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. 

Lots of Crocheting Going on Here

For the last few months, I've been working on yarn projects.  I've kind of lost my quilting uuumph, and the knitting and crochet projects are fun.  

I've knit 25 dishcloths.   I think I started by looking at all the projects I have that are UFOs.  I have a basket full of cotton yarn to knit dishcloths.  I still have yarn left, but I've kind of moved on from these to afghans.  

This is a granny stripe afghan.  You can find the pattern for it on my crochet blog here.

Here's the border I added on one side......

and the other side.  This afghan was already started.  I probaby did 3/4 of it this winter.

This one was already started.   I had the center and a couple of rounds done before.  I finished using the yarn I had that would make a complete round.  

There were scraps left, so I made this little throw.  

This is the Costal Ripple afghan pattern from Attic 24 blog.  

This Christmas tree skirt was partially started, and I finished it.  The pattern for this easy tree skirt can be found on my crochet blog here. 

 

I said I'd lost my quilting mojo.  I've pulled out some hexagons that I have prepped because I'm going to the Jane Stickle retreat next week.  I know there will be a lot of inspiration there, and I'm sure I'll be in the quilting mood when I get back home,

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding time to stitch today!!

CHRISTMAS AFGHAN FINISH

I’ve had this Christmas afghan in the works since 2012 as near as I can figure by looking at my crochet blog here.  It’s finally finished and ready for next Christmas.  

I talked about this afghan in process here.  I really do like to crochet, so I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to finish it.  I find that if I’m working on a holiday project and the holiday passes, I put the project away thinking that I’ll get it out before the holiday rolls around again and finish it.  It took me 13 years, but it’s finished.

If you would like to try this afghan, I've written the pattern along with a tutorial on my crochet blog here.  

This is where the afghan was before Christmas.  

I added a simple granny stitch border with a shell stitch finish.  

 I had this basket of scraps left from the afghan, and I knew that if I put them away I’d never do anything with them.  I’ve seen several tutorials on line where granny squares are joined together with one continuous yarn.   I wanted to try it, so I crocheted 9 squares.    

I’ve made granny square afghans before but have never blocked my squares.   I thought it was time I tried to block mine, so I ordered a crochet blocking  board here.  (This post may contain affiliate links.)  It worked out really well, and I'll sure be able to use it in the future. 

I crocheted the squares together and used up all the yarn in the basket adding borders.  This is pretty small but will make a nice table topper next Christmas.  

Here’s my afghan stack from this Christmas before they were packed away.  

                                                                     

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!!!