Farm Girl Chicks Retreat

We had our "Farm Girl Chicks" retreat this weekend at our favorite quilt shop, Quilter's Oasis, in Mesa, Arizona.

Our Mama Hen Nancy, always does a fantastic job making everything fun and handing out swag!

See all the cute little cow gift bags at every seat?

They are full of cute little pigs, 

treats and a bottle of water with a cute label :)

Nancy decorated the treat table so cute and original!

Everything was labeled :)

The "popcorn" corn on the cob was the cutest!!!

Chicken feed, rice krispy squares for Ha hay bales...

Friday night I wasn't able to attend, 

so I shared my spot with Shirley.

She's on the second row on the right, 

with blonde hair and plum colored sweater.

A real chicken attended on Friday night!!!

It looks like he knows what a quilt ruler and rotary cutter are!

Here's Mr. Chicken with my friend Nedra :)

Oh my goodness, Mr. Chicken is kissing Nancy, our Mama Hen!

I guess it's ok, since Mr. Chicken is really Bob, Nancy's husband :)

Saturday morning, I was so excited to go to the retreat!

We had a potluck breakfast and was it ever fabulous!!!

It was a queen's feast!

We celebrated Susan's birthday :)

Shauna taught us how to make zipper project bags with vinyl,

so you can see what's in your bag.

She's a great instructor.

some of the chicks even made two or three!

Peek a boo, there I am!

I'm Cynthia, Cynthia's in the blue tee shirt and there's a Cindy too.

Here we all our, with our vinyl zipper project bags :)

 Brenda and Shauna each finished their cute Lori Holt table runners.

 This is our design board.

I know that Terry is making the quilt with the trees on top of the station wagons and Brenda is making a tractor quilt.

This is Cindy and she is amazing!!!

She is able to complete so many quilts!

She says she's working on a quilt and BAM! it's done.

She has so many finishes, it's mind bogling!

She says she works on a schedule, but still...she's amazing!!!

This is Brenda, she's a farm girl chick in the true sense!

Her husband is a farmer, and Brenda is always sewing tractors :)

Brenda is a beautiful seamstress and does gorgeous, meticulous machine quilting.

She got up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and cooked breakfast for her married children and grandchildren at 7:00, 

and was at our retreat by 9:00!

This quilt is for Brenda's grandson who will be turning 4 years old.

She made him a quilt with a tractor on it when he was born and she brought it to show us one day.

It was literally thread bare on the whole front!

I've never seen a quilt so worn....little Ole loved that quilt to death!

She made him another really fancy tractor quilt but he didn't like it because it didn't have soft minky on the back.

Who knew?

This quilt will have soft minky on the back, 

it's a prerequisite for Ole's quilts :)

 This is Linda's beautiful Americana quilt.

Last but not least, Carol's quilt.

Carol just joined our group, 

and she had already made this Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage quilt.

The yellow border really makes the blocks pop!

I didn't show you the quilts that were shared on Friday night, 

there were too many and they were all beautiful!!!

To be in this quilt group, you must love Lori Holt creations :)

We have to be working on Lori's quilts, 

but the quilts we share with the group don't have to be Lori's.

We all laugh and eat and play games a lot, with some sewing, lol!

I'm very grateful to be a member of this awesome group :)

Lori Holt Vintage Christmas placemats

I have been making lots of placemats using 12" blocks 

from Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas book.

My Farm Girl Chick quilt group had a Christmas party, placemat exchange last week.

We each made 2 placemats to exchange, and did we ever have fun!!

I made HIS and HERS snowmen :)

I used Cotton and Steel fabric on the back.

It was difficult to part with, as I was hording it...but I bought it for this reason, so I cut into it :)

Nancy, pictured below in her Christmas leggings,

 is the Mama Hen of our Farm Girl Chick group.

She always makes everything so much fun!!!

She got some full page Christmas images 

and cut them in half in a puzzle piece.

We all reached into the bag and pulled out our puzzle piece, and looked for the fellow chick who had the matching piece.

Nancy and Diane were matches :)

Nancy is holding the placemats that Diane made and gifted to her.

Diane is holding the placemats that Nancy made and gifted to her.

Terry and Cindy

Bonnie, Cindy and Susan

Kristie and Pam

Shauna and Jeannie

Brenda and Shirley

Guess whose puzzle piece I matched with?

That's right, my bestie Nedra.

We were so thrilled to exchange with each other :)

Aren't all the placemats beautiful?

We have so much fun at our group, 

these women are blessings to me :)

Farm Girl Chicks

Remember in the last post, 

I told you that most of my sewing room is packed?

Well I was able to salvage two bins of projects.

The first is the Lori Holt "farmhouse" quilt that I work on at

Farm Girl Chicks, twice a month.

These are some of my chicks!

A couple of years ago, one of the chicks found these recipe book holders at Hobby Lobby.

Everyone ran there to buy their own and use them as pattern book holders.

They say "Farm Fresh" on them :)

(I'm in the back under the silo)

We only work on Lori Holt projects, but we can share any projects we've worked on recently.
Brenda and Susan are showing off their beautiful "Tilda" dolls.

Nedra made this beautiful Elizabeth Hartman quilt called

"Awesome Ocean", from a kit.

I want to make one now!!!

 Nedra also made a "plus" quilt from Cotton and Steel scraps.

I really want to make one like it too!

Nedra didn't have a big enough piece for the back, so she created her own :)

I think it's a great idea and tip!

Look at this beautiful Lella Boutique quilt!

Here's Brenda's Elizabeth Hartman "Penguin Party" quilt.

She backed it in flannel and didn't use any quilt batting.

It is very drapey and snuggly, a great idea!

I love the background too :)

Brenda designed the eyeglasses, so cute!

Nedra finished and sewed together all the blocks for her Lori Holt 

"Spelling Bee" quilt.

I've decided I'm going to make this at Farm Girl Chicks 

when I've finished "Farmhouse".

Nedra used "Blueberry Park" fabric by Karen Lewis, perfect!

This is Nancy, the creator and "heart" of our 

Farm Girl Chicks group.

Nancy made the "Checkerboard" quilt which can be found

in Lori Holt's Scrappy Project Planner.

It's gorgeous, so scrappy!

Here is a photo of my very bare sewing room :(

Yes, my fabric are in the cupboard and on the shelves in the closet, but all of my tools are temporarily packed.

I just need to buy a rotary cutter...

then I might be able to create something...sometime...

Farm Girl Chicks

I moved from northern California, to Arizona last June.

I met Nedra in Gilbert, and we have been fast friends since!

We took a day trip to Payson Arizona, 

and went to the Copper Needle.  

It's a fabulous quilt shop where we met Gina, the owner.

Nedra invited me to a quilting group called "Farm Girl Chicks", 

at Quilters Oasis in Mesa.

The rule is, you can only be working on a Lori Holt project.

Oh boy, is it ever a fun group, and right up my alley!

I love Lori Holt :)

There's laughing and sharing, more laughing and laughing again!

Ooohs and awwws at everybody's beautiful creations.

Last week, Becky Parzy came to our group 

and showed us some of her beautiful quilts!

Here is Becky's version of Lori Holt's "Quilty Fun" quilt.

Becky said that she thinks it's much more interesting if you piece the back.

She always makes beautiful labels too :)

 Here is Becky's version of her Penny Pig quilt, 

from Lori Holt's "Farm Girl Vintage" book.

She used the Farmhouse Lane setting found on Page 128, and substituted Penny Pigs for the Farmhouses.

You can see Lori's quilt here.

Here's the back of Becky's Penny Pig quilt, really cute!

 Here's Becky's Farm Girl Vintage quilt, so beautiful!

Becky said that she chose the border fabric and used the color scheme from the fabric to choose color choices for the blocks.

Such gorgeous machine quilting!!!

Notice the little printed borders that Becky added?

Very original :)

Lori always says that she loves it when someone makes one of her quilts "their own".

Becky had a couple of extra blocks which she added to the back.

Here's Becky's version of Lori's "Spelling Bee" quilt.

 I took closeups so you could see the individual blocks.

 The back of her Spelling Bee quilt.

The label :)

 I'm not sure what this quilt is called, but it's lovely!

 Becky has also made some really beautiful Tilda dolls.

 Becky and her friend designed this sweet heart conversations quilt.

 ...and this pillow to match.

Nancy (in red) is the awesome and incredible and darling 

host of our Farm Girl Chicks group.

She is also the heart and fun of the group too!

Nancy grew up with Ellen (white and blue), they have been best friends since childhood.

Ellen is good friends with Becky, that's how we were able to have Becky come to our group and do the trunk show.

They are all the sweetest ladies!!!

To add to the enjoyment, we had a baked potato bar for lunch with every single topping you can imagine!

This group is the highlight of my month!

I hope you enjoyed all the trunk show :)