Friday, August 28, 2009

More Round Robin Quilts




As I told you in an earlier post I was involved in a Round Robin quilt project here at Thunder Bay Resort's Perfect Quilter's Retreat. Our Round Robin inspired 6 other guests to start a Round Robin project. Joan, Dinah, Paula, Michelle, Janice and Marilyn decided to get together and work on Round Robin quilts last year. Throughout the year they were able to meet, visit and share their quilting lives. They also got together to support Marilyn when she was faced with a serious medical issue. Marilyn's Mom Geneva came to her rescue a few times to help Marilyn make her deadlines. Last week the gals came back to Thunder Bay to enjoy a retreat and reveal their quilts. I am showing you three of the quilts today and will show the next three in my next post. They all turned out so different and so beautiful.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Mark Lipinski's Golf Cart



WOW - We just finished 8 wonderful and hectic days here at Thunder Bay Resort with Mark Lipinski and lots and lots of retreaters. We are all a little bit tired here as I am sure Mark is too. During a little down time Mark had fun dressing up a golf cart, complete with tiki torches and a grass skirt. He also taught two class, Throw Me A Curve Mystery Quilt and Thunder Bay Curves and Ribbons Mystery Quilt. Both of the quilts were beautiful and it was fun to see them in so many color combinations. I wasn't able to take the classes, darn it, but hope to make the quilts some day. Thank you to Mark, Jeff, Karen, JoEllen and our vendors Everlasting Stitches, Back Street Quilt Shop, Quilter's Treasure, Hollyhock Quilt Shop and Wendy's Simple Stitches for a great retreat. Mark's Interview - YouTubeVideo

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Mark Lipinski is at Thunder Bay Resort


Mark Lipinski, "the Bad Boy" of quilting is here at Thunder Bay Resort this week. He taught a class, Throw Me A Curve" yesterday and the retreaters seemed to enjoy the project. He will be teaching a class, Thunder Bay Curves and Ribbons later this week. He did a wonderful Trunk Show last night and will repeat it this Friday, August 21, beginning at 7:15 p.m. If you are in the area you are most welcome to stop by and check out his Trunk Show and our vendors, Everlasting Stitches of Holt, Back Street Quilt Shop of Elkton and Quilter's Treasure of New Hampshire.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Block of the Month Quilts



Have you ever done a quilt using the Block of the Month method or a Mystery Quilt? The Guild I belong to has 2 Blocks of the Month going right now. Because of my hospitalization, surgery and recovery I am behind. A week or so ago I got back to working on catching up on one of the BOM's. The first picture shows some of the blocks sitting next to my sewing machine. The second picture is of a BOM quilt I did in 2007. I found the pattern on the internet from Fat Cat patterns. They have lots of fun patterns on their site. The bears on the quilt had names so I did some minor changes and added their names by hand embroidering the names to strips of fabric. I love the way the quilt turned out. I have a couple of older BOM quilts started and am thinking that this winter will be a good time to pull them out and get them finished. One of the quilts is flower blocks and I am using my hand dyed fabrics with black backgounds. I am doing machine button hole stitching and it is taking a long time. The second quilt is a Christmas quilt with two different size blocks. There are no instructions on how to cut the sashings so I have to be creative and do some math. That is a bit tough for me as I am very much a "pattern person". I would love to hear about your Block of the Month quilts and experiences.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Our Small Hometown Parade



We had our small, hometown celebration here in Hillman last weekend. The celebration is called VJ Day (Victory over Japan). Over the years there has been conversation among the "natives" about changing the name of the celebration. But as you know change is not easy. We always have a large group of veterans attending the celebration. Our celebration includes a parade, various food stands, craft show, duck races on the river, music and fireworks. I always enjoy the hometown celebrations. Perhaps next year I can drive my Golf Cart in the parade!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

MY NEW TOY!!


This is my new toy. I have been wanting a golf cart for about 3 years now. I thought it would be fun to ride around the yard and on our dead end road with the grand kids. Steve and I had another discussion a couple of weeks ago and I think he finally took me seriously. We went shopping and pricing carts last week. There was an ad in our local newspaper, Steve called it and we went and looked at the golf cart and brought it home. I have been able to take all 3 of the grand kids for rides and I have enjoyed that. In our community golf carts are allowed on public streets and roads. The carts must have a roll bar so we have an appointment tomorow to get it in for a roll bar. The other law is that if it does not have a windshield you must wear a helmet and goggles. We are planning to put a windshield on the cart as soon as possible. I am looking forward to going out and tootling around town with Steve and the grand kids.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I LOVE MY THUNDER BAY ROUND ROBIN QUILT!


I love this quilt. In July of 2007 during a Quilter's Retreat we had a few retreaters discussing an article in a Quilter's Home magazine about Round Robin Quilts. By the end of the retreat it was decided that 6 of us would do Round Robin Quilts and meet at Thunder Bay Resort the following August to reveal our quilts. Thanks to Pat for heading up the project. We each made a 16 inch block, then sent it to the next person on the mailing list. We each ended up with a quilt that had borders added by each of the participants. We had a reveal party here at Thunder Bay Resort. Raylene served a delicious luncheon and Joy provided margaritas. Mark Lipinski was here so he was invited to our reveal party as his magazine provided the inspiration for the project. I sincerely thank Sharon, Jackie, Raylene, Joy and Pat for my beautiful quilt. I did hand quilt my Round Robin quilt. I am anxious to see the other finished quilts some day soon. I would love to hear about your Round Robin experiences.