Slip & Slide

The kids were here on Saturday so we pulled out Noah's slip & slide and set it up on the grass next to the driveway. When Noah first used it last year he kept trying to slide on his knees. It was hard to describe to him about just flopping on his stomach to slide so Jerry got in the act and demonstrated. That was a site to behold. From this photo it's obvious that Noah figured it out. (photos are clickable for a larger view)




Hayden watched Noah for a while and then she proceeded to crawl down the slip and slide. When she reached the end she would crawl off and back up the drive to the start and do it again. I guess she figured that if Noah would go back up the drive to the start she would too. The driveway was tough on her knees. She is walking but is still more confident crawling so she sticks with that mode of transportation most often. You would have thought she'd want to walk on the driveway instead of crawl.


Both kids had a great time and it was fun to watch them.

More beach retreat

Every year our beach retreat has a theme. This year's theme was travel. We were issued a challenge during retreat to make a post card - an obvious travel related item!

We voted on our favorite and the winners each received a big bundle of fat quarters. (click on photos for larger view)




Many participants raided the scrap table for their creations!

Beach retreat projects

I spent most of retreat working on this paper pieced daffodil wall hanging. I've had this for at least 10 years and finally pulled it out to work on. Since this photo was taken I've added a small 1" border (which will finish to 1/2") in the darkest yellow. I still need a wider outside border, but will have to go shopping for just the right fabric. The pattern is by Eileen Sullivan. I've done a couple of her other paper pieced patterns which look complicated but aren't really all that hard. (photos are clickable for larger view. If you enlarge the daffodils you might notice the registration marks showing through the fabric. Those marks are on the paper pattern and were to assist in getting each segment joined to the next correctly. The paper-and the registration marks-will be removed)


After I finished the daffodils I cut out two more four patch swirls. This first one is out of some incredibly cheap fabric that I stumbled across in the stash the other day. I was going to donate it to the silent auction, but decided I'd see if it would work as a 4 patch. It actually made some interesting blocks but the fabric is still really cheap!


I then cut out this one. These blocks are smaller than the other blocks because the repeat on the fabric was smaller. I haven't decided what to use as sashings for either of these 4 patch swirls, but I expect a shopping trip is in order!

Back from the beach

As always, the guild's Beach Retreat was great fun. We had some ugly weather on Friday, but the rest of the weekend was beautiful. Saturday was a rare South Carolina summer day - the humidity was down and it was pleasant to sit outside and enjoy the soft breezes coming off the ocean.



Here we all are lined up in our retreat t-shirts. It's hard to get this many women lined up in such a way that everyone's head is showing, but they managed to do it! (clink on photo for a larger view)

Lots of beautiful work was done at retreat. I think everyone had a great time and we're already looking forward to next year!

Retreat Weekend

Friday morning I leave for our guild's annual beach retreat held on Seabrook Island at Camp St. Christopher. Craig attended camp there a couple of times when he was a kid and really enjoyed himself. I'm glad our accommodations are better than what Craig had when he attended! There are about 50 of us that attend each year and we spend the days working on whatever projects we bring along. We all set up together in one big room and have a good old time. I think we'll see a number of the swirling 4 patch quilts as it seems like EVERYONE is working on one! I'll be back on Monday and I hope I have good photos to share.

Photos finally

I've been busily working on various projects.

A couple of weeks ago a teacher from the upstate of South Carolina (Lynn Buske) came to our guild and taught a couple of classes on her "Four Patch Swirl." The pattern is a lot like a stack & whack. This is a photo of the quilt I started in her class. We were supposed to have a focus fabric with an approximate 24" repeat but my fabric ended up with a 15" repeat. Because of that, I didn't have as many blocks & ended up setting them on point. I actually like the on point setting better.
This photo makes the quilt look less brown and more green than I think it looks in real life. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. I may have to send this one out to be quilted, but haven't decided for sure yet. (click on photos for larger view)


Lynn warned us that making this pattern is addictive and she's right. It's so fun to cut up the fabric and then rearrange the blocks to see what the result is. Our guild was recently given a bunch of fabric from a sewer's estate. A box of the fabric was brought to our mini quilting group meeting a couple of weeks ago with the hope that some people would use the fabric to make donation quilts. One of the pieces had the necessary design repeat so I took it to make another 4 patch swirl. I like the soft colors in this. I did some simple quilting on this and only need to bind it so it will be ready to donate.


One of the sample quilts that Lynn brought with her was a striking black & white. I ran across a black and white with a bit of red fabric at the quilt shop and had to buy it. Here are the blocks I made with that fabric. Now I need to decide on the sashing. I'm auditioning both a black & red and a black & white. I'm leaning toward the black & red but will certainly entertain comments about which should be used!



Finally, I finished quilting the faux log cabin from our quilters day out and once I bind it I'll donate it to one of our charities.

Asilomar

One of the highlights of my years living in California was being able to attend the Empty Spools Seminars held at Asilomar in Monterey, CA. I even attended two sessions the last year I lived there because I was afraid I'd never be back.

This year when I got the brochure I shared it with the TTT gang. (TTT stands for Trailer Trash Tuesday. It's a group of us that meet to sew at Karen's double-wide trailer/studio on Tuesdays.) By the end of that day 4 of us decided to go to Asilomar in April next year. Two others have since decided to attend so there will be 6 of us. Some of the people going have never been to California before so we want to do a little tourist stuff while there as well.

I'm really excited to be going back to a wonderful seminar held in one of the most beautiful areas of the country and it will be even better sharing the experience with friends. Of course my huge fear of flying may present a problem, but that's what they make booze for isn't it?