Shirley Anne’s Heart

Posted By drsao on September 13, 2009

I know I know – I am always putting things on my list of favorite things – and I am always excited about one thing or another – but just wait until you see some of these things – UNIQUE HAPPENINGS (Amazing Happenings)  at the Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild Retreat in Williamsburg (Sept. 2009.)

We had a SPECIAL GUEST – a HEAD – guest of Hat Designer Robin who was a guest of Kathleen.  You should have seen the eyes on guild members faces when they saw the HEAD resting there by Robin’s sewing machine!  The HEAD was quite beautiful!

 

And – almost as amazing – is Mary F. holding one of Augusta Cole’s Confetti Blocks ON POINT……I understand that you will see this set into the quilt in STRAIGHT LINES – no triangles for this quilter!  🙂

 

Amazing thing #5 – Mary K. made a BLING BLING Wallhanging and her instructions were devoid of words!  NO WORDS. 🙂  It was pretty complex too!

Amazing thing #7 – Cathy Cutter (not her real name – sometimes you change the names to protect the innocent) demostrated how to cut a piece of flannel – COMPLETE WITH THE FRINGE ALREADY CUT – by simply turning a handle and  rolling it through an ACCUQUILT machine……maybe it was an ACCUCUT QUILT……but whatever the name – it was WONDERFUL.    Marla was impressed.  I am SOOOOOOO impressed.

 

 

 

I am sure there were other equally wonderful and amazing things going on in the UPSTAIRS SEWING ROOM – but my camera and its operator AKA sao were downstairs!

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Posted By drsao on September 13, 2009

 

OH MY OH MY – I am always amazed at everything that I learn every time I am with other quilters – and these quilters from the Williamsburg Colonial Piecemaker’s Guild were quite talented.    OK – one of the highlights of my NEW LEARNING experiences during the retreat was witnessing the ACCUQUILT cutter  (I sincerely hope that this is what it is called!) …..and I RENAMED one of our members “CATHY CUTTER.”  It is just amazing…..pictured above you will see Cathy Cutter  ready to turn 1 yard of fabric into perfect 1 1/2″ strips!!!  These strips became my inner border for my latest Celtic Knotwork Quilt.  Yes, I want one of these!    I am even going to go as far as putting it on my list of favorite things!

 

 

We had other great demos (how to make flying geese with NO WASTE – and how to cut bias strips.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I wish that I were competent enough to include the exact method but basically you cut a square of fabric (add 1  1/4″ to the size of your desired finished flying goose block) and you sew squares on opposing sides of the four corners (the corner squares are 7/8″ larger than the finished size.)  DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME WITHOUT BETTER INSTRUCTIONS – but it is pretty impressive if you know what to do!

I also learned what the little knob on the top of my SINGER FEATHERWEIGHT was for!!!!    THANKS AGAIN LORRAINE….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I learned how to put a quilt binding on by machine

IMAGINE THIS PICTURE PLEASE…….thank you RANDEE……I loved the DEMO!  Some of my  pictures were blurry (and I only ended up with 272)  so I can’t PROVE that all of these things happened……..but you will just have to trust me .  🙂  Well, at least I can put a picture of Randee here watching SHOW AND TELL!!!

I REALLY  enjoyed  SEEING a QUILT AS YOU GO DEMO……Debra is great at this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also learned a NEW GAME……COLONIAL GRAB.  Our VENDOR from Threads and Needles – or Needles ‘N Threads….HM – Joanne put fat quarters on a table and then for two minutes we got to GRAB (gather) as many fat quarters as we could for only $1.00 each.

 

WE HAD FUN!

 

Category: Colonial Piecemakers, CPQG Retreat 9/09, My Favorite Things, Quilt Guild | No Comments »
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Posted By drsao on September 13, 2009

There were LOTS of cute t-shirts spotted at the Williamsburg Fall 09 retreat……here are some members of the Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild wearing them!  And by the way, I really enjoyed seeing all of the creative t-shirt designs.  I must tell you that these were DOWNSTAIRS guild members and so if upstairs members were wearing a CUTE T-SHIRT,  they escaped the eye of the sao paparazzo!

AND THE ROBIN HATS were to die for ……LOVED THEM……and I HAD TO HAVE ONE!!!!  🙂 

These T-shirts and Hats were so special that I just had to include them in their own special post!!!

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Posted By drsao on September 9, 2009

Guess I had better think about getting packed – I am going on a quilt retreat in the morning with the Colonial Piecemaker’s Quilt Guild in Williamsburg………ahhh…….peaceful sewing until Sunday. 

I have been UNSEWING my CELTIC KNOTWORK QUILT TOP most of the week……warning to PAM and anyone else doing this wonderful quilt……make sure the seams are exactly 1/4 ” because even being one or two threads off makes the whole thing wonky!!!!  Because of my auto accident I ended up using multiple sewing machines – BIG MISTAKE.  But I am proud of myself for keeping at it (I had a brief moment where I considered trashing the whole thing – I am not fond of UNSEWING)…..I will post a picture when it is finished.  If you want to see a finished Celtic Knotwork top – got to lynne’s fresh hope quilting – a link is on my blogroll!

 

BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS……I finally finished my Bonnie K. Hunter DOUBLE DELIGHT QUILT TOP.  I just love it.

I HAD to include Sarah’s Zangies…..and thank you to everyone who gives me their fabric scraps.  Grandangel Sarah  is making ZANGIES (bookmarks) for her fourth grade store projects.   She does all of the sewing on her own.  I think they are so cute!

Category: CATHERINE, Celtic Knotwork, Country Piece BOM 09, Double Delight, Future Quilt Inspiration, Life Comments, SAO's Grandangels, Thimbleberries 09, WORDS INTO FABRIC | No Comments »
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Posted By drsao on September 9, 2009

Yesterday was one of those YING YANG DAYS……I said GOODBYE to SILVER BELLE – the first time that I had SEEN HER in person since the accident August 28th!  So I removed my belongings (found lots of buttons and yo yo’s in my trunk) and said my good byes!  They told me that cars like her get shipped to third world countries to be repaired……so it looks like her life will be fillled with future adventures.  I LOVED THIS CAR…….thumbs up for the Ford Fusion!

OK – so I also am introducing Nellie into the family.  I actually borrowed this name from my Daddy (he named his cars – that is where I got it from – and all of his cars were named Nellie – and when he stopped at a stop light he always said WHOA NELLIE….guess that is the farm boy in him coming out!)

 

Category: FORD ESCAPE Nellie, FORD FUSION Silver Belle, Life Comments, NEW THINGS, SAO's Grandangels | 1 Comment »
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