September Quilting Retreat

There were 10 of us at Prairie Lodge for this quilting retreat.  We had a wonderful time!  There was no lack of food. Meals were on our own but Polly prepared dinner one night for all of us - puffed chicken, peas, jello salad, and pumpkin cake - so good! 

On the last night, Laura, our host, brought us her famous ice cream sandwiches. Yes, they were humongous! and oh, so good. That is easily 2" of ice cream!

The Quilters:
Marge 

Kate

Kay

Gail

Polly

Barb

Becky

Margaret

Bev 

Oh, that's me! They decided that I needed to include a photo of me taking pictures with my phone since I did A LOT of that.

And this is my corner complete with design boards. It was quite comfy.

Some works in progress:
Gail said she was making a carrot placemat and I thought it was ok but I didn't realize I was looking at the back!

 Polly used her design wall.

Kay working on placemats.

More blocks on Polly's design wall.

Weighty discussion...

Kate was wrapping rope to make an oversized coaster and I did not get a picture of the finished piece.

Marge's bright colors.

Bev had some beautiful batiks. She didn't get to join us until Wednesday so she got less than 24 hours of retreat time.

The projects are coming in the next post... stay tuned!

A Peaceful Walk

We had another great retreat at Prairie Star Lodge! I enjoyed sewing with old friends and a couple new friends. We arrived in rain Tuesday, and packed our cars this morning in a light drizzle in-between down pours.

Yesterday, however, was perfect weather in my book. I began my day with a walk/hike. I went past soybean fields - the plants are turning color and drying out, corn fields, and wooded areas.  I didn't see any wildlife but I enjoyed being out in the gorgeous weather. The sun was up but was just beginning to break through the clouds.

When I got back to the Lodge, I took a few photos as I walked around.

I enjoyed some hand stitching in the gazebo on Tuesday afternoon.

Another post with projects is coming soon!

A finish and I'm still moving piles!

A finish - it's a twin-size quilt that I began a year ago at camp. All I did those few days at camp was sew blocks! Eventually I made  rows and a full quilt. I was supposed to make seven twin-size quilts for a retreat center which eventually fell through. I was delighted - really! I don't like making quilts to sell! Anyway I had five quilt tops done, all scrap quilt mostly from my stash. These will become donation quilts as I finish them.  They are just a little larger than I enjoy quilting on my machine but I can do it.

All of the reds and creams came from my stash. I don't think this quilt made a dent! This is one of the Disappearing Pinwheel patterns - the Churn Dash Pinwheel.

I quilted it with a meandering loop design.

The backing is fabric that I found near Lancaster, PA last fall.

That quilt was the ONLY one in the binding pile. However, I have quilted the t-shirt quilt and it is now in the binding pile. Yes, I'm still moving piles!

And I added one quilt to the waiting-to-be-pinned-and-quilted pile. It is a leader/ender quilt. 

This did not begin to use the pieces of fabric that I had cut so another leader/ender with the same colors is coming. It will be a different design.

Does one ever get caught up????

I'm done going barefoot!

I like to go barefoot. Ok, I love to go barefoot! It has something to do with shoes always hurting my nerve damaged right foot and something to do with me - I just like being barefoot!  

I recently decided it probably isn't the best idea to walk around a quilter's house (mine!) barefoot but I've been doing it anyway. When I happened to see this knitted slipper, I decided to use some leftover yarn and knit some. 

They are fast to knit and comfy.

You can find the pattern information and everything here on my revelry.com page.

Socks Done! And I've been moving piles...

My spiral socks are done. You may recall that I began with this:

And now I have these - Dorothy's Slip Stitch Spiral Knit Socks!

If you want to see the kind of yarn, link for pattern, and more, check out my ravelry.com page here. This may not be my favorite sock pattern but the technique is fantastic and will work on any circular knit. I will definitely use it again! There is a little orange left so it will show up in another pair of socks. 

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I have another quilting retreat coming up. Yes, I just went on retreat, I know! But when you get the chance... I was looking through my studio for UFOs and found a few things to take and a few to just finish. Truthfully, I didn't have to look too hard!

This twin sized quilt needed quilting and binding. It was already pinned. Now it needs the hand work on the binding.

This totem pole wall hanging now has borders and is ready to pin and quilt.

This QOV quilt is finally sewn together. Seems like it took a few years - not sure why. It's now ready to pin and quilt.

I found a bag with 2 1/2" strips of different lengths. I think I was going to make a jelly roll race quilt - so I did! Now it is  ready to pin and quilt.

So ... I moved one quilt from the quilt pile to the binding pile a very short pile.  And I moved 3 quilts from the finish piecing pile to the pin and quilt pile a very tall pile. One of these days I'll move some quilts to the finished pile! Isn't the pile moving game fun?!

Scrap Socks or Leftover Socks?

I love making scrap quilts - it always feels like they are free! But what do I do with leftover yarn? Now I know! Is that called scrap knitting??? I found a pattern to use leftover yarn and it works great!

I had this leftover variegated/self-striping yarn.

I had this yarn in my stash that was also self-striping.

I would never have put these together but I did...

And I love the result!

One day soon I'll show you the finished socks and share the pattern and other information.