cutting for retreat, pinwheel blocks, pizza, Cooper

Michael left for a ton of errands Friday morning (9/29) like Triple A (still looking for an eclipse cruise), picking up my embroidery machine (YAY!!), CVS, LOWE’s (house washing solution), the library (to return books), Belair Food Pantry (to drop off all of the food collected at the retreat yesterday), WALMART (for red pens), and Trader Joe’s (butternut squash ravioli & organic sugar free peanut butter).  As I approached my day, I truly felt awash in good feelings….which I attribute to a number of things….first and foremost, the retreat yesterday.  That was still uppermost in my mind and brought a huge smile to my face and peace to my heart.  Second, to a phone call from Janice in the early morning hours.  I had a very, very upsetting Wednesday afternoon, and sent off an email to Janice late Wednesday night.  She called early Thursday morning to make sure I was all right, and to tell me that what I was feeling was ok…and to just try to enjoy my day on Thursday….which I thoroughly did.  And lastly, I was feeling good from a short conversation I had with Loree.  Although we didn’t get to talk a lot at retreat…apparently she had been thinking some of the same things I was on Wednesday…it was surprising what a parallel track our lives are taking at times…and knowing that she felt some of the same things was good to hear.  I hope we can help each other  :~). 

In addition to finishing off my regular Thursday project at retreat (pictures after it is quilted and bound), I got the binding sewn 3/4 of the way around another Valor quilt (had to leave one corner unfinished for the label) and I started to sew together all of those 1/2 square triangle blocks created from my paper pinwheel quilt: 

So, feeling super good on Friday, I kicked off Miss Scarlett to finish up Sandy F’s quilt and continued cutting out fabric.  I now have 2 Valor quilts ready to go for retreat:  

By the time I finished up Sandy’s quilting in the afternoon, my honey was home from all of his errands with my embroidery machine, so I fired that up, anxious to complete 2 Valor labels so that I could finish up my quilts…however I still ran into problems and was very discouraged :~(.  Judy (lady at Viking store) felt that I needed more stabilizer and different kinds as well, so I will work on that.  By then it was time to make the pizza for dinner, so I headed to the kitchen.  We still had 2 huge tomatoes and a tiny bit of pesto (I desperately need more, but don’t have any viable basil), so that’s the pizza I made:

Michael and I finally got a chance to settle in and watch the first episode of the newest STAR TREK:DISCOVERY.  We were totally disappointed that ‘60 Minutes’ ran late, so we missed the last 20 minutes of our program.  BUT, we also thought it was rather plodding and are not sure whether we are going to watch or not.

I have one more picture to show you and I have to warn you in advance that it is just SO ADORABLE that you will be compelled to say “AWWWWWW”!   

Yes, Jan’s dog Cooper has completed his obedience school training….is he not precious?

Retreat Day at Scrap Happy Quilters

We were up super early on Thursday (9/28)…my honey packed the car and I left for retreat at Scrap Happy Quilters!!!!  What can I say….I got home at 4:30 from a FAB-U-LOUS day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   It could NOT possibly have been any better.  The breakfast food was incredible:  

jam/cheese log with lots and lots of raspberry jam - not a crumb was left!!

Our goodie bags were wonderful, filled with a fat quarter, thimble, needles and magnet holder and I'm sure other things I'm not remembering:  

There was chocolate at our table places first thing in the morning, along with a quilters prayer:

I made name tags for the group several weeks ago:

But then Mary Ann & Jeanne really gussied them up:

We had tables set up for eating with beautiful fall decorations:

It took us no time at all to get set up:

And we dived into our projects.  Of course we had our regular show and tell:

pink & gray...one of my favorites

I loved them all, but especially this gorgeous batik from Loree:

We stopped for pizza at lunch (and a dessert buffet that was insane)!:

We had raffle prizes throughout the day:

It was just an unbelievably magical day.   I know I’ve mentioned in the past that last December a group of quilters broke off to form their own group…and that since that time, people in our current group have come up to me and Loree (and maybe others) and said how nice quilting has been this year.  This is the first retreat we have had without the quilters who broke off and you could really tell what a difference it made  :~).  It's good to have separate groups when people have different ideologies.  So many people LOVE this group and it is so nice to go to…truly is the high point of my week and of many others (so we have been told).  

I put my feet up and read for over an hour when I got home, then got a teeny tiny spurt of energy and headed to my studio to do a bit of work in cutting out more projects for retreat...picture tomorrow.

cutting out for new quilt, unbaked jam/cheese log

Matt was at our house fixing our computers from 8 AM – 9 AM Wednesday morning (9/27) after which Michael and Cookie went for a walk while I SKYPE’d with Janice for over an hour.  We will only talk ONE MORE TIME before we see each other at retreat….YAY!!!  I worked on the blog after that and when it was finally posted at 10:30, I headed upstairs for breakfast.  I really didn’t want to spend any time figuring out what to eat, so I just grabbed some yoghurt and pecans and headed back downstairs.  I kicked off more quilting on Sandy's quilt and managed to get 2/3 of it done by dinner, as well as cutting new fabric for one of my ‘youtube’ quilts for retreat...I feel really good about this fabric because the main fabric on the left I have had FOREVER!!!  and the 2-1/2 inch strips all came out of my drawer of leftover 2-1/2 inch strips:  

It was leftover chicken sausage for dinner, after which I put together 2 jam/cheese logs to rise overnight in the fridge:  

I know it don’t look like much now….but trust me…they will be fabulous tomorrow once they’re baked  :~).

new quilt loaded, new flowers, a clean desk (for one of us!)

Michael and Cookie went for a walk Tuesday morning (9/26) while I got my blog out and had a nice conversation with BG.  We are TWO WEEKS AWAY from the Fiber Floozie Retreat….WHOO HOO!!!!!  Once he was home, I’m sure you can guess what Michael did:  

breakfast on the lanair

he wanted a close up of his breakfast

You know it’s funny, I got to see Beth yesterday at Cooking Fingers…I haven’t seen her in forever because I haven’t been going to Stitch & Chat…I don’t get to see Carolyn or Nancy A or Barb W (we DID get to talk after Cooking Fingers…YAY) or Joanne either :~(… and we were talking about our lives and how we do the same things every day.  I mentioned that sometimes it is really hard to write my Christmas newsletter because we do the same things over and over again…which I’m sure sounds really boring to read to most people.  BUT, we also talked about how we love our lives because we are retired and are lucky enough to get to do what we truly LOVE over and over again every day :~).  Michael and I still marvel over the fact that this is our life now…and how terrific it is. 

After breakfast, Michael picked some late blooming cherry tomatoes 

and more zinnias:  

so I now have a bunch in my sewing room and he walked the yellow bunch down to our neighbors Evelyn & Phil.  We also had another beautiful rose coming out:

which he picked and surprised me with in my studio  :~).  He also spent a sweaty hour working on our big blue pot in the front.  Those canna lilies totally re-seeded themselves and took over….so he went from this:  

to this:  

We still couldn’t get one big root system out (that root was at least 1-1/2 inches in diameter and we kept hacking away at it, but it was too hard to crack), so we’re going to try to cover the pot and hope that things rot over the winter so that it can be replanted.  What with one thing and another, I didn’t get downstairs until the early afternoon when Paula stopped by for a few hints on adding her border and also to buy a bit of fabric for her next Valor quilt.  After that I got Sandy F’s second quilt all loaded and basted: 

and started working on the program for quilting.  That took me over an hour as I couldn’t get the density to be what I wanted, but finally it was done and I wound my bobbins and started stitching out:  

Michael and I have both been having some issues with our computers, so he set up an appointment with Matt (computer fixer extraordinaire) and decided to clean off his desk before Matt came.  

before....

after....

before....

after....

before....

after....

Of course...it was my idea.....but my desk is still a disaster  ~sigh~.  Maybe this is finally the year I make a resolution about my desk....we'll see.  

I made a chicken sausage/tomato/spinach stir fry for dinner, after which I continued to quilt for a bit and got a third of the way done on Sandy’s quilt.