September Finishes

Last week I was busy getting ready to ride back to Camp Blanding in Starke, Florida. I love these retreats and they are so worth the time and effort it takes to get there. Gloria, Vicky and Heather of Olde Green Cupboard are a great team and do an outstanding job of logistics and corralling us all. We had 100 or so women in the Simms Center while the Armory is being renovated.

Before we left, I stitched up my Painted Pony #7 Clubhouse block; I think it turned out pretty good.

my #7 clubhouse block

Paula picked me up Wednesday afternoon and we started our trek across the south. We drove to the east side of Pensacola Wednesday and then Thursday morning we drove into Starke. We got set up and once again I got to enjoy the “retreaters” life and it is a good, good life.

I worked on my inner sashing between all my blocks on my Jo Morton, S’mores and then I sewed up my 36 of my pieced setting triangles. Since we resized the blocks and that did prove a challenge making sure the setting triangles. Paula was gracious enough to test my calculations and thankfully they were correct. I got it as far as I could.

Next up was my Arkansas Crossroads. Since I’ve been doing miniatures, I got the idea to use the extra fabric that I would normally cut off and throw away. I made a seam across the block to create a half-square triangle. I got them all stitched and trimmed away from the original block. I played with a few of the blocks; they will finish at ¾ of an inch. They all need to be trimmed up, but they are ready for me. Ha! I needed to make twosomes, then foursomes, and then sets of eights. Little by little I got all the blocks pieced together. The background I picked was a little busy and I was sure worried that it was going to all fade in together, so I had to go ahead and do one block before I got them all done. What a relief, it was going to work. Wahoo!

flip and sew

saving the leftovers

my left overs

my HST in the making

cutting off the leftovers for HST

my half blocks done

I had to sew up one block to see how it was going to look.

my 20 blocks on the design wall

I also got 6 of my little paper pieced pineapple blocks done. If I do say so myself, they are pretty cute. They finish at 2 ½ inches.

Paula and Mary Ellen of Red Crinoline Quilts are working up a new lines for Houston Festival in a few weeks and they have their first book published. It is pretty exciting for them and the book looks great! I got to look at it while we drove over!

a teaser from Red Crinoline Quilts – a must get at festival

their wonderful new book, another must get

The last few years Paula has worked up a swap for our group. She makes up the design and then we have a year to make our blocks and we turn them in and it seems like Christmas. Last year we turned in our churn dash blocks and this year we turned in our 6-inch (finished) sawtooth stars. Next year we are going to turn in half-squares of two sizes to make Belle Meade. All the ladies are pretty excited to get started; it is going to be fun.

Paula and Mary Ellen sorting all the sawtooth stars

Belle Meade – our next exchange

Paula and Mary Ellen sorted all the blocks and they even gave us a pretty cute bag for our blocks. Guess what, I have another project to finish. Ha!

My birthday was Saturday and after lunch, 4 ladies took me to Rachel’s Farmhouse in MacClenny. It was a great store, she had fabulous prices and a great selection, plus she had fabric and wool. I took a few pictures of some of her goodies and some of them just had to come home with me. Gloria even got me the cutest little chair for my birthday. It is so cute, thank you Gloria. I can’t wait to put in the retreat house.

my birthday card that my Momma made me

love this seed scale

love this cabinet stuffed with wool

fabric and antiques, what a way to go

love this strawberry basket

my new treasures

Heather, Gloria’s daughter is very talented too. She has a gift of making critters. She makes some of them out of mohair and then she crafted some of them out of painted fabric. She even made some little chickens and an ear of corn. I got to come home with Mr. Wise Guy and she made two more to fill orders while we were there.

Mr Wise Guy by Heather Lynn

Heather’s creations

Pat M did some meander quilting for Red Crinoline quilts and it looked so cute. Now I just have to figure out how to do it. Pat made this cute little quilts and I picked at her and told her she could give it to me for my birthday and she just laughed at me. She just teased me with it until Sunday and then she gives it to me. I told her no, but then she said it was for the retreat house. I can’t wait to hang it up over there. Thank you so much Pat, it is just adorable and I love it!

this is Pat’s cute little basket quilt

Since I was a passenger, I got to stitch on my Primitive Gatherings, Somewhere in Time blocks. I still have a lot more to do, but you know what I say…progress is progress.

i was able to get this stitched up, except the yellow centers

and started stitching this on the way home

I am truly blessed; I hope you are blessed by your daily threads. Love and hugs,
Ronda