Retreat time again

It's that time for meeting up with my friends in Wisconsin for some serious sewing this week. It's definitely too cold for anything else!!

I can't wait to see what everyone will be working on! I'll be posting daily!!

I'm also going to offer a big giveaway!! Check back for details!!

X-rated

This isn't quilty but funny nevertheless!

I saw the back of this car in the airport parking lot last night. Hysterical!!

Sort of quilty: I saw this little table in Bend and fell in love. Looks like a quilt to me!

We are having a big weekend: our son is getting married in our house !! His fiancée is from Germany and her parents are flying in for the weekend. We are expecting beautiful weather!

We will have the kids too!

Sewing next week!!

My North Carolina purchases

I exercised great restraint when we stopped at two quilt shops, one of which was the amazing Mary Jo's!!

I only bought a little while trying to focus on my 25-patch as well as one of the blocks I made at Bonnie's. Looking at them now, I wish I'd bought more!! Vbg

Then there is the Tula Pink fabric with racoon eyes!! Not sure what I'll do with it though. 

I love what I got at Mary Jo's:

Now to sew something!!

A little shopping

Time to head back home to California! We had such a blast; it was sad to leave and especially so because Lori is stayng a couple more days. I need to get home to babysit tomorrow, which I'm very excited to do. Haven't seen the 3 darlings in 10 days! Not to mention my sweet husband Mark!! 

We had to make a quick stop at the amazing MaryJo's, which I visited many years ago the last time I flew through Charlotte. I didn't buy much, though. Per my dear friend Debbie Dodge, I don't need any more fabric. Since when is "need" part of the thought process??

Here's a glimpse of part of the shop:

Pretty vast and impressive. The prices are higher than they used to be but they are still cheaper than most quilt shops.  We all managed to do a little damage:

Look at this cheater hexie fabric I found (but didn't buy)

Once at the airport, I had t rest my feet as only a Southerner does:

I'll post pictures of my purchases over the weekend. 

Dipped in Chocolate

I participated in a swap a few years ago for a quilt called Dipped in Chocolate. It is basically a bazillion 4-patches. Remember when my package was seized by the post office as a perceived terrorist package?? This is the package!

I brought them with me to North Carolina as one of my projects...perfect for mindless sewing with friends who are laughing and telling stories!

This is just a small pile of them, which are 1-1/2" finished! The strips are 1-1/4".

I got a fairly light solid for the sashing. I was able to use Bonnie's Accuquilt to subcut the strips! Love that machine

It'll be cute when it's done and was perfect for this week's retreat. 

Back home tomorrow and babysitting Friday!

Another deviation

I really am getting tired of 25-patch blocks and I'm feeling I need to use some fabrics from my stash so I'm taking a break from the project. I think I sewed about 45!! I am shooting for 72 so I'm more than half way there. 

Bonnie showed us a cute quilt she had seen recently so I decided to make one of the blocks. It's really an album block, which is a favorite of mine. 

I was using my 2-1/2" strips 

I started with a regular 9-patch and then added a light-red-light strip on each side along with a light square centered. 

Then it just needed to be squared up being sure there's a 1/4" seam left along each edge. 

Cute, Hunh?? It measures about 8 1/2" unfinished. 

I'm now going to work on another project I've wanted to do for a while. It's a quilt called Dipped In Chocolate with a gazillion 4-patch units that are very tiny. I'll show you that next. 

We are about to go for a walk through the very chilly North Carolina hills although we have nothing to complain about. No snow here. Hearts go out to everyone on the east coast. Be safe. 

Variety is essential

I am the type of quilter who gets bored sewing the exact same project until completion so I needed a break from the 25-patch quilt. Unfortunately I didn't bring much fabric with me nor many projects. 

So being with the scrap quilter Queen of the world, I didn't have to look far for ideas for something to break up the monotony. Not only that but Bonnie has a great assortment of scraps to play with, of course!

She had made this block recently  for Quiltmaker (July/August 2012 issue) and it was sitting on the design wall, tempting me!

So I  decided to make my own sample block:

I did bring a bunch of reds so I was able to throw together these darling 9-patch blocks which will finish at 3". 

However I didn't bring any golds so I hunted in Bonnie's scraps and found a yellow:

On point, sisters next to each other:

Block measures 8" finished; the yellow/blue unit finished at 2x3; 9 patches are 3"

This was the view this morning from the front porch:

Back to the 25-patches