Sew-In on the Beach

   

 Every winter I meet a group of friends for a winter sew-in.  We are from several different parts of the country, so it usually involves some travel and new scenery.  The last two years we have met in Atlanta at Julie's house.  This year we met in Seagrove Beach, Florida.  Three of the group have condos there and we used the clubhouse for sewing.  It was a great facility, with lots of light and a good kitchen.  Here are some pictures of the sewing room.

     Here are some of the works in progress:

Here's Laura with her selection of solids.

And the finished block!  Yes, it was paper-pieced, intricately paper-pieced.

Laura also brought this beauty, which needed the binding hand-stitched.  We finished that for her during rest stops.

We had a newbie.  Evelyn had sewing experience, but no quilting in her past.  Sister, Janie, brought her a jelly roll and matching charm pack and introduced her to quilting.

And here is the finished product

I think we have a new quilter.

     Here's Julie and her projects:

Sashing a BOM.

And her Rattlesnake blocks.  You will see several versions of the Rattlesnake.  They were an Arrow Rock Quilt Camp project from last May.

Lola's Rattlesnakes

And on the design wall.

Janie's version of Rattlesnakes.  Amazing how different they all are, isn't it?

     Sandy finished this flimsy during the sew-in.  Several of us bought some of the same fabrics during our quilt shop visit in May.  We challenged ourselves to bring a quilt from them to quilt camp in May, but Sandy is winning this one.  

Teri brought some of her husband's ties, looking for ideas on a way to use them in a quilt.  Here is the finished product.  It will be appliquéd to a backing for a wallhanging.  

Beautiful, isn't it?

     I took several partial projects, mostly blocks cut into kits.  I had one finished flimsy to display.  This is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  The January color was blue.  I had a ton of blue 2-1/2" strips, so did some rail fence blocks, then did some slicing and dicing.  

 Here are some more of my WIPs.

A pattern from Homestead Hearth, called Red Cross. 

I had fun sewing on Julie's Featherweight.

Some churn dash and basket blocks from another WIP.

As seen in Bruno's Pizza. 

Our farewell dinner at Salty Sue's.  

Did I have shrimp?  

Of course, I had shrimp!

I'm back home now.  I've quilted and bound that RSC quilt and will donate it to a local group helping families with small children.  They said they seldom have quilts for toddler boys, so I hope it goes to one of those little guys.  All of those other projects await me in the sewing room.  We have snow in the forecast for next week, so I will plan to 

Keep on Stitchin',

Judy

Quilting Season 2016

     Once the holidays are over, I am so impatient to get everything boxed up and stored away so that I can plan my sewing projects.  The first three months of the year are always my best sewing time.  There are fewer distractions, the weather isn't conducive to outdoor activity and our little village goes to sleep for three months.  Sometimes there is a little activity on the weekends, but not much.  Approximately 50% of our residents are weekend people and they tend to stay in the city most weekends, especially when it is cold or snowy.  So, I have plenty of time to sew and tend to burrow into my sewing room and come out only for sustenance and sleep.  Here's what I've been doing.

I finished my blue orange peel.  The appliqué was my deck-sitting project this past summer.  

The photos don't do it justice.  The blues are actually much brighter.

I used unbleached muslin for the backing.  I will have to admit, there is nothing that shows up your quilting as well as muslin.

I joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year sponsored by So Scrappy.  The January color was blue.  I had a bursting-at-the-seams bag full of blue 2-1/2"strips, so chose this block, Father's Choice, to make for my year long project.  This will be twelve or so blocks with sashing (I think).  Then, since that didn't make a dent in that bag, I decided to try a new block using more of the strips. 

Someone had given me a gallon zip lock bag full of 1-1/2" white strips.  So I came up with this block, which I'm calling the Binbuster.   

I tried this setting...pretty boring.

Then I sliced a couple of the blocks on the diagonal, in opposite directions, sewed them to each other and lo! a block with a little more personality.  I think this will make a great charity quilt.

Someone in the Stashbusters group posted photos of three quilts done in Jacob's

 Ladder blocks, all using different settings.  So, in December, I pulled some Christmas fabrics from the stash and made this small table topper.  It is 45" square.  

Last, but not least, I have finished the flimsy for Allietare, the Bonnie Hunter 2015 mystery quilt.  I only made 1/4 of the blocks during the mystery,  due to the disappointment in my quilt last year.  Of course, I love this one and wish it was larger.  It is 56"x56".  

I have some other things started, so will share those another day.  For now, 

Happy New Year

and

Keep on stitchin'

Judy