QUILTING AWAY...

So much going on that there's not a lot of time to Blog but here goes.
Busy Busy little bees. Sew creative and talented.
Wednesday (10/17) was our last full day of sewing. Whayyyy. No I wasn't ready for it to end.
How about this Crown Royal Quilt by Diane D. Very cool. She started with about 4 blocks and went to town. She's new merry group on retreat.

That is a lot of cutting and sewing.  I told her niece and my long time good friend who was with us that she should have asked her Aunt to make a quilt like this for her. Instead Sheryl is stuck with me and the fabric we bought. Sorry Sheryl, but it will be nice when we get enough bags and I stop going to the farm every weekend to check on the building process.  I think she caught me talking about her and I snapped a pictured. 
Sheryl is a first time retreater also. She doesn't quilt but she is a crafter and a cookie baker now.
She made this cute little forest gnome bottle topper by felting. She's also the one who made the decorative cookies that she is now selling. You can find her site Country Cottage by clicking here  to get more info.        


Sandy completed her quilt top and is pinning the batting and backing here. She is going to hand quilt it. I'd never get finished if I hand quilted so I'm impressed. Wow. Turned out really pretty. She needs to be sure to share again when the quilting is done.

Vicki started working on another project. A Christmas tree.

Oh my that's a lot of small strips to cut and sew back together but it turned out great.

Here's the whole group. Lot's of fun and talented gals! So glad everyone had a good time.

This is a pretty cool cutting table Pamela (retreat owner) had in the quilt shop. She bought the saw horses which are adjustable in height and then the top is separate all from IKEA. They come in at least 3 different colors. I forgot what she told me now since I've been so slow in posting.
I may have to get something like this when I'm ready to upgrade my folding cutting table that I bought from Joanne's ten years ago.

There were 2 black cats and this calico on the property. This is the only one I could pet. She loved the attention. She's a pretty girl.  Told her I needed to get back to work and she promptly turned to get comfortable again. LOL
Pat finished her string quilt top. Love the colors. And then she proceeded to cut out a table runner. She put it on the design wall like this ........
She sat back and looked at it. (That's Cindy's top in the picture with Pat. Sew Pretty. She's gonna get it done!)

MMM she thought now what. Along comes Donna Marie to solve the puzzle. 

And before you knew it, it looked like this.

Very Nice.

Since I don't think my Niece in Missouri has time to read my blog I'll post the picture of my version of Love Notes for my Great Niece who was born in May. When I got home that Friday I got it boxed up and sent to the quilter. So if any of the family sees this don't tell. She won't get it for another couple of weeks. Just got it back from the quilters and now I need to work on the binding in between packing so we can move one day soon.

Here's a couple of selfies with my quilty friends.

Me and Donna Marie

Me and my new friend Barbara Kay

Me and Pat

Don't mess with quilters they'll rip your seams out. LOL 
And here's a couple more finishes before we packed it up.
Jane completed this cute top and her Lion Fleece tie quilt top  She's been very productive this retreat.  Nice Job

Oh she completed this sweet panel top.

Great Job to all the Ladies!

Did I mention that for breakfast/brunch/lunch we have to cook for ourselves. We'll the newbies stepped up to the plate and fed us so well. I mean really well. We may just volunteer them to cook at future retreats. LOL just kidding.

Thursday morning came and everyone started packing up and loading their cars. We had to be out by noon and I think I pulled out at 11:30. I'm usually the last one to leave to make sure nothing is left behind. But no one checks to make sure I don't leave anything.  mmmm

Parting is sweet sorrow, Twelve Pines Retreat Center. Thank you Pamela Fernandez and hubby. We will be back! Totally enjoyed your place, food and hospitality.

My review mirror view. 😓  Bye until next time.


My car is packed and I was heading to Bryan/College Station to stay the night with Pamela (daughter) and what else but go out to the Rock'n K for my dose of building progress. So...... That's it for the retreat. Next one will be in March 2019. But there's plenty happening between now and then. LOL

Until next blog post.....

Carla

Seamy and Laying Out

I bet you weren't thinking of quilting when you read that title. Everyone got up Monday (10/15) and got to work. Sewing up all the seams and laying out their blocks to create a quilt.

Well our time at Twelve Pines Retreat was a success. I think the gals present all agreed according my survey I had them fill out.     Fair warning the next few blog post may be on a photo overload.     A new lady to our group was working on this quilt for her son I believe she said.

And look she (Sandy) is even smiling. Before the retreat was over she completed the top. She is now hand quilting it. Sandy works across the hall from me in the Audit department.           

Then there was my over achiever Barbara Kay. She is also a newby to the group. She's fussing over the sashing. It wasn't lining up.. You know what that means........ she ripped that baby up and re-sewed it. It came out really pretty. 
See...

These are some blocks Barbara Kay aquired I think through a swap. Now she needed to figure out a layout and sew them up. See what I mean she's a busy bee.

Jane is working an adorable fleece tie quilt.

I almost forgot to share Cindy's blocks. She normally works on the tiny quilts and blocks but these blocks are big blocks.  I love these blocks in Christmas fabric! Sew pretty.
Cindy's Aunt Joanne was supposed to be joining us from Indiana but about 2 weeks before the retreat she fell and broke her hip. She had to have surgery and it's going to take her about 4 months of recovery and rehabilitation. We really missed her at retreat. All the girls wish her well in her recovery and hope she gets to join us again next year.

Since Joanne couldn't join us Cindy invited her sister to join us.
Her sister Joy created this block. Joy was a total Joy to have around. Her laugh was infectious.
Hope she gets to join us again next time I have  openings.

Donna had picked up a magazine I had thrown in the My Trash Your Treasure table last time and decided to use the 1930's prints she won during one of our Left Right Center games. It's coming together. I had saved this pattern Dressed to the Nines somewhere but I have no clue where. I made her give me the magazine back so I could scan it again.  LOL  Indian Giver, That's me.   You can leave me a comment with your email so I can email you the pattern. The pattern was from the May 2009 McCalls Quick Quilts Magazine and was designed by Jeree McDade.  Donna Marie will be adding some lace, ribbon and other embellishments.

This is a quilt our friend Sandy B made at a previous retreat. It's similar to Donna Marie's but it has a little T-shirt under the dress. It's really cute too. This one was from Fat Cat Quilt free patterns. Not if you click on Fat Cat above it will take you to the link and then look under free patterns.

Then Pat, a regular in the group is working on a string quilt based on the book "Just a Quilt by Dalen Keys. Dalen came to our guild one year and his wife helped with a workshop to make this quilt in the book. Pat bought the book.  The quilt pattern is in the children's book.

I bought the book and took the workshop back in about 2013 .   It's a fun quilt and a cute story. If I remember right Dalen wrote it with his son in mind. This is the one I made in 2015 for my friend Kim and Chess for their little guy Jaxon.

See everyone is hard at work.  All but one in this picture is new to our group. Far back left is Jane and she's been a part of my retreat group since 2014. Across from her is her friend Vicki. On the far right is my sorority sister Sheryl and across from her is her aunt Diane and next to Diana is her friend Barbara Kay. And up front left is Sandy.












Right before dinner the Retreat owner came in to tell us if we left the retreat do not turn left on Hwy 75 because the bridge is about to go under water due to flooding. We were safe but not if we left and turned north unless we jumped up to I-45.  At this time the rain had subsided.

This was our dinner. Monday night we were served a tasty chicken pot pie with salad and a dessert.  It was very yummy. Fluffy, flaky and full of yummy goodness.


After Dinner Donna Marie hung up her "Swoon" quilt top that she had started a couple of retreats ago but has finished quilting and has it bound now. She came to my office today saying she now has it hanging on her office wall. I need to go check that out.

The wall hanging isn't all that big and those pieces were rather small. Too small for me. She did an excellent job.

Then my long time friend Denise and retreater finished this sweet churn dash quilt for newest grandson. The fabric just looks grey in the picture but it's a pale blue checked. For some reason the color made me think it was made for a prince.  Then I'm sure she thinks he is a prince. What Grandma doesn't think her grandson is a prince?

My sorority sister Sheryl who came to retreat with us isn't a quilter but she is a crafter. She worked on some felting projects and was learning how run a cookie business and make cookies. She made these to share at retreat. They were really tasty good.   Her Cookie company name is Country Cottage

On Tuesday (10/16) Denise pulled out a quilt top that she's worked on at a couple of different retreats and has finally finished. She began piecing the back with left over fabric. I worked on putting the binding on my Round Robin Quilt so that it can go on Mine and David's bed when we move in December to the Rock'n K. It's a huge king size quilt. I had it custom quilted by Betty Baker @ T-shirt quilts of Texas.
I share pictures of the quilting and the whole quilt once it's finished.




It started raining today again. Water was standing around the retreat but we were high and dry inside.

Here's a picture of a couple of the quilts on the comfy beds we slept in.

 
Just for grins this is the hallway for the 4 bedrooms of 4 ladies each and on the right is the baths for each room.

It's time for bed so I'll stop for tonight.
Stay turn for the last day and a half of retreat fun and Rock'n K progress.


Until next blog....

Carla💚💜