My Quilt Retreat

 I went to another quilt retreat and had the time of my life!  I hadn't met  two of the ladies before, they were so nice 💗

Our quilt retreat was in Payson, Arizona, a two hour drive from my home.  It was in the mountains, and the drive was beautiful! I saw lots of saguaro cactuses on the way and the sun always shines in Arizona.

Here we all are in our matching tee shirts.  It's a beautiful day to quilt.

The Copper Needle is a beautiful quilt shop, just a mile from where we stayed at the Quilter's Nest. The Quilter's Nest is a beautiful home that was built for quilt retreats.  There are four bedrooms and three full baths.  Each bedroom has two twin beds with beautiful quilts everywhere.  It is so comfortable, it's like a home away from home.

We were lucky enough to be in Payson for "demo day" by Gina, owner of the Copper Needle.  Gina designs a quilt and demo's the technique used.  This month, she demo'd how to sew a partial seam, and her new pattern is called Frolic. If we bought one or more of her kits for the Frolic pattern, we got 25% off, a really great deal!  Almost all of us bought a kit, the quilt only takes about 6 hours to make. Win!!!

Here we are in the sewing room at the beginning of the retreat before anyone had a finish!

Here's my finished "peek a boo pumpkin" quilt top.  Made out of 5" squares, it went together pretty quick!  I used the design board to make sure that none of the same prints touched. I want to hang this quilt on my front porch for next year during the month of October. I think I'll call him Jack 🎃

Brenda was actually the first to finish a quilt top.  Isn't this hot wheels truck so fun!!! It's for one of her grandsons at Christmas.  Brenda also make the truck quilt top with the beautiful black and white blocks.  The railings on the truck are made of cork and you can put things in them!  Hearts for Valentines, pumpkins for fall, presents for Christmas, and so on...

Terri made this cute quilt top and she has since machine quilted it on her longarm! Way to go Terri 👏🏻 Sadly, Terri could only stay for half of the retreat.

Nedra made this cute quilt made out of strips from her stash. It was a little tricky because she had to figure out how to make the quilt larger with borders.  When you've been sewing all day and it's late at night, that ain't no easy feat!!! 😂

Nedra also made this gorgeous quilt.  She already had the pumpkins and stars sewn so she sewed the checkerboard and added some sashing.  I love this one!!!

Charlene made this really cute quilt and she made two table runners!

Shirley made this pretty quilt, it's a 3 yard quilt.  You make a quilt out of 3 one yard pieces.  Pretty sharp!

Debbie made this quilt top.  We oooed and awwweeed at every single block she made!  The colors and prints were so Halloween.  The pattern is by Cluck Cluck Sew. We also loved that the points don't touch the edge of the blocks.

Deb made this beautiful Chandelier quilt out of her colors, desert and sunsets. We all loved it!!! ❤️

We took turns cooking breakfasts and dinners.  Lunch was always leftovers, we had a huge counter full of snacks!!! I ate so much... One night we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant and it was nice to get out.  We also ate leftovers the next day. What a great time we had! We reserved the Quilter's Nest for next October and hope that everyone can make it back :) A fun time was had by all.

Spooky Season Sampler finish!

 I finished my quilt, yay!  I was able to machine quilt it myself with a crosshatch design in pink thread. It's the cutest quilt and I'm so happy that I was able to keep up with the sew along!

This haunted house really stretched my paper piecing skills....but paper piecing is like making a puzzle, so it all came together.  I love my little fussy cut windows :)

This is a really cute Dracula ❤️

The ghost looking out the window is a favorite too!

I had some really fun fabric for the back too, which I thought was perfect!

Hope you have a great week and don't get spooked, because it's that season!

Spooky Season Sampler

This is a great sew along and it's free!!! Search cottonandjoy on Instagram and click on her profile.  Click on the link and then click join the Spooky Season Sampler.  It runs from October 1-10.  You will receive the FREE patterns in your email.

This first block is called the Skull Quilt.  I had so much fun choosing the fabric, one of my favorite parts!

Another thing I really love about this quilt along is that each block uses a different method.  They aren't necessarily difficult, but you have to read carefully.  I'm going to say it's not for beginners. I've used my seam ripper quite a bit.  Something that's really hard for me is that I don't have a color printer and the patterns are more difficult to figure out in black and white.  Just saying....

Block 2 is the Hallowpop block.  What a cute name!  I changed mine from four colors to two.  I really love pink and strawberry flavors. This was created with foundation paper piecing.

Block 3 is Spooky Dracula.  Again, so much fun to choose the fabric.

Block 4 is Candy Corn which I love.  This block used a couple of templates which are included in the pattern.

Block 5 is The Haunted Window.  This block was super fun to make, there were so many possibilities for the fabric choices.  My ghost is covered in spiders which makes me a little itchy!  This block had some curved piecing and then some templates.

I assume there will be 9 blocks and the 10th day will be the finishing instructions. Follow me on Instagram for current postings.  Thanks so much for following me ❤️

Gifts

My oldest grandchild has been called to serve a two year mission in Sapporo Japan.  He is going to preach and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, love the people and the culture and do as much service as he can.  I made him some gifts that I thought would be helpful. 

This is a Crosley pouch by Centerstreet quilts.  I chose this pattern because it is flat.  I handwrite almost 363 uplifting quotes, thoughts and scriptures and cut them into strips.  I slipped them into the pouch. The idea is that he can read one every two days and it will inspire him. He can share it with his companion, share it with his district or zone, decorate his wall with them, give it to someone or just throw them away. 

 

I also made him a sewing kit. I've made them for missionaries before, you can see them here, here, here and here. My son Sean said that the most important items to include in the sewing kit were extra white buttons for shirts and dark buttons for pants, thread and needle and safety pins.  I also included some iron on patches and of course scissors.

I also made Bridger (Elder Nielson) a monogram pencil pouch and some scripture covers made out of Japanese fabric.

I wanted to help Bridger and hope that he doesn't forget me after two years!  I know he won't, but you know what I mean ❤️

Thanks for following me, see you next week :)

Little Red Riding Hood

I love these little panels that Stacy Iest Hsu designs! I have made so many of them for my grand daughters and they're always a big hit!

This is Little Red Riding Hood, one of my favorite fairy tales :)

You stitch the doll, she has a skirt with a belt, a cape, a pillow and a quilt.  Let's not forget Mr. Big, otherwise known as the big bad wolf!

I make a Lined Drawstring Bag by Jeni Baker, the artist size. I absolutely love this bag, I've made so many of them :)

I also buy a Little Red Riding Hood book by James Marshall.  I love his sense of humor and illustrations.  The wolf is a little scary in the drawings, but not too scary!

I think "Red" is adorable with her rosy cheeks and bright red cape.  Anyone who wears red shoes is a kindred spirit to me ;)

I made the doll for my grand daughter Sabrina who just turned 2 years old.  Little children are so much fun!!!

Here's another post about a Red Riding doll I made.

And another :)

Have a great week and thanks for following along :)

Another Quilt Retreat!

I went to another quilt retreat, only 3 days after my last one! Lesson learned, I need at least a week between the two to recuperate!  I would never deny a retreat though :)  Meredith ( back row, middle) organized this retreat, it was at the Quilter's Nest in Payson, Arizona. She designed these cute "Farm Girls" pumpkin tee shirts to go with our fall theme.

Meredith gave us all a little kit to make this cute pumpkin pillow.
 

We thought it would be easier if we went to restaurants for dinner. This is our second night at a really good Mexican restaurant.  We all wore our matching tee shirts and some men thought we were part of a biker gang! 😂 Really??? One of the men took this photo.

Here's another photo of our quilting "gang"!

Nedra finished her cute Halloween bat quilt with the bright pink background.  I'm obsessed with it!!!  Notice the orange bats in two of the corners?  So cute!

Meredith finished her Farm Girl Vintage 2 quilt top.  She's had the beautiful blocks sewn since before Covid.  She pieced them all together, but forgot to embroider some of the blocks before she assembled the top.

Nedra sat right in front of me, so we could talk a lot.

This is my quilt, it's called Sonnet by a Crafty Fox.  I don't have the scrappy low volume sashing or the scrappy borders done.  That will be for another day because I have lots of gifts to make before I can finish this.

A good time was had by all!  Oh, the stories we could tell :)

What happens at the Quilter's Nest stays at the Quilter's Nest!

Quilt Retreat

 I went to a quilt retreat last week with some of my favorite people 💗

We bought the pink shirts for another retreat but decided to wear them to this one too!  One friend is a rebel and had to get blue, lol! The retreat was only around an hour from our houses and was in a nice hotel for an excellent price! There were 41 of us sewing in one of the conference rooms at the hotel.  We each had an eight foot table, so much space!  It was so much fun choosing a restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner each day.

Here we are at our sewing tables, my friend in the blue shirt left a day early, before we took these photos.

This is my second year going to this particular retreat called Peace by Peace quilters.  Everyone was so nice and friendly and it was great seeing them again after a whole year!

This is what I completed at the retreat.  Regent Street Union Jack quilt by Amy Smart.  I used my Ruby Star Society fat quarter bundle of Strawberry Friends, plus some extra fat quarters of trim fabrics.  I love the bright, happy colors!  I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to sew the sashing and the borders, I was hoping to complete the quilt top at the retreat.  I made a mistake in the final block and thought I had more fabric at home.  I didn't and had to piece meal the fabric together.

Guess what?  I'm going to another retreat this week, and am working on a different quilt top that I have all cut out.  I sure hope I finish it, that is always a great accomplishment.  It's for my husband for Christmas :)