Remix and Stitch Lab retreat

 I'm so excited to share a wonderful opportunity with you! Mod Maker Zone (aka Catherine and I!) are hosting a creativity retreat....

Remix and Stitch Lab

Remix and Stitch lab will be a five day immersive retreat where together we will explore our creative voices and processes. There will be some sewing (improv quilting!), paper crafting, weaving and even improv comedy! 

We're so happy that mixed media artist, Dori Patrick, will be joining us as a workshop teacher. I know you'll love Dori! Every time I interact with her I feel like sunshine has entered the room. She has a special energy about her, not to mention incredible talent. 

Dori Patrick

The retreat will be held at the beautiful Sunset Retreat Center in Sunset, Texas. The retreat center has comfortable rooms, tons of work space and wonderful meals, all included in the cost of the retreat. 

I do hope you'll join us for this fun long weekend. All of the details and a link to registration are here.  Don't delay.... registration is capped at 25 and you won't want to miss out!

See you there!

so nice to sew with friends!

 Anyone else tired of the whole "shelter at home" business? Me too. While I am thankful for the safety of my family and friends, and incredibly aware of the privilege to be able to stay at home, I am also so thankful for vaccines and dropping Covid numbers that allows us to cautiously be with other humans again. While zoom is a wonderful tool, nothing quite matches being with others in person. 

This past weekend I was invited to retreat with 10 others who are all fully vaccinated for four days. What a treat!

Along with the whir of sewing machines, there was so much laughter and joy! Old friends were hugged, new friends were made and bonds were strengthened. In preparation for the retreat, I made some pin cushions for all of the attendees, using some of my woven scraps.

I finished up several projects (and admittedly started several more. oops). I've been working on my second Plaidish 2 quilt for a while now, and was able to put the final hand stitches into the binding.

One project begun and finished last weekend is this double gauze tunic (Simplicity 9113) which I love! I will say, the fabric was a bear to sew on. I did use a solid cotton for the facings which helped some. 

I feel so refreshed and ready to return to my "normal" life now.

Retreating with the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild

Last weekend, our guild had a day retreat at the Best Little Retreat Center in Texas. Such a wonderful facility... AND you get to go home and sleep in your own bed at night. Can't beat it. 

There were so many wonderful projects in the works....

I finished up a couple of children's quilt tops to send to my mom. Her church group is working on quilts for each of their Angel Tree children at Christmas...

And I finished up this quilt top, with improv Xs made with the strip sets from the Sherri Lynn Wood workshop I attended last fall. I think I'll add some borders to make it big enough to snuggle on the couch.

A fun and productive weekend for sure!

fancy foxes

Baby quilt #2 that I pieced on retreat has been delivered to it's new tiny owner, so I can share it here! I was amazed how quick the foxes went together. I had cut them out (all from my stash) so when I got to retreat I was ready to sew sew sew...

Diann quilted it in a woodgrain pattern with minky on the back and it's super soft

I loved making this one! Just might do it again. Pattern is Fancy Foxes by Elizabeth Hartman.

This is finish #3 in the third quarter of the 2017 finish-along.

Improv stripes

A few weeks ago, Debbie, over at A Quilter's Table, started an improv stripes sew along. On the first day she gave us a tutorial for how she makes her blocks. This happened to coordinate with my retreat so, after finding some internet when we went into town, I read her post and set to work! I used all black and white prints, along with black, white & a bit of yellow solids.

Once I got home, it was fun to rearrange the blocks, trim them up to make them fit, and assemble them into a finished quilt. Because I don't usually follow the rules (though admittedly, Debbie didn't make any rules, so that was helpful!) I added some appliqué flower petals to my finished top. 

I quilted it on my domestic machine, starting with a yellow spiral in one corner, then adding white lines here and there...

My finished quilt is 25" x 30". I was happy to add this improv method to my toolbox!

Check out all of the beautiful quilts on Instagram at #improvstripesqal 

and another dresden

One of my retreat finishes last week was this crazy dresden quilt! It was another one of those designs I woke up with early morning and had to make right away. In some ways I love when that happens, those seem to be my most creative moments, just before the day begins. But really, it throws everything off! Nothing else gets accomplished around here until I give in to the ideas and get them made. Oh well!

I grabbed two contrasting Kona cottons that were in my stash, my usual slate gray and a bright orange, and went to work. Each wedge is made from a seamed strip of the two colors, cut with a 9 degree dresden ruler. This means there are 40 total wedges in the spiral. I did the math & cut each dresden 1/4" longer than the previous one. I'm not going to lie, this took a while! But it was oh so worth it in the end!

I was so in love with the final result, I knew I had to take it to my pal Diann (Happy Quilts) for quilting. I couldn't risk ruining it. And I'm so glad I did!

Diann custom quilted it. Check out some of her incredible work...

All that was left for me to do at retreat was the binding!

Finished quilt is 31" square. Also, it needs a name.....

unplugged

This past weekend I was so lucky to retreat with my sewing sisters at The Retreat at the End of the Road in Athens, TX. Such a beautiful setting where I was able to disconnect (no wifi, limited cell service!) and truly be present in each moment.

this is the spot where I was able to get the best cell service. Pretty sweet!

I'm so lucky to be part of a lovely group of ladies who quilt. We call ourselves Seams Like Sisters. We were only missing one friend this weekend. The six of us who were able to go got lots done! Here are a few of the pretty finishes that came out of our weekend...

Alice's fun mini

Carol's cute modern baby quilt

Diann's house quilt

I'll share my own finishes with you in the next few posts.

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On Monday we took a field trip into town to visit Beverly's awesome quilt shop, the Needle Niche

She was so sweet to open up for us on a Monday when her shop is normally closed.

such a cute shop, and we all found some goodies to take back with us!

Ellen, me, Alice, Joellen, Carol and Diann

Such a fun weekend! I can't wait to go back.

I also realized that yesterday was my nine year blogaversary! Nine years of blogging... I never imagined it would lead me to so many friendships and adventures. Wow!

lost socks

Almost a year ago, I was sitting with my friends Joellen & Carol eating lunch at a local quilt show, planning a block swap. We had all purchased the pattern, Lost Socks  and we thought it would be fun if we all made sock blocks then swapped them among the three of us. We wanted to use our stash, so there were no parameters on sock fabric. The backgrounds were all to be low volume creams.

 After we swapped our blocks, I buttonhole stitched around all of mine on the machine, then assembled my quilt top at our guild retreat in February. It was so much fun to put them all up on the giant design wall & play with the layout! I chose not to add borders to my quilt.

I took my quilt top to Lisa and she worked her magic on the longarm. She used five different overall quilt patterns on different sections of the quilt & it looks terrific! I put the last stitches in the binding this morning.

You might also notice that it's a BIG quilt! My handy dandy photo assistant (aka hubby) was not tall enough to hold it off the ground!

My finished quilt is 64" x 80". A fun finish! Also, the fourth and FINAL finish from my second quarter finish along list! Hooray! I came in under the wire this time....

#2016FAL linking up to A Quilter's Table

return to my small world

At the beginning of the year, I jumped head first into My Small World quilt along 2. I quickly completed the first 2 sections. On retreat, I finished up the rest of the sky sections. And then..... nothing. Finally, I've gotten back to work! Section three is finished...

My favorite thing is the rainstorm I added (see it up top?). Section four is well underway & should be finished soon. Meanwhile, here are the first three sections laying together...

I am so in love with this quilt! Seeing so many finished ones on Instagram has lit a fire under me. I really want to get this done soon. Back to work!

Moda challenge

Several months ago, Lissa Alexander (aka Moda Lissa) came and spoke to our Modern Quilt Guild. At the end of her talk, she handed out little bags to all of us. Each bag contained 4 mini charm packs and some Aurifill thread. She challenged us to "make something using at least some of each of the charm packs, adding a yard or more of Moda solid or Grunge. Fun!

Last night we revealed our challenge pieces at guild meeting. Mine had been done for quite some time (I did most of it on retreat in February.) I had lots of low volume mini charms in my packs, so I combined them with the prints I had received and made lots and lots of half square triangles. My layout was inspired by this fabulous quilt. The borders are a grunge. I had so much fun quilting in the ditch around my spirals, extending the quilting into the borders.

here's the back, you can see the quilting better

Thanks for the fun challenge Lissa! 

modern coasters

Tuesday night at our meeting of the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild, we had a modern coaster swap. The challenge was to make four 4 inch coasters and bring them to swap. We got to share with the group what our thought process was making them and what makes them modern. Inspired by these, I made mine while I was at the retreat a couple or weeks ago....

Mine are constructed totally differently from hers. It was fun to make some tiny quarter square triangles for the center (finished at 1 inch) from some of my solid scraps, then add grunge borders. The modern elements in my coasters are use of solids, minimalism, use of negative space and straight line quilting.

I had so much fun making them! I even made a second set to use as a hostess gift last weekend. I can see myself making lots more coaster sets for gifts in the future.

So, the swap..... everyone put their name in the bucket 4 times. When it was your turn, you shared your coasters and your story, then drew out four names and distributed your coasters to those members. Each of us ended up with a mixed set of coasters. Here are the lovelies I came home with...

The top left one was made bye Rebecca (in my colors! I love it so much!) but the pink flying geese was done by Sarah (Sarah is the queen of tiny patchwork and LOVES pink), the Kaffe friendship star was made by Elizabeth and the text print pinwheel was made by Martha. I think they are all wonderful! What a great swap. Have you swapped anything fun lately?