MLK Day Break

Martin Luther King Day and I am home from school.  That is a good thing.  I am sick.  That is a bad thing.  I have gotten nothing done today and I am okay with that given the circumstances.  I had planned on going to get soup in Midland - Harvest Café - Bahama Chicken Enchilada soup, yummm! I had planned on sewing a few more blocks in the 4 patch variations segment.  I had planned on taking out the trash, washing clothes, cooking. . . . none of this got done. Well, I did wash one load of clothes, but that wasn't even a drop in the bucket on the clothes front.  I may have to stay home tomorrow, too - depends on how the night goes, if I am still running fever - and that is not the best thing.  There are way too many things to get done this semester and it is already cut into by FCCLA regionals (I have to work two other ones beside ours) and possibly state. That means I will be out at least 8 or 9 days just with FCCLA.  Then there are the quilting things.  You know I have to have my quilting things.  That is another 4 days of being out.  I have to attend the FCSTAT Mid Winter conference so add in a couple more days and I am going to miss about 3 weeks of school just attending to other things.  That doesn't even include in case I get sick.  Which, knock on wood, I haven't had a sinus infection so far this year!  (I was really, really sick with a couple of them back to back last year and then had a reaction to my meds.  It was not good.  I even had to miss out on some of the FCCLA and ALL of the quilting last spring which is why I am NOT going to miss out on the quilting this spring!  If I can help it)  Even though its a nice break and it's mostly for the kids, it's still hard to get the rhythm going and flowing in the classroom.  We were just picking up speed and then we have this day off from school.  We will just be picking up the speed again and then it's spring break.  Don't get me wrong, I love the breaks we get.  It's just hard sometimes to keep the flow going when you are in and out of the classroom.  But that is life. 




Here is the top for my word of the year quilt.  I just need to quilt and bind it - hey strips are cut at least!  Then I will have one completed quilt for the year. 

I had planned on posting the 4 patch variations I have been working on, but apparently I deleted them from my e-mails and will need to resend them from my phone again.  On the good side, that will be another post!  I will try not to be so whiny in the next one.  Maybe by then my body will feel better.

Quilt Retreat

Our quilt retreat was this past weekend at Miter Peak near Alpine and Ft. Davis, Texas.   We had the largest attendance that we have ever had, 17.  That doesn't sound like many, but it is almost at capacity for those facilities.  We could have a larger retreat if we wanted to rough it a bit more, but at our age, who wants to do that?  We all like the convenience of having an indoor restroom in our building and not have to go outside and down the trail a ways.

I taught the disappearing 4 patch made famous by the Missouri Star Quilt Company in both the magazine and YouTube.   My mother had seen the quilt in the magazine and when I was contemplating what to teach at retreat, she told me about this quilt over the phone.  She did such a great job describing it, that I was able to make a couple of blocks that night.  Then I went on YouTube and saw the video and confirmed I was right on track.  My first one was made with only 50 print and 50 background blocks, because that is all the background fabric I had.  The print squares were from my box of 5" squares.   I added about a 10" border to make it much larger.

This smaller one is made with 6" squares and fabric cut off from a couple of quilts I had quilted this summer and some orange I ran across while cleaning out a box. 

 

 

 

The pictures I took this weekend are still on my camera and I haven't been home long enough to get them downloaded.  Hopefully I can do that this evening.  I am not sure how many I have, I was busy, busy, busy at the retreat and don't remember taking a ton of photos.  We  had one person there and I may have to get her to send me some pics for the blog.  

Icy Weather, New Project and Irish

WoooHoooo!!  It's warming up outside.  We went from 79/81 degrees to the bottom dropping out and a high of 29 within just a few hours (less than 12!) and have not gotten over the freezing mark since Friday.  It is a balmy 33 degrees right now and warming up, but I still don't want to go out.  Not because it's cold.  Not because the roads may not be clear, but because all the ice that is falling from the trees and power lines.  It sounds like my house, yard and alley are getting bombed by ice!  I looked out the back window awhile ago and - OOOH big bomb just hit  - that was a huge one - anyway, I looked out the window and watched the ice fall off the power lines in huge chunks.  (about 2 inches around and 20 inches long)  That last one fell from the tree next door and hit something.  It was loud.  Those chunks are a lot larger.  They are about 3 inches in diameter and 6 inches long.  Huge chunks!  That last one may have hit the garbage can outside because it sounded like someone throwing away a large bag of trash into an empty container.  BAM!  For those of you that don't live in the Midland/Odessa area - or anywhere in west Texas, it has been cold and icy this past weekend.  We had a major storm hit the area and have been covered in ice for the last 3 days.  Since this area has some of the worst drivers on good weather days, I try to stay inside on bad weather days, because those same drivers become complete idiots.  If driving 55 in a 40 and weaving in and out of traffic is okay on good days, then driving 70 in a 40 with icy conditions is even better!  (they are still trying to weave)  Oh, yes, and let's all try to pass each other on the overpasses because we all know that those don't freeze over!  Within a 30 minute time period Friday morning, 3 overpasses in Midland had major wrecks on them and they had to shut down the loop.  Come on people!  Overpasses are the first things to freeze and ice over.  See what I mean?  Idiots live and drive among us! 

Okay, enough ranting for now.   It's time to actually get dressed in real clothes - not loungy pajama clothes - and get some work done.  No more snuggling on the couch and watching television or playing games on the computer.  I have to come up with a project to teach at my retreat in February.  My mom suggested doing a quilt like this so I made a couple of blocks. 

I like it, it's simple, but I am not completely sold on it.  I will need to cut some more background blocks and find my 5" squares tub (I know where it is - in the garage - I just don't want to walk outside to get it, yet)  I will continue to work on this idea along with several others I have over this week (can you cheer for having the entire Thanksgiving week off from school? YEA)  and see if I can put something together that is easy enough for the newbies and that might have enough of a challenge for the seasoned quilter.  Just haven't hit on the right project yet.  (even though, seeing this picture it's kind of growing on me)

On a sad note, Irish, my oldest Shi Tzu, passed away on Saturday.  He was 15 years old and lived a good and pampered life. He was the best little traveler.  When he was little, we drove to Dallas about 6 times a year to visit my mom and he would get in the car, look out the window - had to keep the baby locks on or he would roll down the window and then sleep most of the way.   My vet called him the miracle dog because he had a stick go through his eye - thank goodness for a fantastic doctor out at the pet emergency hospital, you couldn't even tell which eye - he had testicular cancer at age 5 and had to be neutered,  he was attacked by a pit bull - thank goodness for having a ponytail that everyone made fun of - it saved his life - left a few teeth holes in his head, but he never bled - had a tumor come to the surface of his neck and rupture in April and survived the surgery to bounce back to running around the house - well as well as a blind, deaf 14 year old could run - but he did run around a bit.  Yep, I would say he  definitely was my miracle dog.  He is the one on the left in both of the photos below.   He will definitely be missed.

 

 

 

Weekend Works

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted this quilt top.  It was to be the background for my Ogallala retreat quilt.  I put up some of my elements on the wall and decided that I really didn't like it.  The background, which I was trying to make subtle, was just overwhelming the top completely.  I left it all on my wall and walked away.  I didn't know what else I was going to do.  Tonight, I put up the rest of the orange curly cues and some yellow dots and I think it has come together. 

It definitely needs more yellow dots, but I didn't want to put them up there yet.  All of it is just pinned and I am not sure if I can get it down in one piece to iron everything on there.  I used steam-a-seam 2 and I should be able to just press them on there, but I ironed it to my fabric before I cut it out and I think I took all the sticky away.  I really need to read the package directions before I use a product.   Tell me what you think.  All of the symbols have a different meaning and some of them I can only have a set amount.  I am going to move the third "flower" from the top left up a little bit, I think that's the one that fell off and I just slapped it back up right before I took the picture.  I may need to make one more open leaf for the bottom left, for some balance, maybe.   This is definitely a work in progress. 

What else have I been working on this weekend?  I made 5 more bags using Jenni's tutorial .  If you haven't had a chance to check it out, click on the highlighted words and it will take you to her website.  I also made this pin cushion from Bari J.  Click on her name and it will take you to her blog.  Scroll down and look on the right side for the pin cushion tutorial.  I don't  have it completely finished in this picture as you can tell by the pins sticking out the side, because I want to stuff it a little bit fatter.  I don't have any more stuffing here at the house, so I will have to pick some up tomorrow after school.  This is a large pin cushion.  It measures about 4 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 2 1/2".  I will add a button in the middle when I get it all stuffed.  I copied down how to make this pincushion several months ago and finally got around to making one.  I thought it was going to be harder to make than it was.   It went together rather quickly and easily.  I can't wait to try this one again. 

What else have I gotten into this weekend?  Well, since I am still trying to work through the quilt at the first of this blog, I don't want to start anything new, so I found this partially quilted top and finished quilting it.  Well, I thought I was finished, but I think I want to add some more quilting to the middle of the hearts.  I had previously quilted in a shiny purple metallic thread, the rays coming from the hearts.  I just remember the thread breaking over and over again.  I didn't want to machine quilt anything else it was soooo frustrating.  I will show the rest of this quilt when I have it all finished.  If I remember correctly, these hearts were leftovers from an online block exchange that were just laying around and I made this top with them. 

The rest of the weekend accomplishments will have to wait to be shown until I take down the retreat quilt from the design wall. 

Retreat Quilt Top finished

My 9 block version of the retreat quilt with two borders.  It measures about 52 inches square.   A nice lap quilt size or table topper.  Thanks to Seth, one of my students for being the holder so I could take the picture. 

I am working on my BOM from the 15 minutes play site.  I noticed this past weekend that a picture of the finished top is due by January 18 (It is probably supposed to be the finished quilt, but if I can get my top finished by then, I will be lucky.  I made the first 6 blocks and then stopped.   I made two more on Friday or Saturday and last night I made a bunch of fabric so I could make two more.  This one should have 12 blocks in all and then I will have to get to figuring out how I want to put it all together.  Thank goodness we have MLK day off so I have a nice long weekend to work on it.  I will post more pictures later, but just to remind everyone which one I am talking about here is an old pic.

I am using batik scraps (because you know you can't throw those away) and gray backgrounds from dark, dark (rose) to really light (upper right star).  Even though I made the rose block the wrong size (I think I cut 6" instead of 6 1/2" .  I will add a border around it or put it on point maybe.  I really need to make all twelve blocks before I come to a decision.  Gotta go sew -

Retreat Quilt 2012 - first view



Here is my quilt top so far.  I finished my 9 blocks and just couldn't go any further.  I tried, I really did, but my mind just said STOP!!!  Yes, it was almost that loudly.  Once I put these blocks together, I felt better and have been able to work on other things while auditioning fabrics for borders.  Sometimes it's good to listen to your brain when it tells you something.  Or at least it is for me.  I did nothing for a couple of days because I really thought I needed to make 20 blocks for a lap quilt, but this quilt had something else entirely in mind for itself.  The fabric that is on the right side trying out for the role of outside border has since been replaced by another fabric that works much better.  Once I have that fabric on, I will take another picture of the finished top.  This is the quilt I will be teaching at our retreat in February. 

I have made a couple of blocks for the Blogger's BOM.  After the first block, I have decided to change the background fabric and need to re-make that first block along with the other two blocks.  These are 8 inch blocks so I may be making two of each pattern.  I may need to make more or come up with a way to put them on point.  I guess I will wait until the end of the monthly blocks to see how they set them before I make that decision.  I have 8 more months for that. 

I have also made 4 burp cloths and have another 4 cut out and ready to sew together.  It seems like almost everyone I know is having a baby!!  (or at least 6 people I know.  Actually I know of 7 at this time that are preggers and one that delivered early - before Christmas.)  I used to have a stash of baby blankets, etc. on hand to give as gifts, but I guess I sold most of those a couple years ago at the Bazaar and now I don't have anything!!  It has been on my brain to make some more blankets, but, you know, it was stalled by that quilt at the top of this posting!!  Now that I have it all cleared up, I am up and running on the other things I need to get done.  Now, off to do some sewing - until next time.  

February's Retreat

After at least two posts with no pictures I may totally overwhelm you with the tons of pictures in this post. Way back at the end of February my friend Kathy and I hosted our 7th annual (or maybe it's our 8th?) retreat at the girl scout camp at Mitre Peak. One of the reasons we love to go there year after year is the beauty of the west Texas mountains . . . .

And sunsets - even though this picture is beautiful, I couldn't get my picture to look anything like the sunset that night no matter how many pictures I took. It was really breathtaking. Lot's of purples, pinks. This picture is showing too much blue and there really wasn't much blue like that in the sky. . . .

and wild life that walks by the windows of our workroom. This year it was only turkeys.

There was a family of wild turkeys that came by at least once a day. We counted a minimum (they were always moving and you didn't know if you counted one twice or not) of twenty turkeys. One large tom turkey kept heard on all the others not letting them come close to us even though you could tell that that wanted to, especially after we threw out some bread for them. They didn't get it that day, but it wasn't there the next day so somebody feasted that night. See him in the picture below keeping watch? He really was a large bird.

This year was Kathy's turn to teach and she taught a scrappy, scrappy Jacob's ladder quilt. Below is a picture of my mother's quilt. It was the only one I had on my camera even though I thought I took pictures of more quilts. If you look closely you will notice the lovely blue painter's tape. One of the bad things about this camp is that you can't put up any flannel backed tablecloths so we have learned that you can put up each individual block with painter's tape and if you are really good, like my mom was below, you can see what your quilt might look like all sewn together. I love the color combination in her blocks. It has a warm inviting feel to it.

I didn't work on that quilt this weekend because I wanted to try out a new pattern. Over the last couple of years, this retreat has kind of been my time to work on new patterns. The quilt I am teaching at Ogallala in a couple of weeks was made at our retreat last year. I have just finished writing the pattern for it and can't wait to introduce it to everyone.
This year, I was working on my mess up of a version of a quilt I saw on the blogs. However, I liked my mess up; so I played with it at this retreat. I am not totally satisfied with the way it looks yet so this is not the end of this quilt top. I haven't had a chance to play around with it since I have been home, so stay tuned on this one. It may be something totally different when I am done with it. Below are two settings for the blocks and then a lot of them up on the wall just to see what it will look like.

That fabric, (can't remember the name of it - let me get back to you on that one) has a lot of pattern and it definitely overwhelms these blocks. The may need to be sashed and that is one thing I am going to look at when I get the chance to put them on the wall here at the house.

Okay, I have had a rough time getting my pictures to do what I want them to do - (note to self: next time just download one picture at a time so it will be easier to move them around.) and it has gotten past my bed time so I will leave you with the last of the "wild" life I saw when I was leaving the camp to return home. I just had to stop and take pictures since they were almost close enough to reach out and pet. They were a little annoyed that I stopped my car, rolled down my window and took their picture. However, it was nice of them to all look into the camera and say cheese.



However, he was not really happy that I was disturbing his Sunday lunch and a chat up with the ladies. Look at the frown on his face!