Quiltathon Weekend

This weekend Judy is hosting a Quiltathon over on her blog. My plan for the quiltathon is to cut projects out for the annual "Christmas Present Quilting Retreat" that I'm going on this week with my quilting buddies. I can't wait!!!

We're going back to the retreat center this year. It's not that far away from home, but it feels thousands of miles away. All of our meals are cooked, so we don't have to worry about bringing food or going somewhere else to eat. We'll have fun listening to Christmas music, and quilting all day and into the night. Of course I'm bringing my Christmas quilts for our beds and my wallhangings to hang in the room where we will be sewing. I'm so excited!!

I have lots of projects to bring with me, but I have a lot of cutting out to do first. That's what I plan to do for the quiltathon. I like to get my cutting done before hand so that I can sew full speed ahead! I always bring more that what I will probably be able to sew, but just in case I get really fast (I'm not that fast at sewing), I don't want to come home to get more projects. I like to stay busy!!

According to Kim's Christmas Countdown Clock on her blog, Christmas will be here soon. When I visit Kim I try to avoid looking at the clock because I feel a panic attack about to take over at any time!!! It's a good thing I'm going on a Christmas Present Sewing Retreat!

I have lots of Christmas presents I want to make. However, for the retreat I am sewing on things that need to be quilted by Terry, my best friend and a long arm quilter. Little things like purses, pillowcases, and wallhangings that can be quilted by me will be saved for later for sewing at home.


Alexis loves Hannah Montana. When she saw Terry's Hannah Montana quilts that she made for her grand daughters hanging at our quilt show, she asked me to make her one, too! The quilt has Hannah Montana t-shirts, Hannah Montana fabric, and

pictures of Alexis dressed as Hannah Montana that I printed on fabric. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to put this quilt together. It's sort of stressing me out, but I think between Pat Sloan's Crooked Cabin Quilt book and a little bit of losing control and being wild and free, I should get it together quick.


All of the grand kids love the movie Cars and they are huge NASCAR fans. I thought the boys would like this for Christmas. I found it a couple of years ago in Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine.

It uses a panel

and these fabrics.


I'd like to do some projects for me. I fell in love with this from Nancy Halvorsen and called Betty to see if she would make a kit for me. She did, and that was 3 years ago. It would be nice to finally get it done!


In my fall decorating I showed you my dining room table with a quilt as a table cloth. I usually have a lace table cloth, but I can't tell you how good it makes me feel inside when I glance into my dining room and see a beautiful quilt draped on the table with some pretty fall decorations. I want that same feeling for Christmas, so I was looking through some scraps and found a bag full of christmas scraps from Robyn Pandolf's Holly Go Lightly collection.

I didn't have enough for another quilt, so I went to Quiltshops.com, searched for Holly Go Lightly, and several quilt shops popped up on my screen. Between Fabric Shack, Tennessee Quilts, and fabrics from my stash that coordinated well, I was able to get enough fabric to make the quilt for my table.
Here are my greens,

my reds,

and some lights.


These little stripes will add some pizzazz
I can be "free and wild" with fabric, but when it comes to making a quilt as I go (Hannah Montana), not so much. My hands are sweating just thinking about it! What's with that?

And for a week now I have been trying to figure out what pattern I am going to use for my dining room Christmas quilt. After many searches through quilt books, magazines, and google, I finally decided on the disappearing 9 patch, a tutorial that I have had on my blog for a year and a half. Simple, but beautiful...that's what I'm hoping for.

There's more quilt projects in the plan of me getting a lot accomplished during these 3 days and 2 nights, but I can't talk about them because other family members read my blog, and I don't want to spoil the surprise!

So, did you participate in the quiltathon?

Amanda