Thursday, April 28, 2011

Quilt Retreat April 2011

Oh, it was good to see my quilting friends again!! We met in Provo on Wednesday the 6th of April. I drove from Farmington, NM and the others came from Shelley and Montpelier, ID. Those who attended were Jill Wray, Debbie Searle, Mary Hobson and Ilene Kendrick. We missed having Dana Searle and Ann Ahrendsen with us. Our family just didn't seem complete!! Hope you guys will be able to come to our next one!!

Debbie kicked her son and new wife out of their house in order for us o stay there. We kept them supplied with good food, so hopefully they will forgive the intrusion!! Below is a picture of the living room BEFORE we moved our stuff in. Bet you can't wait to see the after shot, right?


Well, here we are all moved in. You can barely see the floor for all the threads!! Lot's of stitchin' going on!! It is hard to believe that it is the same room, huh??



SHOW AND TELL:

I will start with Ilene. Ilene made the cutest "topsy-turvey" doll. She bought a Little Red Riding Hood book to tell the story with the doll. Below is a picture of Little Red Riding Hood.

Ten you turn Little Red Riding Hood over and you have her GRANDMA.

Then you turn Grandma around and there is the WOLF! She gave her little granddaughter Payton one and then she made another one to keep at her house. Story time at grandma Ilene's will be a cherished memory.

Ilene had the cutest fabric tool box by her sewing machine. It has tons of zippered pockets and pouches to put everything in! Hoping Ilene will share her pattern! :o)

Okay, you won't believe this! Ilene gathered pillow cases and made this adorable apron!! Talk about "REPURPOSE"!!!

Ilene seems to be the QUEEN of re-purpose! Below is a quilt top she finished at our Retreat. It is made from SHEETS. I can hardly wait to see it all quilted. I am going "SHEET SHOPPING" Say that fast 10 times! LOL

Then Ilene gathered up her old denim jeans that she had been saving, added some red plaids and came up with this fun denim quilt. I want to see this one finished as well.


Next we have Mary. Jill gave us a pattern for a quick table runner. Mary dug right in and made one. Below is her finished table runner that she made at the retreat and Jill is showing hers that she had made previously. I will get one made SOON!!

Mary worked on this wall hanging/table topper for her daughter. I love the newsprint fabric she chose as the background fabric. The bright words are words that reminded Mary of her daughter. What a lucky girl to have such a "cool" mom!! Good job, Mary!! I can't wait to see this all quilted. Hopefully Mary will take a picture before she gives it to her daughter.

Next is Debbie. This is a quilt that Debbie made for her son and daughter in law. (They are the ones we booted out of their house). This was on their bed and oh, did it look stunning. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

Below is a quilt made from her son's T-shirts. What a fun memory quilt!! I know that he will cherish this one forever!! What a sweet Mom!!

Debbie started working on this quilt at our last retreat. She got so many projects done last time! This was a huge task, but she finished the top. This one was for her granddaughter. She went shopping with Debbie to pick out the fabric. I LOVE the colors of this quilt!! I want a picture of the finished quilt!! Back and Front!! SEW CUTE, Debbie!!

Now we have Jill, our over achiever!! Can you believe all that she got done? Here is her picnic quilt. I love how the log cabin blocks were made to look like watermelon. Notice the black seeds on each watermelon.
Jill got busy and made this quilt out of SHEETS as well. I love the pinwheels!! The vines really add to make it a beautiful spring quilt. (Debbie showed us a quick way to make pinwheel blocks. I tried it and it works so slick!) CUTE, CUTE, Jill!!
Jill completed this applique quilt while at the retreat. I know she got more than this one done. I just didn't get pictures of all the things she had finished.
Jill is the Home Ec teacher at the middle school in Shelley. She has her kids doing so many fun things. The Jar quilt below was made from jar blocks that her students made. She is going to hang this in her room. How cute is this!! It looks like a regular pantry!!
Below is the finished Bountiful harvest quilt from our last retreat that Jill finished. Do you see where we got the idea for the canning jars? Jill had the fabric at one of our retreats and we had to have a shelf with jars of fruits and vegetables on it. I LOVE this quilt!!
Lastly is me (Susan). Ilene and I had swapped 4 inch blocks most of last year. I put them together in this quilt top. I thought I had the borders all finished, but lacked 2 blocks on each side to finish the border. I do have the quilt finished. I will show it in another post. This has turned out to be one of my most favorite quilts. Thanks for the swap Ilene. Do you have another idea that we could swap? :o)
I found this pattern at one of the quilt shops that Roger and I stopped at. It is an Amy Bradley pattern of a Fabric Addict. I had to get it and make me one. This one is mine with her bolts of fabric, purse, shopping bag, fabric remnant in her pocket and fat quarters stacked on the fabric bolts.

After making mine, I knew I had to make one for each of my "Sewing Sisters". Below is a picture of them in their underwear. (Victoria Secret has nothing on them!)
Here they are fully clothed. I had a lot of fun making these for everyone.

I didn't get a picture of all the gifts that were made by everyone. I will try and remember the fabulous things that I received. It is always like Christmas and even better because we all get what we want!! :o) If I forget something, please refresh my memory!

Mary: Made the cutest apron out of a dish towel. She made the top part from the cutest fabric! Mine had spools of thread. She also made a pin cushion out of a little truffle tin. Then she made the cutest fabric purses to carry credit cards and business cards in. She even gathered a few quilt shop business cards and put them in it. Then she gave us copies of some patterns that will be so fun to make. Thank you, Mary!!

Jill: Jill gave us patterns for her quick table runner and other patterns to make. She had a wealth of wonderful ideas that has my head still spinning!! She also kept notes of the retreat. All this and she had a broken ankle!! We just couldn't stop her from "hopping" around! Jill, I hope you are all healed soon!! Thank you, Jill!!!

Debbie: Debbie had a cute little Easter basket filled with goodies. She has taken it upon herself to keep us with copies of the BEST recipes that everyone has made at the retreats. There was a bottle of Sewer's Aid to put on our thread, a snap and store tool caddy, some Renew intensive skin therapy, a measuring tape to make the Snap shut bag she gave us the pattern for. Plus she gave me some awesome stuff that really helped my sore infected finger AND.... The foot massage and pedicure was AWESOME!! I had never had one before. I felt like I was in heaven! Thank you, Debbie.

Ilene: Ilene made everyone the cutest cosmetic bag. She is the QUEEN of bag making. These have a zipper with a tab to hold for easy zipping and unzipping. They were all quilted and lined. You know that I am going to be using this bag forever!! Ilene also had so many good books that she had read which she shared the titles with us. Ilene always carries with her some awesome quotes that she has read and shared those with us. Thank you, Ilene!!

Here we sit Saturday morning after all of our stuff was packed up and the house was cleaned. As you can see.... none of us have a smile on our face. It was very sad to leave. We look forward to the next retreat! I think it will be in September? Waiting to hear on the date... :o)

Here is our poor crippled Jill. I hope she will be able to toss those crutches soon!!

I can't forget ALL the wonderful food and snacks that everyone brought. I have tried a couple of recipes on Lorna and Bill. Amazingly, no flies were killed or harmed in the process!!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!