We Interrupt this Blog for a Quilt Retreat....

No new blog this week, folks.  I'm just about ready to leave for Haw River State Park for the High Point Guild's "Drop Everything and Just Quilt!" retreat.  Four days...count 'em...four days of quilting, good friends, and good wine.  Theressa and I are leaving at 9:30.  I'll have pictures and the details next week.  Meanwhile, everyone have a great weekend and get some stitching in!

Love and Stitches,

Sherri

Everything Old is New Again

I am looking forward to my guild's retreat next week.  I will be happy to get away.  The park where we're staying at is really sort of isolated so cell phone signal is spotty....Yea!  I have to walk to the top of a hill to call Bill every morning and let him know I'm okay and then I'm good for the rest of the day. No phone.  Just the girls and the quilting.  I. Cannot. Wait.

But getting ready for this has really taken up more time than I expected. I feel as if I've gotten nothing done this week.  Which isn't true, but it sure feels like it.  And starting tomorrow afternoon I need to get my projects all lined up and bagged and tagged to take with me.  Theressa and I leave Thursday morning.  

But meanwhile back in my little quilt world, I do have a new possession.  My son was in a thrift store last weekend and happened upon this....

It's an 1887 New Home treadle.  I have sewn on New Homes for 27 years.  This is awesome!  I can't wait to get this Mamie Jane (what it was called in sales brochures) next to "Big Red" -- my New Horizon 7700!

Love and Stitches!

Sherri

Berry Good!

It really seems like this week has been a little of this work, a little of that work, sprinkled with a few meetings.  It's a week where I've worked very, very hard in my quilt studio, but seem to have very, very little to show for it.  I guess it seems that way when you're working on a zillion projects at once!

First, I have finished all the vines on my setting triangles for the medallion star in At Piece with Time.  Yea! No more bias tape for a while! Now I'm working on putting down the berries on three of the triangles and then the birds' nest on the fourth.  I knew going into this quilt that I wanted to deviate from the standard white/off white/cream/and-any-of-a-mix-of-the-preceding. I wanted to play with colored backgrounds and see where that directed my palate and fabric choices.  Turned out the fabric that I assumed would end up as berries looks way too orange on the background.  So I went hunting through my batiks -- because you have to love them, there's something there for everyone and every situation -- and found a bright pink that screams berries, but doesn't stand out too much.  Since the pieces on this part are kind of small, I'm still using the back baisting.  I will probably move to freezer paper on the larger flowers and leaves.  I am just glad I don't have any more vines for a while! And while I will teach machine applique on this quilt, I don't think I will personally use it.  When my applique pieces are this small, I prefer the control that hand applique gives you.

It all looks a little funny until you start putting the caps and stems on the berries and then add the leaves.  But trust me...it works out.  Rome wasn't built in a day and neither are applique pieces.

I'm still plugging away on Hop to It, although I probably should not have chose the colors I did.  I'm getting a little tired of flowers and rabbits and vines and may eventually end up putting ol' Hoppy away for a few months just to give us both a rest.  I think if I had followed my heart and went with more vibrant colors, I would be more enthusiastic about her.  So let that be a lesson!  Use your color wheel and your heart!

Meanwhile, it's less than 14 days until my guild's "Drop Everything and Just Quilt!" annual retreat.  I can't wait!  The best thing about the whole adventure (beside the point where I have my favorite wine and my favorite ladies for four whole days), is that my cell phone doesn't work where we go!  So it's completely uninterruped quilting and sewing and fellowship.  I'm riding down with Theressa on Thursday and have already started packing....

In that stack of stuff is a charity quilt I just cut out, a block for my teaching certification, a dress for my granddaughter, a needle book I'm making, and my next Round Robin contribution that I need to show you next week (I puzzled until my puzzler was sore on this one).  There is still more to pack up, but at least I have a start!

Love and Stitches....

Sherri

Challenge Quilts

So I promised pictures of the Applique Society's Chapter Challenge Quilts.  These are real eye candy and inspirational.  The Society -- which is kind of like a national guild -- has chapters that meet all over the United States.  These are quilts from seven of the chapters in the United States and Canada.  The first place winning chapter received $200, the second place received $100, and the third place chapter received a huge basket of fabric.
Here's the first place winner:

Here's the second place winner:

 Here's the third place winner:

And here's the rest: