Great Retreat!

At the end of April, I attended Modern Stitching Affair 2018 and it was SO MUCH FUN!  

It was great to see repeat attendees and loved meeting new sewing friends.  

We received TWO swag bags and they gave away FOUR sewing machines; that's unheard of!  Their sponsors were amazing!  

I started the retreat with a bus shop hop with 20 attendees to Quintessential Quilts, Mill House Quilts, Ardyth's Sew n Vac Shoppe, Electric Needle, and Blue Bar Quilts on Thursday.  We got back just in time to register and mingle at the opening reception. After the reception, we set up our spaces/machines in the sewing room and had free sewing time.  I spent this time finishing my prep for the classes.

Friday Sarah Lawson of Sew Sweetness, was our instructor for the making of her Crimson & Clover Train Case.  It was a well written pattern, but it was great to have Sarah on hand to answer questions as we went along.  The top is a bit wonky. :p I plan to go back in and fix it before hand stitching it closed.  There were several tips I learned from other attendees: (1) sew the top interior by machine as close to around the corners, which makes minimal hand sewing; (2) glue, not sew the interior bottom.  The next one I sew, I'll be better at fussy cutting the pieces and I will use piping to better define the case body.

Friday night was free sewing where I mingled with other attendees and went to dinner with my table mate. Here's my finished case.  I need to practice sewing my corners, but it's functional.  LOL!

Saturday's instructor Tara Curtis of Wefty Needle guided us through her fabric weaving technique using the hefty needle tool that she create.  Here's her Wefty Needle YouTube channel that demonstrates her technique.  Below is my finished panel.  I only used three different fabrics, instead of nine.  I haven't decided what I'm going to use it for.  I am planning to weave a larger piece with some fun fabrics that use a table topper.  Stay tuned! :p

Saturday night was open sew and Sunday morning was cleanup.  Since my flight didn't leave until Monday morning, I headed over to Blue Bar Quilts Sunday afternoon for their One Year Anniversary and a bit of last minute shopping.  If you are in the Madison area, you should definitely stop by.  It's a great quilt shop!

In addition to meeting great people and seeing friends, I was shown two books that I bought online while I was there and they were waiting for me when I got home.

Mini Wonderful Curves

by Jenny Pedigo, Helen Robinson, Sherilyn Mortensen

I can't wait to make a few of these patterns, especially the bats; they are so cool! 

Southwest Modern

by Kristi Schroeder

There are some quit tops in this one.  With the use of colors, many of these are great masculine styled quilts.  Adding a few of these to the long list of quilts I want to make. :p

MSA 2019 will be announced soon, and I can't wait!


Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey.

TTFN!

Christina

Snuggling Penguins

A friend of the family had a premie at the end of 2017. Her sister reached out and asked if I could make a blanket for her to gift with the baby's name and birth information. She said they love penguins so I went on the hunt for Penguin fabric. Who knew that penguin fabric would be so hard to find.  But thankfully, Pennington Quilt Works had a Penguin holiday fabric and it was on sale too! WHOOOP!

I worked with a local quilting friend to embroider the baby's information onto white fabric. Redacted in the photo below for privacy. Once that was completed, I began to design the penguin. 

I machine appliquéd it onto the fabric; this is only the third time I have done machine appliqué.  Not too bad. :p

                                
Then I decided to pull out the orange in the penguins and put minkie on the back. I quilted with large cross hatching using my walking foot. 


I LOVE how it turned out! 

Auntie, Momma and baby love it too!  

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey.

TTFN!

Christina

WIP Challenge 2018

One of the guilds I belong to, Turtle Creek Quilters, is having a WIP Challenge.  I made a list of all the WIPs I want to complete by the end of the year 2018 and submitted it to our coordinator in early February.  

I have been on a roll lately and here are some of my finishes.....


Jewel Bricks


Gone Camping


Tulip ALS Charity Quilt

 
Teddy Bear Quilts --mini's (4)


Penguin Baby Quilt 


Modern Organic Shapes Mini


Stork Wonder


Red/Black Modern Quilt


Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey.

TTFN!

Christina

RETREATS are Good for the Soul

I want to start today by saying how AWESOME sewing retreats are! I get to spend 3-4 days with some uber talented individuals who enjoy creating as much as I do.  

While over the years I have attended many retreats throughout the country, the two that I loved and have had the most impact on me as a creator were SEW SOUTH and MODERN STITCHING AFFAIR.

Sew South was my very first retreat. It was organized and run by Jennifer of Ellison Lane Handmade in early spring 2013 in a hotel in the beautiful city of Charlotte, NC. There were 50 attendees from all over the country who loved to sew, like me! We learned paper piecing (my first), made pajama bottoms and made a duffle bag (aka 'DARN DUFFLE').  We received so much swag that I had to go out and buy another suitcase to fly home with.  LOL

I have done several paper pieced projects and duffles through the years.  Paper piecing makes for precise points and the duffles make great gifts. The maroon striped duffle bag below is the one I made at the retreat.  I use it ALL THE TIME!  Below are a few of the other duffle bags I have made as gifts over the years.




We had lots of free sewing time where attendees worked on a variety of projects including quilts, bags, and even some children's clothes.  We also got to chat, get to know one another and socialize.  Many of my IG friends and sewing friends are these lovely ladies.  I cherish their friendship, support and advise through the years. I have gone to visit many of them over the years, as well.

Modern Stitching Affair (MSA) was hands down THE BEST retreat I have attended.  The first MSA was held the fall 2016 in a huge ballroom in Madison, WI.  It's the brain child of a Sew South attendee Trina and Wendy.  There were three presenters and respective projects -- Ann Sandler of Stitch Supply Company with hand stitching the Hexie Sampler, Cristy Fincher of Purple Daisies Quilting with Piec-lique technique with her Circle Maze Quilt Pattern, and Betz White with the her Field Study Tote.  PHOTOS below from Modern Stitching Affair IG Account. 



I finished my Field Study Tote at the retreat. The Pieces-lique Quilt project is one of my WIPs for this year with pieces for 12 additional blocks cut that need to be put together.  Although I have not finished my Hexie Sampler, I learned a ton and like working on it.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey.

TTFN!

Christina

The Dr is In

As promised, here is one of the many finishes while I was "offline".


A few years ago, my roommate from college reached out to me and asked if I would make a quilt with her husbands t-shirts as a surprise for him.  At the time of the request, I was working on the first set of Marine T-shirt Quilts and thought "how will I ever get to this".  Well I said yes with the caviat that this may take awhile.  

She is a HUGE fan of batiks so I knew I'd be incorporating batiks into the design.   Other than that, there was no major requests.

I spent a weekend cutting, ironing and trimming which resulted in this top.  It was actually a ton easier than most of the T-shirt quilts I have done, because there were so many large logos.

I picked a Batik for the back.  It was quilted by Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting.  I picked Square Dance for the overall quilt design, just because I thought it looked cool.

The final quilt looks Great!  I hand delivered it on my next visit and they LOVED it!  It is proudly displayed and used by everyone in the house while snuggling on the couch.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey.

TTFN!

Christina

I'm BACK!

HELLO!  HELLO!

I'm Back after a very long break.  It has been several years since I last updated this blog.  WOW!  Time flies! To be honest, things have not only been crazy busy, but I lost the login/passcode information. But I recently found the information, among many other things, while cleaning out my sewing room.  LOL!

I am thrilled to be back on and looking forward to sharing my adventures with you in the coming weeks and months.

There have been MANY completions and I will post many of them with details in the coming weeks.  I hope you will follow along.

TTFN!

Christina