Of Mice and Men - And A new C.I. "The Retreat"

If you've known me for a while there are two sayings I throw around a lot.  "NLIP"  "Not Like I Planned"  and "Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men".
I am a Plan-A-Lot-Amus.  I like to plan, and I like to over plan and prepare. If I'm having a dinner party - I will over prepare food rather than have too little. To me the RSVP at the bottom of an invite is not a suggestion or a request - it's a courteous requirement.  However I have come to a point in my life where I accepted the fact that just because you plan it, doesn't guarantee it will happen.  And almost always will not happen exactly like you think it will, especially if there are others involved.   That being said -  Part of the retreat was a challenge and even so I still had a very nice time.
I will spare you the loooonnng story of what all happened with teaching the wallet. All is well that ends well and it ended well. I will however share a few tidbits, and lessons I learned.

1,  Don't teach a class where the students haven't had a chance to purchase the pattern if you are not going to give them the pattern.  I did not copy the pattern.  ( It is Copy Righted and for sale locally)

2.  Don't teach off a template that someone else thinks is going to work. - unless you've had time to get together ahead of time to verify it will work.  :)

 3.  Don't wait for students that don't show up on time.

I spent Thursday afternoon trying to figure out the template copies we were going to hand out. By Friday morning I realized they weren't going to work.  I waited around for one of the ladies to show up and by the time I did other things happened and I couldn't start the class until Friday afternoon. This caused one lady that had a pattern go on her own.  The wallets required hardware and the hardware was malfunctioning.  It just had it's issues. LOL
But out of 7 people, 2 people made multiple wallets, and only one person left the retreat without the wallet made,. That had in part to do with malfunctioning hardware.
I will be teaching this again in September to our guild.  I now have a much better plan on how I will be doing it.   I wish I had pictures of the few that were made, a few of the ladies were out of town so I can't get them but maybe some of the locals will bring them so I can get a picture.
Here was mine:

So as of Saturday morning I did a little bit of finishing up help for a couple of the students and their wallets, but was now getting ready to work on my stuff.  As you will see from my last post - I took a bunch of new projects I wanted to start.  After the wallet experience - I didn't feel in the mood to decipher yet another pattern to start either the purse or the Locker Caddy.  So I started working on my "Snowman Collector".   I was able to finish block #12

Then I worked on putting the top together.

And as the last man standing I got the first border around it before I left on Sunday.  It still needs two plain borders, and then another pieced border that has trees.

The open part at the top will have the words "Snowman Collector"  - which my friend was so sweet to take home and cut out for me with her AccuGo Cutter.   And I've already received in the mail.

Now About the NEW C I

We have our very own Judy Niemeyer Certified Instructor.  

After two years of long hard work and several quilts she was surprised to tears when her sweet husband brought in a cake for all of us  and flowers for her at the retreat making an announcement on how proud he was of her.   That is her oldest son with them.

Here are the quilts she had to make at the final certification workshop.  (These are not her only quilts - she has several)

So that's about it for now - it ended up being a very nice retreat and I did get some stuff done.  I was very tired and have slept a lot in the last few days - but looking forward to my next retreat in October. But they do take a lot out of you so kind of happy that it is a few months down the road. 

Have a Blessed Day - Lynn 

May Retreat 2016

I am gearing up for the retreat, that starts tomorrow afternoon, after the CRQ business meeting.  I've been doing a little packing today and I'm just wondering if I'm bringing enough to keep me busy.  Ha ha ha ha.  And yes my retreat selection has changed a little.   I'm bringing a couple of UFO's.

This one- UFO #1:  

I have 11 of the 12 blocks done - now I need to do all the borders.

Here is UFO #2:  
I have all the blocks made, I just need to put the sashing on and the borders.

 NEW PROJECTS

#1. Miranda Bag:
I bought this pattern and most of the materials to make this a long time ago when I first started quilting.  But the pattern intimidated me so I never did it.  Well it's time to give it a try.

#2.   Locker/Travel Organizer:

The one on the left with the mirror.






















#3.  Armchair Caddy -  Goes over the arm of your chair to hold your little goodies while sewing. I do not know if I'm going to do the embroidery or not - but brought stuff to do it just in case.

I also have a small table runner pattern and kit I threw in there.  (No Picture)  And I have a Row by Row kit that I carry just in case.



AND - I will be teaching a class on making this wallet:  Here is the one I've made as the sample and I will be making another while there.

So what do you think?  Should I throw a couple more things in just in case?  :)





I have a couple more things to put together but then I'm off to the retreat.   I'll let you know how I do when I come back. Maybe Monday or Tuesday - I'm sure Sunday I'll be exhausted.

Have a Blessed Day!
Lynn

Flimsy Explosion

My goal, or one of them was to work on my charity quilts for each guild.  For the CRQ Guild, I can make tops and they have someone to quilt them.  For the SNR Guild,  I make the quilts and quilt them.  However, I did find out recently that we do have someone that will quilt them for SNR guild too. I didn't think we did and was using these for practicing my free motion quilting.  So I will be quilting at least a couple of the tops I made for SNR.  So without further delay -

CRQ Flimsy's

I have already turned this one in to CRQ

And this one - 

Here is the final quilt top for CRQ.  (For now anyway)  :)  I still have a bag of strips of varying sizes that I'm sure I can easily get 4 more quilt tops out of.  But that will be down the road a little. 

Next - are the quilt tops I have ready for SNR.  I had and still have a bunch of orphan blocks that were donated to the guild.  Here are the quilt tops that I have made with them so far.  

Here is the first one I put together from the orphan blocks.  There were so many colors involved in this hard to decide what to do.  The picture doesn't pick it up very well but here it is.  I  still need to get the back prepared for this one. 

This next one had challenges - the blocks were sewn together any which way.  Some matched some didn't.  Some started with a 1/2" seam and ended with a 1" seam.  Some 1/8th inch to 3/4".  Some pressed open some to the side.  All in one block.  :)  So I trimmed them to a common sized added a border and it will be a crazy quilt.  I figured with the consistency of the borders it will all flow.  Yesterday I prepared a back for this one and so it will be one that I quilt.  

I have more of these blocks and parts of these blocks that didn't get finished.  I think I'll put them together in a similar fashion and thought I could even put a large simple applique on it, and back it with flannel for a baby quilt.

This next one - was a dream after the last one.   Each block was exactly 9".  Happy Dance.  I probably could have made a cute design with these but oh well, just get it done.  I got the back prepared for this one yesterday also.  

So I guess with all these flimsy's I guess I better get to quilting.  I will need to sandwich these and then I can get to quilting.  Sounds easy enough, maybe once I get these sandwiched I can make a goal of only quilting for a month.  But that's another story.  :)

We have company coming in this weekend so I don't think I'll be doing much sewing for the next couple days so glad I got all this done for now.

Have a Blessed day.  

Lynn 

Have a Seat

As a Quilter sometimes I get stuck in a box of I can't do that - I'm a quilter.  But I do like other crafts and projects so sometimes I just have to break out of that box.  And it helps to have a husband that has tons of faith in my abilities - more so than I have of myself.  In saying that, sometimes its also scary and frustrating to be pushed outside of your comfort zone.  So what's all this about you ask?  We had some dining chairs that were in really bad shape.  So bad that I'm not going to show you a picture.  Well we dealt with them - but our cousins are coming for a visit and it's like - those look really bad......   So we went shopping and we were at the point of, if we're going to spend that much we could by a whole new dinning set. :(   So finally we found four chairs at a thrift shop.  They were perfect for our table and dining area.  The seats were in good shape, but were a little dirty.  We thought about just cleaning them,  or should we re-cover them.  So here is where we go out of the comfort zone.  This quilter and her husband - re-covered 4 dining chairs.  And even though we had some challenges figuring a few things out,  and having to buy a new staple gun because they don't make staples for our old one any more....  We have 4 pretty new chairs.

Before:

Not really too bad. 

But here it the after:

They turned out really nice.

And the bottom is finished nicely - looked just as nice as the finish on the original.  

Here's a picture of  them at our table with the table topper -   

And without:  

  The glass shows all the dirt and fingerprints - but I like the look of it. I'll just keep the Windex handy

Very Very Pleased.   Thanks Babe for pushing me to do it.  We are even thinking about re-covering our original chairs..... But that is for another day, down the loooooong  road.  LOL.  

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn

Tuesday Archive - Embroidery

Hello - Been awhile since I've linked up with Val for Tuesday Archives.  Either I've been busy or the category didn't fit something I have.  I am some what new to embroidery - only in the last 5-10 years, but I have to say I absolutely love it.   And I have so many projects (and UFO'S)  that I have done some embroidery on.

Above was a Doll Quilt made for a Doll Quilt swap.

Pincushions for a Pincushion swap, - The pattern came from Kaaren Johnson of  The Painted Quilt. 

There is embroidery throughout this whole quilt.  This is Sweet Land of Liberty - a pattern by Cheri Saffiote  Payne.  I won a 3rd place ribbon for this quilt in the 2016 Bullhead City Quilt Show.

A Wall Hanging that I did for my sweet friend for her Birthday in August 2013.  The pattern is by Jenny of Elefantz. 

A pincushion I made that includes embroidery stitches on it.  

An ornament I made. 

I was part of a Row By Row round robin  in 2014 and I used this little embroidery (again from Jenny of Elefantz) on one of the rows. 

Just took a Ribbon Embroidery class a week ago - Here are some flowers I did.  

Vintage Kitchen - a BOM offered by Jenny of Elefantz. 

Not finished with this - Started in April on my trip to Oregon.  This is a pattern in Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  

Below:  Is also a Jenny of Elefantz pattern. This was her Daisy Days BOM

  

Above fuzzy picture of  "FriDaisy"  I also have half of "SaturDaisy" done just need to finish up and then do "SunDaisy" and put together. 

Below is a pattern by Kaaren Johnson of The Painted Quilt.  "Twas the night before Christmas" just need to finish Santa and assemble with setting blocks. 

Below is a little wall hanging I made for an auction to raise money for Katrina victims. 

I have several other "Works in progress" and some new embroidery quilts I want to start.  But this gives you a little look into some some my embroidery and I'm sure shows how much I like it.  

Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear from you - even a "Hi" is wonderful.  Don't forget to go check out some of the other blogs that linked up over at Val's.  

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn 

Ribbons and Bows

Actually it is flowers of Ribbon.  Today was my ribbon embroidery class.  How fun!  And I can have all sorts of fun with this.  Now I can think of all sorts of new stuff to create.   Here are some close up pictures of a quilt that Rhonda (the teacher) embellished with ribbons and beads.

Click into the images to see the detail.

And here is a picture of the sampler that our instructor made for the class. These are the flowers we learned how to make.

Easy Peasy right?  Actually it's not as hard as you would think.   If you know how to hand embroider then you can do this..  Here is a picture of my Iris's.

Not wonderful but not horrible for my first try either.

Here are my Forget - me - nots.  They need a yellow center added.

Here are my Foxglove and my Black-eyed Susan's.  The Black-eyed Susan's should be yellow, but we didn't have very much of that and they still need their black centers.  

I will be going to the cottage tomorrow and will of course be working on this a little bit more.  I was going to work on my UFO, however I want to keep going on this to cement it in or it too will be another UFO.  :)   

I will of course post updated photo's of my progress.    

Have a Blessed evening - Lynn