Bellingham Retreat 2015

Since moving to Washington and meeting my good friend Shirley at (where else?) a retreat, I've been to many retreats. She invited me to join her and 10 other friends at an annual retreat in Poulsbo that then moved to Bellingham.  I'm just home from this lovely week long event where we sewed and watched movies all day long. It was incredible!

Here's what I accomplished:

First up:  Two of these Aiming for Accuracy quilts that I started some time ago. They were BOMs with lots of instruction so that you could work on accuracy with your piecing. Not only did I participate, but I was privileged to quilt one for a lady that won my quilting as a grand prize. (Click here if you want to see that one)

Christmas fabrics here...(colors are much brighter than they appear here)

 

Same quilt; different fabric and border.  I decided it was too busy, so opted for a plain border instead.

 

This is one of those Schnibbles patterns.  I love little houses; I especially love quilting houses!!!

 This is the start of Dennis' Christmas present--his own Seahawks quilt. He really wants a Mariner's Compass quilt; I'm hoping he can't tell the difference!! This one still needs sashing and borders. Another photo coming when its finished.

I started a Winding Ways quilt for my step-daughter and got going on yet another Christmas quilt.  Not enough done on either of those to warrant photos yet.  

Great retreat with a group of great women!

Dory

Home From Quilters Dream Weekend

I'm just home from the Quilters Dream Retreat held at Camp Arnold in April and October. I've been going to the April retreats since moving up here. My friend, Lisa, from Canada, found this retreat and got us in -- no easy feat since they are usually full.  Since then, we've met there annually. This was the first year that Lisa couldn't make it--still fun, but just not the same without her.

The first year we had no idea what we were getting into. However, we were fortunate enough to pick a place to sit that turned out to be the best place ever. We met Shirley and Donna from Linden, WA, and we've all be friends ever since. :0)

Here are pics of some of the things I worked on while I was there.  First, the ugliest!!  At the April retreat they have classes and do a challenge block. I've never participated in the challenge block; however, this year, Donna and Shirley shamed me into it.  I had no extra fabric, so this is what I managed to put together.  The only positive thing that can be said about it is that it is exactly 12 1/2" unfinished. Other than that--well, you be the judge. (I think its awful--however, it wasn't the most awful one there! Go figure!) Next year the theme is "Rootin, Tootin, Quiltin." That will be a fun one.  I see lots of cowboy boots and hats...

After working on the block, I put this top together for my neighbor. She's expecting her first baby, a boy, in June.

Then I spent several hours on this Buggy Barn Pattern. Its called "Poker Run" and will be for Millie when its completed. Below are the ponies before their barns were added. Notice the one on the bottom right? He totally disappears, so I won't be including him (I may put him on the back, though--haven't decided yet.) I received many suggestions of what to put in his place, but the funniest was the person who thought I should do a horse's butt!

 

And here they are in their barns

After that, it was work on a QOV that I was volunteered for and finally some work on the Cabin Fever Quilters Mystery. This is the fabric combo I'll be using for the mystery. My friend, Donna, helped me choose; she's got great taste! She also had me take a pic of the fabrics in black/white to make sure the contrast was there.  Who knew????

 Finally, don't you just love these two cases.  The pic distorts the size a bit. The top one is only about 10" square. Last year at the retreat, Mary's friend had a set of these that she used for her sewing stuff. I was admiring them and Mary said she never used hers so would bring them for me this year...and she did!!  They are gorgeous. They remind me of old fashioned train cases.

Thanks for reading!!

Dory

A Few Last Pics from my Quincy Trip

Just realized I didn't add the last few pics of my trip to Quincy...so here you are:

This is the black/white/red quilt finished. I added a red sashing and then the border. Its not quilted yet, of course, but at least the top is done.

I also worked on these blocks at the retreat, too. These are four of the six completed so far.

One of my customers was working on this Amish with a Twist quilt for me to bring home, quilt, and return it to her in time for Christmas. She got it to me the day before I left...and she got it back two days before Christmas! It should have been there sooner, but for some reason, it sat in the post office in Kent, Washington, for THREE days.  Needless to say, I was a bit stressed!!

And this is the dragonfly that someone found. She made the rounds onto various quilter's machines; however, no one was even frightened by the "big dead bug." Instead, when I got to my machine on the last day, I found her lying in her own little fabric bed with a pillow and a bed runner. Leave it to a group of quilters!! *grin*

When the retreat was over, I spent the night with my best friend, Cindy, in Quincy. The next day, another friend of ours, Lucia, came out to crochet while we sewed. It was a great day. We had beef brisket cooking in the oven and had the house pretty much to ourselves. Lucia was missing her usual walks, so she would ride the exercise bike periodically--while enjoying a glass of wine, of course. Isn't that what everyone does on their exercise bike?

Dennis arrived the next day and that was the end of the fun sewing trip. We spent two days pulling fence posts--not quite as much fun.

Dory

Quilting Retreat

I was invited to a retreat in Poulsbo...a retreat that lasted for an entire week! Of course, I accepted. I only knew two of the twelve ladies that would be attending, but two was better than none and now I have ten new friends to add to the two original ones. That has been one of the incredible things about moving to Washington. People here QUILT!!

This is the house we had for the week.  Poulsbo is an incredibly cute town. There's a small area downtown that is the main touristy part of town. Its old and cute and right on the water. This house is just a couple of blocks from the water and the downtown area and a really great ice cream shop!!

There were three bedrooms upstairs, one down, the sewing room, plus a full kitchen and dining room. This is a shot of the sewing area.

Shirley, the friend that was responsible for my being there, had won these blocks at a previous retreat. She wasn't sure what to do with them, so she'd just hung them on the design wall. In the morning, she woke to this top--completely constructed by two of the ladies that stayed up til 4 a.m. working on it.

I did four blocks on each of my Aiming for Accuracy quilts to get caught up (the caught up part only lasted for a few days--I'm behind again *sigh*) and then I made two of these Five-yard quilts. Its a really simple and easy pattern if, and I do mean if, you follow the directions.  This one is for a friend of mine who is having a baby in December.

This one is for...I don't know what or who. I just liked the fabric.

Quilting Friends with Great Patience

My best friend/quilting friend and surrogate sister, Cindy, has much patience. She gave me this top to quilt for her over a year ago. Then I moved and started my business in Washington and because she wanted to be sure I had all my customer quilts done first, this one was a long time coming. However, its finally done and on its way home!

We were at a retreat and this top was taught as a double-blind mystery. We told the shop what colors we wanted and they picked the fabric. As you can see, they did a great job with Cindy's fabrics--especially when you compare them to the fabrics chosen for my quilt! (Look here --Note to self: No double-blind mysteries unless you're actually IN the shop to show them what you mean when you say "purple.")

Cindy wanted leaves and was out of ideas after that. I spruced it up a bit with piano keys spaced with the piecing on the outside border, then the leaves, then another round of piano keys following the inner piecing. 

I stitched in the ditch around the center star. I just couldn't go over it with leaves, its way too pretty.

Here's a shot of the back. You can see the quilting better if you click on the picture and then stand on your head to look at it!! (Just kidding--the tweedy brushed flannel makes it tough to see and photograph!)

So Busy...

...but not with quilting, unfortunately.  We are back in California at our property in Plumas County, better known as Butterfly Valley.  From the air, where our property is (just outside the small town of Quincy), it looks like butterfly wings, hence the name. However, its been called Butterfly Valley since before airplanes. How did they know???

We own the back half of the second meadow--48 beautiful acres, most of which are meadow with about 10-15 being timber. We have been making trips here and taking stuff North, stuff to the dump, stuff to metal recycling and selling/giving away stuff as well. Dennis has been here for 38 years--there's a lot of stuff!!

I did manage to sneak away for several very important meetings--like dinner with a good friend and lunch with one of my customers (Carolyn made me potato soup!!) and I even went to the School House Quilters get together before having to leave early to head to the Fish & Game Commission meetiing (I'm still doing their minutes!)

The decision has been made to put Butterfly on the market; a hard decision for us both. I love it here and I have so many memories, it will be hard to say goodbye. But life goes on and you have to move forward.

We moved into this house before it was complete and then we never got around to finishing the trim. The doors look so beautiful trimmed--I wish we had done this while we lived here so we could enjoy it!

We are headed back to Sequim soon and then I'm off to another great time at the Quilters Dream Retreat just outside of Payallup, Washington. This is my second year and I have several projects lined up to take with me. I'm really hoping to finish my Judy Niemeyer Agave Garden quilt while I'm there, and hopefully a few others. I'm also taking a class on how to turn a Jelly Roll into this cute floor mat.

Dory

Return from Asilomar

I'm back...have been since 2 a.m. on Thursday morning. Then the laundry and the time change and unpacking and putting things away and the two quilts I've finished and the next one loaded have all taken time. I cannot get used to the time change this year. We keep having dinner at 8:30--not good. Especially since we still get up at 6. I need to watch the clock and not the daylight to figure out when to eat.

But...here goes! Judy Niemeyer's class was phenomenal! We had 25 (or so) students in the class, all working on various stages of their own projects. Several had begun projects and were finishing up and even more had never done a Judy quilt and were newbies, like Cindy and myself. I was the only one doing Agave Cactus, several were doing the Bali Wedding Star (more about that later), another started Judy's fun log cabin pattern and others were working on still different projects. We probably had about 12 different patterns going at the same time. I was a bit concerned that I'd be lost in the shuffle, but Judy's teaching method left no one needing attention or instruction. She's very down-to-earth and an excellent teacher.

Because I was the only one working on this project, Judy got me started with the outside border to keep me busy until she could help with the center star. The top left is a piece in the picture below shows one of the border sections. There are four of each of those in that configuration; then four more in the opposite configuration. By the time I had been there for two days, I was strip piecing those as if I'd been doing Judy's quilts forever!

Joyce was right; my center star probably would have looked better with batiks that read more as solids, but I'm okay with it. There is one mistake that took us a bit to figure out; bet you can't see it. We'll see if you can tell when I post the finished project (notice I said "when," and not "if.")

Judy's quilts are done in components. This shows all the border pieces, the center star, the "lone star" piece as well as the outer star bits. I have almost all my components done and plan to put them together soon! 

The last day at Empty Spools is a "walkabout." At 4 on the last full day (when class is supposed to be over for the day), everyone tours the other classrooms. A great idea to get you motivated and inspired for next year's project. Before folks started touring, Judy was at my design board and attempted to put the quilt together in some semblance of order. The darn thing is huge! She ran out of room rather quickly.

Other than the "lonestar" segments and a few border bits, I am ready to put this baby together. Its a bit intimidating, but I think I can do it. Then I have to applique on the little curved bits at the ends of the blue/purple/green sections. Of course, that means fusing...I don't applique.

While I was busy in Pacific Grove building a quilt, Dennis was busy in Port Townsend. He built this Greenland Kayak in 7 days! They built them using the stitch and glue method, so he was doing some sewing of his own.

PS...thanks for the nudge, Joyce--got me to post!!!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

So...help me decide!!

While I was in Quincy in September, I was able to attend my Quincy Guild's retreat. We did a mystery quilt for which, based on some sage advise, I'd purchased my four fabrics using a monochromatic color scheme.

First I found a beautiful fabric for an accent, then I accented it. My instructions: choose a light, medium light, medium dark and dark. The block for the mystery was quite a surprise. Not only was each quilt different due to fabric choices, they were different because the quilts can be assembled in a myriad of ways.

These are the three I'm trying to choose between:

Stars...

Sort of a Southwest feel:

Or a hodge-podge effect?

Hard to tell in the pics, but the background fabric has tiny blue dots on it, so it actually looks much better in person.

So...design wise: opinions??

Dory

Quilters Dream Weekend!

My friend Lisa from Canada called a few weeks ago and was in need of some serious getaway time. She'd found this retreat and asked whether I wanted to go.  What could I say, but "Yes."

Quilters Dream Weekend is put on twice a year, April and October. It is a lovely venue with plenty of room to sew and some really nice folks to sew with. In April, they offer "mini" classes that are taught by other participants; in October, you just sew.  Well, except for October 2015; Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame is coming then! (Marei...maybe you should mark your calendar)

This is the basic set-up.  You bring your table or can use one of theirs and they have several ironing stations set up in the middle. A block challenge, a fat-quarter giveaway and raffle prizes are all given. Food is included and it is the best I've ever had at a retreat. I sat by a group of ladies from NW Washington. Sharylann owns Tangled Threads Quilt Shop and her friend, Shirley, has her longarm set up in her shop. There were also two Donna's, a Deb and several other wonderful ladies who were all friends that adopted Lisa and myself and made sure we were having a good time.

The sleeping cabins; beds on both floors. You can upgrade to private accommodations, but I didn't see the point. I spent the majority of my time sewing!

This photo is of the grounds. I woke up early and took a walk each morning. One morning, while talking with Dennis on the phone, an entire herd of elk ran by. That was the coolest thing ever. Made me wish I had a real camera and was ready to shoot. Although they were in the mist, so I think my "memory" photo is better.

I took several projects to work on and actually finished one top and made a second from a Hunter's Star class.  Now here is where reading directions actually would have paid off.  They said two "contrasting" fabrics, what'd I choose...two BORING fabrics. They wouldn't have been boring had I not put them in the same quilt or added something for some pop. Live and learn.  And now I have a lovely, muted, Hunter Star background to do some applique and/or thread painting on (I think that's what they call "making lemonade from lemons")

This is what it could have looked like, had I read the instructions.

This is the top I took and finished. I purchased this "Quilt in a Bag" kit years ago at PIQF in Santa Clara. I figure its a close as I'll come to that Africa trip that's on my Bucket List. It turned out pretty well, although I don't love it as much as I did when I first saw it. But that is one less UFO.

Hard to tell from the crappy photo (sorry), but the outside has pictures of lions, zebras, elephants, etc., and the inner fabric is suppose to be zebra stripes.  I'll do better if/when it ever gets quilted.

Dory

From Beginning to End

Remember my post last year about our 2010 Guild Retreat? Fair starts on Wednesday, so I actually finished it and one other small wall hanging to enter. I have pics of this one, but then the camera battery died (it actually says "battery exhausted"--like I wore it out!!) before I could get pics of both.

So...the beginning:

Remember, this was a "double mystery." We called the shop with colors we liked and they sent us fabric. When the ladies putting on the retreat saw the fabrics their employee had sent me, they cringed. I thought it was just me, but it wasn't.  These fabrics really do not go together well, so some were left out...

This is what I had finished when I left the retreat. The next band of color didn't work, so I was sent some additional peach fabric.

When finished, this is what I had...not too bad.

A couple of close-ups. I quilted feathers in the center peach are with pebbles in the middle; then feathers in the triangular areas around the center as well.

Oh...did I mention??? Feathers in the border, too.

And finally, a picture of the back before I "exhausted" my camera battery.

Dory

Empty Spools Seminar 2011

Tomorrow, my friend, Cindy, and I head for Asilomar and another wonderful (if wet) week of training at Asilomar. This year, we're taking Sally Collins' class. Our main reason for choosing this class is Sally's reputation of a perfect 1/4" seam. No matter how many time I test my seam, its never the same...never.  I hope to remedy that situation.

Cindy and I drove down on Thursday to Santa Cruz where she has inherited a lovely home built by her grandparents in 1948. The house sits right on the bay and I'm listening to waves crash and wind blow...its incredible. My room has the most beautiful bay view...I'm already day-dreaming about how lovely it would be to have my longarm in that room!!

Notice the Similarities?

Last October, my Guild put on a Retreat at Grizzly Creek Ranch, just outside of Portola. It is a great location, not far at all of the highway, yet totally secluded. The weird thing is that I used to ride horses in those hills; now the horses are gone and this facility is there instead. Progress??? I'm not so sure.

Anyway, we had these two amazing ladies from The Sewing Room in Redding that taught the retreat and brought almost their entire store with them. It was fun to sew and shop and never have to drive anywhere!  The quilt was a mystery and could be made a double mystery by telling them what fabric combinations or line of fabric you liked and they would then bring the appropriate yardage for the quilt. Almost everyone opted to let them pick the fabrics...double mystery.

This week, I quilted two of them.  This is the first one; it belongs to Mona. I love the colors and although she wasn't sure about the outside border, I do think it pulled everything together. I did an allover swirl on it.

Here are a couple of close-ups so you can see the quilting.

And the back..

.

This is the second one and belongs to Katherine. Katherine is a hand quilter and hadn't pieced a quilt on a machine, nor had one quilted, in a long time. She loves oriental fabrics and also participated in the double mystery aspect.

Here are a few closeups...

Down one side...

Here's a pick of the middle of the back. The fabric was actually a nice peach to match the front--not sure why it looks so white.








And this is mine.

Notice the size difference?  Unfortunately, when I called and we talked about color, the employee of the shop that put mine together just tried to pick all the colors I mentioned. When I received the fabrics, I wasn't too sure about them, but hoped they would work. Luckily, the first round came together nicely; the second round of fabrics did not work at all, so I have a wall hanging instead of a quilt. I do think the end product turned out well... I think it will look great hanging on my wall, when its quilted of course!