm not making a quilt every month, just a block--the same block every month--and at the end of the year, I'll make a quilt out of it and donate it to the community service group from my quilt guild in Yuba City, CA.

I liked this month's colors better than any other month so far. Something about aqua and orange, probably the best combination of complimentary colors on the color wheel in my opinion.

Check out what everyone else has posted on Judy's blog!