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There sure was a lot of sewing going on at the Retreat I went to this week. Some people (like me) ended up doing more ripping than sewing and went home with four quilt blocks made.
Other people (like Jan) sewed like a fiend and got an entire quilt made, quilted, and partially bound.
And then other people (like Dar) kept the smoothies flowing! Some were really healthy with spinach, oranges, apple juice and bananas. Others were just smooth, with chocolate and cream and other good stuff.
In all fairness, Dar did also get some sewing done, like these beautiful string blocks.
Reba wowed us with one great baby quilt after another. She worked on quilts and brought lots of Show and Tell.
Joan got a T-shirt quilt put together......
...Barb made several cat or dog quilt tops to be raffled off at a charity event for Heartland Humane Society of Missouri.
...and Katy used strips she won at a guild meeting to put a cute top together.
Ree finished a Thimbleberries quilt top.
This shows just part of the gorgeous homespun log cabin type quilt Lee Etta worked on.
This is one of the baby quilts Rita worked on.
Jeanne worked on so many things I couldn't figure out what she was doing, but her sewing kit/organizer made for a good photo.
Just like every other retreat I've been to, it was way too short. It was hard to say goodbye to these special ladies.
I hope it isn't such a long time before I get to see them again.
Making pillowcases is a good way to use up some of your stash, but it's also a good way to find out what's missing from that stash. I haven't had a lot of trouble coming up with a nice piece of fabric to use for the body of a pillowcase, but a lot of times when I pull a matching piece for an accent strip I find out it has a piece cut out of it, (I'm always cutting up good pieces of my stash to use in scrap quilts) or it's a fat-quarter and isn't wide enough.
This week the owner of Fiber Art Work in Huntsville, had all of her quilting fabrics on sale for $5 a yard because she's only going to sell yarn and knitting supplies from now on. I thought it was a good opportunity to stock up on accent fabrics for pillowcases! I had quite a stack of fabrics when I checked out, and when she found out it was all for charity (St. Louis Children's Hospital) she gave me another 20% off.
The next day I got a package in the mail from my friend Faye. She thought that since I mailed her all those homespuns she had to send me something in return. (Silly girl!) Well, I did give her some ideas of what to send, since I knew I couldn't talk her out of it.
I did do a little more than build my stash this week. I found a piece of pre-printed canvas in my cabinets with shopping bags stamped on it. One of them I made into a bag to hang on the back of the laundry room door to keep rags in, and the other one I stitched up for a washable shopping bag.
So, I wasn't that productive this week, but I was busy. Next week I'll be even busier. I'm leaving for a quilting retreat in the morning! WooHoo!!
(By the way, if you are wondering why I asked Faye for neutrals instead of brights, our Clara's Cottage Retreat Challenge for 2013 is "Neutrals with a Kick!" Should be interesting......)
I don't normally post on Design Wall Mondays, but today I actually have something on my design wall! Some of the members of my Guild are working on this Quilted Village pattern as a Block of the Month.
Of course mine doesn't look like this at all. I like to do my own thing when I quilt, so mine is going to be a colorful village on a background of black and white prints.
Five of the blocks are finished so far along with the embroidered trees and plants. I'm planning to use bright greens (naturally!) in the "town square" center, too. I'm having fun with this one!
I am now more than halfway to my goal of 50 pillowcases in 50 weeks for St. Louis Children's Hospital! This is what I made this weekend.
Most of these fabrics came from my stash. I did not have a single thing to go with that giraffe print, though, so I bought the African print yesterday. The stash is holding out for now, but I can see that a trip to the Quilt Shop may be in my future before I am finished!
That, Faye, She's a pistol! Thinking my pillowcases look like a pair of capris! Here's a better picture. (And yes, they did look like a pair of pants in that photo. TOO FUNNY!)
If you have been following my blog for very long at all, you know I am really into modern patterns, art quilts, bright fabrics, and making things a little interesting and sort of "different." So is it a surprise that I am not a big fan of homespuns?
When my friend, Faye, told me she needed some homespun scraps I quickly offered her all that I had in my stash, packed them up and mailed them to her!
You should go over to her blog, Mimi's Passions and check out the cute calendar she is working on!
I guess I should explain why I had homespuns in my stash at all. In 2002 I made a Christmas wall-hanging for my son and his family.
The pattern was in a McCall's Quilting magazine. It turned out really cute and very Christmassy!
For some reason after that I was inspired to make an appliqued fall table runner, also using homespuns.
It turned out well, but I never used it, and it stayed in a drawer for years until I finally gave it away.
Thus ends the history of my experience with homespuns. I felt guilty having them in my stash and never using them. All these years I thought I would use them in a charity quilt or something. I can't tell you how glad I am that Faye has taken them off my hands!
