Crazy Girls Weekend retreat

This past weekend I spent with a bunch of "Crazy Girls" at a weekend retreat.  We had a blast!  The retreat was at a ranch about 8 miles south ( hopefully!  I am a little bit directionally challenged:) of Snyder, Tx.  It is rustic, but not too rustic if you know what I mean.  I would call it roughing it, but with all the amenities you need including indoor plumbing.  My husband would call it staying in a motel.  LOL

Here are a few pictures of the amenities:

The cabin we stayed in.  It's a tent, but has a wood frame and metal roof. 

This is the toilet!  I've never seen one like it.  You place a paper "catcher" in it, and after use, when you flush it, it burns it.  Quite efficient if you ask me, but a little frightening at first.  I mean what if you do something wrong, and start the fire too soon?  Ha Ha.

The bathroom sink.  It's really cute.  Sorry the color is so bad.  I didn't get a picture of the shower for some reason, but if you ever watched MASH, it was similar to theirs.

The tent was great, but the last night we stayed there, we had a pretty big storm with wind and rain.  The tent sides popped and the floor move, but we all survived, and even slept through some of the storm.

Then we actually quilted and ate at the "big house"  It's a big open room with windows on all sides, and a kitchen attached to one side.  We had a 'chef" that did all the cooking for us, and the meals were great!  So, all we had to do, was sew, and stop long enough to eat.  Occasionally, Hope would have a give away, or we would play a game.  I won one of the giveaways, and I won one of the games!  I walked away with a bag full of fat quarters with dots, and a bag with 2 fat quarters and a gift certificate to Hope's store "Nana Bears"  By the way if I didn't mention it before, it is an awesome fabric store right in the middle of Snyder, TX.  Of course, then I had to get Hope to open up on Sunday afternoon so I could spend the gift certificate.  'Cause I hadn't already bought her out:) on Saturday.  I got some beautiful fabric there.  I'll post some photos of it on a separate post. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of some of the finished or almost finished projects we did:

This is Jennifer's quilt.  It's from the same book that I am working on, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler by Jennifer Chiaverini.  The blocks are all 6 inch finished, and there are 140 blocks.  She really got after it. 

This is Jennifer, still working on Sunday morning, when all the rest of us were packed up and done!

This is a T-shirt quilt Rhonda was working on for the senior daughter of a friend.

This is Gilda's Jamestown BOM she was almost finished with, but needed to add the borders to.  It turned out great!  Of course "I helped"!  HaHa, I agreed with her choices of fabrics if you can call that helping.

Then Gilda went on to complete another quilt she's been working on with her grandson.  He colored in the blocks, and she put them all together.  It's a present for his Mom when it's done.  It's turning out really cute. 

This is Lisa's quilt.  It's a beauty made out of batiks.  I just love batik.  Doesn't it just look like it's glowing?

And here is Lisa's second quilt finish.  She made it from layer cakes. 

This is Hope.  It's amazing she was able to get anything done, as many times as we had her drive into town to open up the store.  She's machine quilting this one on her domestic machine.  More patience than I have!  It's turning out really pretty.

This is Lydia's quilt she's making for a grandchild!  It's adorable.

Isn't this one pretty! Valerie put this one together all from one fabric line.   I don't remember the name of the fabric line, but it is so cute all sewn up together. 

This is Kim's quilt.  It's a friendship quilt.  You can't see it here, but there are signatures under the baskets.  Kim is Jennifer's aunt.  They both worked on their projects non-stop!  Kim is also doing the Sylvia's bridal sampler, but I didn't get pictures of her blocks.

And here is Keitha.  This is what she did most of the weekend!  :)  She made, I think, 23 of these embroideried blocks that will eventually be pillows she is making as hostess gifts for a shower.  We teased her that all she did was sit and watch us all work.  She has the patience of Job. 

This is my quilt top.  I worked on three all together, but this is the last one and the only one I took a photo of.  It still needs borders, but it's for my precious Hannah.  Hannah is getting too big for her baby bed, so she needs a "grownup blankie"

This is Teddy's quilt top.  She just started sewing recently, so she is going to be an awesome quilter!  My first quilts looked nothing like this.  She worked on another one after this that had pinwheels in it.  Can't wait too see what she does with it.

There were other's there, but I didn't get photos of all of them.  Hope is going to send me some, so I'll post again when I get them.

You all have a blessed day, and I'll post again later.

Easter Sunday

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to say belated Happy Easter, and of course I have to post some pictures of my beautiful grandchildren! 

Just arriving to Gammy and Big Pop's house

Filling the Easter basket!  Can't wait to open the eggs:)

Here Big Pop!  I need help opening this egg.

My Grandsons don't live here, so I just get one photo of them.  Aren't they cute!  And then there is their baby brother pictured by himself.   

The baby.  He's almost 1!  My little cutey pie:)

And look Gammy!  Here's what is in this egg.  Let's go through each egg.

Important story unfolding here.

Aha!  Tricked Daddy into opening another one.:)

Mommy just loves the look on my face here. 

This is a link to a great new tool I have found.  I wish I could figure out how to put her button on my page, but the tool is called Jenny's quick curve ruler.  She has some really cute patterns using the ruler too.  check it out at:  http://sewkindofwonderful.bigcartel.com/

Customer quilt

Here is the finished product of a quilt I posted some photos of earlier.  It's called "Pony Express"

The whole quilt.  Isn't it pretty?

Just some line dancing

Shadow stars quilted in 

flower effect from cc'ing around the block

The center attraction.  Cross hatched and free form vines and leaves frame

My customer did an excellent job piecing the quilt and I hope she is happy with the quilting I added to it. 

Blessed day to you all!

Pony Express quilt

You know how every now and then you start working on a project, and it just doesn't speak to you?  I've been working on this quilt for over 2 weeks,and I've struggled with every single block.  I've been frustrated, but the quilt is so pretty.  My customer Karen made it, and the colors are great, and she did a great job of piecing it, so I wanted to post some photos of it. 

Hope you enjoyed looking.  I think I'll have it done by tomorrow, and Karen will get to take it back home.  I hope she likes it. 

Ya'll have a blessed day!  And thanks for looking,

Leslie

The baby quilt

I finally finished the baby quilt!  About time, Lucy was born 2 days ago :)  The quilting itself didn't take me too long, it's just the binding I always get bogged down on.  I hate doing the binding.  Think it would be OK for a long armer to hire someone else to do the binding?  HaHa. 

Anyway, Lucy is just adorable, and here are a few photos of her new quilt.  Not showing the quilt with the baby for the mom's privacy.

this is the back side.  The quilting doesn't really show up though.

This is the label I made for the back.  It's from the shower invitation, I just added the made by, and for sections.

It's a lot cuter in person.  The quilting is done with bright pink thread, but just doesn't show up well in the photos.  It's a fun quilt, and Mom and Dad are thrilled.  I'm pretty sure they are just thrilled with the baby, but we'll just act like it the quilt.  LOL

Ya'll have a blessed day, and I'll be back

Table topper for practice

Well, I got some new rulers for curved cross hatching, in the other day, so I found an old table topper I pieced a few years ago, and played with the rulers.  Here are a few photos.  They work pretty well, but I just have to learn to hold them still.  I had a problem with them sliding and that tends to mess up the continuity of the cross hatch.  Glad this was just for practice.  I'd hate to have to rip it out and start over. :)