Holly Girls Retreat - a trip around the world

I had a lovely week at Holly Girls Quilt Retreat. This year’s theme was “Trip Around the World.” Of course, I had to make mine from one inch cut squares.

I had my usual spot with a view of Elk Lake. Using a layout from an antique quilt I arranged all of my squares of Oakshott cotton and prepared to piece it together.

I pieced the quilt into nine smaller parts before putting it all together.

I had an organized system of making little fourpatches and keeping them in order. By making fourpatches first I could get all of the seams to twirl as shown in my tutorial.

I love the finished look of these tiny little Oakshott cotton squares.

The back has an interesting look too. Since the squares finish at 1/2 inch, the seems meet each other when pressed.

I loved this technique and kinda want to make another one. I’m planning to quilt this one in the ditch to avoid interrupting the flow of color between the squares.

I worked on a couple of other projects at retreat so stay tuned for those.

Thoughtful Sunday

Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation.

"The Elephant and His Son," Fables, Arnold Lobel, 1980.

Sewing Camp

I offered one week of sewing camp this summer and I was delighted with this group of campers. They made pillow cases, draw string backpacks, and pj pants. In the photo below they are cutting out their pj pants. 

They were pretty efficient at getting the projects finished so we had time on the last day to try some embroidery stitches. 

The barn works very well for camp. Early in the week we used this wagon for cutting, pinning, and pressing. The last day it was a great gathering spot for learning embroidery.

I have five featherweights set up in the barn and each of the campers claims a sewing spot for the week. 

They were all pleased with their finished projects. I even saw a few of their items with ribbons on them at the community fair!

Sew Days

Well, here we are on the first day of school. Who knew summer was going to be so busy. Well, I guess I should have known. I did manage to squeeze in two sewing days last week. I got this sawtooth postage stamp quilt top put together! 

Next, I pulled out this years old WIP. I am 'this close' to having the strips finished and getting the top together. It will be a simple design with red in between the applique strips.

Thoughtful Sunday

“Such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them.
"If one were to sting me," He thought "I should swell up as big as I am!” 
 

The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Now we have no more cookies to eat," said Toad sadly. "Not even one."

"Yes," said Frog, "but we have lots and lots of will power."

"You may keep it all, Frog," said Toad, "I'm going home now to bake a cake."

Frog and Toad Together, Arnold Lobel, 1971.

Unpinned - a string pieced quilt

Here's my latest quilt finish. This top went together really fast. I pulled the string pieced triangle and square units from my basket of pre-made string parts, and found they fit together perfectly. I played around with the positioning of the pieces and finally decided on the pinwheel effect.

The background is quilted with feathers. I made a template for the spine of the feather and marked it in each section. The feather lobes were stitched free-form to fill the space around the spine.

That red print with the yellow apples in the photo below was left over from a blouse I made back in 1975, and it might be the last little bit of that fabric that I had. I left it un-quilted.

This border print worked great as as a backing fabric.

My photo helpers had a bit of fun during the photo shoot. 

This short wall behind our barn has always been a favorite place for climbing and jumping. 

The finished size of this quilt is 60" by 84". 

This quilt and others from my book, Every Last Piece, will be hanging in a special exhibit of my work at the STITCHES midwest show in Schaumburg, IL, August 2-5.

Wordless Wednesday - the quilt photo session edition

Summer

Summer seems to be chugging along at a speedy clip. Every spring I think that I'll have SOOOOO much more time for sewing when school is out. Then once we are into summer we are busy with camps, gardening, vacations, reading, lazing about and a bit of travel teaching for me.  

You would think I would have learned by now to just sew when I can and relax about it. I have so many projects turning in my head and I'm eager to work on them. 

I'll have time to make them when school starts back up, right?

Thoughtful Sunday

"Teach us Delight in simple things, 
And Mirth that has no bitter springs."

"Children's Song," The Puck of Pook's Hill, Rudyard Kipling, 1906

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I thought I'd bring back the Thoughtful Sunday posts I had on my blog a few years ago. The premise is a quote from a children's book paired with one of my photos. I'd like to get back to daily photo sessions with my fancy DSLR camera and thought this might give me some focus. We harvested our garlic this week but I didn't take any photos. This is a photo from 2011. Previous Thoughtful Sunday posts can be found here.