Mini group quilt retreat at the Harbor Star.....

For the last few years once we discovered this lovely little haven, my mini group of four have been going to East Tawas, MI to this lovely old house called the Harbor Star http://www.theharborstar.com/ . It sleeps eight, but the four of us take it all for ourselves. It's like being in a dollhouse where we can play with our quilting and knitting. It's a home away from home. We love everything about it, too. There is what used to be a boy scout cottage in the backyard and she has an array of wild flower gardens all around the house.

Here are a few pictures of us working in the large workroom. It is set up for 8 people, but with only four of us, we can really spread out.

There is Nancy who is working on a Minick and Simpson pattern. She got a lot of her pieces for her blocks finished, but only got two of the blocks up on the wall. (Sharon's blocks are on the right). As you may have noticed, Nancy does not have a blog. We are trying to talk her into it since she makes the most beautiful quilts and we think she needs to share them with everyone. We're working on her though.

Then there was Vicki http://graciescastle.blogspot.com/who flew in from Florida where she is living now and brought in quite a bit of applique, but the one striking thing she was working on was her wool piece that she was making for a friend.

Our resident storyteller, Sharon, http://totallyobsessedwithallthingscreative.blogspot.com/who I believe should write a book because of the way she looks on life and everything she tells us is hysterical was in the midst of telling one of her stories when I took this picture. She was working on a great quilt, Habitat, in batiks and it will be beautiful when it is done. She did have a baby quilt that needed quilting and some applique that she had worked on earlier this past weekend.

Then there is me. Sorry, no pictures today. My goal was to work on my Hearts and Hands blocks as I haven't found much time at home lately. I laid out my stash and had all my paper piece papers ready to go and I did make some headway. I even made a couple of the applique blocks just for a break. This picture shows the blocks had I had done previously along with the new ones that I made this week.

Now, of course, we did some shopping along the way, too. I bought some yarn for socks as my girls saw my socks and each asked for a pair, so I bought self-striping yarn. Then I bought some Ben Franklin yarn to make some more bibs as I wanted something that was a little more firm/stiff for a bib versus something luxurious like I had made the blue ones in. Also, bought some of the blue fabric that will be a surprise, so I have to keep that somewhat of a secret.

Also, need to mention the beautiful gifts I received from Vicki. A roll of Moda fabrics and an adorable punch card holder that she made.

Sharon gave us each a foot spa package. I am so looking forward to using that.

After all this, we packed up to say our goodbyes. Oh...by the way....see those blocks on the design wall in the background? Well, they are still there while I am at home. Yeah....I forgot them. Called Suzie, the owner of the Harbor Star, and she said she would get them in the mail to me on Friday. Sure hope they find their way home (sigh).

Mindless.....

Well, maybe not as mindless as it should/could be because I am already thinking that I need to change the needle size, maybe the stitch, how I can dress it up, etc.



These bibs are knitted and I got the idea to make them for Cole when I saw them on my friend, Sharon's, blog....http://totallyobsessedwithallthingscreative.blogspot.com/ on her July 31 post.



I just needed to get something creative done that didn't take too long. Cole should love these (or maybe Mom will love them better actually as they are made of cotton and wash easily).

Where oh where has the last month gone?

Let me go backwards a bit because as I uploaded my pictures from my camera I now know what has kept me from my quilting for the past month.

Yesterday was my grandson, Cole's, christening and I started his christening gown on Monday and finished it by Friday mid morning working on it after work all week.


This was made with an ivory "habitat silk batiste" and it was the most slippery, yet luscious fabric. Not sure I will work with that slippery of fabric again though.


The baptism was Saturday night and he behaved beautifully throughout the service.



Then the weekend before, the whole family (the kids, the grandkids and us) went up North to a friends cabin for a long weekend. It rained and was very cool Friday and Saturday, but that didn't keep the guys off the lake from going fishing. We did get to enjoy a beautiful Sunday though. In between raindrops we did get to sit around the campfire and do the smores thing. Here's a couple pix from that weekend...especially pix of the grandkids.





The weekend before the "cabin" outing was spent at the Selfridge Airforce Base where they have a really great "air show". Here's a couple of pix of Ian and Cameron in and around helicopters and airplanes. It rained most of that day, too. (hmmm....I am seeing a pattern here)




AND.....the weekend before the air show was the "Woodward Dream Cruise". Don't know if you are familiar with that but people from all over the world come to show, drive and see old cars, weird cars, souped up cars, you name it. My husband took a whole week off of work to run out to Woodward with his red '71 Nova (pictured below). The batmobile was there, ghostbusters, dogs with goggles, a dog driving his own car (actually it was remote controlled), clowns....heck, I could go on forever. I was out there Thursday, Friday evenings and then again all day on Saturday (the big event). There are all kinds of people and characters there. Here is just a smattering of what you can see while you are there, plus yet some more pix of the grandkids enjoying themselves there, too.



Well from here on out, I hope to be posting on a more regular basis about my quilting, my knitting or whatever. I am hoping life returns to some sense of normalcy now that the summer is coming to an end (way too soon by my standards).

Circles.....

The Hearts and Hand blocks are now circles.



I thought it would be a good idea to stay on top of things and make my blocks into the circles they have to be for the quilt. I used the plastic heat resistant template to do them and it worked like a charm. The only problem ones were the paper pieced ones that have a lot of thickness in the seams. Those I had to baste down just to keep them in place.


Also, today, my grandson turned 5. Gosh! He is going to be going to school. How did that happen?

We celebrated his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with a few of his friends from school and all the family members. Here are a couple pictures of the birthday boy on his special day.

Is it possible?

Is it possible to go to a quilt store for just heat resistant template plastic? That's all I wanted to get today, but apparently the answer to that question is "No!!".

$60 + later....



I bought the template stuff to make my circles for the Hearts and Hands blocks. I cut one at 5 3/4" for the cut block and 5 1/4" for the finished block. This should make it a little easier for me to get those blocks into the shape they need to be. I used my Olfa Compass Cutter and it worked perfectly. Of course, I probably ruined the blade cutting plastic, but..oh well...if it works!!


I walked out of the shop with the two sheets of plastic, a glue stick, a yard of the finest muslin and 5 yards of what I think is a beautiful red toile. The toile comes in other colors. I have seen it in blue, green, red, and brown....which by the way I have backed one of my "sister-in-law" quilts in the brown. I figured since red is one of my favorite colors, I will have a red quilt in my future that this new red toile will work perfectly and 5 yards should do it with just a little extra.






The muslin is to make a bag that will be embroidered with something religious to cover the christening gown that I will be making for Cole. Of course this brings me to the fact that I drove an hour north of home yesterday to go to the nearest heirloom sewing center so that I could buy a couple yards of "silk habitat batiste" to make his gown. It feels so lucious.

The glue stick is to try a technique that was suggested by my friend, Gail, to turn the edges over for the applique blocks. We'll see if it works for the Hearts and Hands blocks.

Which, also, brings me to the fact that I did finish two more of those blocks. Now I only have 100 more to make. Guess I had better get busy!