Friends, Fabric and Food Equals FUN Every Time

Do you get together with friends to sew?  Some quilters I know belong to guilds that encourage small sew groups.  A quilt shop near me, The Orange Quilt Bee, has Fuzzy Slipper night a couple of Friday's a month.  Piecemakers  in Costa Mesa schedules regular "Open Sew" times.  As a matter of fact, that is how I met Charlotte S.  (That's a story for another time.)  My quilting-buddy-Auntie started her own group.

Because of my work/travel schedule, I can't commit to a "regular" get together so every now and then I sponsor my own Gathering of great ladies.

Yesterday was "A Gathering."
We sewed a lot, feasted on forbidden foods a lot (too much) and laughed a lot.

From R to L: Charlotte-the-Tall  (taking a think-break), Arlene & Kathy. Missing from the photo is Caren (and me.)

I was able to complete the Nephew's Tee-Shirt quilt I started last month in Portland.
It's ready to add borders, and maybe a few embellishments.

If you have not yet discovered the pleasure of sewing with a group of ladies, check it out at your local quilt shop, or your guild, or start your own.  What could be better than a Fun day with Food, Friends and Fabric?

A special shout out to Charlotte S for staying behind and helping with the clean up.  It was appreciated.

September - National Sewing Month

It starts out innocently enough, but before long......

But at least it keeps us off the street corner, right??? 
A little piece of heaven here on earth.

Happy Sewing

Creative People Amaze Me

Last night was the monthly meeting of the Flying Geese Quilters Guild.  They had an amazingly talented speaker,  

Susan Carlson.  Not only were her quilts beyond belief, but listening to her narrative on how she came up with the ideas behind the quilts, decided on fabrics and actually put them together was so interesting.

Dingo Dog Dreamng

Golden Temple of the Good Girls

One in a Million

Check out her website.  Sign up for her Blog.  Enjoy.

Summer Travel - Summer Fun

My end-of-summer travel landed me in Portland, Oregon for a week.  Such a beautiful, wonderful city.  There are so many things about Portland I miss but it is so fun going back for a visit, ESPECIALLY if my visit includes a stay with my quilting friend Dawn White of First Light Designs.

Pacific Northwest Peeps.... look for her classes at
The Pine Needle* in Lake Oswego, OR

Not only did she and her husband, Charlie, pamper me oh so much, she gave me the use of her sewing rooms (yes, she has more than one) AND let me "shop" from her stash!  So generous and gracious!

What did I work on while in Portland?  Last May I wrote about making a tee shirt quilt for my very-athletic nephew who was graduated from high school in 2015. (Click HERE)  It was one of those projects that just would not cooperate with the quilt-making process and had to be put in time out for a while..... Ever have one of those?  They eventually become a UFO.

After a time of punishment, Joseph's quilt was released from the penalty box and I took it with me to Portland.

Dawn helped me think though the design as there was no pattern suitable for all the shapes created after chopping up the tee shirts.  She also helped pick a very nice sashing fabric on one of our trips to Fabric Depot.

Of course, it is not perfect (as only God is perfect, we quilters like to say) but I think it is shaping up very nicely.
More importantly, I think Joseph will like it.

I wasn't able to complete the top while in Portland, but I'm far enough along now that I'm motivated to finish it up quickly.
No more time outs.

All good things must come to an end.

As I packed up to head back south
Princess Cordelia inspected my luggage to 

ensure I was not making off with the family silver.

*The Pine Needle and Fabric Depot have both closed their doors since the writing of this post.