Thursday, February 26, 2015

How To Recharge Your Batteries



Every year I go to a quilt retreat in Phoenix. My first retreat was over 10 years ago now and I really enjoy seeing my friends who also attend year after year. We laugh, cry, sew, eat, visit and laugh some more. It really is a wonderful time and we all come away with our batteries recharged. Over the years we have developed wonderful friendships that we continue online on about.com quilting forum. This year I wanted to do something special for each retreat attendee so I decided to make one of these little "thread catchers" for each and every one. I made a total of 36 so there were a few extra. They are all different so that everyone would have the fun of choosing which one they wanted out of the group. I hope that when my friends take these out and use them they will think of me and smile. 

I do think I have made enough little "thread catchers" for now. Since I have been home I have been washing my fabrics that I acquired in Phoenix and putting away my sewing supplies. What fun we had. I am already looking forward to next year. I will be posting some of my projects soon. I was able to begin my Scrappy Trips Around the World and have been working on that daily since I got home so it will be done by the time good camping weather comes around (it is for the bed in my trailer). I also almost finished the hanging sleeve for my mountain majesty and will be showing that in a separate post, likely with snow as a backdrop as we are expecting lots of snow the next few days.










 This last one is for my daughter. She chose the fabrics she liked. She is going to use hers for a place to put her jewelry at the end of the day.






Monday, February 2, 2015

Sometimes It Is The Little Things

 
 

 Sometimes it is the little projects. I have not been able to get a chunk of time lately to work on any of my projects. I have been so busy with lots of little projects though. I am going to a quilt retreat in a couple of weeks and made the little robin mug rug for a game.........everyone will end up with someone else's mug rug. He is paper pieced from a pattern I drafted. I had found something similar on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. I am not sure I would want to make a quilt with these as it was rather labor intensive. I do like the idea for just a single block........such as a 6" mug rug.



 I have been working on my crazy quilt class and added a few more seams. I am now ready to move on to the silk ribbon embroidery section of the class.




 I also made a couple of blocks for a comfort quilt for a friend whose husband just passed away. I really enjoyed making these blocks and think this would be a great stash buster project for sometime in the future.