Christmas Sewing Retreat

This week I am going away for a few days for sewing friends annual Christmas Sewing Retreat. We usually go to our friend's cabin (huge, 5 bedroom house) on a lake. This year we are decided to do something different, and go back to Mt. Saint Josephs. We'll sew all day and night, crash under our Christmas quilts in our dorm, laugh and giggle, and have a great time like we always do!

We each bring our own projects to work on. Last night I stayed up until 2am getting my project ideas together. Boy did I get a lot done!

Here's what I got together.

1. I started making my husband's nephews a twin size baseball theme quilt three years ago. There are 17 baseballs on each one to machine applique. I am appliqueing the baseballs before I go because I don't want to spend my vacation appliqueing baseballs!

2. A red, green, and black circle quilt for my oldest daughter. Her new home has the red, black, and lime green theme throughout her house. I thought this quilt was contemporary and fun for a young woman. I think she'll like it. I bought a lime green and black butterfly batik at Hobby Lobby for $2 a yard for the back. I love bargains like that!


3. My little grand babies love to cuddle up and watch Nascar. Yes, they are HUGE Nascar fans. Their favorites are Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. They love to watch movies, too. I thought a quillow and a matching pillow case would be adorable for them. A quillow is a quilt with a pocket on the bottom of the underside of the quilt. When they are all cuddled up with their quilt they can put their sweet little feet in the pocket to keep warm. When they are finished with their quilts, they will fold their quilt up, slip in into the pocket, and it looks like a pillow!
Here's one sort of like it, but it will have to be on a smaller scale. I am using "Car's" fabric for the boys, and a bright floral for my granddaughter.

4. I am making me a Christmas wall hanging that Pat Sloan designed. It is from her book Quilt Through the Seasons.

5. Every grand baby has a signature quilt for their first Christmas. Everyone they see during the Christmas season signs their name on the quilt. It's really a neat idea that Terry (BFF) had when she started getting grand babies. This one is going to have Gingerbread Men and Peppermint Candy! It is designed by Terri Christopherson (Barbara Brandeburg's sister). It can be found in this book! The one I am making for my grandson is smaller. People can sign their names in the peppermints!


It looks like I have enough to keep me busy while I am there! For right now I guess I better get back to appliqueing baseballs! Maybe later I can show you which Christmas quilt I decide to take on my trip with me!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have so much to be thankful for!

Today my husband, youngest daughter, and I are going to Terry's (BFF) house to celebrate with her family. (My oldest daugther is celebrating with her children's other family, and my son has to work.) When you live away from "home" (our family is 12 hours away) your friends become your family. I learned that 18 years ago when we moved from Louisiana to all of the other places we have lived.

It will be nice not to have to do all of the cooking. We are taking the cornbread dressing, corn pudding, and oatmeal cookies(they love my oatmeal cookies!) On Sunday we will have our own traditional Thanksgiving dinner with my oldest two children, and the grandkids. Kids love tradition no matter how old they get.

Let's see...what am I thankful for? Well, my blog would go on forever if I wrote all the things I'm thankful for. However, I will tell you that I am so thankful for all of you guys, my bloggy friends. Your kindness, your willingness to share ideas, your encouragement, the laugh out loud moments, the comments you leave me, has meant so much to me. I am truly thankful.

Have a great day!


***I apolgize that I haven't posted in a few days. Terry and I went to watch our kids in the Christmas parade and I left my camera in her car! She lives in the country, so I told her that I would wait until Thanksgiving when we come to her house. I thought I would be okay, but I didn't realize how often I shoot pictures! ***

Anna Maria was Great!!!

Did you see it? Anna Maria did so well on Martha.

I love her fabrics, and the craft idea that she did with Martha, was great! I never thought of stretching fabric over a canvas frame, and then painting it! Enough of me talking about it; go here so you can see, too! Just click on the "Martha" icon. From there you would click on "November 15", and then to "painted silhouettes.

Enjoy!

Anna Maria Horner visits Martha today...

and that's a "good thing". The show will be taped live! How nerve wracking that would be! I would probably have a panic attack or do something so embarrssing!

Anna Maria is a fabric designer, quiltmaker, Mom, and so much more. Be sure to check out her new website.

Good luck, Anna Maria!

***Call me goofy, but all week I have had the dates wrong. Anna Maria is not on today (November 14), but she is on tomorrow, November 15! Sorry for the confusion.****

Fall is in the Air!

I love Fall. In fact, I love everything about it. I love the colors, the cooler weather, apple cider, pumpkin spice latte's at Starbucks, pumpkin scones at Great Harvest Bread Company, my pumpkin gobs, ...oops! I knew that coffee and food would somehow make the list of my favorite fall things.

You want to know something odd? For some reason I don't have a lot of Fall themed quilts. Of course I have Halloween, but I don't have many Fall wallhangings or quilts. That doesn't mean that I haven't started any. I have good intentions. I start something and then the season is over and I think to myself, "Oh well. I'll get it done for next year". Or I have bought fabric to make a quilt and haven't started it yet. What's with that anyway?

The other day I was putting away my Halloween decorations, and I decided it was time to make something with a Fall theme. I was piddling around in the sewing room, and I came across this cute little wallhanging I started 4 years ago; four freakin' years ago! Instead of starting something new I decided to take Mary Ann's challenge again, and Finish Something.



Isn't he adorable? I didn't buy anything new, however it was tempting to start over with Sandy Gervais' Fall Back in Time fabric line. I was so proud of me...I used what I had started the project with.

I even tried some thread painting, which I had never done before. I used verigated thread, attached my darning foot, dropped the feed dogs, and away I went. I was so proud of me. Now that was something I probably wouldn't have tried 4 years ago when I started the project. I think it looks pretty good!


That was so much fun I think I'll piddle around in my sewing room again and see if I can find anything else!

Christmas Fat Quarter Exchange

I have noticed that a lot of bloggers are already thinking about Christmas. I thought you all might enjoy doing something fun with your friends that I do every year with my friends: A Christmas Fat Quarter Exchange. (That's me over in the far right corner with wreaths on my sweater.)

When I lived in PA I always hosted a Cookie Exchange with my friends. It would start out as breakfast, then lunch, then an ornament exchange, then cirlce around the dining room table gathering cookies. It was so much fun.

About 5 years ago I started a quilting bee with about 10 friends from my quilt guild. We call ourselves "The Girls". Every month we go to each other's homes to sew. We bring our sewing machines, hand work, and enjoy spending the day together.

It seems it's always Christmas when it's my turn to have "The Girls" to my home. The first year I started missing my Cookie Exchange parties, so I decided to "tweak" it a little bit. Instead of exchanging cookies, we would exchange Christmas Fat Quarters.

In case you don't know what a fat quarter is, it is an 18"x22" piece of fabric. When you go to the fabric store and you buy 1/4 yard of fabric, it is 9"x45". To get a fat quarter you would take 1/2 yard of fabric and cut it in half, therefore giving you an 18"x22" piece. It is still a fourth of a yard, but it is a more usable piece of fabric. Most quilt shops carry fat quarters, or you can find them here.

Each person buys 2 1/2 yards of two different Christmas prints. That would make 10 fat quarters from each fabric. (The more people you have, the more fabric they will need. For example, if you have 20 people, then you would need 5 yards of each fabric.) They cut them into fat quarters, fold them pretty, and wrap with a bow.


Everyone comes over around 9:00 am. I serve them coffee, breakfast casserole, fruit, and monkey bread.

They find their spot to sew, whether it be on my kitchen table, in a comfy chair, or on the couch!

My neighbor's daughter always stops by for tips on knitting or embroidery. I think this year is the year to teach her how to quilt!

I give away door prizes which usually consist of thread, rotary cutter blades, and seam rippers. It seems those things come in handy to have when you can't find yours at midnight!

I serve lunch, which usually consists of sandwiches, soups, and party foods like a cheese ball, seven layer dip for chips, spinach dip, and whatever else I can find in one of those cute little recipe books you find while standing in line at the grocery store.

Dessert is always my Italian Cream Cake, of course!

Although the sewing and eating is fun, what's more fun is to load up on fat quarters. We lay the fat quarters out on my kitchen island. We line up behind each other and start gathering fat quarters! It's always fun to see what everyone brings.

Hopefully this inspires you to host your own Christmas Fat Quarter Exchange. If you do, please let me know!