At Our Quilt Retreat

In my last post, I mentioned that I would post again on Tuesday (the 13th). As you can see, I am LATE. I don't like being late, but here's what happened....I completely wore myself out at the retreat and I am learning that I do not recover from that as fast as I used to. So, even though I haven't even unpacked my 'quilt stuff' yet, I do have a bit of energy to post tonight. And, I'm not a total dud, as I did work at the studio downtown a bit on Monday and until three o'clock today.

The retreat was WONDERFUL!!! It really was. I left on Wednesday and got home Sunday afternoon. I would have been home sooner, but spent some extra time visiting with my 'peeps' before I left the 4H Center. I have some lovely and very funny 'peeps' so it was quite a nice experience. After being on my rather aged feet for four days....all I really wanted to do when I got home was collapse in my terrific and very tall iron bed. But, alas, you know that was not to be. So, here I am now, finally, sharing with you some of the photos of what I did at the retreat. (I had meant to take lots of photos to share....but totally forgot to do much of that....so rather than do a sorry job of it, I have decided to show you what I was up to out there.)

I was asked, once again, to make the ribbons for the Challenges. Since our theme was "Farmer's Market" I wanted to use burlap for the foundation. For the Apron Challenge, I machine stitched an appliqued apron to muslin and used wire for an hanger. I aged some clothespins to pin them to the winning aprons. These are about six inches square. I made some little Log Cabin Squares for the Quilt Challenge....one of my very favorite patterns. I hope the recipients enjoy them.

In my last post, I said I was teaching a class called "Glorified Quilt Squares." A very simple quilt made up of nine squares....embellished with little embroidered motifs. The picture here is of my unfinished quilt...which was good as it didn't discourage some of my beginner's by being too intimidating, which is a good thing. We used all my very favorite 'school girl stitches' to work in their choice of the many embroidery designs I provided for them. I think they had fun and learned a few things. I did too. If you click on the photo you can see some of the designs up close. Remember, I mentioned that I would tell you about how I named the quilt? Here it is: One day I arrived early at my friend Carol Ann's house where we were having our monthly Knot meeting. She came to the door with wet hair, exclaiming that 'she hadn't even been GLORIFIED yet.' Meaning, of course, that she had yet to put on her makeup and do her hair. I thought it a perfectly charming thing to say....and thought it would fit this quilt....as it truly has not yet been glorified....but is on it's way. That tickles me.

The other class I taught was Crazy Heart Pincushions. Sort of self-explanatory. Here are two. One I made for my friend, Sharon, with her blog name on it. The other I made "just because" and sold it during my class. I love making these....as you may remember, I made many of them last year. Click on this photo too, in order to see the stitches and the beading better.

On Thursday night, I taught a 'Make It and Take It" class. We had never had one of those before and I wasn't sure how it would go over as it didn't begin until 8:30 p.m. Turns out a lot of folks wanted to be in there...much to my surprise. It went pretty well...and I was pleased at the comments. We made little books from new and used envelopes and cards. The smallest was ONE INCH square and you can see it in the photo. The largest was greeting card size. I believe it was successful as they are planning to have another one next time. (I'm adding this way after I posted this evening. One of my friends, whose opinion I value, kindly emailed and told me the photo for the Make It/Take It books wasn't showing on this post. OOPS. Well, I can never add more than five photos....and that one would make six....so therefore, it's NOT here. Sorry. I'll show you those in my next post. Sometimes I can't see the forest of the trees, if you know what I mean!)

Lastly, I wanted to show you Jim's box of perle cotton. Just because I think it is gorgeous. For a bit, he left that box on a table in my classroom. Tempting me. But I was good and left it alone.
If you haven't tried embroidery with some of this perle cotton....by all means, please do. It will be beautiful!

So....I'm almost back to normal now. Whatever normal is. I imagine it will take me the rest of this week to get things totally put away. I am looking forward to cleaning up the studio and moving a few things around...then getting down to the real work here....which is FINISHING some things and looking forward to Fall. In my next post...or the one after...depending on the mail and all that - I will be showing you a new book I have ordered. It's supposed to be here on Friday or Saturday. You will LOVE it! I can't wait to show it to you. Meantime, y'all take care. pat

PS. My favorite comment on the class evaluation cards: "She smelled good!" How many times do you get feedback like that! (I'm laughing.)