A group of quilting friends and I headed to Lake City over the weekend. We made our home for two days the Dragonfly Dreams Retreat Center, recently opened by a friend of ours who used to belong to our local guild before she moved out of town. It was a glorious weekend getaway, and a time of real creative energy for me. I knew I would have the time, so I took Harald’s 40th birthday quilt (only a few years overdue at this point) and finally got all the piecing done.
Harald’s quilt top finally pieced together! Isn’t it lovely?
Once I got that done, I felt like a huge breakthrough had been made, and I could almost feel the flow return to my previously flowless creativity. One of the projects I turned to (after getting the binding put on a baby quilt I am making) was a French Braid quilt. I had bought the book and the fabric a year or so ago from Crystal’s Log Cabin Quilts in Grand Marais, a favorite quilt store of mine. I bought all these fabrics that reminded me of one thing or another about being on the north shore, figuring it would be a great tribute to have even the fabric come from there. I wasn’t sure I had done a very good job picking out the colors, but once I saw it going together, I knew I didn’t have anything to worry about.
A close up of one whole color run from my French Braid quilt. You can get some better idea of the color and pattern in this one.
This is what two of the four braids will look like, with the separator bands lined up on the design wall between them.
So I ended up getting more than half of the French Braid quilt done. I can hardly wait to finish it to see what it will look like!
I’m blessed to have wonderful quilt friends who are great to spend time with!
(Click on the photo to see the slideshow of our trip!) On Saturday I headed down to Iowa with three of my quilt buddies, Joan, Karen and Dawn. It was a perfect fall day for a car trip. We were off for Garner, Iowa, about 145 miles from my house, and a fabulous quilt store on a little town west of Clear Lake. On our way back, we stopped in Northfield. We were going to go to a yarn store called Cottage Industry, which we discovered had closed over a year ago. So we went to Digs instead. They took over the yarn stock of the place that closed. What a fun little store. Actually, all of downtown Northfield is fun – great little shops along Division Street. If you haven’t been, you should make a day trip of it. Just don’t show up at the Indian restaurant expecting to eat between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm. They won’t be waiting on you.
Several weeks ago now I attended a quilt show given by a local guild to which several of my friends belong. The name of the guild is “Women of the West”, or WOW as they are known to many. I’ve been terribly tardy in getting the pictures off my camera and onto my site, but I offer these two links for you to peruse. The first link contains some of my favorite quilts that were on display. There were dozens and dozens more, but I couldn’t shoot them all: http://www.fiberguy.com/slideshow/slideshow.html#id=wow2007 The second slide show is from a “bed turning” they did at the show. The folded back each old quilt over the bed, and told it’s story, where it was from, how it was made, what people remember about it, etc. It was most fascinating. Almost a “quilts as journals” type of thing. http://www.fiberguy.com/slideshow/slideshow.html#id=bedturning Enjoy!
These are “the women in my life” – members of my small guild, Frayed Edges. I have such a good time with them when we go on our annual quilt retreat to Gibbon. Alas, this may be our last year as Gallagher’s Retreat Center is up for sale. I just got home from this year’s event and I had a wonderful time. I love these women and I love being around them. And the quilt retreat is such a special event. Only two days for me, mid-day Friday to Sunday, but no phone, no televisions, no radios, no computers, no responsibilities. Two days of completely self-indulgent sewing (and in my case, some knitting too!).
On Friday night, we drove to Bird Island to a little shop called Gathering Friends, that really has a fantastic selection of fabrics. And they sell yarn too! I saw this Plymouth Yarn Outback Wool in a purple variegation and I had to have it. I started in on a scarf for myself and this is as far as I got before leaving today. But doesn’t it work up beautifully?
I did finish making the top to a baby quilt from a pattern I bought at Gathering Friends last summer. It was quick and easy and just the kind of thing I wanted to work. Nothing too complicated or challenging at the moment, thank-you-very-much.
My friend, Joan, is making this Karen Stone pattern and these are the blocks that she got done this weekend. It’s going to be a stunning quilt when it gets done!
That’s about all I can think of right now. Good God, that was a big piece of work! I am sorta numb, in a Peggy Lee “Is that all there is to a fire?” sort of way. I thought I would have a rush of some kind of feelings yesterday when I left class, but nothing. Just walked out of class like I always did, knowing that I wasn’t going back. I did pat Old Main on the side, and thanked it for providing such a strong roof over my head for the last four years, since most of my education took place in that building. So that’s the big let down. Somehow I feel like I should have felt something I didn’t feel. I normally go into a funk for about a week each time I finish a year, so this will be no less. I remember standing in the shower this morning thinking “I don’t have ANY classes to prepare for. No homework, no reading assignments, no more tests – shit, am I REALLY done?”
On the other hand, there is a part of me that recognizes I will miss the pressure-cooker atmosphere of intellectual stimulation I have mostly encountered at Augsburg. Without a professor to guide me and challenge me to the kind of academic rigor I’ve experienced the last four years, even the most intense of my intellectual investigations won’t be the same. But I am not going to miss the homework, the massive reading lists, the late night classes, cramming for tests over lunch hours, writing essays late into the night, and leaving my abode to go to class when I’d rather be home on a Friday night or a snowy winter weekend, cuddled up with my loves around me.
I cleaned out my sewing studio this past weekend. I have four years of quilting to catch up on, and I intend to spend many an hour doing what I have loved and missed doing for so long now.
As if the love affair with our new Jenn-Air dishwasher earlier this year wasn’t enough, it’s happened all over again. This time, it’s with my new Rowenta DG-980 iron that I recently purchased from Allbrands.com. It felt like an impulsive purchase after I returned from my quilt retreat in August, but having ironed a couple dozen shirts already, I can tell you that it makes quick work of a boring and thankless job. It’s almost a joy to iron, now! And boy, does it ever put out the steam. If any of you iron a lot, you ought to consider this iron. For quilters, it would make a perfect gift – or treat yourself!
For days now I’ve been wanting to post a picture of a quilt I finished at the Gibbon retreat last weekend for my dearest and most beloved of friends, Nancy. But she reads my blog so I couldn’t give it away! Well, I just got a phone call from Nancy that FedEx had delivered her package and she got it opened after finishing a rush and now she’s all verklempt over realizing it was made just because I love her and she’s such a spectacular person. So here’s the picture. I’m sorry it took so long girl! Hopefully, the matching pillow shams won’t take as long as the quilt did. Hey, it’s only about two years overdue!
When your friends cry tears of happiness, you know you did good.
Update: Credit must be paid. The quilting in this quilt was done by another dear friend and spectacular soul, Maxine Rosenthal, she of One-Block Wonders fame and soon to be famous for so much more. Of course, she’s already a legend in my mind!
I can’t even begin to tell you all what a good time I had and how much I enjoyed myself this past weekend! It was annual trek to Gibbon, Minnesota and Gallagher’s Retreat Center for my local quilt guild – we call ourselves Frayed Edges. It was so nice to reconnect with my quilting buddies by spending time with them. I got more sewing done that I’ve probably gotten done in the past 2-3 years, and even after I got home last night and unpacked I sat down to sew a little more. At the retreat I finally got finished one quilt that I’ve been working on a while. I got a top put together and the borders on for a “friendship quilt” that various quilt guild buddies had made for me. And I got H’s 40th birthday quilt (note: He turns 45 in May) finally laid out on the design wall, arranged pleasingly, and the pieces all numbered for assembly so I don’t have to have the whole thing up on the wall anymore. I even got the top two feet or so of his quilt top pieced. H came in the sewing room and suggested we do some things to liven it up and make it a more enjoyable room in the house. I think he’s got the right idea! I also went to the Bird Island quilt store and bought some kits of quilts I want to make. I’m definitely taking four days next summer to go again. I’ve decided if I have only one quilt-related trip a year, it’s going to be to go on retreat with this guild. They are all my closest quilting friends and I enjoy their company so much.
Every time I go to Gibbon I swear I’m going to buy myself one of those steam generator irons they have there because it makes everything so easy to press. I can’t believe it, but I did it this time. I bought myself one of those Rowenta steam generator irons. My friend Phyllis mentioned a Rowenta professional model she likes, but that was over $100 just for an ordinary iron. And Allbrands.com had a brand new Rowenta DG-980 (the one with the removable water tank) for the right price so I bought it. Good lord this turned out to be an expensive weekend. Thinking about all those cotton shirts I can iron more easily for the two of us makes me regret it a little less. On the other hand, I have to remind myself that I haven’t bought fabric in well over a year, so splurging a little this one time isn’t quite so bad (how’s that for rationalization, eh?) . I suppose if you don’t spend hours and hours pressing fabric like most of us do you would not understand why we make such a big deal over our irons. Even the very best home iron model usually isn’t strong enough to keep up with a serious quilter. I can burn through an iron in less than a year when I’m sewing a lot. And I usually buy very good quality ones. This iron will hold quite a lot of water and give 1.5 hours of uninterrupted, pressurized steam. You should see how perfectly flat your blocks come out when you press them in Gibbon! Hopefully my iron will arrive soon.
The best part of the weekend is the uninterrupted sewing/working time. No one had to worry about food (the B&B owner caters it), or laundry, or phones, or kids, or pets, or partners or *anything*. All we had to do was sew and eat every now and then. Total creative isolation – it was heaven! Most people were up and sewing in the work room by 9:00 am and except for breaks for lunch and dinner, people would still be sewing well past 11:00 at night. One night, most people didn’t get to bed until 2:00 A.M.! I made it to bed every night by 10:30 or so, but some of those women are like machines! I got to stay in the front bedroom this time. I’ve haven’t stayed in that room before. It was lovely and quiet and cheerful all done up in yellows and blues and I slept so good both nights. Not to mention what a lovely drive through the country I make to get to this place. You go through farm fields and quaint little towns. On the way home, I went down one farmer’s road to the house, following the signs for freshly harvested vegetables and came home with everything to make ratatouille last night, which we ate for dinner. All in all, it was just about the perfect weekend I would say!
Harald’s quilt up on the design wall.
Joan putting together her quilt made from Maxine Rosenthal’s book “One Block Wonders.”
The working room behind the house at Gallagher’s Retreat.
Five of us from Frayed Edges who were present at this retreat. From left to right we are, Susan, Boyd, Phyllis, Joan and Kathy.
