$1,000 Prize and Quilt Retreat

Yes, I won a $1,000 prize.....just wait till I tell you all about it.   I never win anything.....ever.  But did I ever win big time last week.   I am in the process of consolidating all the sewing machines I have collected over a lifetime of sewing and quilting and reducing them down to a smaller number.   To that end I went looking at different brands of sewing machines to see which brand I felt was the best buy for the money.

After doing my research I settled on Bernina, a brand I had used in years past and several months ago I traded in two of my old Vikings for one lovely Bernina that is my everyday workhorse sewing machine.  I log a lot of miles on my machines and they need to stand up to the rigors of all I ask of them.   My new Bernina has not disappointed me.  I am trying to get down to 3 basic sewing machines......my workhorse, a smaller lighter less expensive machine for traveling to retreats and classes, and a serger for finishing the edges of fabrics when I make garments.

And so I found myself at the Bernina Sew and Quilt in Chattanooga last Saturday with yet another of my "old" machines I wanted to trade in on a much smaller, less expensive machine for retreats.   I had been looking online at the new limited edition Bernina 350 and fell in love with the funky painted surface.   Sewing machines nowadays cater to we quilters love of color and they have begun painting all manor of interesting motifs on the front of their sewing machines.   Paint jobs such as this:

How cute is that????   I mean, seriously......this machine had my name written all over it.   So at the dealership I asked about trading in one of my old machines while they brought out the box containing this adorable pint sized machine.   I was already sold.   Just tell me how much it's going to cost so I can spirit it away in my car, please.    And then I remembered I had received a scratch off sales brochure from Bernina in the mail the previous week.   Huh.   I wonder if I should mention it to them.  

Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.   I produced the brochure from my purse and they casually said that I should go ahead and scratch off the section with the "surprise" discount underneath the red coating.   I scrounged for a nickel in my purse and began to scratch off the red flaking coating and underneath was a $ sign and some numbers.   I looked at them and looked up at the shop owners and looked at the numbers again and asked the salesman if what I was seeing was correct.

Yes, my scratch off that I almost forgot to look at was for ......wait for it.......$1,000!    Holy cow!   I couldn't believe it.   Well, the owners were laughing and shouting and took the scratch off card back to a classroom full of ladies, dragging me along with them, to show them that I had just won $1,000 off a sewing machine.   How do you like that?  They even took my picture standing behind the box with my new adorable machine in it and put the pic on their Facebook page.

That cute little machine safely rode home in my car while I smiled from ear to ear all the way back to the farm.    And another fun aspect about this colorful, happy machine is that the motifs are also three dimensional.   Yes, it's says "I (heart) sewing" on it........and I do!
One of my favorite little poems is this one...

I cannot count my day complete
Till  needle, thread and fabric meet.

Even the scissors are three dimensional.   Well, I had already been looking forward to going on quilt retreat the following day, but now I could hardly wait to get there to show the girls the sweetest little machine I've ever owned.    It got lots of use those few days at retreat and it sewed like a dream.  Now I won't have to drag my large, heavy, much more expensive machine to classes and retreats.   This one fits the bill for traveling just fine.

And speaking of retreat.....did we ever have fun.   Here are Kathi and Kathy sucking up the glaze I made for the blueberry lemon scones I make each time we go to retreat.   I think they liked it.   Again.  Giggle.....

Kathy was doing hours and hours of handwork on a new project that is going to be out of this world gorgeous.    She is the queen of fabric "stash" as evidenced by this little pile of fabric choices she had on her work station.

You think this is a lot of fabric?   Ha!    This is a mere sampling of the varied materials she has at home.    Her quilts are wild, colorful, and whimsical.   Yup, right up my alley.   No fuddy-duddy quilts for her.  No sir-ee!

We almost forgot to take a group pic this year and managed to fit one in right before packing up to leave on the last day of retreat.   What a lucky girl I am to have met such a friendly, welcoming, fun group of talented ladies to hang out with.   I wish you had been a fly on the wall to listen to all our hilarity.   We get very little sleep at retreat as we can't seem to stop ourselves from sewing "just one more seam" while yakking about all manner of subjects.

Sorry, Barb, I captured you with your eyes closed.   Barb got tired of sewing and brought out her knitting project and finished up her fingerless gloves.   They turned out awesome with pretty cables along the back of the hand!

What did I sew during retreat, you ask?    I whipped up this child's quilt which still needs to be quilted with batting and a backing.   It's destination is for the Blue Jean Ball which raises money for Kids on the Rise, a non-profit agency that partners with Cumberland County Schools to provide mentoring for kids in need.

And then I quickly pieced together this star quilt which will go to our charity quilts for pregnancy centers in Cumberland County.   Our guild members make these smaller quilts every month to donate to organizations in our community.  It also needs to be quilted and that will be my project for next week.  I also worked on an ongoing project quilt for myself that will hopefully get finished sometime this Spring.

After having so much success sewing at retreat I was really in "get 'er done" mode back at home and knocked out this quilt utilizing all the leftover fabrics from a quilt I had just finished making for my own personal use.   I love these blues and creams and they make me think of winter.

At retreat I had picked up these appliqué snowflakes and they seemed to be the perfect touch to add to this simple design.   Yes, I do have a lot of quilts to load onto the longarm machine next week, don't I?  The fabric leftovers which made this quilt were from the quilt shown below.....

I began this quilt last January and had worked on it off and on for over a year.   Three weeks ago I brought it out and told Joel I was going to sew until it was finished, no matter how long it took.   Well, I put over 70 hours into it over a two week period but I managed to get it done.

 I may have lost count but I believe there are 14 panels of hand embroidered snow scenes.   They evoke a bit of Currier and Ives in that they are scenes reminiscent of days gone by.   And yes, I said "hand" embroidered.   I love to have hand work to keep my hands busy at night while we watch tv.  Once the hand embroidery was completed I had to make a crazy number of blocks to sew onto the panels.   Hmmmm, and make sure I used light enough fabrics in the areas where the panel embroidery would bleed over onto the pieced blocks.   Oh.  My.  Stars!  

It seems that every pieced block was a different size, a different quilt block pattern and all the while I was keeping an eye out to make sure I used soft enough colors so I could finish up the embroidery once all the blocks were sewn together.   Yikes!

The embroidery panels run all across the top of the quilt, down the right side, along the bottom and up the left hand side.   I love each and every romantic scene.  

Quilting this quilt is going to be a real challenge for me as I have put so much time and energy into making the quilt top that I want the quilting that holds the three layers together to be just as special.   We'll see how that goes in the coming weeks.

And so now you have a quick overview of the last week here at Whispering Oaks.  Whew!    But wait, there's more.   I'll show you what else I've been busy with in the next post.

Stay tuned,
Debbie

What Else is New?

We don't let any grass grow beneath our feet.   Remember that old saying?    Well, it pretty much describes our life here on the farm.  If we're not outside working with our critters, we're probably inside the house....or another building.....doing some kind of minor repairs/remodeling construction type of work.   Or if we're really lucky, we're busy with some kind of hobby.

In my case, I'm usually in my studio happily sewing away......making things like this mug rug.   I've been making seasonal mug rugs for my computer desk so I don't mar the desk surface with my drinks.    This rooster mug rug was so much fun to make and the cheerful blue and white theme brings a welcome shot of color to the dreary winter months.

During the cooler months, I tend to have some sort of hand work sitting next to my chair to occupy my hands while we watch tv in the evenings.    You know, things such as knitting or embroidery.   I almost always have a pair of socks on the needles and currently I have 3 sweaters in various stages of completion.  

I've even done a bit of rug hooking....only I put my own personal twist on the "rug".   The twin beds on the sleeping porch are really high with the trundle bed beneath the iron bed.  So I found an old, sturdy step stool that was just right to help someone safely hop up onto the top bed.   But it seemed lacking in the "cuteness" department.   Ta-da.....let's cover it with something interesting!    And this is the result......a mama hen and her chicks.....in rug hooking....with a fun embellishment(of course) of fringe.

Can you tell I had a lot of fun creating this  one of a kind step stool?   And I feel it fits right in with our new farm lifestyle.

One of my goals for the time spent inside during these colder months is to continue to improve my skills on the longarm quilting machine we purchased over a year ago.   Thanks to another quilter who generously shared her expertise with me, I now feel the tension and settings are functioning as they should be and the quilt stitches look "pretty" both on the top and bottom of the quilts I have been working on.

One of my sweet friends, Kathy, gave her latest quilt to me and asked to be my very first customer!   Her house quilt is adorable and I was honored that she entrusted her lovely quilt to me......gulp.....and then I had to actually quilt it.   What if I made a mistake?   What if she didn't like the quilt pattern I stitched into her quilt?   What if the color of thread wasn't to her liking?  

At the suggestion of another friend, I used a soft pink thread for the quilting and then I choose an all over swirly design that I felt would soften all the right angles of the house blocks.   I love how it turned out and Kathy called me to say she was over the moon.   Yippee!    My confidence is growing with each quilt I finish on the longarm machine.   At last count I have also quilted 6 quilts for Quilts of Valor....an organization that presents quilts to veterans who have been affected by war and to honor their service to our country.  

And just what in the world is a longarm machine, you ask?   It's this beauty in the pic above.   It's over 10' long and takes up a considerable amount of real estate in my studio but it's worth every bit of space it occupies.   I have longed(no pun intended!) to have a longarm machine for many years and having this one is a dream come true for me.   My hope is to build a business right here in my studio by quilting quilts for others.   And to that end, I finally got brave enough to hand out my business cards at the last meeting of our local quilt guild.   So we'll see if/how the business grows over the next couple of years.

Ah, yes, and there is one more thing we have been busy with this last week.   We pulled the RV out of the RV garage, aired up the tires and brought it closer to the house.   We emptied all of our personal belongings into bins and trudged them into the house where they all got sorted, cleaned and put into bins for long term storage.  

Joel and I have loved RV-ing for almost 2 decades.   When we brought our trailer up here 3 years ago we thought we'd be going to local parks and investigating the surrounding area in the RV.   Hmmm, it seems we have been so happy "parked" here on the farm that we haven't used the RV once since moving here.   We finally figured out that when we lived in Florida taking trips with the RV provided an escape from work and other obligations.   It was our respite.   But now we already live in a place where we are completely relaxed....and have no need to sneak away for a few days to unwind.   And so we have dropped the RV off in Chattanooga and have consigned it for sale.

Well, that about wraps up our recent activities.   Next week we are going to have to corral Beef Cake, the steer, and get him into the stock trailer.   We have an appointment with the slaughter house on Friday and need to be prompt in getting him there as they are booked solid for months and we don't want to miss our day to drop him off.  Wrangling him into the trailer should make for an interesting afternoon, don't you think?    Ha!  What could possibly go wrong?  

Stay tuned,
Deb