Retreat Weekend

Our annual bee retreat at Homestead Cabin Retreat in Wisconsin. (Click on the title to be taken to the website.)We had lots of fun and sewing time over the long weekend. Here are some pictures of the quilts that we were working on....

Sandy worked on a reversible jacket...

Haloween Witches

Quilt tops finished from previous years

An unfinished table runner tuned into Quilters Lingerie?

My car-pool buddy.

Making new friends.

Quilting into the wee hours of the night.

A dangerous spot to quilt in!

Even Patsy was able to quilt with us for a while.

We are already looking forward to next year!

Bear's Paw

There is just something about two-color quilts that I love. I had the pleasure to quilt this beautiful Bear's Paw quilt top, pieced by Barbara White.

Free-hand feathered background quilting.







Feathered Borders









Love the spiky border.














All done...

Under Construction

No, I have not fallen off the edge of the earth, it just feels like it. Our home is under construction. Every room is covered with sheets, plastic, dust and dirt. We started much needed repairs in October. Since then, Mother Nature has not been cooporating, as it has been well-below normal temps, rainy and damp - prolonging the whole project.

It's a good time to be inside, tucked away in my quilting studio. So I have been quilting -- to the pounding beat of construction hammers.

In the beginning of the month, I joined our guild members for a retreat in lovely Racine, WIS. It was so nice and very productive. I finished a quilt top made from my fabric stash and added quotes from Psalms (from a panel). I think it turned out nice.

My good friend Donna from Dixon was able to join me. Take a look at that snack table - we could live off that for a week!

Retreats are great - we laughed and ate and learned from each other. Did you know you can put Vicks Vabor Rub on your FEET, (cover them with socks) and it will cure a cough? Go figure! You had to be there for the corn and cabbage stories!

Faithful Circle Quilt Show

I went to a local quilt show last weekend put on by the Faithful Circle Quilt Guild. These ladies do a lot of hand-applique and hand quilting. Here are a couple quilts that I really liked.

This one is a wedding quilt - hand and machine pieced, hand quilted by Mary Kuettler. Beautiful!

Lady of the lake blocks with a wonderful appique border. Proverb 31:10 at the top and words around the quilt. The appliqued words turned out great!

Baltimore bunnies - how can you not love it?

This one really caught my eye. It's made with flannels and the blocks are set on point. The name of the pattern was not mentioned.

Such a simple block - a couple HST and a square in the middle!

Great color combo - machine pieced.

This black one is made from simple, colorful squares with a bit of black appliequed over each block. Striking!

Scrappy quilts. The one with the tiny pieced blocks won Best of Show.

Debbie Caffrey

Debbie Caffrey was a guest speaker at our guild recently. She uses a lot of HST (half-square triangles) and little squares. When she creates her quilts, some of her blocks are designed into quarters and a small sashing is inserted - like a window pane.

I took a full-day workshop on Power Cutting. She started with how to get your fabric on grain and squared up so you can cut accurately. Her Power Cutting method starts by placing a large ruler on the folded fabric and cutting your strips from RIGHT to LEFT. This is an efficency movement because you are not disturbing the fabric and just sliding the ruler to the left. She showed us many niffty tips and tricks to make cutting quick and accurate!

I highly recommend her books, they are well illustrated and clearly written. Power Cutting Too Book - covers HST, QST, Flying Geese and more. The Power Cutting Book is especially helpful for new quilters. Click on the title of this blog to be taken to her website to see all her books and patterns.

When you can make a lot of HST quickly and accurately, it isn't so painful to make these beautiful quilts! Here are HST in two quilts. The left-overs were used in the "Tree of Life" quilt.

19 Years

It's our wedding anniversary today. I am married to the best guy in the whole wide world! He even went to Quilt Expo with me - now there's true love!

He is very supportive of my quilting and my longarm business. He puts up with my crazy schedule - which means leaving him home to attend a guild meeting, board meeting, bee meeting, retreat weekend, an all-day workshop, a quilt show or shop hop. Usually not all in the same week! I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband. I love you Troy!

Quilt Expo Madison Wisconsin

In September I went to Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. Here are a few photos. There were many beautiful quilts on display ~ such talented quilters! Click on the photo for a closer look.

Love the colors in this underwater world!

Looks like you can take a walk right into this quilt.

Such a great quilt - she took pictures of the feeder in her back yard and transfered them into quilt blocks. It puts a smile on your face!

Here is another one with an original design. The quilter is from California.

There was so much detail in this quilt. Made from Guatamala fabrics. So colorful!

Super color placement. Made from commercial fabrics.

I love the quilting on this. Fuzzy yarn used in the yellow Iris.

Such detail! this is a wonderful quilt - too bad no ribbon! Don't you ever wonder why?

This was beautifully pieced and quilted. It took a ribbon in the bed-size category.