Retreat Recap

I spent the weekend at the first annual Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild retreat!

Nine members and two guests traveled to Southern Utah for the weekend. We stayed at a wonderful vacation home, surrounded by great scenery (we found the house through homeway.com) While we did venture out for various errands, lunch and shopping, mostly we stayed in the basement theatre/billiard room and sewed.

This is the theatre side of the room. The other side accommodated four more sewing tables, two cutting stations and a pressing table. It was perfect!

I worked on these blocks. They are made from Elizabeth Hartman's Octagonal Orb Block tutorial featured at The Modern Quilt Guild Blog (which was originally inspired by Heather Bostic's pillow). They finish at about 17" across, so I plan to make 6 more, if my fabric holds out. I used a fat eighth stack of Flora, by Lauren and Jessi Jung.

It doesn't look like I got very much accomplished, but I feel like each of the completed blocks was eight blocks in one! I also cut pieces for 3 more orbs and I made some progress on embroidering some of Ruby McKim's Roly Poly Circus blocks for a quilt for Dearest Sister's grandbebe number five (another girl!)

Sharon brought a tiny pieced block as challenge/gift for each person. The pieced block was about two inches square made of tiny half inch squares.

These were some of the challenge projects. Clockwise from the top left: Andrea's beer pong cozy, Cindy's pot holder, Bev's coaster, my pin cushion, Maria's tiny cushion to protect the bed of her featherweight when it is folded up, Tracie's tissue cover and Darlene's iPhone purse.

We all had a great time and by Sunday morning, the discussion had turned to how many days we should add to next year's retreat! We drove home under rainy, overcast skies, but that was kind of a nice change, as well.

I am looking forward to seeing some finishes at show and tell next month!

The Year of the Dragon! And Other Stuff!

We are just a few days past the Chinese New Year which is a big holiday here in the desert. Since the January new year is long gone, I decided to use the Year of the Dragon as a re-starting point for getting my blog mojo running again.

The last six or seven months have been spent waiting for this year, which is shaping up to be a great one! In 12 weeks I will retire and we are going to leave the desert to return to the middle of the country. Most all of our belongings have already moved. The Mister and the kitties will move first, in about 7 weeks, then he will come back for me and the Isetta a few weeks later. We. Can. Hardly. Wait!

The thing I will miss most when we leave, is the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild.

Since we formed the group just over one year ago, I have been building my quilting skills through inspiration, challenges and deadlines.

Although I usually stay away from table runners and wall hangings, I have finally seen the appeal of small projects. Generally I think of quilts in terms of bed linens, so doll quilts seemed like the perfect small project for learning new skills. A quick finish, new techniques learned and possible hand made gifts! Win, win, win!

During a late night of Internet Christmas shopping last fall, I ordered several books from Amazon (for me). This one has 24 small quilt projects.

Pretty in Patchwork - Doll quilts by Cathy Gaubert

After flipping through it a hundred or so times, I settled on making this one:

Probably not the best choice for a person of my rudimentary skills. I foolishly thought that improvisational curves might not be so hard. The last little curved seam was ripped and re-stitched until the pieces started to fray, so I finally decided finished was better than perfect and called it good.

And, I had something for show and tell at the January meeting!

The next project was more straightforward:

Dream Doll Quilt - Pattern by Aneela Hoey

Detail of Dream Doll Quilt doll and bunny

Tiny half square triangles are a bit more challenging that they looked, so don't look too closely! The pattern had a template for a little doll and teddy bear, but I used part of a panel called Appleville by Suzy Ultman. Also the original called for applique clouds, but I decided to do embroidered ones, instead. I used flannel instead of batting on this one.

Next weekend, about 10 from our group are headed to Utah for a quilting retreat! I have my machine all packed up with everything (and more, I am sure) that I need. I had a very hard time deciding what to work on so I packed several projects to take, including some embroidery.

I am starting to feel like a real quilter!

Kona Challenge Reveal - Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild

This is a guest post that I wrote for the Robert Kaufman blog - Swatch and Stitch.

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Hi! I'm Jan and I am the Vice President of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. We began forming our group in January of this year and we were very excited to participate in the Kona Solid Challenge.

We selected the Classic Palette charm pack and distributed them to members at our April meeting. The 'rules' were to use at least a bit of all the colors in the charm pack, adding as much yardage as desired of two additional solid colors. Of course, we knew that rules are meant to be broken, so our judging categories were: Best Large Quilt, Best Small Quilt and Best Rule Breaker.

Although, some of the challenge participants were unable to be at our July meeting, nine members 'revealed' their projects.

All members in attendance voted for the winners in the three categories.

Back left: Patty won in the category of Best Large Quilt. Next to Patty, Tracie holds her winning entry in the Best Small Quilt category. Carolina is kneeling with her winning Rule Breaker Quilt. (Carolina traded the 'warm' colors in her charm pack with another member for more 'cool' charms.)

You can see all the entries here.

The Kona Solid Challenge was a great experience and we appreciate Robert Kaufman Fabrics for sponsoring the event!

The monthly installment...

...or so it seems, these days!

I would love to show you some photos of the beautiful setting for the wedding in Mexico. But I don't have very many.

I took this one upon arrival at the resort. This was the view a few yards off our little 'porch'. And the ocean was that color!

That is about the last photo I took that was worth saving. It seems that my camera is a desert camera. In the tropics it fogs up just like my glasses did, every time I went outside! The glasses cleared up after a few minutes outside. The camera did not, so the photos turned out foggy and out of focus.

Everyone that took little point and shoot cameras got some great photos. Ms A took about 700 on her iphone. I have been promised copies of all the photos that everyone else took, but lives have to return to routine before all the photos can be compiled and shared.

In other news:

I have been working on my Kona Solids Challenge quilt for the unveil at the July meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. I have had a couple of false starts, but I think I have something underway.

And, it is officially summer but we had a rainy weekend over the holiday that gave us a respite from the 113 degree days.

Its all good.

Just a catch up -

My camera is on vacation without me, so just a note to fill in the latest gap.

June has been quite the whirlwind! After enjoying the family reunion/birthday celebration for my Dear Aunt, The Mister and I headed down the road with Ms A to Kansas City. Ms A and I visited with her Grandmother and her dad and the three of us ate our way around the area, visiting our favorite restaurants.

After Ms A left to return to her life in the big apple, The Mister and I headed North for the Great Lakes Navel Training Center. Number one Granddaughter was on track to graduate from Basic Training there, the following week. (Her graduation was postponed, after she developed shin splints from over training.) The original date would have allowed me to attend, but as it was pushed back, I had to return to my life in the desert.

The Mister hung out on the shores of Lake Michigan for a few days in Illinois and I was home alone! I took my sewing machine with me on vacation to finish the gift for Dear Aunt, so I found myself with a weekend to sew with no machine. And, I have a project that I need to take on my next vacation - the wedding in Mexico, which is now 6 days away. (I leave in four days - the hectic continues!)

I am making a camera bag insert for my purse. I was coveting one of these, but I decided to try to make one myself, after seeing some great bags at Nordstrom's Rack on screaming deal clearance. I searched for a tutorial and came up with this one but I made it smaller to accommodate my purse dimensions. I don't have extra lenses or other camera stuff, so the smaller one will work for my camera, I think.

I looked on Craigslist to see if I could find a used sewing machine, but I didn't find any that I thought were worth fooling with, so I ended up buying an old used Singer that had been a trade in at a sewing machine shop. It is not as old as my other old Singers. This one is vintage 1975, and I have added zigzag to my stitch capabilities! It may go to charity after the featherweight returns, but, if I can find a corner to store it in, I may hold onto it. You just never know when you might need to zigzag...

I am almost finished with the main part of the camera insert, I just have to make the adjustable dividers which won't take long.

Since the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild meeting will be the week after I return, I also want to get my 'inspiration block' for our bee finished this weekend. I was hoping to follow Cola's inspiration to make a swell passport sleeve (she used this tutorial). I am thinking that will have to be given up on in the interest of time.

The Mister is on his way home - he stopped in Henderson (Nebraska, dang it!) last night, so I still have two days of leaving my sewing things strewn about the place without being in anyone's way.

We will only have a couple of days to catch up with each other before I leave again. I hope July holds a bit less activity!