Virtual Retreat 2016

[lotti]

All the books are now back in from the tent in the garden -phew- I was not happy about them having to be out there, hmy: but it was unfortunately our only option. They feel a touch damp, but I think we have got away with it. :unsure: Considering whether other items of furniture still fit style wise, ie the large wooden chest that we have been using for a coffee table, and the shelving that the stereo sits on, and what would we have instead? - The stereo is particularly important as it is currently sitting on the sewing table getting in the way :whistle:

The really good news is that I have the go ahead to make quilted armrest mats for the new sofa to protect them from drink spillage B) - at least 4 so that they can be swapped as necessary

Beautiful skirt Marianne, fingers crossed that we have some decent weather for you this summer.

Sorry to hear that you are still having to wear your nurses uniform Geneva, hope you can take it off soon.

[lotti]

Marianne - wonderful embroidery on your skirt!

Barb :-)

[CarrieG]

Geneva - your hubby's ribs are going to make him breathe more shallow. Watch out for pneumonia with the cold he has.
Everyone is so productive - makes me feel like a slug! LOL

[genevacarroll]

Thank you everyone for the good wishes for my sweetie. I've been monitoring the lung/cold thing as I have seen that happen too many times with difficult results. But he is doing very well. Getting around better and the cold seems to be better also. Yay!

But I forgot to tell you about the best part of his fall. Wait? Did I just say that? Knowing that he is fine.... this story is funny.

When he fell onto the tile floor he couldn't get up and I couldn't get him up. I called our neighbors who couldn't get him up either. So I called the paramedics. I had covered him with a quilt from the couch as he was cold. The 3 paramedics walked in, two went to his side. The tall slender paramedic looked down at him on the floor and the first thing he said was "nice quilt." Our friends and even husband laughed. It was great! There is humor everywhere!

Here's a picture of the quilt he was under.



Happy Sunday everyone!

geneva

[idaho]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :kiss:

[she-quilts]

Oh I'm so glad he didn't call it a blanket! Smart young man!!

[twiglet]

Hey was that Nancy I've just seen on TQS on the Jenny Bowker show

[Lorna1021]

Geneva, It is a "nice quilt"! Hope he heals quickly.

Rosemary, glad to hear the work is wrapping up in the lounge. I'm sure it looks great.

Marianne, great placemats and love the skirt you embroidered!

[ajclapp]

Beautiful embroidery, Marianne.

Geneva, that's a good story about the quilt. Broken ribs are a pain to get through. My DH has been there several times. Getting up and down is the hardest, and with a cold on top of it that's tough. Hope he heals quickly.

The binding is on the mini quilt. I'm letting my fingers take a break before adding a hanging sleeve. Then I also want to add some beads and buttons. That will be time consuming sewing them on one at a time since they will be too far apart to travel with the thread which will probably be monofilament which is difficult to work with. Now I know why show quilts are quilted so densely. The more quilting there is the less chance of noticing all of the imperfections and the more quilting you do the less you care about the imperfections as it would take a lifetime to unsew and resew every errant stitch. I'm sure there are way too many in this quilt to win a grand prize but they aren't noticeable on the front of the quilt and I'm happy with the results as I can barely see the stitches anyway without looking closely with my glasses on!

This is a closeup of the feathers I did in the final scalloped border. As you can see they are quite small and I sewed them with a walking foot rotating the quilt over and over again while trying to stay on lines that weren't marked. I did make a cutout template for the outside edge of the design and made registration marks for where the stitches should start and end. It was a challenge with the backtracking which had to be done just right in order to have a double row of stitching all around. Out of the 28 repeats I only lost my way a half dozen times. There were more than 112 thread ends to hide in this border alone, no telling how many in the whole quilt. Thankfully a few of the borders had continuous line sewing with only 4 thread ends.



Now to move on to other things. I'm not sure I would ever make a quilt this small and detailed again. I'm sure I will make more mini quilts but probably stick with simpler designs and keep them under 18" if I plan to quilt them this way. This one finished at 23" which is almost twice that size in square inches.

[lotti]

Fabulous work, Annis. Soooo Looking vorwarf to seeing it all :cheer: :cheer:

[Marianne-is-sewing]

Wow Annis - that is amazing. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
Geneva - love the quilt; hope your DH gets better soon. I've only bent two ribs once - that was so very, very painful, can't imagine what it would be like to break them.
Rosemary - congratulations on getting the books in from the garden! Hope they will be all right

Thanks for all the nice comment about the skirt embroidery. Today I have been playing with orphan Christmas patches and cut HST left over from a Christmas tree quilt and another quilt. I came up with this really crazy OTT 18"x19" mini

I had such fun trying to get all the bits and pieces fit together. All I have left now is one 1 1/2" strip and one green and holly fabric isosceles triangle patch. I also put out some other orphan patches and cut HST and squares from another quilt that I will try to puzzle together for another mini. They really are too big for mug rugs but who cares they are such fun to make and I love that feeling of using up bits and bobs
Marianne

[Sewdreamy]

Lotti, what great pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Sewdreamy]

Annis, Magnificent quilting. Can we see the whole quilt?

[Sewdreamy]

I love your skirt! Also admiring your Christmas block

[rehak]

Hey was that Nancy I've just seen on TQS on the Jenny Bowker show

Yep, that was me, chubby cheeks and all! I think I attended the tapings of the last 3 shows that were aired. I'm really looking forward to a new show!