The Reveal

We have had our Chanukah family celebration, so now I can share some of the gifts I made. It has been so hard to keep this all a secret, especially "Cooper". Everyone that makes stuff with their hands wants to know it is appreciated, so it feels so good when it is - and that is not always the case - as some of you may have know, but we won't go there since it is the season of giving. This was a good year.

So, here we go!

#1 - I finished "Cooper", measuring 54" x 54". My DIL and I pieced it together as a demo for the mosaic quilt retreats that I do. If interested, you can read about it HERE. Quilting it was a challenge because of his flat coat, so I used contour quilting.

 

#2. Diva Wallets - These were gifts for my DILs and a DIL sister. They couldn't believe I made them! And of course inside there were a couple of little goodies.

#3. Shutterfly Book for Henry-I received a free offer for joining the IKEA family. I thought what could be more fascinating for a 2 yr old than to see himself in a book. In a year or so he may even be able to read it. This was so much fun to create. There was a bit of a learning curve, then it was pure joy. Twenty pages worth of Henry and family members.

#4. Chanukah Napkins

Since we were having guests this year, I really wanted to do a fun tablescape. While looking around I was inspired to make my own napkins. I bought a super duper serger about a year or so ago and have only used it to make pillowcases for a Case for Smiles. While looking around on the net, I came across a blogpost from The DIY Mommy about using a serger for making napkins. Between her post and the manual for my serger, I figured it out, adding a nice finished edge to this quilting cotton fabric.

And of course I had to practice my napkin folding skills!

Now that our Chanukah celebration is done, it's time to get ready and organized to head to Key West. There is a juggling act every year- trying to bring everything we want with the limited amount of room in the car. Since I am vending at the AQS show in Daytona on our way home in February, I need to make sure I bring all the samples and rulers and patterns and sales stuff. I'm also teaching there, but I'll blog about that later.

 

 

 

 

 

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Girlfriends Quilting Getaway

Three days of quilting, eating, talking, and fabric dyeing with four of your  best girlfriends (plus a doggie girlfriend) on a beautiful lake in the Pocono Mountains.  Nothing could be better to recharge your soul, your friendships and your creative juices.  Since I am the owner of this "retreat house", I really get the best deal of all.  These friends of mine do not allow me to cook, do the dishes or clean!  It can't get any better than that.

Everyone brings their own projects to work on.   I used to bring a new design to work on.  I would be giving my brain quite a workout. It turned out that it was great having my friends there for input, but I never finished anything.  On the other hand,  my friends would bring multiple projects with the fabrics already cut and they would power sew.  They got so much done.  I have now adopted their methods.  Finishing the tops for two braid quilts for this mountain home were on my agenda.  I decided I needed to use up my stash of homespun fabrics.  I cut it all up into 3"x8" rectangles.  I started it at our last getaway during our retreat in Maryland (at our alternate location) and I finished it during this retreat.  It's headed to my wonderful longarmer, Susie Rocabaldo, and when they are back, I'll share them.

We cut back on the food this year but still had way to much.  The winner of the most creative cooking award went to this cake, a quatro flavoraggio (a take off on pasta a quatro fromaggios).  Of course you had to have four pieces to taste each of the four flavors of frosting.  It was so yummy. 

We ate lunch and dinner on the dock, sometimes with a beautiful sunset.

And we spent a morning dyeing fabric in baggies and also dyeing thread outside.  That was so much fun and so productive that we had to run out and buy more fabric!

At the end of our 4th day, the weather was the most beautiful of all.  We just had to sit on the dock one more time to chat and think about what lucky girls we are!

So,to share this wonderful experience, I am thinking about offering retreats at my lake house that would include a 3 day workshop and delicious meals down on the dock.  I could accommodate 5 people.  If you have any interest,  shoot me an e-mail.