Quilts From My Retreat

I was able to piece 4 tops while in North Carolina. I forgot to take a picture of 2 of them that are for the Nashville flood victims. But I thought I would show you the quilts I have been making the last month or so----all charity.

These go to our local hospital and the children that need an extra hug.

Retreat Fun in North Carolina---Lake Logan

I just returned from my 3rd annual quilt retreat with friends who met on the internet. We met on a Weight Watchers Quilters thread originally.

This is the most wonderful place to eat, sew and just enjoy eachother. One of our members is fighting breast cancer so we all have t shirts in honor of Jan. Here are some pictures from our fabulous time together.

Log Cabin Love

I have several of these center panels and have a hard time knowing how to use them. There was a pattern for a log cabin on the Quilts Of Valor website. Most of my patriotic fabric was printing all over so I needed to buy some fat quarters for this quilt.

I LOVED making this and really love how it came out. I think I have enough strips for another one already cut.

Our Country

The rally I went to was very political in nature. But the part that I thought was most wonderful was that we live in a country where people can speak their mind---protest what they think is wrong.

Our military are fighting for this right of free speech even if it against them.

And to my Senator Barbara Mikulski-who told me I did not understand the bail out money situation-----
We are coming for you. Get it right or get out of my house. You represent your voters and we told you NO.

Trip To Washington

I spent the week end in Washington DC to attend a 9/11 Memorial service and a rally. My friend from North Carolina---Hi Debbie------came up with a group on a bus. I will write about lots of different things about this week end in the coming days.

On Saturday afternoon we decided to visit the World War 11 Memorial. As we approached we noticed a large crowd of military people and older men and women. We figured out that this was a group from the Honor Flights. This is an organization that provides free trips to Washington for Veterans of World War 11 to see the memorial to them---long over due.

They send a person to accompany them on the trip as their caregiver and support. What I did NOT know is that a local military person volunteers to greet their flight and is their guide for the whole trip.

I will share some of the photos of this moving experience. There is much wrong in the world and the media is MORE than happy to tell us about that. Here is one of a million things RIGHT about our beloved country.

Fall Fun

I saw a picture of this quilt on a photo site. I just LOVED it and printed out a picture. I thought it would be easy to re create and did not need any directions. I am happy to be able to do that in my quilt making journey. All of this was made from stash fabric.

I decided it was time to try darker thread that would show up on the white parts. My Father In Law used to say "God hates a coward" all the time.

I am able to make a border in the sides now and have the thread path go from section to section with an invisible join---or almost. It just takes lots of practice to get better at this.

Another Try at This Pattern

I had ordered some of the patriotic strips from Connecting Threads. I wanted to see the quality of them. They were cut very well but the fabric was not my favorite. But if would be just fine for this design.

This is the way the center is supposed to be. I had used up all their fabric line and decided to add some pretty fabric for borders and make it easy for myself.

The quilting goes quickly since my Handiquilter and I have bonded so well. I seldom have thread breakage anymore and that used to slow me down.

Center Medallion

I have a pattern from Quilt In A Day that is for a large medallion type center. I finished that and realized I had made a mistake on it. But even a quilter would prolly not know what it was. So I combined the disappearing 9 patch blocks with this and ended up with this quilt.

I moved out more stash from the bright red white and blues. I also managed to quilt this one without one thread breakage on my Handiquilter. I do not think that has ever happened and I quilt really fast. If I slowed down some it would prolly work better.

There are 3 mistakes in this quilt but they are design type ones so it will be just fine. I made another center the right way so I will come up with a quick way to finish that top today.

More 9 Patch Fun

I just love this pattern and went through all my 5 inch charms for sports fabric. I also had some smaller pieces of fabric for that. This quilt will be for our local emergency room for a teen.

Disappearing Nine Patch

I have seen versions of this pattern and never really liked it. I tried a couple of blocks and it was just too busy for my taste. Then I saw one where 4 of the blocks were a plain light color and one dark in the middle. It was hard to believe this was made out of just 5 inch charms.

I had a 20 pack of charms and added some of mine that would be a pretty good match. This quilt will go to the emergency room at our local hospital for a teen. We had a special request for some of these.

I have enough charms in a sports theme to make another one.

Here is the website where I found this wonderful version---

http://www.joscountryjunction.com/?p=1732