Pi Day at the Pie Plate Retreat!

Lisa prepping her class sample

The View from above

From my Hudson Bay class

This student reversed the placement of the light and dark

Playing with all the blocks

Lisa finished her quilt top!

Shipwreck

I spent Pi Day at the Pie Plate Super Spring Retreat!  It has been the usual fun time!  We still have another day left to play.  My good buddy Lisa got a personal project finished.  I will let her tell the story.  She is also participating in the Blog hop giveaway party.  To enter my giveaway go to this post and leave a comment.  Since I am here at the retreat I am not drawing a name until late Saturday night.  Lisa forgot to bring the foot pedal for her sewing machine so she has been sewing on mine.  I have been knitting like crazy on my Shipwreck shawl.   Lisa has to leave today so I will get some sewing done this afternoon.

My classes went over really well!  I love log cabin blocks and it is always fun to put all the student's blocks together to see the design emerge.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.  Have a great weekend, National Quilt day on Saturday and St. Patrick's day on Sunday!

Quilt show in Moab

I loved the large, funky floral appliques!

I have always loved these blocks.  I have 2 ufo sets of them.
Well, maybe 3 sets.  

Someone had a good sense of humor!

Reminds me of a Water Polo quilt I did years ago for my daughter. 

Sandra's Cheddar Mini.

The quilting really highlighted the print in the center of each block.

Another quilt by Sandra Starley.

Very vibrant colors.

I love that she entered this quilt even though it wasn't finished!

Love the graphic design of this one.

My favorite of the show!

Sweetie took me to Moab to attend the quilt show that the local guild is hosting.  We had gone about 5 years ago and thought it would be fun to go again.  Moab quilters do a great job of putting on a small town show.  They had more vendors than last time and quite a nice selection of quilts in the show. They were also hosting a couple of classes, but I did not sign up for them because I didn't think we could get there in time.  Which was good because the drive took longer than usual due to a snowstorm at our end of the road.

I saw several people that I knew and really had a good time. Sweetie took the puppies and went on a hike.  We stopped at the local quilt shop and then the nice yarn shop.  I bought some hand-spun yarn.  The wool is grown locally. It is going to make a wonderful cowl.

This is my off the wall post for the week.  Check out what everyone else is doing at Nina-Marie's blog.

Also check out my previous post, I am having a giveaway for the Beat the Winter Blues blog hop party!

On my design wall this Monday!

One Block Wonder

Swap blocks

Yesterday I put up some one block wonder blocks on the design wall.  I had wanted to work on this project at Bryce, but ran out of time.  These blocks have been tucked away in a bag for over 6 years and I thought it was time for them to get finished. I am not happy with it yet.  It isn't working right now, and I thought I would let it cure for a few days and then rearrange the orange.  That seems to be dominate right now.

In the mean time I am working on some swap blocks that I need to get in the mail this week.  I need 12 sets of 13.  I have 3 sets cut, with one set sewn.  It is a quick block so should go smoothly.

This is my Design Wall Monday post for the week, check out what everyone else is up to at Judy's blog.

Woohoo! A completed quilt!

Now it just needs a title.

My FMQ faves, stones and posies.

A little while ago I had blogged about working on this piece from a Sandi Cummings class.  Ok, it was a bit more than a while ago, it was mid November.  I had gotten all the quilting finished and just needed to tuck the threads and bind it.  So it has been pinned to the design wall waiting for me.  I finally decided it is time to tuck those awful threads and get it finished.  Well it didn't take me nearly as long as I had expected to tuck the threads.  I am a "tucker" and not a "take 3 tiny stitches and clipper".  I found that I like the way it looks when you tuck the ends.  It might be my FMQ skills, I always get big clumps when I try to take 3 tiny stitches and clip.  I would love to hear what everyone else thinks about this problem?  

This guy needs a name and I am totally drawing a blank, I am open to suggestions, thanks.

Off the wall

Tada!  Ooops!

The corners should all look like this . . .

. . .  and not like this!

I finished the quilt top from the class that I took at the retreat.  Actually finished it twice, once I thought I was finished and then realized, despite my careful pinning procedure, I had sewn on one of the borders upside down.  It is fixed now.

Last week on Off the Wall there were so many wonderful ideas presented by the participants.  One that I decided to try was blogged by Linda.  She showed how she made some Valentine postcards with fabric that she had drawn on with sharpies and then brushed with rubbing alcohol.  I had to try it out.

My sample piece of fabric, sharpies and brush.

Just some simple shapes and swirls.

It worked!

I just used the wrong side of some junk fabric lurking in my studio.  One thing that would have worked better is to use a much larger brush.  It took quite a bit of time to go over all the lines with the tiny brush.  I think that with a larger brush you could go over the entire piece of fabric quicker.  I have the last round of a surface design round robin to do and I was thinking of using this idea.  

This is my Off the Wall and THIFF post for this week!

20 a day

So I missed sewing on Monday.  I was driving down to Ruby's Inn near Bryce National Park for a quilt retreat.  I did knit for at least 20 minutes (probably an hour or more) so I am going to count that.  And since I have been at the retreat I have sewn quite a bit every day.  I finished the binding on the t-shirt quilt last night!

SNOW!

The best design wall ever!  You layout the blocks by the pool area
and then go to the 3rd floor to preview.

Pool area.

Pool area, another view.

My good friend Anne's daughter Aliria is going on a medical volunteer mission in May.  If you are interested
in helping fund her way, please donate and you could win a wonderful art quilt donated by Anne.

This is my off the wall post for this week.  Also my THIFF!

20 minutes a day- how hard can that be?

How hard is it to hold 2 fabrics together?

Coming along

I made it through the first day of the Drop and give me 20 challenge.  I sewed for at least an hour.  When I wasn't picking out seams or rewinding bobbins.  First seam I sewed today was not a success.  How hard is it  to hold the fabrics together while feeding them through the machine?  Apparently quite difficult.  And how hard is it to wind a bobbin?  Well, when you don't pay attention and the thread jumps out of the gauge and winds itself under the bobbin, yeah kinda difficult.  I persevered and made it past the little hiccups.  I have most of the blocks ready.  There are 3 more to go and then I can puzzle in the spacers.

Monday I am heading to a quilt retreat that is held at Ruby's Inn just outside of Bryce National Park. It is always a good time!  The first two days is the pre-game show.  We go early and just hang out and sew.  Sometimes wine is involved.  Ok, most times wine is involved.  Wednesday evening is the official start of the retreat.  There are classes and lectures and a vendor mall.  We also like to do some walking and snowshoeing.  The drive through the park is fabulous this time of year.  The red rock is lovely during the summer, but even more so with the snow.  

This is my off the wall post for this week.  Next week I will be reporting in from Bryce!  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.