Blocks on the Wall

March BOM/Card Basket

Designer Mystery BOM 1st nine blocks

I am all caught up on my BOM's! Yeah!! The Card Basket block is from Quilter's Cache and is this month's block for a group on LongArm Chat. Of course, you can do it too. All the blocks are 12 inch and directions are on the Cache page.

Now back to the frame to finish up the memory quilts I'm quilting.

linked to Judy L"s Design Wall Monday.

Quilt Retreat... fun, food, fabric and balloons!

I just returned from our annual quilt/sew retreat at Vina de Lestonnac in Temecula, Ca. This facility is a convent and former preschool that is now open for retreats and conferences . Is is a beautiful setting nestled in the wine country of Temecula and the Sisters are most welcoming. A group of 20 of us from our guild, friendship groups and friends  spent 4 days having fun doing what we love. Of course we ate, snacked, shopped at the local quilt shops , took walks and watched the balloons launch. Usually the balloons lift off several fields away, but this time the weather was such that they were right next to us, so I got a shot of the set up . I had no idea they lay them on their sides to fill them. 



Nancy with her Bear paws




Mary's Split 9 Patch




Gayle in front of Turning 20 Again (mine)



We had the use of one big classroom and we went to work! it is a lot of fun to work on projects and share opinions and fabric. We raided each others stash for help and one lady forgot her Viking cord and someone had an extra !!! Now that is awesome.  When anyone got stuck their were good suggestions from the peanut gallery and we got a lot accomplished. Everyone brings their own projects to do and we also make forays to the local shops for more!



Asian panel beauty




Designer Mystery BOM 2010



All the meals were provided and just a pleasant walk up the drive to the convent.  It was nice to have the break from sewing and we returned ready to sew on. This year they installed a coffee room that had coffee and hot water 24/7 at the touch of a button. This was great. I especially liked it as I was up at 6:30 and walked the perimeter of the property and climbed the hill to spy for balloons or coyotes and the hot coffee was a good hand warmer!

I got one quilt top done except for border and all 9 of my BOM done...now I am caught up!

We had cool mornings but sunny and beautiful. We lucked out as it's now pouring rain in Huntington Beach and Temecula too.

We had so much fun , I've already signed up for next year!

Happy Valentine's Day !

The above is part of my UFO calender quilt. I hope to get some work done on it  before next week. Otherwise, it will go along on the quilting retreat to Temecula . Looking forward to some fun & sewing with no interruptions!

On my wall is the current state of my layer Cake BOM and one block from the start of the LAChat BOM. I will be adding another block to both next week. In fact, I'm in charge of the block choice for the LAChat group for next month. We are using 12 inch blocks from theQuilter's Cache.

Quilting wise, I am doing several photo/memory quilts and they are turning out so well.This is a different pattern that I haven't seen before used with  photos and it works very well. I just go around the photos because if you stitch to much on them , the holes really show. Names are being added to each quilt too.  Quilting design is a geometric swirl because these are for guys and we want  nothing too frilly. I am using Permacore /white  and batting that was supplied. Looking good !

I want to get these finished, (except for binding I'll do later) before I head out for the retreat. ( I will be sure to take pics to show later)

Have you ever been on a quilting retreat ? Have fun? What was the best thing about it.

Did you really get a lot done?

 Happy Valentine's Day to all of you , my family (here & in Hong Kong), and my special Valentine of 37+ years, my DH Doug!

Linking to Judy L. Design Wall Mondayhttp://www.patchworktimes.com/.

Newest Layer Cake Block

Block 8
This is the latest. A fun & fast   slice-n-dice 9 patch. This joins the rest of the bunch:

Only 4 to go !!

That's what's left. I think I can get 4 more blocks out of these.

BOM--Another one!! Am I crazy!!

Yes, it's true, I've joined another BOM! This one is with LongArmChat.  I'm also the coordinator for March.(I get to choose and post the block). Here is the February block. It is from Quilter's Cache , Morning Star. My fabrics for this are Civil War era..new for me.

I'm going on a quilting retreat in a couple weeks and visiting some shops that carry this type of fabric so, I hope to get more to add to this. Maybe some backgrounds and accent?

Today, I just loaded this quilt which will get a simple design that will allow the piecing to be the star. Using Naturaline by Permacore and a simple meander. Hobbs for batt.

Back to work!

Linking up to Judy L at Patchwork Times for her Design Wall Monday. Drop by her site and visit some of the links to see what quilters are up to. (That is if you can get past her cinnamon roll recipe..yum)

Her link is to the left. The one with the chicken!

February...It's Here !

Wow, another month gone. Some days it seems like Christmas was last week, but here we are already into Feb. hung up a little wallquilt from years ago. I think it was one I tried out the block and decided one was enough. So, it became a mini quilt!

 I know there are blizzards throughout most of the country and lots of you are having "Snowed in Sewing Days". Even though it was sunny and nice in California, I'll join in too.

This is on the frame today and almost done. I used Affinity thread by Fil-Tec. Color is Carolina. It is variegated from white/ice blue/light blue and fits the snowmen and snowy feel for this quilt. This is a slippery thread and I had to knot & bury the thread tails to be sure they didn't escape.

 That's it for today. Going to get ready for The Good Wife. (Love that show)