Our First Snowfall of the Season

I woke up this morning to a "skiff" of snow on the ground. As I am sitting here at my desk I have been watching the snow on the roof of the building next door slowly disappear. Right now there are just a few snowflakes left on the roof. We live on the outskirts of town and have a rather large lot. During the last two nights we have had deer in our back yard. I am wondering if this is a sign. I have heard that animals have instincts about the weather. I would imagine the "old timers" could interpret. I have heard that we are in for a rough winter this year. To me that translates to more quilting time. I love to be home, sitting at my sewing machine or hand quilting a quilt. Add a pot of soup simmering on the stove and biscuits in the oven and that is a perfect day.

Ann's Mad For Plaid

Olive and Ann (mother and daughter), from Indiana attended our Quilter's Retreat last weekend. Both of the ladies participated in Amy Davidson's Mad for Plaid class. Ann completed her quilt top and plans to use it as a table topper for the holidays. Isn't it beautiful? It was so much fun to see all of the different color combinations.

This is a quilt by former retreater Karen. She made this quilt for her grand daughter. The little dresses are replicas of dresses she made for her grand daughter, even using the same fabrics. Isn't it just as cute as it can be?

Halloween Decorations

Yesterday after work I pulled out our Halloween decorations. This cat and pumpkin is my favorite decoration for Halloween. I made this BQ (before quilting)! It made me think about my "crafting life." I am sure that many of you can identify with my crafting progression. As a young girl in 4-H we made lots of craft projects involving glue, fabric, ribbon, lace, yarn, more glue, wood and even macaroni. I tried my hand at knitting but soon discovered that it just wasn't for me. I did some crocheting, mainly afghans. I made several counted cross stitch projects, in fact I have a couple that I didn't finish. I got into the plastic canvas for a little while too. Once I was "bit by the quilting bug" it completely took over my life. I have been quilting for about 24 years now. I used to fear the "A" word - applique, but now I feel rather confident with needle turn applique. I have had some experience with the "P" word - paper piecing and I feel that I still need more practice. Hand quilting is my favorite aspect of quilting.

Folded Fabric Sampler

Pam Hively from Fort Wayne, Indiana was our instructor for our Quilter's Retreat last weekend. She taught her originial design, the Folded Fabric Sampler. During the class she taught ten folded fabric blocks, nine for the quilt and one for the label for the back of the quilt. It was a lot of fun. It was so nice to be able to get a top done during the class. I hope to get mine machine quilted before my next Guild meeting Show and Tell. This weekend Amy Davidson from Humble Bee Quilt Works will be here to teach her pattern, Mad For Plaid. We are looking forward to Amy's return visit to Thunder Bay Resort.

A fabulous weekend at Thunder Bay Resort

A couple of the young elk, approximately 3 years old, were doing a little sparring on Saturday evening during the dinner ride. It was really fun to watch them. A couple of the bigger guys were bugling and it sounded like one of them was getting a bit hoarse. We had a wonderful retreat with Edyta Sitar and the 32 ladies that were here. It is so great to make friends with quilters. Congratulations to Sandra from Mason who was our Grand Prize winner. We are now gearing up for a retreat that will begin on Thursday. Pam Hivley will be teaching her Folded Sampler Wall hanging. We still have room if you would like to join us for the entire retreat at Thunder Bay Resort or just take the class with Pam on Friday.

Quilter's Retreat with Edyta Sitar

The retreaters had a wonderful time with Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts Works yesterday. Everyone made a Poinsettia Block and practiced invisible machine applique. All of the blocks turned out so beautiful. Several of the ladies decided to make additional blocks from Edyta's Applique Affair.

A weekend on Mackinac Island

Steve and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend on beautiful Mackinac Island. The Island holds a special place in our hearts as our daughter Heather has lived there for several years. No motorized vehicles are permitted on Mackinac Island. Travel is by bicycle, horse drawn taxi or on foot. There are many beautiful homes on the Island. While there we attended mass at St. Ann's Church. The church building is absolutely beautiful. We also attended a Celebrate Your Marriage Conference at the Grand Hotel. We had some excellent speakers and I don't remember when I have laughed so much.

London and Buddy are helping out at the office today

We are getting ready today for our Edyta Sitar that will start tomorrow. Our grandson, London is here at the office helping me out. Buddy is the office dog and he loves attention. London loves anmals and loves to play with Buddy. As soon as we finish up a couple of little projects here at the office we will head to The Quilt Barn to get things set up. It is a little bit rainy today but the weather forecast for this weekend is dry and in the upper 60's. I am looking forward to that and also spending the next 4 days with some former retreaters and making friends with some first time retreaters here at Thunder Bay Resort. We still have room for a few day trippers for the class with Edyta if you are interested.

Do you make labels for all of your quilts?

I am ashamed to say that I have got out of the habit of labeling all of my quilts. Last weekend Pat Sloan hosted a Virtual Quilter's Retreat. During the retreat she presented several different ways of making quilt labels. She had some very interesting suggestions including using rubber stamps. She also suggested using fabric from the quilt to frame your label. I made a promise to myself in a previous post that I was going to make 1 label every day until I get caught up, then make a label for each quilt just as soon as I finish the binding. I managed to make this label and then life got hectic with family and work and I haven't been able to get back to the project. I will do that just as soon as possible. This label is for a quilt that I made with Edyta Sitar. The quilt is finished!! When Edyta comes to Thunder Bay Resort next weekend I am going to ask her if she will sign my label, then I can applique it to my quilt. I was thinkintg that it would be fun to make a label before any class that I take, then I can ask the instructor to sign the label. I think that would be fun. Pat said she plans to do another Virtual Retreat in February and I invite you to check it out. It was a lot of fun, visiting blogs and sharing comments with other quilters. I also won a prize during the retreat. Thank you Pat for the beautiful fabric and label.

My Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt

I started hand piecing my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt last January. I am using the english paper piecing method. The fabrics are from a Charm Square exchange with 6 friends. We exchanged 4 inch squares for the entire year. I enlarged the hexagon shape so I could use as much of the fabric as possible. I have about 3/4 of the quilt put together. While I am stitching the hexagons together I am thinking about how I will hand quilt my quilt!