Quilt Retreat

 

Well its no long now until I will be packing my bags and heading off to  Dubuque in Iowa to spend some much needed fun time with old friends and some new friends.  You can read all about it in this post.

I recently contacted a number of sponsors asking for them to donate prizes to some of the games we will be playing at quilt retreat.  Well like I said this blog post the response had been amazing.  Well since that blog posts many other sponsors have donated prizes and I am overwhelmed at the generosity of these sponsors. 

 

I was keeping all this a secret from the ladies at quilt group, but I couldn’t any longer as I wanted them to be just as excited about quilt retreat as I am so I sent them a little teaser email!

 

“Hi Ladies,

For those of you who don't know I  moved to Minneapolis at the beginning of August. With house selling in La Crosse and house buying in Minneapolis and then the loss of our dog only last month, Its been a crazy, difficult year for me. So as you can imagine I am need of a break,  I am very excited to be attending quilt retreat with you all this year.   It will be lovely to catch up with friends, and also to meet some new ones.

Anyway, I have been extremely busy (and I don't mean unpacking), I have been doing a lot of plotting and planning since I moved away and have been in contact with some off my favourite  blogs and shops (we all love to shop, right!).

I explained all about our quilt group and how we do our little bit in the community with the Tiny Tim Christmas Tree.  I told them about our retreat and how much fun we have and how we all like to shop and buy fabric, patterns etc.

And the response has been absolutely amazing!  Many of the businesses and blogs that I contacted have agreed to sponsor prizes for some of the games we will play during our weekend!

I have received some fantastic prizes and I think you are all going to be pleasantly surprised. 

So just to wet your appetite a little, and give you an idea of what to expect, here are the sponsors who are donating  to our quilt retreat!”

Bag (translation UK to US Purse) Sewing Patterns

A girl can never have enough Bags/Purses

You get to choose!!!

Your Choice of any pattern in the shop

(which will you choose!!!)

Donated Patterns for each of us

$200 Value

Here are just a few of the patterns from the shop.

Here are the patterns donated from cluck cluck sew

I love all of them

$100+ Value

Assorted Fat Quarter Bundles

Charm Packs

Something for Everyone

$$$$

$25 Gift Certificate

to spend on whatever you want

$40 in Prizes

$25 Gift Certificate

You get to shop!

Fat Quarters

My favourite Quilt Designer and Fabric Designer

Quilt Patterns

$200+ Value

Quick Curve Rulers

Beautiful Modern Quilts with Curves, look online for videos on how to use this ruler!

Quilt Patterns

$100+ Value

 

 

Fat Quarter Bundle

Sweet Tweets by Laurie Wisburn

$25+ Value

Clutch Wallet Patterns

$60  Value

Fat Quarter Bundle of 12

'A is For...' from KT for Windham Fabrics

$34 Value

Patterns

Winners Choice of 3 Patterns from the shop

$30  Value

I still have one more little surprise up my sleeve but you will have to wait to find out about that one at quilt retreat! So I hope your all just as excited as I am, see you soon.

Sam

PS If you have any suggestions for games/competitions for winning some of these prizes then please let me know.”

 

So as you can see this years quilt retreat is going to be absolutely AMAZING.  All I need to do now is get myself sorted and decide what I am taking with me. 

 

Do you take too much when you go on quilt retreat?  I take far too much!  This year I am precutting my fabric for 2 quilts, that way I wont make any mistakes cutting, I get distracted easy! at quilt retreat and I need to concentrate when I am cutting fabric!

Sweet Dreams

For some of you this might be old news but I have not really been able to write about it.

I am sad to post that we had to say goodbye to my sweet, gorgeous pup on October 12.

It would have been his 8th birthday tomorrow.

When we emigrated to the US in 2007, Murphy followed us 1 weeks later.  He was part of our family and there was no way we were going to leave him behind.  So we arranged flights for him and a week later my husband collected him from the Airport, he was a little shocked by the flight, but after a couple of months he forgot all about it.

If your a regular reader, you will know we just moved only 3 months ago, and during the house buying and selling process he got extremely sick, he then picked up after we started to treat him for Addisons disease (incidentally the same treatment for dogs with cancer).  We did not know at the time but he had cancer, the last 2 months he had 10 acres to run around and fetch his frisbee and chase after us on the ATV.  Those last 2 months were so precious, I did not know he had cancer, so I am thankful for the time I had with him, without the burden of knowing he did not have long left.  I am thankful for that. A week after him not eating again, we saw a new vet, and she was able to diagnose him correctly, something the old vet was not able to do and completely dismissed the swollen lymph nodes we pointed out as fatty tissue.

Sweet dreams Murphy

Such a sweet and handsome boy

Receiving lots of love and kisses from Milly

Having fun in the snow

I was here first, and she insists on sitting on me!

Bloggers Quilt Festival–Bed Quilt for a Teenager - Crossroads

 

Hi there ! If you are visiting my blog for the first time while touring the

Blogger's Quilt Festival,

welcome!

 

 

This is my second entry for the Quilt Festival.  I am entering my sons Crossroads quilt into the Bed Sized Quilt Category. The pattern for this quilt is called Power of 4 designed by Tony Jacobson for Fons and Porter for the Love of Quilting Magazine, May/June 2013 issue.

 

 

I changed the pattern slightly by adding extra rows and 2 borders, the  inner border is Kona snow and the outer is Parson Gray., the original quilt size is 64 x 76 and I needed it to be big enough to fit a Queen Bed.

The month before our dog was sick and the month before our lives got a little crazy house hunting and moving etc., I started a quilt, and I did get it finished just before we moved.  So I can now say that while we lived there I made a quilt for every member of our household!

I made this quilt for my youngest son,

Every time I have asked him if he wants a quilt he has always said he didn’t want one, he has his favorite worn out thread bear quilt!  But like I said I wanted to have made a quilt for each of us in our little family while living in that particular home.  So he didn’t have a choice, he was getting one!  Teenagers can be difficult at the best of times! but he absolutely loves this quilt,

As he was not interested in the planning stage of it , I just went ahead and made decisions on colour and pattern without his input! I think it can be difficult making a quilt for teenagers, especially boys, there does not seem to be too many fabrics geared to young men that are modern and the right colours.  But this line seemed to be perfect.

 

 

I named this quilt Crossroads, I think it’s the perfect name for it!

 

The quilt top all pieced at our home before we moved

 

 

(oh no look at the deck! in need of some TLC it has now been power washed and stained since this photo was taken, only 3 weeks after moving in!)

 

 

 

 

To see more beautiful quilts visit  Amy's Creative Side to enjoy the festival. Pictures of the quilts will be posted between now and October 31, its certainly worth a visit to look at all the beautiful quilts.

 

Quilt Details

I gave my LAQ free reign when it came to quilting this quilt, and I love the pattern she chose, it really does give it a modern look and some movement to the quilt. Thank you Sue! If you need a quilt quilting then I recommend Sue, she does a fantastic job and I do know that she received quilt by mail all the time to be quilted.
This magazine classed this quilt as being intermediate, but I found it extremely quick and easy to make, the most difficult part was making sure all the rows lined up, but that just required some patience on my part.

• Fabrics used – Parson Gray for FreeSpirit by David Butler, Dear Stella, (will add more details when I find the selvedge edges!)
• Border –  Robert Kaufmann Kona Snow (inner) Parson Gray (outer)
• Binding – Kona Delph Blue
• Backing – Gasp! A sheet from Target!
• Quilting – by Sue Tuma 
• Pantograph – Modern Curves by Anita Shackelford
• Thread -  Signature Cotton in Oyster Shell

• Batting – Legacy 80/20