on rare occasions . . .

I work because we need me too. My job is okay, and since we need me to have it, I'm grateful that I do! I used to have the freedom to do more projects that were more my interest (I love graphic design, and I love designing products in Autocad/Fabcad), but things have changed over the past year or so, and it's ... different.

Anyway, today was a rare day in which I was able to play with a passion (quilting) at work!

One of our customers owns Grand Oak Retreat -- a wonderful quilters' retreat establishment out in Scottsboro (click on the picture to go her website).

In fact, we did the rails for it several years ago when she first built. It's a beautiful place with a marvelous view, and I happen to have experienced it as a quilter when I went with our Stitcher's group on retreat, last year. I blogged about that trip here, here, here, and here. I wasn't able to join them this year, but I'm already on the list for February, 2012!

Anyway, she is interested in getting a driveway gate. My boss wanted to design something a little different for her, so he asked me to come up with a geometric quilt block that we could build in flat bar, and insert in the gate.

Happy to oblige (especially on the clock), I headed over to QuiltersCache.com and dove into their abundant stash of quilt blocks. I saw several I liked, but finally settled on this charmer . . .

The Lucky Clover block.

Next, I pulled up autocad and put the block to lines and put it on point . . .

And finally, I transferred the quilt block into the gate he'd drawn for her . . .

It will actually be twice the size of the one pictured. This is the one I did to his original dimensions, but when he saw it, he told me to double it!

Anyway, I think it's the perfect drive gate for a quilter, and for the entrance to a quilters' retreat!

Fun stuff and a nice departure from my normal work day!

:)

final shots . . . new week!

I know; late in the day and *gasp* I didn't even post yesterday! But c'mon -- I hadn't seen my darling sweet husband in forever, and quite frankly, I had things to do other than blog! :)

As promised, here's a finished look at the water-colored quilt. Well, finished as in the back has been stitched on the vertical and horizontal grids, the intersections have been snipped, and it's been pressed. Isn't it beautiful?? I am *SO* captivated by this process, and by the colors in this particular piece!

Here's the flip side. It's pretty too!

Here's our group of Stitchers! We are, if I say so myself, an incredibly versatile and talented group of women! We are minus Angie, who had to leave early for an honors band competition.

This is Patches & Stitches 2010 Block of the Month. Jackie was working on this. I loved the orange paisley! It screams summer to me (like, summer of 1968 and the shorts my mommy made for me)! Oooh . . . and Orange Dreamsicles. Yum. :)

This was what I worked on for the last hour or two before checkout. My free motion quilting! Yeah, I'm definitely not a pro, but it sure is less daunting and mysterious to me now. The other ladies at the retreat -- especially those down at our station -- were so kind and helpful! I had some tension issues, but I finally got it figured out! Who needs a manual when you've got friends with talent??? Anyway, I'm glad I'm at least feeling comfortable with this, since it's how I'm going to quilt Sawyer's baby quilt! I just have to remember: shoulders down, relax, keep hands moving, and BREATHE!

And speaking of our work station, this was the crew I sat and worked with. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed spending this weekend quilting (and laughing and eating and playing) with this wonderful group of women!

I'm signed up for next year already!

:)

grand oak . . . the fun continues!

*Let me preface this post by saying that it looks a little odd. I know. The connection here is incredibly slow and I was having a very hard time uploading my pics. For some reason the layout of the photos didn't work right, so there's text and photos hodge-podged. I'm ready for bed, so I'm tired of fooling with it. Text and pictures . . . how hard can this be??? Argh! :)

Ah, what a glorious day! The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the sewing machines were humming! We got up and got a little sewing/chatting time in before our meal bell rang and we went upstairs for a breakfast of raisin bread french toast casserole. Yummy! We have not had a bad meal -- or a bad anything -- since we've been here! It's been so good, in fact, I purchased

this . . .

Today I was a little slack. I did finish piecing the baby's quilt!!!! This was a little more intense because I was having to do all the figuring (since it's an original, so to speak). I did a LOT of seam ripping on this, because I was struggling to get the vertical orange strips the right size. Or, as the ladies here often referred to it, I did a lot of the frog stitch. Ripit, ripit. *sigh*

BUT it is finished! I did some practice on free-motion quilting today -- I think that's how I'll quilt it. I dunno. I'm still wanting to tie bows in it. :)

Next I pulled out fabrics to work with . . . block ten . . . of the P&S BOM. You know, the one that never ends. Or rather, that I have never finished. Whatever. I particularly like the gold and purple floral. Isn't this gorgeous fabric? Really, my pictures do not do it justice.

I did not work on these hearts, but I was fascinated by them! Therese, one of my sewing station mates, pulled these out and I was absolutely captivated by them! The technique is called watercolor quilting, and you use a gridded transfer sheet. You fussy cut your fabric into the appropriate sized squares, arrange them in the grids, and iron them to the sheet. I fell in love with the blue heart with the ivy. It is so pretty, it almost makes me cry!

After you've laid out all your squares and ironed them down, you turn it over, fold each vertical line and stitch leaving a 1/4" seam allowance. This is the front after she's finished all of the vertical stitching

And this is the back . . .

Then she'll snip into the seam on all of the intersections, press it, and fold & sew on the horizontal grids. I hope she finishes stitching it tomorrow so I can see the finished top and take pictures! She has the book at home; she's going to bring it in to the next guild meeting for me! Yay!

It was a happy day. I learned stuff, I finished stuff, and I read my book (aka, took a nap). I was diligent and both made my bed *and* picked up my socks. Or rather, I never left any socks on the floor to be picked up! The Bed Nazis and the Sock Police are in full force. LOL! One of the great things about retreats is that you build a camaraderie that can't be forged any other way than by spending extended hours in the same room with ten other women! Lots of inside jokes will work its way out of it . . .

My utmost appreciation goes to Kari, who both invited me to the Stitcher's group and this retreat, and who was the coordinator of the retreat. She did a great job and I've had a blast! One more night (I'm off to bed shortly) and then tomorrow's check out time is at two. So a leisurely morning and a late brunch and we'll be packing up . . .

Tomorrow: wedding quilt. Again. To the death! Umm, I mean, until two o'clock.

*Yawn*smile*Yawn*!

:)

grand oak . . . day two!

Did you think I wouldn't post today? I'm on *such* a roll, I couldn't stop now!

Today was busy, busy, busy! I started working on the wedding quilt; I have two rows completed. It would go faster, but I have to square each block before I sew them. What I've done looks so pretty, though!

Then I pulled out the BOM that never ends and finished Block 6 (June, which was the wedding) of each version. They are darling, but I was really irritated by the pre-cut fabrics that were included in the kits; some were WAY big, and several were too SMALL! I can cut down the big 'uns, but I've really got to creatively sew to deal with the small ones!

Then it was time for a break . . .

Then I pulled out Sawyer's quilt and did all the math for the sashing and borders and got that cut.

Then it dinner time! Our menu . . .

Another double YUM!

Here is our gracious hostess (and awesome cook) Cindy, standing next to the greatest quilty roommate ever, Susan!

And after dinner, back down for more sewing and perhaps a little fireside chatting . . .

Or up to the home theater room for a movie or two . . .

Can a quilting day get much more perfect? Productive, possibly; perfect?

I think not!

:)

i'm here! grand oak retreat . . .

So I'm here, set up and working! This is the first project I'm tackling . . .

Joc will be very happy I'm working on it before her first anniversary!

This is my work station. I'm *so* impressed with all of these

ladies' setups! I'm taking pictures and collecting ideas. Oh yeah!

One of the best benefits of my table?

The VIEW!

Here's an outside photo. It's absolutely beautiful here!

As an added bonus, I can smell dinner. YUM. And dessert.

YUM!

:)

whoops!

I was going to load up some pictures from our Valentine's party on Saturday night, but I forgot I'd taken them off my camera and loaded them onto my laptop. Bummer. Oh well, there's always manana!

We had another minor snow event last evening . . . and off an on throughout the night and into today, even. Just enough to keep patches of black ice on the roads, so drivers must beware. I'm holding out for a *major* snow event. If ever there's been a year for it, this would have to be it!

I did get all my quilting stuff packed and organized for my weekend! I decided to take Joc's wedding quilt project, Sawyer's baby quilt project, the two Patches & Stitches BOMs from last year that I never finished doing the blocks for (forget putting the blocks together), some crafty stuff I got from Hooked on Quilting *ages* ago -- I think it's felt winter ornaments -- AND I am bringing my book and special fabric for getting comfortable with machine quilting! What better time to play with such a thing, right?!?!

I have a subscription to The Quilt Show, which my darling son and daughter-in-law got me for my birthday last year. I've really enjoyed it, too. Yesterday I watched part one of a series of tutorials that really got me wanting to put my hand (so to speak) to free-motion machine quilting -- the first tutorial is free and can be seen here. The woman who does the tutorial is Patsy Thompson and she does a wonderful job walking through the set-up stages. I had to pause it several times to run back to my machine to see if it did what hers did. I'm good! Oh yeah -- and she was giving the tutorial on her own home sewing machine. Yay! I'm really looking forward to parts 2 & 3! Her voice is well-modulated and she's easy to listen to, too. Definite "two-thumbs up!"

From there I went to the current show, which featured "quilt doodler" Linda Taylor. Oh. my. goodness. Her work is absolutely INCREDIBLE! I was in awe of her long-arm quilting skills! She has classes on Quilting School.Com and you can find a gallery of thumbnails of some of her work here (if you register you can see regular sized photos). It's worth the two minutes it took to register to look through her quilts!! Breathtakingly beautiful!

On that same show, Alex Anderson demonstrated how to draw a perfect eight-pointed star. That was an intriguing process.

Anyway, I e-mailed the owner of Grand Oak Retreat and found out they *do* have wireless Internet throughout the building. Forget the bathing suit for the hot tub -- I'm taking my laptop!

I'm getting more and more excited!

Toodles!

:)

counting down to retreat!

Thursday afternoon I'm heading to Scottsboro, Alabama, and Grand Oak Retreat! Our sewing group, The Stitcher's, has made the arrangements. This is the first quilting retreat I've ever been to, and I have to admit that I'm a strange combination of excited and nervous.

Excited because it's an opportunity to quilt my little heart out Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and into Sunday! Nervous because I'm relatively new to the group and this is *way* outside my introverted little comfort zone!

I'm two and a half years into my guild membership. At the August potluck this past year, I sat at this table with a grand group of extroverted women, one of whom was Charmaigne, the lady who single-handedly is responsible for me staying at my first guild meeting. Anyway, I was extended an invitation to join their bi-weekly stitching group, and I hopped on it. I'm not able to meet too regularly, because of work, but I do when I can and I try to join them for dinner before our monthly guild meetings.

Not too long after I joined, the opportunity presented itself to go on this retreat. I was immediately interested; even more so when I heard where it would be -- Grand Oak Retreat. I had knowledge of this place and its owners -- my company did all the iron (rails, brackets, etc.) for the place, and the owner, Cindy Hildebrand, was wonderful to work with. I loved her vision for a place for quilters and scrapbookers to come and play! She also took my advice on some fiction quilting books to add to her collection of reading stash for guests! So I knew I wanted to go, and I was quick to sign up and get my deposit paid . . .

But the closer it gets, the more anxious I get!

This is a group of women who know each other really well -- and I'm still on the fringe. I know this is my opportunity to get to know them better (and for them to get to know me better), but like I said, it's really outside this introvert's comfort zone! I'm not painfully introverted; I won't not be able to function -- I'll just have to WORK for it!

It will give me the opportunity to really put some time into Joc's wedding quilt, which I really want to pay some attention to. I'll also bring Sawyer's quilt, some reading material, and probably some DVDs. I'm semi-considering my laptop, too . . . !!

So. Today I will pack up my sewing stuff for next weekend. The more prepared I am, the easier it will be to go! Getting my stuff together is no big deal. I think. I don't know! What do you bring so you've got everything you need when you're sewing/quilting away from home!!!!!!

Big breaths.

Who would have thought a quilting retreat would bring so much . . . drama??

Enough!

:)