Cotton Boll Quilt Guild Annual Retreat 2009

The Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Georgia, is fantastic! We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities, food, and environment. The people were very nice, and treated us very well. We have all agreed to go back again next year.
I finally finished the machine quilting on this small Christmas quilt. It is about 40 inches square, and uses a fat quarter pack that I purchased from Tiny Stitches in Atlanta a couple of years ago. I also added some gold fabric that I had on hand to stretch it enough to make it a decent lap size.
Now I only have to add the binding. It will be ready for Christmas 2009!
The pastel quilt above is one that my roommate, Linda, was working on. She bought the kit to make it at a quilt shop in Conyers, Georgia, and got a lot of work done on it. I am not sure if she finished the top or not.
This is another top Linda was working on. It is sort of a random string quilt that she was putting together with scraps. I liked it!!
Pat H. has worked on this stack-n-whack quilt for the last three retreats. She finally finished the top at this retreat. A section is missing because she was sewing it together at the time. She is going to make this one king-sized to fit on her bed! I hope to see the finished product soon. :-)
And here is my Noah's Ark quilt top, finally put together. I worked on these embroidery blocks over Christmas break. I love them. They were a free stitchery BOM from Lynette Anderson. She is very generous to give these away to her blog fans. If you would like to download the patterns while they are still available, they are here. This makes a very tiny quilt. I am going to add a border to it, then it will be ready to quilt. I just love it.
Stay tuned for more retreat photos. Have a great weekend.
Julie

Gift from Down Under

The other day I went out to my mailbox and, to my great surprise, there was a package from Tasmania! Razzy sent me these fantastic Aussie fat quarters and a sweet card. She is just such a fantastic friend. To think that I would never have met her if not for this blog.
Roseanne, thank you so much for the sweet surprise. I hope that you had a wonderful birthday. You certainly did brighten my day!
I have not yet reported on my retreat experience. Let me just say that it was FANTASTIC! The best ever! I have pictures and will post soon. I finally unpacked my camera tonight and downloaded photos to my computer. Be expecting retreat news this weekend!
Julie

Retreat

Friday I am leaving for our annual quilting retreat. This year we are going to the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, in Mansfield, Georgia. We have never had it here before, so I am anxious to see how it compares to the 4H center in Columbiana, Alabama. I will keep you posted.
Julie

Spring Dance - My Daughter

Joy is going to her first formal school dance tonight. She is so excited about it. Thank goodness her ankle is healed now, so that she can wear her Jessica Simpson high heels!
I have to chaperone this dance every year, since I teach at the school, but this is the first year I have looked forward to it. I thought that she would not want me to be there, but she does. After all, now she and her friends have someone to hold all of their "stuff" while they walk around unencumbered.
Julie

Finally, a quilty post. Well, not all quilty.

Here is the result of my toothbrush rug experiment. I only got it about 8 inches in diameter before I stopped. It is a toothbrush trivet, LOL. The rug started cupping into a bowl shape. I now know how to control the tension so that it won't do this. Not bad for a first try.
This is my favorite project right now. English paper piecing is lots of fun, and the perfect portable project. I am going for a tumbling blocks look. It is challenging to find those medium colors! Contrast is the key.
I completed this needlepunch project while on Spring Break. It is called Scaredy Cat, or is it Fraidy Cat? I don't remember. Anyway, I just love the faces on the little pumpkins. Needlepunch is such a cool thing to do, and most people have never heard of it.
This is a miniature quilt top, still waiting for its borders. It seems so boring compared to the other things I am working on.
I am looking forward to my quilt guild's retreat in a couple of weeks. I hope to get a charity quilt made, as well as some baby quilts. I am way behind in these projects. I don't want to try to do too much, because I know from past experience that I get more talking done than quilting.
Only 13 more student days until school is out for summer break. The kids are getting more and more out of control as the time approaches. I just hope we can avoid any major meltdowns or drama. The last couple of weeks we have to really tighten up, because the kids are stir crazy.
Enjoy your week.
Julie

Key West - More Spring Break Pictures

Here are some gift shop display stands in Key West. John Owen and his friend each bought one of these coconut dudes.
This is just a cool, and very colorful sign in town.
Here are John Owen and Joy posing by this very large conch shell.
You can get hours of entertainment from a fun house mirror! Gotta love 'em. This one is in the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum.
John Owen insisted I take a picture of this gigantic strawberry he was eating. It was actually four strawberries fused together. I will continue to post Key West pictures over the next few weeks, maybe. I will try to put quilty stuff in too, for those of you who are looking for that.
By the way, I have figured out how to make a toothbrush rug, and am starting a small one now. Such a cool way to use up undesirable fabric.
Julie

Carol and the Beach Quilt, and a giveaway

Here is my sister-in-law, Carol, with a beach scene quilt I made for her several years ago. It uses the landscape quilt method in which you use spray adhesive, raw edge pieces of fabric, and tulle. Then you quilt over the entire thing. I think it turned out well.

Detail shots of the quilt. I had fun using embellishments on this one.
Carol lives in Florida, very close to a nice beach. We love to visit her, and stopped by her house on our way to Key Largo for Spring Break. She is a really sweet sister-in-law.
She has the quilt in storage now, and it is "in retirement" from decorating her home. Ahh, such is the way, eventually, of all my quilts I suppose. :-)
By the way, Cornfield Quilter is having a giveaway for her 200th post. Be sure to stop by, and don't forget to mention that I sent you her way!!
Julie

Key Largo, Florida - Spring Break 2009

Key Largo was glorious. The weather was perfect, the water was warm, the sun was bright. You can see for yourself what the sky looked like here.
We chartered a boat, the Aquarius, for snorkeling. They took us to a coral reef off the coast of Key Largo. It was a blast. Here is Joy enjoying the ride.
John Owen loved snorkeling and seemed to be an old pro at it.
Here I am standing by the water in Key West. It was such a beautiful place.e

This is Ann's Beach. It is actually on another key, Islamorada, Florida. We enjoyed the clear water and all the sea life. My kids got to catch sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, blue crabs, sea slugs, and all kinds of other animals. Of course, we released them after checking them out. The water was nice and warm. So luxurious....
Julie

Spring is Here

I took some photos in the yard the other day. There are dogwood and azaleas blooming, birds building nests, etc.... I wanted to share these with you. I did not take any photos of the yellow pollen all over everything.
I wanted to make a quick little post in case I don't get to post any more until after spring break. We will be very busy getting ready to leave and then will be gone for a week. I will check in when I return.
Julie

Tea Party

Joy and I had a tea party. Karol-Ann had sent me some tea and tea biscuits. I had been waiting for a good time to have a tea party. We decided a couple of weeks ago to go ahead and party! I have a Wedgewood Countryware set of china, and I just love the teapot. It was nice to finally actually use it instead of just look at it.
Here is the teapot alone, I love how it looks like a cabbage!
Here was a bowl of citrus that was so pretty. Those reddish blood oranges are so good, and make such a colorful picture.
This is what Karol-Ann sent. The T biscuits are sooo yummy!
And yes, they are actually shaped like the letter "T."
Here are our cups of tea.
I even have a flower pot shaped like a tea pot, LOL. This is in my kitchen window. It is sitting in a peanut butter jar lid because I had just watered it.
The whole thing was simply boring and exhausting for Cabalito. He decided to take a nap on his "perch." We have this little place fixed up on an old sewing machine treadle table by the window. He likes to sit up there and watch the cats across the street. He has to bark and bark to make sure those cats know better than to come into his territory.