Day one at retreat

 Wow! We're tired. The day began with muffins and coffee in the room, then we ambled over to the venue where the rest of the committee were busy bees getting things set up and decorated.I set up my classroom and got the demos organized and ready, too. People started arriving  at 2, and dribbled in for the next couple of hours.Demos started at 3 and we were off to the races. Everything went smoothly.We had a lull while things were being set up for the cocktail hour, then took off bang when we came out as the village people and had everyone dancing to YMCA. We followed up with games and cake, then everyone went to their rooms to recover before the classes and sewing tomorrow.
Here are a couple of photos of the venue, the Dillard House Inn.

Where my class and the parties are held.

There is a big horse stable behind the hotel, and the horses were all outside this morning.

The petting farm is behind the stables.

Outside the sliders for each room, there are rockers, which we enjoyed once it stopped raining...

Day is done, and the skies are clearing up

The mountains in the distance have twinkling lights from homes on their sides.

I took this looking back at the venue from my rocker.

Before I left home, I finished up this quilt for the customer's grandson. She didn't want the thread color to interfere with the silhouettes, so I used invisible thread. It turned out nice and she was thrilled.

Here is the finished quilt.

She did the figures from actual photographs of the boy playing sports.

The soccer ball is bouncing off his knee.

LaCrosse

Panto: African Samba

Wild green backing, too!


Tomorrow is a busy day, so I had better stop this post and hit the hay. I hope it stops raining and warms up a bit. It is Tee Shirt Day, and I'll be under dressed for cold weather! We'll see.
Good night!

When it rains...it pours!!

We have had soooo much rain!! I am rapidly growing tired of rainy days. The only good thing is that we are kicking butt quilting. Mr Wazoo gets them quilted as soon as the customer leaves the studio. We had a lull in pantograph customers for a while, but things are picking up and giving the man something to do but make jigsaw puzzles.

Bright and pretty string quilt

Panto: Trellis Vine

A jelly roll baby quilt for a soon-to-arrive Great-Granddaughter.
The customer is a newbie and wants to turn the backing to the front instead of making binding. No trim, please...

Panto: Popcorn

Hmmm...dark gray on the back. That's different.

One of the two QOV for March

Panels make these QOV shine

Panto: Simply stars

Mr W did both QOV, but packed them up and sent them off so quickly, I didn't get a photo of number two! He really steps up when he has to.

Meanwhile, I got the sleeve and label on the raffle quilt and sent it home with my friend, Sue, who will be the quilt's keeper from now on. Bye bye, Misty Mountain Beauty!

Kay made the beautiful label, complete with flowers from the quilt's border!

The last couple of days have been pretty boring for me. I made the project sandwiches for my students as well as an extra sandwich to practice on. I did a little practicing, and I am sooo rusty at free motion on the domestic machine! It looks like I was having a stroke while quilting. I'll practice some more tomorrow.

I also put together my round robin challenge for my evening guild and got it quilted. I figure I can use it for my binding demo at the retreat, killing two birds with one stone, as they say.

Getting things together for the retreat

Here, the blocks are sewn together, but no borders yet

The Pfaff is making the trip to Dillard. Big Bernie never leaves the studio!I hope I get better at the quilting to teach the other gals.

Borders on, quilting in progress

All done. It is a little wonky, so I will have to block it when I get home.
I added the sleeve and label, so all I have to do is put the binding on.

I put some buttons and beads on it to 'bling' it up.

One of the other quilters made this strip of 'Loosey Goosey' blocks.
I opted to do the turn back curve technique on them, and add some flowers and beads.

This is the block I made. I added the bees after quilting.

The quilting is fun swirls and flowery stuff.

I also put some prairie points in the border, and held them down with tiny buttons.

Blue birds on a wire on the back.

Last (and least favorite) A customer brought in two tee shirt quilt for her son, who is a volunteer for the Republican party in Florida. Good thing I'm not like those cake guys who wouldn't make a wedding cake for a gay couple. I'll quilt for anyone. The customer is a sweet and friendly lady who I enjoy chatting with. I figure it's better to have the shirts on a quilt in his house than out in public on his body causing my blood pressure to rise. At least there were fish, too!! ha ha ha

Kind of a loser team quilt, but I guess it has fond memories for the tee shirt guy

Panto: Simply stars...in blue thread!

I do love the wild backing!

This one had some fishing tees. I actually enjoyed quilting over 45's face.

Panto: Star swirl

Another kookie backing. 

Now, I have to get some rest. Tomorrow will be busy getting the printing done, packets made, laundry finished and packing up my stuff. I have been asked to do my lady who swallowed a fly thing again, so I have to dust off the puppet and practice that, too. Plus, I am going to Louisville for a longarm class right after the retreat. I'll run Kay home and re-pack before leaving the same day for Kentucky. It's about a six hour drive, but I have a new audio book at the ready. I don't know when I'll post again, so bear with me and I'll catch you up next week some time!

Damn!! It's pouring rain again...sigh.

I'm tired

I haven't blogged much lately because there isn't really anything blog-worthy. The retreat is just a week away so I have been getting my class packets made and my thoughts collected for the handout. This is pretty dry work, but necessary for the success of the teaching endeavor. I also had the quilt rack set up in order to photograph the raffle quilt and my entries for the East Cobb show. Mr Wazoo had to come help with this project because one leg just wouldn't telescope up. After much finagling, he had it going and we took the pictures.

If the quilt was any bigger, it would have hit the ceiling!! Turns out, this is not an 8 foot ceiling.
The photos were later cropped to eliminate the mess in the background. 

We couldn't go outside for the pictures...it's raining again.

This one looks pretty good. I needed a picture to send to the show, and to the NACQJ
for their website. 

I made my challenge quilt block for the retreat, but can't show it here. It needs to be secret until after the retreat because people will vote for the one they like best. Kay's is super nice, so I am pretty sure she'll win, but I like mine, too. Making the quilt sandwich es for the students is really tedious and boring, but they will do better with something already prepared for them. I also plan to make a bunch of practice sandwiches for them to use in class. The written handout comes next, with a list of places to look at machine quilting on the computer. I'll have quilts to look at for inspiration, too.

Right from the retreat, I leave for Louisville, KY to attend a longarm quilting class with Linda Hrcka. It is a three day class, and I am really looking forward to it. I haven't begun to plan for that yet.

No quilting in progress...I can hear the quilts in the queue calling to me. Another iron in the fire, so to speak.

Like I said, I'm tired!

Finally finished!

I know I haven't kept up with the posts like I should, but I have been feverishly trying to get the raffle quilt done. Today, I finished the quilting, added a sleeve and the binding. I am sewing the binding on now, but took a moment to write this and post some pictures!
Tomorrow, I'm on another road trip to the Athens show with my friend Gail. She needed someone to ride along with her on a family matter, and then to the show. Sounds good to me!
There will be new projects to be done on Sunday, so stay tuned.

Now we just need a name for it.

Block quilting

More block quilting

Side border quilting

Top and bottom border quilting

The beautiful backing

My friend, and extraordinarily talented art quilter, Kay, had this full page photo and very complimentary comment in the latest issue of Simply Modern. It is the magazine put out by the same company as Quiltmania. She had no idea it was going to be there, so was surprised when I called to congratulate her. Looks like I have a famous friend!

The comment about Kay's work.

Kay's quilt (on the right) is made of Cherrywood fabrics. It is her own design.
FYI: My mentor from a Houston class, Claudia Pfeil's quilt is on the other page!!

Just so you don't think Mr Wazoo has been goofing off...he did this quilt yesterday and a QOV today.

Panto: Trailing Vine

After four days of nearly non-stop rain, the sun peeked out at 6:00 when I quit for the day. More rain expected tomorrow...