This and that

I was reminded I hadn't blogged for a while, but to tell you the truth, sometimes I wonder whether to keep it up.  We'll see.

This past weekend was the annual quilt retreat that I go to.  What a great time I had with friends, and lots and lots of sewing accomplished.  The following photo is the layout of a quilt one of my friends is making for her daughter.  I think it is just spectacular.  Gotta love that blue and pink!

I worked on a couple different projects, and got a lot of blocks completed, which I will plan to post about another time.

The following photo is a quilt I am nearly done quilting on.  I think I have posted about this at least once before.  At any rate, I was within six blocks of being done quilting the body of the quilt, and darn it all, anyway, if I didn't run out of thread.  I did manage to find a pretty good match, so completed that and am half done quilting the border.  I'll post again when it's bound and totally completed.

 I signed up to take a Beginning Wool Applique class with a friend.  That class was Monday, and truthfully, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.  It is a fun process.  We all were to purchase a small kit and mine is a Buttermilk Basin kit. 

Retreat is over!

 Oh, it went so fast!  We were at a very nice retreat center and right out the windows was a river flowing by.  And oh, my, the food - such excellence!  It was so nice to be with my quilting buds again and sew and visit.

The photo below shows some of the quilts that were brought for show and tell.  There is always so much inspiration.  I just need more hours in each day to accomplish all I want.  Well, there's that, and then  there's the fact that I don't make as good use of my time as I could, that's for sure.

See the river out the window?

And this is what I was working on:  The pattern is "Sallie's Quilt."  These are some of the 20 or so blocks I made.  I still have approximately 12 to make, unless I decide to increase the size of the quilt.  Those blocks don't come quickly though, so probably not.  At any rate, that decision doesn't have to be made for a while yet.

I've been slipping - again!

Well, I have let more time go by than I had planned before posting.

First, it is almost retreat time again!  I will go Friday and come home on Sunday.  I have a couple projects ready to take and am looking forward to some good solid quilting time and chatting time with my friends.  It helps also that the retreat center serves really yummy food!

DH and I spent a few days at the Oregon coast this week.  We had two rainy days and one day that was absolutely gorgeous.  We walked and walked on the beach and enjoyed every minute.

The clouds were so beautiful.

I don't imagine everyone would agree with us, but we consider

 these sea gulls to be water rats - a big, dirty nuisance.

Very pretty, large piece of driftwood.

It was a pretty calm day with not much surf.

Retreat, quilt show

Oh, my, the retreat was just wonderful! It was so nice to go and have no interruptions and just sew and sew and sew. I worked on a rather intricate paper-pieced iris wallhanging. I got probably 3/4 or more of it pieced, and I'm really liking the way it looks.  My place for sewing was just this side of my friend there in the black shirt.  I think there were about 25 of us there, with several from our quilt guild.

The day before the retreat, I went to a quilt show.  It wasn't real large, and almost all the quilts were hand quilted, which further inspired me to try hand quilting again.  It's been many years since I have done that.
These pictures are from the show.

Quilting retreat, Farmer's Wife

Well, today is pretty exciting for me.  In about four hours I am off to a quilting retreat.  I have my stuff all packed, and probably am taking way, way too much stuff, but at least I will have some options!  My main project, I think, will be working on an intricate paper pieced iris wallhanging.

I got six more Farmer's Wife blocks done.  One of them I didn't do so great a job on, but I'm not going to point it out for you!!  :-)  I really like the way they are turning out.

Last Sunday we went and spent a day at the beach.  It was a beautiful  sunny day, and we got a long walk in along the ocean.  We had planned this day to watch our grandson Tanner play in a basketball tournament.  Alas, two days before he was to go, he was playing basketball outside, and slipped on wet pavement and turned his leg very badly.  When all was said and done, he had a fracture in the ankle area, and didn't play in the tournament.  He will be out of basketball for the rest of his season, and won't be able to play baseball until late April.  This will be tough on him since he's quite the little athlete, but thankfully it wasn't a worse injury.

Happy Easter and Finally!

First - Happy Easter, everyone! We had the family here today, and had a great time. The DGC were so cute and had so much fun.


Now, drum roll, please! I finally got it done! The quilting and binding seemed to go on for miles! I am, of course, speaking of my Thimbleberries Lakeside BOM from 2008. I increased the size of it to be king-sized. It isn't perfect, but I am quite pleased with it, and it looks nice on our bed. I need to get some more fabric and make pillow cases to match.

The rest of the pictures show a bit of the quilting that I did. I have a Janome 1600P that I put on two large tables for quilting.



















I haven't posted since I went to my retreat. It was right on the beach. We had such a nice view, and besides sewing a lot, we went and walked on the beach. The weather was just perfect. One of our friends was ill and couldn't go, so we made this signature wallhanging for her. We gave it to her yesterday and she was so pleased to receive it.

No April fool joke here!

Well, I am so excited! I was doing some blog hopping and went to http://alderwoodquilts.blogspot.com/ and found to my delight, that I am the winner of Sue Hauser's March giveaway of some Lakehouse fatquarters and a darling pattern called Bloomin' Bugz by Sew Special Designs. I just emailed her my name and address, so will be anxiously waiting for my special prize! I'll post a picture after it arrives. Sue's quilt shop is in Banks, Oregon, which is probably 30-40 miles from where I live. I definitely am going to plan to take a drive out that way one of these days soon and visit her shop.

On another front, I am going to a quilt retreat in Newport, OR on Sunday, and coming home Tuesday. I am very excited about the outing. There were to be three of us who are very close going, but our one friend has become ill and won't be able to go. We'll still have a great time, but we will sure miss her.

At the retreat I will be working on a quilt for one of my DGDs. I won't be able to post pictures of it until after she receives it, because she sometimes takes a look at my blog.