Scrapbooking Retreat

I recently went to a scrapbooking retreat at Craftman Lodge in Colorado.  My good friend Diane and my oldest DD are both avid scrapbookers and have kind of made me a scrapbooker too.  My first love is sewing, but scrapbooking is fun too and similar to quilting with pictures.  When I think about it, the memory quilts I have made are scrapbooking with fabric. 

Happy Scrappers busy at creating. That's my buddy Diane in the top photo.  Here we all are along with the sweet lady who organized the weekend Teri and my beautiful DD (in the red top and white shorts).  This was a beautiful lodge, slate and marble all over the place and the weather was perfect. 

And last but not least, some of my creations

I completed 12 new pages, which is pretty good for me, but what was really nice was to spend some time just being creative with my daughter and good friend.  We thought about planning our own mini-retreats and hopefully that is something we really will do.  Happy Wednesday! Bernie

Creative Courage

Actor Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion:

Courage.
What makes a King out of a slave? Courage.
What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage.
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.
What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder? Courage.
What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?! Courage.
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in ape-ricot?
Whatta they got that I ain't got?
Dorothy & Friends: Courage!

Cowardly Lion: You can say that again.

That is what came to mind tonight.  Why can't I take this

And this

and transfer all of this practice to the real deal? The quilt top I threw together (rather sloppily) just to practice on?

Courage.  I am afraid to "ruin" this top with my amateur quilting.  I have practiced and practiced, I have several stacks of all my practice pieces, but for some reason I cannot bring myself to put this quilt under my sewing machine needle. I will have to get past this mental block, because I know the only way to really learn this skill is to do it.  So I will set Friday as my deadline to put this in the machine and start quilting it.  Maybe the great and powerful OZ will give me courage. :)  
I have been busy, loving the first days of Fall, loving the cooler weather.   We had a nice little mini holiday when my husband's cousin came to visit and then I went to a scrapbooking retreat with my oldest daughter and a good friend and that was fun too. I will be following up with pics on that adventure later.  Today is my favorite aunt's birthday and I had a nice long phone chat with her.  Happy Birthday Aunt Marion! October is my birthday month too, so I am making resolutions and plans for the coming year.  I want to try to work outside my comfort zone in quilting.  Here is a sneak peak of one of my current projects.

I am freemotion basting the applique with invisible thread and plan to thread paint it with metallic.  I am going to use a wool batt because I want the applique to stand out after quilting without having to do trapunto.  Hope everyone is sewing happy.  Bernie

Pics from Square in Square class

Here is Cyndi McChesney (our teacher for the class). She is a certified teacher for this technique and she is great. Here she is showing us how the 1/4 seam is built into the block.

Here are some of my fellow quilters working away.

Here is my friend Mari, she sat down at the kindergarten table to lay out her topper

Isn't it pretty? I should have taken more pics, because everyone picked such pretty fabrics. 

Labor Day doings and Quilt Class

Well, last weekend was pretty peaceful.  We never did make it to the Kid's Day Parade due to some misinformation, but the kids did go to the State Fair and we had a nice barbecue and the evenings found me sitting outside on the porch watching my granddaughters jump rope and shoot hoops.  OH yes, the tooth fair pillow was a big hit with my GD! We even had a little sewing time together and they got to sew on "gramma's big machine" with gramma sitting right next to them of course. 
I have been in a strong high energy mode for several weeks now (what gives?) and have several projects going.  I have managed to keep up with the quilt along, doing my practice pieces as instructed.  I put together several more practice quilt sandwiches and am going to experiment with what I want to put on the Halloween quilt (which is all pin basted and ready to go). How is everyone else coming along? I see that Erin is following along, she posted pics of her first exercises and they look great.  http://vesuviusmama.blogspot.com/
I spent most of Thursday and Friday evening getting ready for the Square in a Square quilt class I signed up for months ago through my quilt guild.  I am here to tell you I am so pleased with this method.  We had a lot of fun in class, but best of all I felt I really came away with a good product and great results.  I had purchased the special ruler and a book years ago at a quilt show after watching a demo, only to get it home and not really understanding what to do and to lazy to figure it out - so - the ruler and book were put away in my ruler basket and there they sat until I heard about this class.  Our teacher's name was Cyndi McChesney and she gave us a LOT of information in six hours time.  I have known Cyndi for a few years.  I met her when I went looking for a longarm quilter to do some of my tops.  She has her own longarm business and I have been really happy with the tops she has quilted for me.  Long story short -
I would never have attempted these stars on my own.  I am so tickled with this I have to share. From this

To this

and finally this

It still needs to be sandwiched and quilted of course, so this will be another piece I will use for the quilt along. :) More pics of the class in a few days.  Just wanted to share before bed.  Hope you all had a great weekend. Bernie