My Personal Sewing Retreat

Two weekends ago, we had our PMQG mini Sewing Summit and last weekend, I had my very own personal sewing retreat!  Hubby and I went to the beach for the weekend.  Back in December when we were here, I accidentally left my wedding ring behind.  We knew no one would be back anytime soon, so we decided to come down near Valentine's Day, retrieve my ring and have a relaxing weekend.  With no guests to entertain this time, I brought my machine and a few projects.

I did some dishes...

And I Swooned a little...

The problem with sewing other places is when you do things like throw a stiletto in your bag instead of your seam ripper.

But I learned you can rip seams pretty well with your curved embroidery scissors!  (I forgot my 1/4" foot at the mini Sewing Summit  - I had my open toe foot on the machine and forgot to change it).

A little rant...
Even if you are not making a Swoon, you may have heard about the very tight cutting requirements when using FQs.  There is no room for error, or less fabric than a full FQ.  So, when your FQ has almost an INCH of selvedge, well, that's a problem!

I also did a bit of work on my embroidery project (which I'll blog about next).  It was a very productive weekend - and with views like this, very relaxing too...

Lilly had a good time too!

Scrappy Dresden Plate Quilt-a-Long 2

I'm just cranking out these Dresdens!  I think I'm a bit addicted.  They are so much fun - and I'm really enjoying the hand stitching.

True to form, I hadn't bought enough background fabric when I bought the fabrics last year.  When I realized it, I ran to my computer to see if I could still find some.  I think I found the last two yards left!  Whew!  Allegro Fabrics came to my rescue.  And look how cute...love when you get your fabric order tied with ribbons and looking like a little gift.  (Besides, I get to add to my ribbon collection.)

I see more Dresden plate quilts in my future!

PMQG Sewing Summit

Last Saturday the PMQG held our first (and I hope annual!) mini "sewing summit".  It was a great day and we had a great space to work in thanks to one of our members ...

Here is my set up...

We even had a couple Featherweights with their very own tables - very cool!

The day ran from 10am-5pm and consisted of two workshops, free sewing time and lunch.  The first workshop (darn, no photos, left my camera by my sewing machine and didn't feel like climbing over folks to get it) was a color theory class by member/fabric designer/quilt pattern designer Jessica Levitt.  Jessica brought stacks and stacks of fabrics (which I wanted to hide and take all of it home with me - that girl has a fantastic stash!) for us to play with.  Jessica lectured, showed examples on a big screen and had us break into groups and do a number of hands-on activities with fabrics and paint ships.  We were given stacks of fabrics and we were to sort them in value order - harder than it sounds! With the paint chips, we were to find all of the colors of the color wheel.  It was fun!  Great workshop - I learned a lot (and I have studied color theory before).

The afternoon workshop was with Sujata Shah who taught a class on curved or "organic" piecing.  I had never met Sujata before - I would love to take another class with her.  Before she taught us her technique, she showed us a number of examples of quilts she had made.

This was a technique workshop - no real pattern.  I didn't get a whole lot done, but got the gist of it and think I understand the technique pretty well.  This is what I got done during the afternoon...

You can see the gentle curves.  I think I'll keep going on this to make it a bit longer and then I'm thinking of using it as a background for some applique.  I'm sure the PMQG blog will have photos of more pieces done by members in the workshop.

All in all, it was a great day.  I love getting together to sew with friends.  I'm looking forward to our next guild sewing night!

Bargello Quilt-a-Long Week 2

I finally got back to my Bargello table runner.  Oooohh, this makes my head hurt.  I guess trying to follow the bargello pattern while simultaneously trying to half listen to a tv show and download all of my music and photos to transfer from my PC to my new hand-me-down Mac is not the best way to go about it.  You (well at least I) need all of your faculties focused to do this properly.

So, I'm half done...

The reason I am only half done:  You also need to pay attention when you are sewing all of your strips together for your second tube that you sew them in the same order as when you sewed the first tube together.  And if you don't, hope that you realize it before you cut all of the 2.5" strips, or you'll be ripping out three seams on every stinkin' strip.  Don't ask me how I know.  

More next week.

Here's some more eye candy for you.  Last weekend we got together with some dear friends to have "our" Christmas (a little late this year!).   One of the gifts Jamie brought me came all the way from Japan!  He was there on business in early December - only for 48 hours - but made it a point to go to a quilt shop and bought me a yard each of these beautiful Japanese fabrics!  The selvedges even have Japanese characters on them (but I forgot to take photos of them).  I was thrilled with these!

And look at this cute little bag (I love cute bags)

I've already got a couple of ideas for these beauties!

Another Year of Schnibbles - Full House

I finished my first month of Another Year of Schnibbles.   The pattern for January was Full House. 

I'd seen Carrie Nelson's version as a pillow using Countdown to Christmas fabrics.  Great idea!  I had lots of leftovers from making my CtC twister quilt...

And thought the pillow version of Full House would make a perfect companion.  Except I had to take some liberties.  My leftovers were not a "charm square" 5 inches, but 4-1/2 inches.  No problem, I just worked with what I had.  And, then I forgot to cut a square of the "house" fabric to put on top of the "door" fabric, so my houses look more like barns.  But, it's all good, and I love the pillow....

I used that great Merry Christmas fabric I had for the back...

I decided not to stuff it yet, since I won't be needing it for almost a year, to save space.  So, I'll put it away as is, hope I remember I have it next December, and stuff it then.

AYOS - one month down, 11 to go!

Sinta and Sherri will have the AYOS Parade on the 1st so you can check out all of the other Full House entries!

Swoon-a-Long Block 2

Second block completed!  These blocks are so satisfying to make.  I guess because they are so big.  These are the fabrics I chose..

From the stack...

And, ta-da!  Here it is...

And I only had to rip out one section that I had sewed backward.  That's an improvement!

This block was similar to my first in its color scheme.  Next block, I'm picking totally different colors - got to mix it up a bit!

Breaking News! ... I'm going to MQX!!

I'm just about to bust.  After months of waffling, I bit the bullet and made my reservations to attend the Machine Quilter's Exposition in Providence, RI, in April.   Hubby convinced me I really should do it (and since there's a B.I.G. birthday coming up soon, it will be a b-day present). 

I went to MQX  a few years ago when it was still in New Hampshire and had the best time.  The classes were wonderful, I loved being immersed in the whole atmosphere of the show and I met friends there, new and old!  To cap it all off, after I got home I found out I won the prize Shopper's Basket.  I was overwhelmed at the box of goodies that came in the mail.  In fact, I saved founder, Janet-Lee Santeusanio's voice mail telling me I'd won (because I'm a real nerd like that).

 [photos of the 2009 banquet]

[these ladies were sweet enough to let me join their dinner table - you're never a stranger with quilters!]

Since I waited so long to make up my mind, the class I really wanted to take (Mastering the Art of McTavishing) was already full, but I'm wait listed and I've signed up for a pantograph class and a "what do I quilt on that" class by Karen McT.  I'm also going to the banquet again.  So, I'm sure I'll have a blast and I'll have to pack an empty bag for the goodies I'm sure I'll find!

Back to reality...
Last weekend (love those long weekends!), besides working on my quilt-a-longs,  I managed to finish my Hope Valley string quilt top...

 Still have to decide how to quilt this one.  And, there's a ton of paper to rip off the back!