Quilting Bees 2025 Summer Retreat

 This past weekend I attended a very fun quilting retreat put on by my local Quilting Bees Club. 

This is my third retreat. The last two times I worked on Halloween and then Christmas placemats. I decided to do something different this round and used up extra Cake Recipe 2 sheets and 10"x10" fabric from when I made this quilt March 3, 2021.

When I used these sheets for my quilt, I made block 3. This past weekend I went for block 2 and used up the fabric and sheets = stash reduced, yippee.

I don't have the sheets anymore, but the idea is you place a 10" square print fabric on top of a 10" square solid, then you place the Cake Mix Recipe sheet on top. Pin together and sew on the dotted line in numerical order and cut on the solid lines. For this particular recipe, you end up with ten small half-square tringles and two larger ones. You use these to create the suggested blocks on the cover, or you can do your own thing. 

Here is what half of the grouping looks like when squared up and ironed. You end up with two sets from each print. I used the leftover fabric from when I made my quilt, which is Moda Layer Cake Farmhouse II. Those who know me will see a lot of variations of my favorite color - peach.

It is rather tedious - paper removal, squaring up, etc. But I worked on it during the retreat and a bit at home while watching baseball (Diamondbacks).

But, I did manage to finish 12 squares - below. I still have 12 sets to square up and 9 ready to sew into the blocks below. 

I am thinking of laying them out in this pattern, but I am waiting to get them all done and play with combinations before I sew them together. 

The retreat was fun and it puts me out of my comfort zone, I am much more comfortable with stitching and beading.

Day one everyone received a clear zipper bag (not shown) with colored zippers and the pretty fabric flower pin below, along with a post-it note holder with our initial embroidered on it.  I thought the pin looked good on my notions bag that my friend Sandra made me, I pinned it on it.

Also inside the clear zipper bag with colored zipper (mine was orange) were two cuts of fabric. We met in groups with matching zipper colors and changed out one of the fabrics in our bags and then used them to make pillow cases for charity. 

We each got our own 6' long table to work at and could leave our stuff in the room overnight. Here is an area of my set up with my scraps (orts) for the day in a cute bag I got at another retreat. 

That is about all for now!!

Some Quilting Finished

I first told you about these quilts in progress on June 8, 2020. Now I can show you the finished pieces. 

I used Layer Cake pre-cuts from the Moda Fabrics Farmhouse II collection and solid white layer cake precuts (all 10" squares). I then used a Layer Cake Recipe 2 card to create the half square triangles and sewed them together to make T blocks.  I used Jelly Rolls from the same fabric collection, choosing predominantly green fabrics to make the binding.

This disappearing four patch star is based on month 4 of the Missouri Star Quilt Company's 2020 block of the month club. I am not a member, but stumbled across the you tube video about this block and decided to try it. It was fun! I was looking for a fun star block for my quilt club's quilt show challenge. The theme was seeing stars (I say was because due to covid-19 the quilt show was cancelled). 

If we wanted to participate in the challenge we paid $2 and received a surprise (a brown bad with a fat quarter in it), All the fabrics were different and all has stars. Mine is the gray fabric. The finished piece is about 17" square. 

Everyone who is in town, was given the opportunity to turn in our challenge pieces and there will be a  mini show for club members on Friday, March 5. The plan to do this again, so members not in town can participate. Sorry I do not seem to have a photo of the back.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

More reading than stitching since I have been in a bit of a reading mood the last few weeks.  I am in the process of reading Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini.  I think what started this reading trend was our bookmobile returning (pick up and drop of only) and I finally broke down and bought a Kindle. Here is what I have read so far.

Lost Among the Angels	Alice Duncan
Angels Flight	Alice Duncan
Fallen Angels	Alice Duncan
Angels of Mercy	Alice Duncan
Thanksgiving Angels	Alice Duncan
Scraps of Paper	Kathryn Meyer Grifith
Owl Be Home for Christmas	Donna Andrews
Love & Death Among the Cheetahs	Rhys Bowen
The Victory Garden	Rhys Bowen
What Child is This	Rhys Bowen
Above the Bay of Angels	Rhys Bowen
A View to Die For	Richard Houston
Christmas Bells	Jennifer Chiaverini

I have also been quilting and did a little finishing, so here goes the updates.

I  have worked a bit more on the Maria Antoni Sampler and it is a little over 1/4 done.

I also put together the blocks for a quilt top and moving on to the borders.

I used Layer Cake pre-cuts from the Moda Fabrics Farmhouse II collection and solid white layer cake pre-cuts (10" squares). I then followed Layer Cake Recipe Card 2 to create the needed half square triangles and sewed them together to make the T blocks. Used my "fancy" design wall (the back of a fleeced plastic tablecloth binder clipped to my bookshelf).

I also made a disappearing four patch star based on month 4 of the Missouri Star Quilt Company's 2020 block of the month club. I am not a club member, but used their you tube video to recreate the block using my fabric. It was fun!!

Finally I did a bit of finishing, turning this gingerbread man I stitched in 2014 into an ornament. It was from a challenge put out by the Columbine ANG chapter in Denver, CO to trace a cookie cutter and stitch an ornament.

I think that covers it for now. Take care everyone and 

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!!!