Baby quilt finished...

It's not the Lotus baby quilt I'm making for my nephew's birth, but the one his grandma made him. My sister asked me to quilt this adorable twister quilt for her soon to be born grandson. Twister quilts are so much fun to make and a good excuse to use as many cute fabrics as possible! This one is no exception. Since he is due to be born on the 12th, it's important Grandma gets it back so she can get the binding sewn on.

I forgot to take a picture of the back, but she used the gray giraffe fabric.

I want to get my Lotus quilt finished before the baby is born as well, but I still have 9 days, right?

Still sewing....

 When I went out to Cut Up and Quilt on Saturday to teach the T-shirt Quilt class, Cindy was there and had brought the Twister quilt she had worked on during the retreat for show and tell. It's finished and ready to cuddle a baby!

The T-shirt Quilt class went well, and everyone got a good start on making their quilt, but it was so busy I forgot to take pictures! Can you believe it? Maybe I'll have some finished pictures to show in a few weeks!

I cut out another block for Sampler #17 last night and then spent the rest of the evening figuring out the last two blocks. I thought I had them figured out, but decided to revamp them. I really need to have this quilt finished by Monday, but it's not looking like I will make it at this point. Three more main blocks, 4 corner blocks, and then put it all together. Snow day anyone?

I got everything ready to sew on Sunday, and turned around to sit down at my machine and look who was waiting. What is it about cats and sewing?

Back to work.....

Another project I worked on during the retreat were these new pillows for the window seat in the media center at school. I had made some with circular patterns, and wanted some more with a different graphic pattern. I used the same bright colors, just cut them up differently. I have 5 centers made, so two more to finish into pillows.  I think these will look good with what I have already.

 I finished these woven border blocks yesterday. Now to get the rest of the blocks for this quilt finished.

 Cindy made this beautiful Twister baby quilt yesterday. Love the baby twisters!

 Diana was able to join us Sat. for our last night. She is working feverishly on finishing up her college degree. She will student teach in Aug and then have more time to play with us! She has three kids that keep her pretty busy too! She taught a friend to quilt so that she could make something with her many pieces of African fabric. Diana brought it along to finish the binding for her. It is so beautiful, this pic can't do justice to the bright prints.

Rose is making a quilty shower curtain. She saw one at a friend's house and wanted to try it.

We had so much fun. The kind of retreat we go on takes a bit of planning, but if you can find a suitable place for a group to sew and sleep, the rest falls into place. Now back to work.....sigh....

Today we have to leave.....

 The design wall is getting a workout throughout this retreat...here is Cindy with her Circle and Spin quilt.

She has the rows all sewn together now and is working on a Twister quilt.

 Rose finished her Twister Tree skirt top yesterday too.

 I squared up lots of HST. Lots.

 Cindy won the fat quarter game again!

 Quilty salad anyone?

 I have all the pieces ready to put this pieced border together today.

 Our friend Diana came today...Pat is still sick. We are already planning our next retreat.

 We went shopping at Stitchin' Tree Quilts in Harlan yesterday. The Quilter's Cottage where we are staying is owned by Teresa, the owner of Stitchin' Tree Quilts.

It was a great break, then we were back to sewing.

Busy week off!

 I went to my folks' house on Tuesday for New Year's dinner. It was great, Nancy insists on making everything. She has a special recipe that she uses to bake the halibut and it is wonderful. My sister Sharon made lots of candies for the holiday season, so we had some of those and some of Mom and Nancy's decorated cookies for dessert. It was a great day and fun to spend time with family.

I finished the borders on Wendy's quilt on Monday, so took it up to show off...and got some tall guys to hold it up for me. Now to find a backing and get it quilted.

Sharon has her quilt top finished, and it is beautiful! If you enlarge, you can see the small pinwheels on the bottom row of the quilt. Her grandson was running around while we were taking the pix!

Here is a closeup of the borders on Wendy's quilt that I took at my house, so the coloring looks a bit different, but is pretty true. I love the wavy pattern of this blue/green batik and she loves it too!

I spent Wednesday sewing with friends at the store....my last time before going back to work on Monday. That was fun, lots of laughs and I got some flying geese blocks made. Yesterday two of my sisters and my mom came down shopping, so I spent the day with them. It was fun. It was mom's first shopping trip in a long time and she found lots of goodies.Since it was my sister Debs's birthday, she chose Cheesecake Factory for our lunch destination. It was delicious!

 I had to snap these pics the other day....I guess HyVee makes good nap sacks!

Not sure what is on the agenda today, probably a little sewing, maybe a little cleaning, and dinner with friends tonight. I can't believe my time off is almost over, and I will be back to work on Monday.

Twister quilted!

 I finally had time to do some quilting Friday afternoon and finished quilting the Twister quilt I started before I went on the retreat. Love this panto and how it turned out. It fills in really well, and doesn't look row-y, if you know what I mean.

 I took the class models up to the store yesterday and got them all hung and the paperwork in the book. I will get the Upcoming Classes page on here updated soon. It's a good feeling to have it all taken care of!

I want to load the new Peas in a Pod quilt today and get it quilted. It should go quickly since it's not that large. Then the new Circle and Spin quilt needs a back....shopping anyone?

More quilting, wouldn't you think I'd get caught up?

 I spent some time quilting the Twister quilt on Wednesday. I decided to change the panto to Feather Me, another of my favorites. I thought the big loopy feathers would compliment the angles of the twister pinwheels.

 I have to be really careful with this panto, because sometimes you can sort of start to zone out and forget which way around the circle in the center you are going. oops! That would never happen to me, right?

 The back of this quilt isn't as colorful as the front, but I am using a variegated bright thread, so some of that will show. You can see the back rolling over the bar that I have already quilted. I have a gold-ish with green flecks batik that looks really nice with it and the front to use for the binding.

 Smokey likes to hang out with me while I quilt. She is sitting under the table...she sleeps through the noise of the machine. Not sure how. I can't let Conrad in while I quilt, he doesn't realize it's not safe to prance around on the table while I am using the machine.

Saturday Twister class and more sewing...

  I love to see the before and after pictures of the Twister quilts.

A few ladies couldn't make yesterday's class, so we will have to wait to see their quilts, but here are a few.

 I love that they are hanging the same way in this one!

She used the Lil Twister, because she is making it for a baby quilt. 

It is turning out so cute! I hope they will all send me pix when they are finished!

I got all the Tumbling Blocks sewn together.... I'm doing the happy dance! Now for some borders.

Is it just me, or does it sometimes seem like time slows down in the middle of the project? Like you might never get it finished? It does for me sometimes. It's not that I don't want to finish, or that I lose interest, but I want it finished so I can go on, I guess.  The Tumbling Blocks have  a lot of seams to match, it seems like you spend more time pinning. I guess if I were making blocks, and then putting them together, it might work out the same as you pin those as you make them. I really like how this is turning out, though, and hope to have a picture to show by tomorrow.

Back to it!

We twisted the day away...

 last Saturday. The Twister quilt is so much fun, more so when you get a group of ladies together doing it!

 Lots of pretty colors...I hung extra design walls so that everyone could use them to figure out how they wanted to lay out their squares.

 One lady is making hers using 5" squares and the smaller size ruler.

 She is making a baby quilt.

 You can see they are working hard to get the squares put together.

 Next Saturday they will cut with the Twister ruler and we will see some gorgeous pinwheels form!

I can't wait!

More show and tell...

 Two more finished Twister quilt tops....

gorgeous!