Balderdash quilt

I made a new quilt!

I went on a quilt retreat in February that was like my Hallmark dream come true!  Quilting with best friends in a cute cabin, with a big picture window looking onto a winter wonderland of snow in the mountains of Payson, Arizona.  There is snow in Arizona, but not in the Phoenix area where I live!

I got my quilt quilted a week ago and just finished binding it.  I had to go to the park at Copper Sky and do a photo shoot. 

This pattern is called Balderdash and it's by Emma Jean Jansen, an Australian designer. She's on Instagram and she inspires me lots!

I wanted a pattern that had large blocks to show off my favorite Ruby Star Society fabrics.  This pattern fulfilled my vision. Just because there are large blocks doesn't mean it was easy.  It was very tricky getting the fabric to go in the right direction by the crosses.

I had a beautiful Cotton & Steel fabric for the back.

My quilter did a fabulous job with the machine quilting.  The pattern she used is called "Arches". My quilter is Pam Rackley at 

Sweet Pz Designs in Gilbert.

Isn't this fabric pretty?  All the different prints :)

The crosses are all sewn with scrappy low volume pieces. I especially love the squirrels and the view masters.

Thanks for following along, it's always so wonderful to have a finish!

Inatagram Farm Girl Vintage retreat quilt

I went to the most incredibly fun quilt retreat in the summer of 2016

and made some forever friends.

It was a group of Instagram friends, and we were taught by Lori Holt.

This is the quilt that Lori designed for our retreat, 

and I'm thrilled to say that I machine quilted it!

Yay, another quilt out of my closet and into another closet, lol!

Everyone gave gifts at the retreat, and Beth had made these and had them embroidered with everyone's Instagram name.

I used mine as my quilt label on the back.

As you can see, I backed the quilt with a small red gingham.

 

I think I have about six more quilts waiting to be quilted.

On a personal note, I'm having a total hip replacement next Monday, September 28.  It is so needed!!!

I may not be able to post for a few weeks, unless I'm able to get more projects completed this week.

Have a great week and thanks for following :)

Lori Holt quilt retreat

My friend Natalie flew in from Sacramento, California, and we went to a Lori Holt retreat in Phoenix!

My friend Pam was there too, she used to be a member of our 

Farm Girl Chicks.

Lori showed us her beautiful "crazy quilt" table runner.

She had the best crazy quilt paper to make the table runner too.

You can find all of her fabric and notions at fat quarter shop.

I was able to share my grandson's Eagle quilt which I'll have ready to give to him at Christmas :)

Funny story!

My 12 year old grand daughter Kennedy texted me that she looked at my blog and saw Bridger's quilt.

She loved it and promised she wouldn't tell anyone :)

Isn't that the sweetest?

Lori always designs a block for her retreats, 

and a quilt to go with the block.

She designed an egg block to go with 

our mama hen, roosting roosters and baby chicks.

This is the quilt she designed for us,

Farm Fresh Eggs.

It's so cute, can hardly wait to make it!!!

I have a lot of Christmas sewing, 

so it will have to wait until the new year.

Here is Lori's lovely "peep" Rosana, showing the back.

I really want to get some of this fabric!

No, I NEED to get some of this fabric...

Lori had an apron exchange too, and posed with all of us.

Lori and her peeps wrote down names in duplicate of the Farm Girl blocks, enough to have double of everyone exchanging aprons.

Someone would call a block name and the corresponding block would raise their hand, and they would exchange aprons.

My apron went to Julie, and hers to me.

I received a beautiful vintage apron, with organza.

Lori told the quit shop owner that she only likes a group of 25.

The greedy quilt shop owner (loooooong story....) 

packed 63 of us in the room.

We were like a chicken coop! (Ha ha!)

 I only sewed this little 3 l/2" strawberry and cut out 3 blocks.

We did a lot of visiting :)

 It was great to see my Instagram friend Anette at the retreat.

Natalie and I had to have our photo taken with Lori!

Lori and I go way back, I took 3 quilt classes from her, when I made Thanksgiving Dinner, 

Comforts of Home and Paperdoll appliqué quilts.

Lori is so talented, we had the best time learning from her and getting tips.

Lori is also nice, generous and so much more!

I took this photo to show you all the gifts she gave us.

I'm so excited to try them all out.

 We had the best time visiting and learning from Lori.

Gifts from the Heart

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything for a few weeks...

We just made a big move from California to Arizona, and I haven't even turned on my sewing machine in almost two months!

We're almost completely set up in our new house, so I've been sewing again lately.

I have some dear friends whom I've met on Instagram and through my blog :)

Joanna is one of my friends, and she sent me this darling squirrel made out of one of my favorite lines of fabric, 

Bee Basics by Lori Holt, for my birthday.

We named each other "squirrels" because we go crazy for anything Lori Holt, or anything Fig Tree, or anything quilty or cute.

When one of us will post something, someone will type "squirrel" in the comments.

Just a silly joke!

This is one of my favorite background prints!

Joanna even personalized my cute little squirrel :)

I wasn't able to attend the quilt retreat with my Instagram friends because of our move, but Joanna sent me the gifts she made for retreats buddies anyway.

She painted these rocks, I just love them!!!

Isn't this the most adorable card?

Joanna's mom is an expert crocheter and Joanna gave us each one of her "love bombs".  

The yarn is so soft!

To top it all off, Joanna made each of us a USA banner and even included the cord and little clothes pins to hang it with.

Some of our instagram friends came 

from Australia and the United Kingdom.

 I am rich in my friends.

So many things in my sewing room have been gifted to me with love, it makes me happy when I look at them, and I know I am loved :)

Be My Neighbor

I have some friends whom I became acquainted with, over 3 years ago, on Instagram.

We had an Instagram quilt retreat a couple of years ago, and are going to  have another one this summer.

For our birthdays last year, we decided to make this quilt.

There are 8 of us, and someone drew our names, and we were each given 2 blocks to make for each person on their birthday.

I was assigned these two blocks.

Another rule was that we used only Fig Tree fabric, that way no matter which colors or prints we chose, we knew they would match.

We also purchased the same color for the background.

There's a little bird appliqued onto a rooftop on every row.

As each block arrived, I pinned my friends names onto them.

Tazzie lives in Tasmania, Australia, so does Leanne.

Kristie lives in Utah, Nessa lives in Wyoming, Joanna lives in Oklahoma, Lynette lives in Idaho and Annette lives in Chili right now, but she lived in Utah when we were having our birthdays :)

When I saw Joanna's finished quilt on Instagram, I knew I had to get mine done!

Here's my finished quilt top, with my friends' names still pinned to their blocks!

I thought of them as I sewed their blocks into the quilt.

I'm on a self imposed fabric fast this year, because I have way too much fabric :)

I found this Amy Butler fabric in my stash, and it looks just like Fig Tree colors!

Here is the link to "Be My Neighbor" quilt, it's free!

Farm Girl Vintage, Farm Fresh

I went to Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage Retreat last summer, exclusively for a specific group of Instagram friends.

Lori told us what color to bring for the background and the sashing, for the surprise quilt that she designed for us.

The surprise quilt was called "Farm Fresh", and we all oohed and aahed over it!!!

While everyone else was cutting and sewing their fruit, veggies and canning jars, I was cutting and sewing my farm fresh banner.

I would have chosen fabric with more contrast if I had seen the quilt first, but I'm still happy with the results.

Our retreat was held at a fabric shop, so there was plenty of fabric to choose from!

I quickly decided that I would make 4 cans of fruit, 4 cans of vegetables, and a can of honey.

I cut and sewed my 6" blocks of produce, and then took my little blocks to the fabric shop to see what colors and prints would make them pop!

The other day, I finished sewing the tablecloth, and my quilt top was finished!

As I stand back and look at my finished quilt top, I really love all the color combinations.

It's bright and happy!

While I was admiring my quilt, I realized one thing....

Peas aren't orange, tomatoes aren't yellow, corn isn't green, carrots aren't blue, etc.

Look at it this way, my canning jars are opaque, they're candy to the eye!

I'm not really sure how I'm going to use this quilt...maybe there will be a country fair sometime soon, where I can display my beautiful quilt.

Maybe I should enter it in next year's California State Fair :)

Quilty Fun Gifts

There are a lot of benefits to having quilty fun friends!

They are fun, and loads of laughs, are very generous and thoughtful, and all share the same interest, stitching!

Cathy (Tazzie) made me this beautiful little embroidered mini quilt with lots of cute goodies to go with it!

The mini quilt was my birthday gift :)

Here's a close up of her beautiful embroidery :)

  I love the striped binding and the fabrics she used too!

Leanne wasn't able to come from Australia this trip, but she's planning a visit in two years.

She made me this darling fabric envelope or clutch for my birthday.

I love the Lucien fabric!!!

She quilted it herself and also included so many cute souvenirs from Australia.

Christie made me and all of her other quilty friends this pretty little zip pouch, and each one was different.

She let me choose, I just loved the pears and the text background with the pop of red on the tag and the lining.

It's all made out of Lori Holt fabric which I really love, and especially Sew Cherry :)

I keep my little and square rulers in it.

Lori taught Kristie how to perfect her appliqué, using the cozy shapes she designed.

Kristie gave me the first appliqué she did on this zip pouch, to me for my birthday :)

Lynette gave me all these beautiful gifts!

The embroidered thimble is a pin cushion :)

Here is the mini quilt Lynette made for me, it is really adorable!

Shanna and Rosanna gave everyone farm animal kitchen timers to go with our Farm Girl Vintage theme.

Very original!

Rae Ann embroidered everyone this darling duck pin cushion.

She also made some lamb ones and they were all in different colors.

My quilty friend Natalie isn't in the Instagram group, but she gave me this beautiful 2 yard piece of fabric and I'm going to use it to back my Freddy Moran quilt if I can ever get back to it!

Her packaging is so clever :)

The tag and buttons were from her grandmother's sewing stash.

Natalie's so creative, look at the cute little tag she wrote!

Cathy stitched this little bunny for me too :)

Anette gave us all these cute beehive gifts, exclusive to the state of Utah.

She and her husband had made little beehive shaped chocolates and chocolate covered cinnamon bears, they were delicious!!!

Celeste and Kayse gave us these sweet mementos from Texas.

Thimbles and Threads quilt shop hosted the retreat.

I won this, it's enough fabric to make one of Lori's 12" flower blocks.

Thimbles and Threads even gave us a gift!

One of Lori Holt's 12" design boards, a fat quarter, an awesome ruler and a name tag :)

My darling quilty friend Vanessa made this mini quilt for me!

I love it!!!

She also made me 2 large design boards, and included a Little Red Riding Hood fat quarter (she knows I have a romance with Little Red) and two frisson pens!

I am rich with my friends, especially my quilty fun ones :)

We received lots of other gifts, and a lot of candy and chocolate.

Diana and Jenn made us all Italian sodas, so fun!

You can't sew without munching, right?

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