So Thankful....

This is late...

I normally post a blog somewhere between Thursday and Sunday, depending on if I have guild meeting, TAS meeting, or just am busy-out-my-ears with my real job at my husband's company.  But this week was really different.  We went to the Eagles concert Saturday night and didn't get home until 1 a.m. Sunday morning.  That was reallllllly late for two old-timers like us who are usually flaked out on the couch by 10 p.m.  But it was so worth it -- three hours of nothing but the Eagles.  We rocked it out.

Then I was exhausted Sunday.  And we're getting ready for the Thanksgiving holidays so I'm feeling the same time crunch that every woman feels around this time of year.

So let me get you caught up on what's been going on.

1.  My second mystery quilt is almost done!  The center is together and two of the three borders are on.The third border is cut and on my sewing table, waiting for me after Thanksgiving.

2. The center of my next Round Robin is completed.  Even the paper foundations are off.

3.  I've started on my fifth Hop to It block.

4.  I'm halfway through the applique flowers for the border of my Indian Summer quilt.

5.  I'm halfway through the embroidery on Evangeline's Easter dress.

6.  My Glacier Star corners are almost ready to go on the center.

7.  My NQA block is FINISHED.

8.  I put another row on my Dear Jane and sashing on three blocks.

9.  I finished the top to my charity quilt I started at the retreat.

Pictures will follow soon on all these projects, but for now, let me wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving...my blog will return the week of December 1.

Love and Stitches
(and don't eat too much....but be thankful in all things)

Sherri

Everything Old is New Again (or What Goes Around Comes Around...)

I've sewn off and on since I was in high school (and no, I'm giving out THAT date).  It was more off than on until 1986 when I had my daughter, Meg.  After her birth, I learned how to make her clothes, smock, and do French heirloom sewing.  The child dripped in lace until she was twelve.

And suddenly everything changed.  She didn't want all the dresses and lace.  Target came into our town and suddenly it was cheaper to buy her clothes than make them.  And I was working and in grad school.  I didn't have the time to make hers or her brother's clothes.  I learned to piece and quilt partly because I still wanted to sew and have my hands in fabric.

But for twelve years I made nearly everything she wore.  I thought I would never, ever forget how to make little girls' dresses.

Now fast forward more than a few years and I'm the proud Mimi of a darling granddaughter, Evangeline...

Annnnd now I'm pulling out all my Children's Corner patterns and browsing the Simplicity Children's Patterns section once again. I mean...how hard can it be, right?  What's that old saying?  It's like riding a bike?

Come to think about it, I haven't ridden a bike in years.

I pull the guide sheet out of the pattern, read over it and promptly put it back in the envelope.

Oy-vey.

I had forgotten how much work this is!  Quilting is so much easier!  Good thing this is her Easter dress and not her Christmas dress!

I did discover that my serrated applique scissors are the best in cutting the patternout -- I mean if you can't use a rotary cutter....

My flat head flower pins are great for pinning, but darn, the patterns are more difficult than I remember.  All these lines and dots and notches.

And did I mention part of the bonnet and yoke and hem are hand embroidered?  And a 5/8-inch seam allowance?  Is that even marked anywhere on my New Horizon 7700?  That seems so huge after sewing 1/4-inch seams for 25 years.  And buttonholes?  I have to learn how to do those again -- and that was two sewing machines ago!

I will persevere.  It will be done before Easter.  Maybe the night before, but it will be finished.

I don't think there is any danger in me making all of Evangeline's clothes.  I may make her Christmas dress, her first day of school dress, and her Easter dress, but I think that's all the garment making I can handle.  Give me my quilts!

Drop Everything and Just Quilt! Retreat 2013

It's hard to believe that last week this time I was with 30 of my closest quilting girlfriends and we were having a blast at Haw River State Park and our guild's annual "Drop Everything and Just Quilt!" retreat.  It was wonderful.  I got a lot of little stuff done and the center of a charity quilt.  I put half my Dear Jane put together -- and that was a spiritual journey, friends.  More prayers and tears have gone in that quilt than I care to think about.

Anyway, this blog has a ton of pictures.  So sit back and be ready to be amazed.

This is what my foyer looked like before I loaded up to leave.  Notice the quilting supplies outnumber clothes and make up.  Who cares what you look like on retreat?

And then there are the necessities...Wine....

And food.

We had a lounge to sit  round and talk in....

But mainly lots and lots of room for our machines and frames....

Lots of projects were completed....

But the one thing that thrilled my heart?  Our guild's warm-hearted generosity.  When some of the ladies discovered that Ranger Kelley's house caught fire earlier in the year, they promptly decided to make her a quilt.  One of the members donated the blocks, some of the others sewed them together, another member quilted it, and then a group of them bound it.

These are pictures of the completed quilt, front and back, and the label.  The final picture is of Ranger Kelley receiving her quilt.

So you can see, the guild is not only comprised of a bunch of ultra-talented women, but also very generous ones!

I promise I will have more to post about At Piece with Time and other burning topics next week...including the quilt that started it all for me.

Until then...

Love and Stitches,

Sherri