Tuesday Archives #167: Tea Cups

Welcome to the linky party that rejuvenates your old quilting/sewing posts! 

Please click here to read more about this linky party.  

Happy Fourth of July to all my blogging friends in America.

This week's theme is: Tea Cups

Who would have ever thought a cute tea cup, an 8" square piece of fabric, a glue gun, and some Polyester Fiberfill would turn into such cute little pincushion!

We made those at the June retreat I attended and I also treated myself to a copy of Sue Spargo's latest book: Cuppa and find myself looking at it everyday as it's full of so much inspiration

It's that time of year when we finally empty our piggy banks and splurge on something quilty! Click HERE to link your post.

Please feel welcome to join us here next Thursday, July 13th, as sign-ups for the  5th Annual Challenge will begin.

Tuesday Archives #165: Stitch in the Ditch/Retreat Reflections

Welcome to the linky party that rejuvenates your old quilting/sewing posts! 

Please click here to read more about this linky party.  

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I dove into summer head first this year. This past month has found our life filled with all the joys of family visits, graduations, and Grammy Camp, all that I'm so grateful to have had. Yet, admittably, as I sit here on our patio this morning, I find myself filled with a sense of contentment as I finally greet the day slowly, with a cup of coffee at hand, my day not controlled by school bells. I can go to the bathroom, eat and do whatever I want when I want.

 With that said, as I went on my sewing retreat this past weekend it struck boldly that in the mist of teaching and adjusting to my husband's different work schedules, that I lost my time to be creative somewhere along the way. How does that happen? I'll be researching and reading about the answer to that very question and will be sure to share my "wisdom" gained here on the ol' blog. But, I can say, this weekend of sewing rejuvenated my creative spirit and I want that to continue.

I FINISHED my classroom quilt top:

I caught up on my May and June Scrap Dance sewing: 

I can't wait to see these come together next month.

And finally, I finished this QUEEN size lovely that I started at last year's retreat:

Need less to say I have quite a bit of quilting ahead of me as I set out to make these summer finishes.
I also came home with many new, crafty project ideas that were discovered through given demos. This makes me excited as they will add a fun variety to my daily creative habits. Stay tuned!

With that all said and done, I best get to to this week's linky huh.

      This week's theme is: STITCH in the DITCH

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WIN quilt batting this summer. Click HERE to read how.

Recipe for a fun retreat!

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes on having a great retreat! I'd read your comments while at retreat and just smile at the wonderful virtual quilting guild we have here among us. So here's the recipe to a great four days away...sewing!

Ingredients:

One very nice hotel located in a small mountain community.

Rainy, windy weather outside.

A large room filled with quilters.

Your own little spot. 

Now mix in a little fun and laughter!

Yep! EVERY time you used your seam ripper you had to pay a nickel. I think I put $1.50 worth of nickels into that there little jar. But, darn didn't win the jackpot. Boy that would have totally bumped up my Piggy Bank Challenge contents huh! Bummer!

Using trader's dice, we played using fat quarters. I walked away with these six.

Lucky me, three that I can contribute to the I-Spy swap! This was a fun game.

Oh man, and what is quilter's retreat without a jelly roll race!

I would have never been able to do this without the help of my friend Lori.

Seriously this was kinda hard. I mean I was sweating and my machine was shacking!

But I finished this wonderful little masterpiece in 39 minutes and 36 seconds!

(I was trying to cross my eyes in this picture, but I obviously didn't accomplish that.)

I won a charm pack for coming in second place. YEAH!!

And soon after I received the nickname: "half inch" as my seams fluttered like ruffles as they were soooooo big!! LOL!! One participant even asked: "Don't you have a quarter inch foot." I responded: "Yep. and even an automated 1/4 inch setting." The room rolled in laughter and thus my nickname was created! (Go ahead look closer...so funny!)

It may have turned out smaller than everyone elses, but those seams aren't coming apart!  I'm going to add a black border, back it with some minky and it will make the perfect classroom reading quilt don't ya think. The kids will love it. Oh! Everyone's cracking up in this picture below because my neighbor in the white announced I should turn mine around so we could see all my pretty ruffles!

Fabrics used from left to right: Chipper by Tula Pink, Eden by Tula Pink, Polka Dot by Moda, Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille.

We both worked on our raw edged flowers/nine patch quilts. Lori layered her flowers in threes and used all pinks and browns.  Pretty huh!

My flowers have four layers and I used a lot of Kim Diehl fabrics and some wovens.

Both of these will be queen size quilts and I think we are both about half way done. Pre-cutting all our flowers and nine patch squares saved the day for sure!

We all went home very happy campers and now need to get unpacked and set up at home.

Thanks again for your well wishes and as you can see, my retreat experience was fun and productive! (Though I don't think we'll get a lot of empathy from our husbands as we now complain about be so tired. Seriously, we never went to bed before midnight!) Speaking of fun. Please do share your favorite retreat memory or/and if you have ever participated in a crazy jelly roll race. 

Tomorrow we'll be rejuvenating  Farmer's Wife posts.

Off to RETREAT!!!

My quilty friend is due to stop by and pick me up later this morning, and LOL! this is how we're feeling! The retreat doesn't officially start until tomorrow at 10am...but once we found out we can get into the sewing room by 1:00 we said: "Let's go!"

I'm almost packed and find myself anxious to start sewing as I have literally spent the last two days  cutting and cutting and cutting more fabric. Blah! My arm is sore. But! I have two quilt kits all ready to go. (Plus what seems like a billion other little projects I won't even get to...LOL... 

But we never know what mood we'll be in will we.) 

I'm looking forward to having a wonderful variety of quilty creations to share with you next week and just wanted to drop in to wish you a great rest of the week and Happy Father's Day celebrations.

REMINDER: The deadline to mail your I-Spys quares is June 22nd.

Still time to rejuvinate your Flag posts here.