It's been several weeks since I've posted here. I've been very busy, indeed. After I returned from Maine, I was consumed with helping my son make his big move from WA state to Madison WI, as well as caring for his cat until he moved into his apartment, and making sure his cat and our cat didn't get into too many screeching fights. Believe me, if you've never experienced the thrill of waking up from a sound sleep at 3 AM because the cats are screeching at each other, you never want to!
At any rate, the cats learned to tolerate each other for the 2 weeks they were together, and Dan managed to get most of his stuff moved to his apartment, and we managed to deliver the cat and other things he'd left here in between foot deep snowfalls and polar vortex temps of super cold. And now all is back to normal.
Before I forget, I also managed a 4 day quilting retreat in between all this moving activity. I joined a few friends at Lakeside Lodge Quilting Retreat near Medford, WI, and we all quilted our brains out!
This is the rear of the retreat center, nestled in among gorgeous pines,
and this is the view from the rear windows during the time I was there, frozen lake and snow covered grounds, and a boat that wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
But inside the building it was toasty warm and fun, fun, fun! Debbie, the owner, comes in 3 times a day to cook for her guests, and she does a really wonderful job of it. The first time I went here, I came home about 10 pounds heavier, but this time, I only gained a pound. But it was really, really hard to resist second helpings! Debbie's my kind of cook--she believes in dessert for every meal, including breakfast!
After I returned from the retreat, I finished the dozen placemats I was making for the Meals on Wheels program--all from scraps I had no use for--and made another dozen placemats and napkins for the fundraiser my granddaughter's participating in later in February. These I made from 6 coordinating fabrics I'd bought on a whim several years ago and never found a use for. Of course, I forgot to take a pic before I sent them off, but the fabrics have an old fashioned woodcutter's theme so I thought they would be good for a cabin or other rustic setting. Hope they bring in some dollars to help Lily's group go to the competition in Boston later this year.
Before I went on the retreat, I experimented with several block designs I'd created for a donation quilt. In my town, we have a truly beautiful "jewel box" theater that is over 100 years old and which has unfortunately sprung a leak in the roof. As soon as I learned that the repairs would be over $70,000, I knew I had to do something to try to help out. Of course! I would make a quilt that they could raffle off . Last summer, Lily and I took lots of pictures of the theater, especially the windows--both leaded and stained glass, and I designed quilt blocks similar to the windows. I settled on 2 designs and made up all the colored blocks before I left for retreat, and I planned on making up the alternate blocks at the retreat. I got all the blocks finished but for 5 of them so all I had to do when I got home was a few blocks and then borders. This morning I put on the last of the borders, and here's the quilt top, laid out on the spare bed.
This quilt will be throw size or possibly twin size when it's finished.
I'll be doing some free motion designs in the centers of both the colored and neutral blocks and I want to use a lot of feather motifs in the blocks as well.
My original plan was to quilt lots of curvy feathers in this border, but the fabric says, "Just follow the curvy lines already there and call it good!" We'll see how much time and energy I have when I get to this part!
I really like how the border fabric picks up on the colors of the blocks in the center of the quilt. All of it's done in batik fabrics, again, mostly scraps and yardage I already had. I have enough of the multi colored border fabric to make the binding as well.
And the last thing I want to include in this post is a picture of the embroidery I worked on these past few evenings. This is from Kathy Schmitz's book, Stitches from the Garden, and it's a gift for my hand physical therapist who has done wonders in restoring function in my hand after the surgery. I realized that Monday is probably my last appointment with her so I made this up quick. She and I talk about our gardens as she's
That's is for today. I'm going to head for the sewing room and begin the quilting on my son's throw quilt that I'd pinned over a month ago and which had to take a back seat to all the other projects I had to finish. Or maybe I'll begin working on the bag I want to make up out of some really cute cat fabric. Hmmmm.
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