Design Wall Monday-Not Stonefields

I know I said I was starting Stonefields, but when I got downstairs to my sewing room I saw a pile of nine patches.   So I got an idea.   Our challenge for the next retreat is to sew something that reminds us of Rebecca Haarer that owns Rebecca's Arts and Antiques in Shipshewana, IN.  Somehow I missed the trip to the church cabin where the original quilt is hanging, but the girls that went took photos.  Here's my design wall with the blocks that I've sewn so far. 

The Christmas cross stitches that you see hanging around the edge somehow didn't make it upstairs with the other pieces of cross stitch that I have in my basket of shame to be finished somehow so I can display them.  

This is the photo that one of the girl's posted of the Church Cabin quilt.  It's really pretty simple.  It's a nine patch of nine patches.  The little individual nine patches finish at 3".  I've loved this quilt since the first time someone posted photos of it.  Several of the girls from the retreat have made their own version of the quilt.  I'm still doing handwork at night, but this is my new machine piecing project.   

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at my friend Judy's blog.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding time to stitch today.  

Starting Stonefields - Fabrics and Planning

 I’ve been thinking about starting the Stonefield's quilt by Susan Smith.  The pattern was given to me by Barb Perrin many years ago.  I’ve pulled it out several times, studied it, and put it back on the shelf.  I even organized the pattern into a notebook.  I’ve been watching Gretchen, Chris and Rebecca all working on the Stonefield's quilt.  Gretchen was at the Jane Stickle retreat, and she was working on one of her blocks.  

I freshened my stash with some new Tilda fabrics and a few other pieces I thought I could use in my Stonefield's quilt while visiting Shipshewana.  

This is Tilda's Brie line.  I split a fat quarter pack with Theresa, a friend at the retreat.  We bought those at Caroline's Cottage Cottons in Rome City, Indiana.  I love her shop.  She has some really pretty fabrics.

The top fabric (below) came from Clothesline Creations in Middlebury, IN.    As I was leaving Yoders in Shipshewana, I spied the Barbie fabric.  The Stonefield's quilt has a lot of different blocks and the original uses a lot of different fabrics.  Do you think I dare put a Barbie in my Stonefield's quilt?  I know it's my quilt, but I don't want to wade too far into the deep end.

These are some other Tilda fabrics I've pulled to work on my quilt.

                                                                         

And I still have some Robyn Pandolph and Sandy Gervais fabrics from years ago that I plan to use.

I've saved some of these pieces for 10 or 15 years just to use in this quilt.  

I'm still stitching 3/4" hexagons.  For the project I have in mind, I'll need another 100 or so.  

                                        

This is the first yellow finch I've seen on the feeders this year.  Soon it will be time to put the hummingbird feeders out.

My Christmas cactus is blooming again.  Both of the small ones bloomed at Christmas.  One bloomed a couple of weeks ago.  I've never been able to get them to bloom, so I'm thrilled even though it's past Christmas.  The big plant belonged to my mother-in-law.  I've had it for years, and this is the first year it bloomed.  

 

I hope to post my first Stonefield's blocks soon so stay tuned.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Retreat Fun in Shipshewana

 I just returned from the Jane Stickle Quilt retreat in Shipshewana, Indiana, last Sunday.   I wasn’t much in the mood to quilt before last week, but I am now.  It’s so great being surrounded by such talented quilters.  There were some there that I hadn’t met before, but there are some of us that have been attending this retreat for over 20 years so it’s great seeing old friends again.  I love visiting Amish country.   

                                                          

I took the photo of the horse outside the Emma Cafe.  Emma is a small town just south of Shipshewana.  This was a great lunch spot years ago, but they closed.  It's nice to see that they are open again.  The food was wonderful.  I kept talking to the horse trying to get him to look over at me.  Finally when I got quiet, he turned his head in my direction,  

Friday night show and tell at the retreat is always great.  Each quilt is a work of art.  I showed my 1797 revisited quilt.  This quilt is my version of a quilt in the V & A Museum in London.  

I also showed my 3' block swap quilt.  I'd been looking at the blocks and realized one of the girls that had been in our group had passed away.  These blocks were fun to do.  At several retreats we would each pick 6 blocks from anywhere we wanted as long as they finished at 3".  There were usually 6 in our group, so each exchange we ended up with 36 different blocks.  You can see that we exchanged blocks at several different retreats.  

Besides the full sized quilt, I made a small quilt out of the blocks that were fall or Halloween.  

The blocks in this little quilt were just some that were my favorites.  I have these two smaller quilts layered and thought that I might do a little hand quilting in them.  Hand quilting isn't one of my favorite things to do so they may end up with some machine quilting in the sashing.

I took my usual project to work on - hexagons.  I have several projects in the works that use 3/4” hexagons, so I always have a container prepared and ready to stitch.  Here are just a few I did at the retreat.

I found this puzzle in my sewing room and took it to put out on the "puzzle table".   I'm not sure where I got the puzzle.  I think a friend brought it to me from the Bennington Museum.  I left it on the table when I left so hopefully it will show up on the table to work again another year.

Once the doors to the sewing room open, the days just fly by.  Then we pack up and look forward to coming back next time.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!

I have an idea for a new project.  More about that in my next post so stay tuned.