While I was on my blogging break I attended my guild's annual beach retreat. We spend 3 days in July on Seabrook Island -one of Charleston's barrier islands - and sew on our own projects. 3 meals a day are provided by the facility.

This year I worked on a Christmas tree skirt. This photo is of what the skirt should look like when I'm done, but I'm a long way from finishing. It's a very intricate foundation pieced project.



I also worked on finishing up two charity quilts. These are one block wonder quilts. It's always fun to see how the blocks turn out.




Here are some other quilts that were worked on during retreat.










The 2013 retreat has been moved up to January, but I'm not going to be able to attend.

Fans

It's been a long time since I posted here. I've been more active over on Facebook and have been neglecting my poor blog.

I got back yesterday from a week long class in Tryon, NC at Marilyn's Melrose Inn. It's a B&B/retreat center being run by Marilyn Doheny.  melrose-inn.com.

Our class was on using Marilyn's 9 degree wedge ruler to make interesting fan designs. We start by sewing strips of fabric together into strata sets and then cutting them up in various ways with the rulers.














Some of the designs were more popular than others. We all enjoyed making this spiral fan.







Here are some other designs











We even made some bugs (which we all decided we didn't care for)



Marilyn's Inn is quite eccentric. She has funky decorations everywhere. After a while the sheer volume of stuff began to wear on me. Every surface was jam packed with stuff.




The food was excellent and I came home several pounds heavier than I left!

Chalk Board

I keep making lists of my ongoing quilt projects to get a sense of what I should be concentrating on (and maybe to make me realize I don't NEED to start one more project!) but then I usually set the list aside and it gets misplaced.

I was thinking I needed a white board posted on the wall for my lists but just never got around to getting one.    Last week I walked past a display of chalkboard paint and decided that maybe that would work. 

It was easy to do.  First I taped off the area I wanted to paint (yes I taped all 4 sides)

Then, using a foam roller I painted 3 coats of the paint.  I probably didn't need to do 3, but I wanted to make sure it covered really well.

After removing the tape I found I only had a couple of mistakes

I read on-line that the board should be conditioned before use by rubbing chalk all over it and letting it sit for about 30 minutes before removing.  This is supposed to prevent ghosting.  It was interesting to see how the chalk highlighted some paint lines - lines that you don't see with the naked eye.



 I may wish I'd purchased the white board instead of painting the wall because I'm having the hardest time finding chalk!  I just want regular 'ole school chalk and can't find it anywhere.  I may have to search out a teacher supply store.   I stole a piece of Hayden's sidewalk chalk to prime the board.  Hope she doesn't notice.

Scarves redux

Back before Christmas I made a bunch of frilly scarves from a self ruffling yarn.  I posted about it here   I sent all those scarves to my mother thinking she could share them with the other residents in her retirement home.   Turns out she gave them as Christmas gifts to all of the female members of our family. 

When we were up visiting my mother last month she mentioned that one of the workers at the home had expressed an interest in getting one of the scarves so I stopped at the local Joann Fabric store and bought yarn to make several more while I was there.  (we don't have Joann Fabrics here so I always make sure I make a stop there every visit - after I stop at DSW Shoe Warehouse in the same shopping center!!)

When I got home my friend Joanne was visiting from her new home in Florida and she shared a new frilly scarf made out of a chiffon fabric rather than yarn.  I was immediately intrigued and went online that night and ordered several hanks of the chiffon.

It's really cool because there are holes in the top of the fabric that are used for the knitting.  See those black circles near the top?  If I had a drill press I could probably make my own "yarn."  (click photos for larger view)

This stuff knits up a little slower than the real yarn but is still easy to work with.  I like the way it looks as it takes shape.

The included pattern calls for casting on 8 stitches but on Joanne's recommendation I only did 5 and think it's a good size.

This is the name of the stuff.



Back again...

They did it again - changed up Blogger since I was last here to post.  Serves me right for being away so long!

So...what have I been up to? 

There was a quilt at our show in March from a pattern called "Ohmigosh" that I really liked.  It was pieced and quilted by Vicky McCormiack.  She did it scrappy similar to this one pictured. 

Well I decided that I'd like to try it but in a different color palette and this is what I came up with.  My intent is to do a gradation of the blues from light to dark and back to light.   This is not a hard quilt to piece but it's tedious.  Each block finishes 4.5"  Those little nine patches finish up 1/2".  It's mostly done with strip piecing.  I don't usually do this type of piecing so it has been an interesting experience.

In addition to the Ohmigosh quilt a few of us have been working on this Tucson pattern from a past Fons and Porter magazine.   This finishes up as a big quilt as these star blocks are 15".  A big change from my tiny blocks, but I'm actually having more piecing problems with the stars because I keep messing up the points.    These blocks are actually mine and Janice's combined.  We each have a lot more to make.





Last month Jerry and I took a quick trip up to Detroit to visit family.   Our trip started off with a bang when we pulled into the long-term parking lot.  Jerry opened the window to grab the ticket and the window wouldn't go back up.  The power window motor had died!   There were no tools in the car so he couldn't get the door panel off to manually raise the window.  We ended up covering the window with a Mylar heat blanket that luckily was in the car.  We caught our flight and then watched the weather closely hoping that Charleston didn't get rain while we were gone.  It was raining the day we got back, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a dry car. 



We went up mainly to see how my mother is doing as her health has been declining.  She lives in a large independent living retirement complex.  She goes down to the dining room for dinner every night and the distance has become too much for her to manage.  She's on oxygen 24/7 and now has a power chair that she uses when she has to go any distance.  She's kind of dangerous in her chair but she was always a bad driver so it's not a surprise!



My brother Ed takes a lot of the responsibility for checking up on mom

And my other brother Claude also pitches in

We had a family get together at Claude's while there.  He lives on a large lake.  They live on a secluded finger of the lake so they don't have to deal with the loud boat and jet skis (or snowmobiles in the winter) as much as those on the main part of the lake.  It's very pleasant and peaceful.   This is one of Claude's grandsons waiting for the s'mores!

I feel badly about neglecting my blog so much and will try to do better.  I wonder if there is anyone still out there!

I've been away a long time

I've been away so long that they went and changed Blogger on me.  Hope I can figure it all out!

Here's what's been going on in my absence.  The kids came over for Easter.  They hadn't colored eggs so that was the project before dinner.   Luckily Hayden didn't get dye on her darling dress.

Noah got a Lego project in his Easter Basket.  It was a replica of the White House.  He and Craig worked together to assemble it.   I noticed that it required beer to complete!

I got up Easter morning with the intention of baking a Rhubarb-Strawberry pie.  I started preheating the oven while I prepared the pie and noticed a very very bright light on the heating element.  We initially thought it was the burning off of something that had spilled on the element, but it just got brighter.   We discovered that the element was burned completely through. 

A close up of the burned element

I ended up baking the pie in the toaster oven.  We discovered that our microwave is also a convection oven and cooked the ham in that.  It all worked out in the end.

Jerry went on-line and ordered a new element which arrived a couple of days later while the kids were here.  It apparently takes 3 people to reinstall an element!

More on the quilt show

This was one of my other quilts in the show.  The pattern is called Monterrey Medallions.  There were several quilts in the show made from the same pattern and it was fun to see how the different color choices changed the look of the quilt. (click photos for larger view)

I also entered this Wonky Log Cabin quilt from a pattern in the book Blendable Curves by Peggy Barkle.

Lynn Gettelfinger made this cool version of the map of the Charleston area.  She said that she used an actual sized map for her pattern and everyone was amazed at how accurate she was with all the creeks, etc.

This quilt by Rosalind Hunt and quilted by Linda Barrett won Viewer's Choice.

A small little piece by Jennifer Ley.  This one has cool beading, but the photo doesn't show it very well.

Charles Towne Landing Fence is by Tommie Burwell. 

Jeanne Pedersen did a great job replicating her photo

Another quilt by Jennifer Ley

Quilt show

Today was opening day for the Cobblestone Quilters Guild show.  It's been 2 years in the making and I believe it is a beautiful show. 

The Best of Show - Bed sized quilt was Southern Comforts by June Bohac and quilted by Karen Kendo.  This quilt just happens to be our raffle quilt and some lucky person will be able to take it home tomorrow evening.

Best of Show - Wall quilt was Red Hot Baltimore by Beverly Cone.  Shortly after Beverly submitted the paperwork for the entry she passed away suddenly.  We were so pleased that her family agreed to submit the quilt and were elated when it won. 

Best track (long-arm) machine quilting and best applique was Red and Green Revisited by Darlene Donohue and quilted by Debbie Yezbak.

Best machine quilting - stationary machine was Grandmother's Legacy of Flowers by Paige Alexander

Best Hand Quilting and Best Theme was My Southern Heritage by Margaret Jones

Sunlight on the Reef by Lynne Gettelfinger won Best Use of Color

l'edredon de Bess (Bess's Quilt) by Evelyn Richards won Best First Entry in any Quilt Show

There were 2 Judge's Choice quilts.  Yellow-Bellied Slider by Lucretia Pope

and Buzz...Buzz...Buzz by Nancy Barnette and quilted by Kathy Kean

Here's my little whole cloth quilt with its blue ribbon

I'm exhausted and my feet hurt.  Putting on a quilt show is not for the faint of heart!