Retreat was Great!

Back from retreat and it was great! There were twelve of us and everyone got so much done! There was lots of time spent visiting while we worked and a good amount of time laughing, too!! What a great bunch of women, I am proud to call them friends! The food that everyone lovingly prepared was wonderful and quite a few new recipes were shared.

Above are some pictures of the "goings-on!" The ladies pictured froom the top are: Linda, JoAnn, Jan A., Jackie, Elaine, and Deborah. I was unable to get other pictures because my camera battery went dead and I had to recharge for a time, so was out of commission when some of the quilts went up. Sorry about that!

Now I need a rest time!!!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Three Go Again!

Here we go with three more quilts to Project Linus! This time they are called "Highlight on Sports,"" Seeing Red," and Four Square Flowers."

The first one is a Snowball type of pattern that someone gave to me, but I can't remember the details. Sorry about that! Sports represented are football, basketball, and soccer.

The second one is an Easy Peasy pattern---------it goes together really fast!

The third one is a kit that I got from Connecting Threads--------------the center of the blocks is a four square kaleidoscope block. The fabric made interesting designs.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Project Linus---Here Three Come

Getting caught up again on quilting the Project Linus quilts and will have a huge pile to take to the drop off center this Saturday in McKinney. Yippee!!!! It always feels good to get caught up. I think I have 3 more to quilt and there is one more in Maynard's pile, plus three of mine.

The names of these three quilts are: Tumbling Tumbleweeds; PlayStation Trains; and Charming Butterflies. The first one is one of the challenge quilts from my challenge way back when. The second is a panel. The third is a charm squares mystery quilt. You start with the yellow squares in certain positions and then cut along the diagonals, sew back together and they magically appear along the borders as triangles. Really neat!

I've been busy cutting out fabric and getting my own kits made, to have them ready to sew at a retreat that I am going to next week----3 days of sewing, and visiting and laughing and don't forget the eating. We have divided up the meals, so only have to worry about dessert for one meal on one night----I'm making banana pudding. Yummy! This is such a nice way to do the food. Everyone is one their own for breakfast and then we share lunch and dinner and everyone brings snacks to share. We eat VERY well.

The retreat center is just so nice. It is called Create-Away Cottage and has everything just perfect for a great quilt retreat. The lighting is the best and the rest of the accommodations couldn't be any better. I'm so looking forward to it!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Six Quilts for Project Linus

Some of these you have seen, but I'm posting them again as a way for me to keep track of PL quilts---you can just skip over them, if they are repeats!!!

The first one is an Alex Anderson pattern called "Popsicle Treats." This was a fun one to do!

The second one is called "Nautical and Nice" and was a Charm Pack given to me by my friend Debi---thanks Debi! I used the pattern 4-9 or Disappearing 4-9 Patch for this one.

Third is a log cabin in the setting of Zig Zag, fourth is log cabin in Sunshine and Shadows setting, fifth is Star setting and sixth is Furrows setting. Log Cabin is so much fun because there are so many settings for it.

I made these log cabins out of a layer cake of "Awesome" fabrics from Sandy Gervais. I got 80 blocks and so the settings were 4x5 and I got 4 quilts out of the one layer cake. (I added tan background fabric and borders.) It was really fun!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

More for Project Linus Today

Here are some more quilts that I put together and quilted for Project Linus. They are now in the pile for delivery to the drop-off which is the LQS in McKinney. That pile is growing and now has 13 quilts in it with more to come. I got quite a few tops done and am now in the quilting stage. Maynard is helping me with the bigger ones by doing them on the Little Gracie Pro II machine. He has another train one on there now.

The first one I called "Yellow I Spy" ---each block in the middle of the block has a cute picture square. The second one is "Red and Flower Strip"---lots of florals in this one!

Third one and fourth one are very similar, so I called one "Black and White and Lime Green All Over" and the other one "Black and White with a Touch of Purple."

We are still getting the hot weather---I think the weather man said this is the 11th day with temps over 100 deg. Our thermometer read 109 one day last week---too hot for me----------I get hot even with the A/C running just knowing how hot it is outside. I feel sorry for the workers that have to be outside!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

And the Winner of the 400th Post Give-Away Is.....

GARI!!!!

My husband did a random number generator and came up with the number 9 out of the 12 entries (Debi asked not to be in the drawing.)

So GARI, I will send you an e-mail and you can send me back your address and I will mail you your prize! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I hope you enjoy your prize!

Thanks to all who entered!!!!!!!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Disappearing 4 to 9 Patch

This is a new pattern I found strolling around Blogland! The pattern tutorial is here at Sew Wonderful's blog. The pictures show what I did with a scrappy one----I used a charm pack that Debi gave me called Nautical and Nice and added some lights to it. It was fun to do and I hope to have a picture soon of the whole quilt. I am making 30 blocks and will set it at 5x6 blocks. The first picture is the 4 patch block.

Next is the cutting apart of the block. You cut one inch on all 4 sides of the center seams. I used a turntable cutting board and it made it very easy to do! Then you rearrange the center blocks as shown.

Sew the block back together and viola, you have a finished block that has an entirely different look than what you started out with.

Don't forget to sign up for my 400th post give-away!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

Three Quilts for Project Linus!

Here are three more quilts for Project Linus. Maynard quilted all three of these on the Little Gracie Pro II over the weekend and I just got the binding done on the third one today. Two of them are about trains, so I hope 2 little boys find them to be fun!

The first one is called "Aquamarine Jewels" because that's what the colors reminded me of. It's a Yellow Brick Road pattern. The second is "Take 5 Trains" because I used the pattern called Take 5. The third is "Big and Bold Thomas the Train." I used the Big and Bold pattern for that one. My pile of tops is continuing to grow at an astonishing rate-------I'd better get busy and get some of these quilted!!! LOL!!

Be sure to sign up for my 400th post give-away while you are here! Good Luck!

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan

400th Post Give-Away!!!

This is my 400th Post and I decided to have a Give-Away-------------here is what I am giving away. A little suitcase (Metal) with all the names of different fabric manufacturers on it and a jelly roll of Moda Basic Grey Urban Coutre. I hope you like it!

To enter my give-away please leave a comment telling what pattern you would use for a jelly roll quilt. Please be sure you leave a way for me to get in touch with you---- Please feel free to spread the word around blogland about my give-away! Thanks and Good Luck!

The drawing will end on Monday, August 9th at 6:00 AM. (CST) I will draw sometime that morning and announce the winner by noon.

Let quilting help you make someone smile!

Jan