Lauren's Mini Retreat

Lauren is home for spring break and after much thought decided that she'd rather quilt than study. After all, a girl has to have her priorities straight! Last summer she bought a kit of Dr. Seuss fabrics, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," one of her favorite childhood (and adult) stories. Today was spent cutting and beginning to stitch these adorable fabrics. Her few breaks during the day were spent making felt balls...what fun!!!

Floor Mats

Here are three of the floor mats I've finished...dark purple in the foreground was the sample I made for the Retreat, lighter aqua to the left is for Sally (sounded like too much work to her, so she simply placed an "order" for one...lol), and the red floor mat to the right is for Lauren. The next floor mat I plan to make is going to be a geometric design of neutral colors for Jana.

As you can see in the background, the daffodils are in bloom. The hillside behind the Studio (aka, the Cabin) looks a bit like Daffodil Hill.

New Find - Shared Stitches

This one's for you, Susan...I just discovered a great new fabric store today!!! It's just one exit north of Cameron Park Drive, where our old favorite, Sierra Quilters, was located. The name of the store is Shared Stitches and it's loaded with great fabrics (Moda's and others that you will like), lots of patterns and ideas, and a good supply of notions. So, next time you're visiting Mike, check it out. Their web site is www.sharedstitches.com. It turns out Sierra Quilters is now located in Placerville having moved for the third time. 

Others reading this might ask, "what were you doing fabric shopping when you own enough fabric to stock a small store?" Hmmmmm...well, I'll take the 5th on that one! 

Cinco de Mayo

By chance a few weeks ago, I stopped at a fabric store in Sacramento, Quilters Corner, that I hadn't patronized in over five years. I needed a quarter yard of red fabric to finish Lauren's floor mat. I was on a mission and as I told Verne, "I'll be in and out in five minutes." A half an hour later I walked out having bought the fabric, bought a book, and signed up for a class in foundation piecing (it's also been over five years since I took a quilting class of any kind). The class had been on-going since January, so interest had dwindled by the final two 6-hour sessions in March. There were just two students and two teachers. Truthfully, I learned the secrets to foundation piecing in the first 30 minutes. Thereafter, time was spent sewing (ripping a bit at first), chatting, laughing and, in general, bonding with the three women. My teachers are master quilters and overall incredible women. It was an experience I won't forget soon and definitely a turning point in my quilting journey. What fun!


On to the quilt...Cinco de Mayo is comprised of 12" blocks that are foundation pieced from fabrics of all colors, with a focus on high contrast brights. I have limited myself to using my stash (remember my "stashbusting" goals). Each square contains as many as 50-100 small pieces of fabric. To put this in perspective, each square takes between 3-4 hours to make. That doesn't include sorting through fabrics to find just the right combinations. During each class I made part of one block (yep! and that was working steadily for the six hours). To date, I've made ten blocks and thought I'd share my progress with you. My hopes are to have this quilt (about 60" square) completed by Cinco de Mayo, at which time I'll post the final pictures. Here's a picture of one of the easier blocks in-progress...

...and a few of the almost-completed blocks...

I LOVE FOUNDATION PIECING!!!

P.S. I've signed up for another class in May...this time it's hand applique (something I thought I'd NEVER do)!

Stix Retreat February 2012

Ok, I know it's been over a month since our Stix Retreat in February and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. My apologies go out to the couple of people who have checked for updates. My tardiness is due to the fact I've been totally absorbed in a new, fabulous quilting project (I'll get to that later) and, secondly, I'm new to blogging and still fumbling with this software. For example, I just spent an hour writing about the Retreat and having failed to save the document, accidentally deleted the entire two pages! S_ _ T!! So I'm starting over... (Just SAVED)


The Retreat was a huge success and, as usual, a good time had by all. If nothing else is accomplished by our time together than to renew our enthusiasm for quilting and enjoy Good Eats (by Chef Verno), then it will always be time well-spent. Sally and Maria were here for a week with three of their days overlapping, during which time Cece joined the group. Our main project was a cheery quilt made of Kaffe Fassett fabrics in a snowball design (12 each 12" blocks comprised of 9 snowballs, blocks were separated by sashings and cornerstones). Being new to quilting, although an accomplished seamstress, Cece made a Petite Prism quilt. Here's a picture of Sally as her quilt was in-progress...(SAVED again)

...and Maria's finished quilt...

 ...and Cece's finished quilt...

One of the other projects was a floor mat. A few of you might remember the chicken floor mats I painted about ten years ago. Well, this was a new take on that same concept. Rather than painting the mat, fabric is cut and adhered to the backing resulting in a mat that resembles a quilt. Perfect for quilters (I thought) and less intimidating than a painted mat. WRONG! Any enthusiasm after seeing my  floor mat example waned as I explained the process. I was left with one taker (Maria) and a couple of orders for finished floor mats. Here's Maria with her floor mat: (SAVED again...am I being obsessive about this?)

Just prior to our Retreat, I had a brainstorm...or was it a brainfreeze? I have been on a stash-busting mission for the past year, making pieced totes, potholders, coasters, and so on. I decided that since we're a club...I stand corrected, a Stix...we should do something charitable each year. Like, make a donation quilt from my stash. I'm proud to say I did this once. I'm ashamed to say it was five years ago. I was so pleased to take that little, pink flannel rag quilt to Meisnners and put it in the box collecting childrens quilts for the Linus Project that I wanted all of the Retreaters to have that same experience. Well, not quite. I wanted them to each have the pleasure of making a flannel rag quilt for a child. The pleasure of donating the little quilts will be all mine! So far, I have received three and two more committed! If you are one of the two that still owes me a quilt...FINISH IT AND GET IT TO ME! Times a wasting! If you haven't offered to make one and would like to, let me know and I'll get the fabric to you. Hmmmm...how many do you think it will take to receive the Woman of the Year Award? Dinner with the Governor and all...You'll all be invited to the dinner, of course! :)


Here's Maria again, this time with her donation rag quilt (she's such a show off!)...

Oh, almost forgot a couple of other things we made during our time together, thanks to Cece who shared the ideas: fabric coasters and felted balls! The coasters are adorable and a great stashbuster, although I'd probably need to make a couple of thousand to bust much of my stash. Here's a picture:

The felted balls were magical! We started with wool roving, formed it into a fluffy, round shape and then working it like you would clay to make a marble held it under very hot water (yes, in our hands)...rolling and rolling and rolling until it became a dense, round ball. What fun! What laughter! What magic! (Maybe you had to be there to appreciate the magic of making felt balls!) 


Until next time...keep quilting!