Quilt retreat, Part 2.

I have spent 3 wet and muddy days weaning calves in the yards this week, discovered I do have some muscles in the back of my legs! That mud was very deep by the finish!

I can't do a Pioneer woman and show you a heap of photos of this as I am the cowboy...and I am far too busy pushing bulls and big cow's bottoms out of my face before they decide that kicking me is a good idea, to take any photos! And I also struggle enough to always be in the correct spot and DH wouldn't understand that letting a few calves through was fine in the interests of a good pic for the blog!!
So we will have to stick with more photos from retreat-and a few from the Saturday Quilt group I visited for a few minutes yesterday before catching up with friends to see Mamma Mia. I really enjoyed Mamma Mia-though Pierce should stick to Bond rather than a possible musical career! My girl really loved it-have heard nothing but Abba in the lead up or since! Small aside, I thought I should chat to her about the "3 possible father storyline" before we left. I bought it up and was promptly put back in my place, she looked at me and said, "Mum, I've known all about that for weeks-but I am not going to DO it!!"
Retreat pics....
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Helen's Roman Holiday.

An interesting effect with Chris' Kaffe fassett.

And her other one.

Anne finished this cushion and at Saturday Quilter's yesterday she was working on this one.

One of the Saturday ladies was working on Sunbonnet Sue for her Great niece. The needle turn applique was perfect. She is now hand quilting it.

The Chocolate cat was at the Saturday group, she received this lovely bag in the mail this week.
It's another possible idea for Linda's bag swap.

This is going to be my new pot holder, it is some of the edges I trimmed off my bed quilt, all sewn together-you know I hate waste! I kind of like the effect they give and it's nice and thick.
Off to clean my office benches...oh what unbridled joy!
Have a great day, Tracey

Quilt retreat report. Part 1

I am back, and just organized...and rested...enough to post some photos from the weekend.

It was a cold and rough weekend, just perfect for sewing in front of the fire with beautiful views of a very rough ocean.

A few views for you.

This used to be a place for eating-but that became more a job for the couches. Table space is in high demand with 8 sewers.

The lounge area, all the window views are ocean on a grey day.

Another work area, it did have couches until they were relocated or put in my bedroom. They were replaced with my big fold out table. The floor was the design board. The only trouble was the fact i couldn't sew and see the Olympics from my position on the black chair, I had to listen and bob up when exciting stuff was on!

I have a big array of show and tell pictures, they will have to come in installments. Here are a few.....

Anne's Roman Holiday.

Jane's table runner.

Jane's appliqued bugs.

And, in the 25 plus hours I spent sewing, this is my main achievement. It was SO windy and rough trying to get a good picture!

I Used the different backings like I had thought I might so one foundation block was quite a thick cotton quilt (from the op shop for a few dollars) and the other foundation was an old woollen blanket, same boutique, similar price. You can see the two backings in the pic below.

The fabric was a set of fat quarters I think I got on sale last year, from the Dominique range. At this stage the 2 metre plus quilt has only cost me about $60. You can't see any difference at all in the quilts thickness when it is on the bed-and it has pased the sleeping test the last 2 nights. So I would give that experiment the thumbs up to anyone who has the same problem.

Have a great day, Olympics to watch and people to feed! Cheers, Tracey

Quilt retreat

I just tried to do a Wikipedia search for the 7th August, in the hope that something exciting happened on it (other than me being born!)...but it seems everything notable happened either side, including Hiroshima, John McCarthy being freed, etc, etc. so I have to stick to the big news that starts with the fact that August 7 is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 146 days remaining until the end of the year.
But the clincher, for those of us who are freezing down here... is that the 7th August in
The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through its summer and the Southern Hemisphere half way through its winter on this day.
Oh also, these are about the only people I know who share my birthday.....is there a chance Charlize and I are identical twins I wonder (Ha Ha!)-just a small matter of 6 years difference-and some small facial feature discrepancies that may make it easy for our mother to tell us apart!!
1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress

It is 11:37 pm and I think I have successfully filled the kitchen floor with enough projects to take on my retreat so I am off to bed. Thanks for all the different quilt weight info. I think I will still give a varied one a try on the weekend but i will keep the other ideas in mind. Sounds like i am not alone!
I drank far too many coffees with friends on my birthday, and ate far too much cake-so a great day! Hi to Suse, sorry I missed your call!!
See you by Monday with lots of show and tell, have a good weekend, Tracey

The continuing story ........

Now, who have we left???

Kerrin, another of our newer quilters, working on her version of post and rail.

This is Sue's. Made entirely from stash, it is for her soon to arrive potential step grandchild!!!(Yes, that is a mouthful!) It is mainly hand quilted. Well worth a click to look at more closely.

Christine was finishing a few things for her sister who is struggling a little with arthritis. Chris didn't think she would have any problem with sharing this beautiful quilt with you. It has been long arm quilted at a town about an hour from here.

Christine also had another finish to share........
I love the simple pattern and colours here. It is beautiful in real life.

On the day before I left I received some fabric from Jenni at Fairybread. The transit looked perfect for a single bed quilt for my Godson who turns 4 next month so I combined it with the shirt fabrics and went to work. He is one of 7 so I enjoy going to some extra trouble for him at birthdays and Christmas. His entire family(all 9) have the flu at present so are being fed by the neighborhood, lucky they like my soup!

Here it is in the wind at the beach, and with a few additions, here it is now.

Yes, I know everything I stuffed in bags at the end of the retreat needs a good iron and this also needs a red strip above the "Tracey version of Tonya's lettering" but I am not feeling that energetic, I will only have to iron it again in a week or two to baste anyway. It is a generous single bed size.

Need your advice on the next one. This pink and green baby quilt is from 2 scrap bags (i am going to get so many projects out of each scrapbag!) I like it without the ADA lettering and I like the ADA lettering by itself but I am not sure about them together. ADA could just become a name wall-hanging and the quilt could be separate

.

It is for the baby of one of the 3 sisters whom I spent a good few years babysitting in my teens. Megan gave birth to Ada 10 weeks early as a result of pre-eclampsia but she is going very well now.

Have another couple of my quilt tops still to show you from the weekend but Blogger is getting antsy so I will keep them for next time.

A range of quilts ...or "shaggy" is the new black!


Hi, after tenaciously holding off the full chest cold, sore throat and general miserableness over my sewing weekend, I have finally given up today and cancelled the day's engagements.


We are up to a showcase of progress from the retreat, always great to get to see other's work.


Shaggy quilts seem to be the flavour. We have some new quilters and the design especially appealed to them. It is also a great project to complete in a weekend, though the cutting of all the seams seemed to be a big process. I have never made one myself...I suppose it is somewhere on the list but everyone's good work and ideas on the net keeps relocating its list position!





Jane and her shaggy quilt, I think it would be queen sized. Jane's only been quilting in the past year and already managing to be very prolific, while fitting in teaching as well.








A close up of her fabric choices, actually, I probably don't need to do that, I think everyone knows to click on the photos to make them larger? This quilt now needs to be washed and probably dried in the drier to achieve the shaggy, almost chenille look, in those open seams.




This is Kath's. It is for her grandaughter, another Milly!




Now we have Anne's shaggy. Anne is another very new quilter and I think this is her first quilt finish, after practising on some cushions.




The next is one of Sue's long term project, her colourwash-in progress. She has spent a lot of time sourcing just the right fabrics. I am not sure that one of these would suit my personality!!I would go crazy with this amount of fussiness, but I like them.


Christine's shaggy, which she got together with a minute to spare! Just needs its clipping done.

This is Robyn's kit from the Fat quarter shop. She completely got it together over the weekend, other than attaching that pinned row and I think one more. She may have finished if she hadn't stopped for cocktails........she also got a lot more hand quilting done on the quilt I showed you a few weeks ago after our group met.

Blogger has now decided to go on picture strike so I will post the last few girl's with mine tomorrow, Tracey