Teton Patchwork Retreat

As mentioned in my last post, I was able to attend a quilt retreat last week.  We spent 5 days sewing up a storm inside the house while the real storms moved around outside!  At one point we weren't sure we would be able to make it home because a flash flood/mud slide closed our main highway.  We have been getting so much rain lately!
The retreat was wonderful!  http://www.tetonpatchworks.com/ Each room was decorated in a different theme.  The sewing room is set up for 8 quilters.  Since there were only 7 of us, we paid $170 dollars for 5 days, 4 nights.  I thought that was quite reasonable!  We did have to bring our own food but we pooled everything together and cost was about $20 per quilter.
Here are some of the quilts hanging up around the home:

Absolutely LOVE this quilt.  The label says it was designed by the homeowner.

 

I had this cute quilt hanging above my bed.

Another stunning quilt made with gorgeous fall colors!  Notice the hangers on each quilt!

 

Little coasters for your drink.

A bit blurry since I was hanging on the stairs trying to take the picture.

This one in a Hoffman Challenge.  Supposedly there is a mistake in the quilt but no one seems to know where it is.

These little bitties are actual fabric minis.  Love the stain glass look with them!

Most days were overcast so we didn't get much of a view this time of the Tetons.

Our home away from home!

 

Emily's 2nd Quilt

My daughter-in-law finished her 2012 BOM!  She brought it over to show me after she picked it up from the quilter.  There was a bit of trouble with the borders but I am so excited for her to push on and finish!  It is big enough to go on her bed so she had a lot of fabric to push through her machine.  I am so proud of her!  The setting of the blocks was something we found online so she kind of winged how to put it all together.  No directions at all.  I was a big help.  I told her to just look at the picture and then decide how big she wanted her blocks and to go for it---after I showed her how the original was pieced together.  Her 1st quilt was a BOM too (Noah's Ark).  It is such a great way for beginner quilters to learn to sew quilt blocks plus they get a quilt at the end of the year!
 

Chevron quilt

What do you do with your pre-cuts?  I have several jelly rolls and a couple of layer cakes in my stash that I bought years ago when they first came on the market.  I have used a few of the jelly rolls to make sampler quilts but the layer cakes have sat untouched.  I did make one block a couple of years ago with a couple of 10" squares but then the rest of the squares have been stashed away.  Until now that is.

I don't even remember what this layer cake's name is but I have loved the fabric since I bought it.  A few months ago I saw Missouri Quilt Company's youtube video on how to make a Chevron quilt.  Looked simple enough so yesterday I pulled out the remaining squares and got to work.  The construction is very simple.  Take one layer cake square and then a contrasting color that is also 10".  Place them RST and sew 1/4" around all 4 sides.  To make this process go quicker sew in an assembly line fashion.  Sew all squares on one side, cut them apart and then sew the next side until you have sewn all 4 sides.  Cut the squares apart on each diagonal and you have 4 blocks.  Press and then put them together how you want them to look.  It wasn't until I was ready to put my blocks on my design wall that I realized I didn't have has many green blocks as I did pink.

Here was my first attempt at putting the blocks together.  Blah.


Next I tried to keep the colors together in the blocks.  Again....blah.

Finally I took everything off the design wall and started over by mixing everything up.  As you can see, I only had enough greens for one row but I like it.  

 

Now to put on the border and get it to the quilter!  A layer cake gone from my stash!  Yes!  

2012 BOM

Another year has come and gone along with another Block of the Month from our Local Quilt Shop.
2012 applique quilt was Snowmen.  We had the choice of making that, the 12" blocks or both.  I opted to make just the Snowmen quilt this time.

This is the finish quilt from the quilt shop, Valley Fabric.  I'm not sure if it is an original or not.  Many years we do make a quilt from a local, talented designer.  This is Warm Winter Wishes.


This is the Beige/Black quilt that the shop made as a sample as to how you can finish your quilt.  I love this setting.  My daughter and daughter-in-law made these blocks.  You also had the option of making it in blue fabric which was quite stunning.

Another way of setting your blocks to finish your quilt.

My quilt in progress.  

As you can tell, I put my quilt together a bit differently than the original.  

 

My darling daughter-in-law has caught the bug!

My daughter in law joined my daughter and myself this past year in making the BOM at our LQS.  She got so excited about sewing that she bought a couple of panels and made them into floor quilts for her boys.  I am so proud of her!


She had a wonderful quilter quilt them.  Click the picture to see the detail.

Emily wasn't satisfied in just a plain black border.  She appliqued every yellow piece of fabric on that inner border so it looked like a road!  Notice the face of that cute lil' recipient of that quilt!

Again, some great quilting! 

Emily is now working on finishing her BOM to get it to the quilter next week.  I can hardly wait to see how she put it all together.

LOVE the quilting!

Got my baby quilt back from my quilter and am so SO happy with the quilting she did on it!


As you can see, she quilted every inch on it.  Just what I love. 

Here's the front.  Baby Boy will be here December 29th.  I can hardly wait to hold him!  One of my favorite blocks in this quilt is the little suit in the middle.  My oldest sons wore similar suits one year for Easter Sunday.  

Here is a picture of my little ones with my mom wearing their suits.  She was battling cancer at the time and we had flown back and forth from Texas to California to visit with her as much as we could that year.  She would lose her battle early the next year in February.  The boys are 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 in this picture.  I love these little suits!  It's funny to look at this picture and notice a bean bag chair....I certainly don't remember growing up with that and am now wondering why in the world my parents would have one!

Have to also mention that the daddy of this newest grandbaby is my oldest son in this picture!  Yes...they do grow up!

The pattern is Benji's Pockets by Acorn Quilt & Gift Company.  You can find it here.  It's on sale!

Great Granny Quilt

This quilt pattern can be found on Lori Holt's Great Granny Quilt Along page.  I love when designers are happy to freely share their talents with others!


I used up every bit of fabric I had left over from my Dresden Quilt that is hanging on the wall for the Great Granny quilt.  I wish I had had more of it, I think it is called Maypole.  I was hoping to make the quilt into a queen for my own bed but had just enough jelly roll strips to make 24 blocks.

So nice to make a quilt out of scraps from my stash!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Not sure where the time goes but I just haven't spent too much time at the sewing machine.

Actually we have been visiting this lil' 2 year old this month.  She lives out of state and I sure do miss her!  We had a great week visiting her and her parents!


I've also loved having our youngest son home from BYU for a few weeks this month.  He left yesterday for an internship in San Antonio.  Hopefully that beast behind him will get him there, back AND around for 10 weeks!  Joel hasn't bought a car for himself yet...wants to keep saving money so he is stuck with our "leftovers" for his trip.  I'm pretty proud of this kid...he was just accepted into the Master's program at school (yes....he is older than you think).

This lil' one still has my heart.  6 weeks old now and still has all her hair!  She looks so big and chunky here but is still just a lil' thing!
 

I did make this wall hanging this month.  I realized I didn't have any quilt for Flag Day or 4th of July so I looked through my patterns and found this one to make.  It is an Out On A Limb pattern called America Something to Crow About.  Love my rooster guy!