Better Late Than Never?

I've had the flu for most of the month of February and haven't felt well enough to do any sewing to speak of.  The flu has just sapped me of any energy or ambition, and I'm having a hard time getting back to normal.  I go into my quilt studio and just sit and look at everything I want to do or should be doing.  The Dr. said it takes 2 weeks to recover from 1 week of being sick.  So I should feel better in about 2 months.  I sure hope it's sooner!  There are quilts to sew!

So, since I have so little to share with you, I thought I would share my quilt photos from the retreat I went to last October. This is late, but I thought it would be fun to share the photos anyway.

I went down to the S. F. Bay Area in California, where I used to live, to see my quilting friends who have a retreat 2 times a year.   I went early and got to spend a couple of extra days with my bestie Kate.  We checked into the hotel and set up the sewing machines and iron.  We had a suite and it was such a pleasure, and a great place to sew!  We also ate out and had such good food!  I was starved for some real Chinese food and we ordered so much that we had it for lunches for a few days.  It was heavenly!

I wanted to make the Interlock Quilt by Amy Friend of duringquiettime.com.  It takes a jelly roll, but I was making it for my son.  His favorite color is green, anywhere from olive to lime, and I have lots of green fabrics, so I cut my own jelly roll.  You can see Shade was helping me pick out some of the greens to use.

Cutting my own jelly roll ended up being harder than I thought it would!  After while, the rotary cutter was really hurting my wrist (that I sprained badly a few years ago).  Then I remembered that I have a Martelli cutter that is more ergonomic.  It really saved my wrist to use that! I've switched to using the Martelli cutter full-time now.

Anyway, I got all the blocks made at retreat, but saved them to do the layout at home.  I wanted my son to decide on the layout, since it will be his quilt.  This is where I'm at now:

So, it's all ready to sew together when I feel well enough to do it.  I hope to able to do it soon!

Kate decided that she wanted to make the same pattern.

She used a jelly roll of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  How striking is that blue background?!  It looks so different from my calm, quiet colors!

After we got those quilts sorted, we went to work on the Jelly Strip Stash Buster pattern, a free tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew.  It uses 2 1/2 inch strips, or Jelly Roll leftovers.

I've got the blocks sewn together into a flimsy.  I don't have a photo of them put together, but you get the idea here.  I used strips from my 2 1/2 inch strip drawer.  The unifying element is that each block has a blue strip in it.  I stretched the boundaries of what is "blue" in some of these!  This will be a comfort/charity quilt.

This is a fun, very easy pattern!  You get two blocks for every two strips you use, so it goes pretty quickly.  I'd like to try it in some other color combinations too.

Kate also did this pattern and used a stripe in every one of her blocks.  Isn't this snazzy?  She was making this for her grandson's bunk bed.

This is Berta's quilt that she made while on a cruise.  I loved this pattern!  Sorry, I can't get the picture right side up.

Berta used extra blocks on the back of her quilt for a 2-sided quilt.  If you click on this photo to "biggify" it, you can see the quilting design.  I really like it!  It looks like rain drops in puddles to me.

Jeanne took the same cruise and this is her version of the quilt.  I love the yellow in with all those greys.

And this is the binding on Jeanne's quilt.  I love that little pop of yellow on the edge!  And she had some great low-volumes in there too.

This is a Jelly Roll Race quilt that just really makes me happy.  Love all those black and white prints and the red is such a great accent!

A sweet charity quilt that everyone contributed blocks to.

This quilt is a Nine Patch Swap, tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Everyone made blocks for this charity quilt also.

I'm going to end with a couple of other quilts, but unfortunately I don't remember who made them.  They're so pretty that I want to include them, even if I can't give credit to the maker.

Redwork embroidered Santas.

I don't know the name of this pattern but its so pretty in those batiks.

I hope I'll get to feeling better very soon.  I have so many projects to work on.  First up are some baby quilts!

Happy Leap Day to everyone tomorrow!  And happy quilting!

Liberated Medallions with Gwen

At long last, here is my post on my 3 day class with Gwen.  I had so much fun!  I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this post done, but here it is.

Warning: this post is photo-heavy!

The class was offered by the wonderful quilt shop "Quilted Strait" over in Port Gamble.  They have a wonderful facility, and are very attentive to the students' needs and make every attempt to keep us happily sewing.  If you ever get the chance to take a class there, I urge you to do it!

I'm not going to spend a lot of time "talking" about the class, I'll just show you my photos.  Right to the good stuff, OK?

I love the texture Gwen's hand-quilting adds to this piece.

These are some of Gwen's quilts that she brought to show.  Somehow I didn't get photos of her medallion quilts - doh!  

Another one with Gwen's beautiful hand-quilting.

One of my favorite parts of Gwen's classes is when the students have Show & Tell:

A whole cloth medallion (limited piecing),
made as a test before the class.

A "Ferris Wheel" quilt.
Pattern by Karen Griska of the Selvage Blog.

This is the back for the previous quilt top.

the back of the previous quilt

The next few photos are of Nifty Quilts' quilts.  You can see more at her blog.

The is the back of the previous quilt.

The back of the previous quilt.

Not really Show & Tell, I just loved this bag!

And now, here are my photos of the students' work, taken on the last day of the class.  Unfortunately, by the time I was taking photos, some of the students had already left and I didn't get photos of their work.  Trust me, it was awesome!

this one was being done by two sisters

Nifty actually got her top finished!

And here is the quilt that I was working on:

This is what I brought to get started with.  This has been languishing in the quilt studio for a few years, because I was undecided as to how I wanted to proceed with it. 

This is where I was at the end of the class.  Sadly, I haven't done any more yet.  Well, I took away the pink/yellow fabric because it seemed too overwhelming when I got it home.  It's up on the design wall, and I'm thinking.....