More retreat stories.....

If you have ever been on a quilt retreat, then you know things can get a little weird after sewing for 12 straight hours. And sucking down endless sodas. And eating endless quanities of chocolate. So I think you can understand how I ended up like this.....

Yes, that's me with a claw hand.....made from a stick. Some of us took a walk and guess what I found. One of the ladies in the group talked about how forked sticks are used for finding water. Me? I wanted to bring it to the next guild business meeting (all in favor raise your hand....or claw).

I even tried to do a little sewing.....

And in case your are wondering, those ARE stickers on my sewing machine. I have all different kinds on it and they make me smile. Some day I want to own a hot pink featherweight, how cool would that be?!

This is my friend Lisa......she is really funny and makes fantastic quilts. You can read about her quilting adventures over at her blog, 9 Patch Nurse.

Lisa told us about a great ice cream shop nearby and of course what did we do? Take a road trip, I tried the strawberry cheesecake ice cream.....yum!

I actually did spent some time sewing at the retreat, I know hard to believe! I worked on my Orange Zinger. It is a selvage quilt and I like how it is coming along.

That's it for tonight! Have a great day!

kathy

New York Beauty

While I was at the retreat last weekend, I put all my NY Beauty blocks together. It took me a while since I was being careful to match everything up  and have the setting pieces in the right order. I put all the blocks up on a design wall......some joker decided to add a little something to the layout.

Wonder who could have done that?????  Could it have been this lovely lady modeling her niece's new apron?

Yes, yes it was......and she pleaded guilty as charged. I kept piecing away ready to see it??

What???? You want to see more of it????

You're still not satisfied??? Ok, ok......here's the whole top.

 Now I have to get started on the borders and they are all paper pieced. It will be worth all the work though. The border really makes the whole quilt look extra special. Give me a few weeks and I will show you my progress. Have a good day!!

kathy

Bingo!

This past weekend was the Flying Geese Quilt Guild retreat. I had such a blast and I have many things to share with you. Too much for one posting so I am going to spread it out over the week. Let's start with the retreat organizer, Nancy.......say hi Nancy!

Nancy has been doing the retreat for years and she does a fantastic job! Every year Nancy likes to try something new. One year she had us bring a piece of ugly fabric for a contest and challenged us all to make a quilt from the swapping that went on. Well, that is how my quilt "Ugly Kathy" was born. Thanks Nancy for inspiring me!

This year Nancy decided to have us play bingo on Saturday night. She had this giant container of spools and each one had a number on it. So she would pull one out and call out the number til someone got bingo. Now some of us in the guild are bad, bad people. Our minds are in the gutter......I won't mention names. We were waiting and waiting when it finally happened! Nancy pulled out this spool.....

And she goes........"O 69"......and what do we do???? We do the usual, we start screaming and carrying on. Never let it be said that quilters are dull people......but it gets better! Out of all the spools in the container there is only ONE black spool! And it just happens to be this one!! You bet we gave her some flak about that one, snicker snicker.....Nancy is a good sport though.

I even won a game! Horray!!!!! And I got a fabulous door prize, a giant spool! Plus just when we were packing up to leave Nancy told to close my eyes and hold out my hand.......look what I came home with!

Yup, its O 69 sitting there next to my giant spool......have a great day everyone and I stay tuned for the next installment of "How the Retreat Stitches".

kathy

Retreat!

Tommorrow is my guild's quilt retreat and I can not wait!!! It is going to be so fun and I am really hoping to finish up my NY Beauty. I did not manage to sew the top together, sad face. Life got in the way.....but there is always tommorrow!!!

Have a fantastic weekend and I will be sure to post lots of pixs when I get back.

kathy

It's done!

I finished all the NY Beauty blocks!!!! Now to piece them together and on to the border!!!!!!

I made a mistake in one of the blocks, can you find it????

Have a great day!

kathy

Three more blocks!

I am getting down the wire with the New York Beauty! I finished up three more blocks and only have three left!!!!! So exciting! I am going to do two more blocks tonight and hopefully finish the last block tommorrow before I head off to work.

Here's the lastest three.....

I had a blast camping with the cub scouts. Yesterday afternoon, the boy scout came over to do some activities with the cubs. One of the stations was first aid.....here's an exchange between the kids.

Boy scout: "What would you do if you were on a hike in the forest and your friend hurt his leg?"

Cub scout: "I would call 911 on a cell phone."

Boy scout: "Ok, but what if you could not get a cell phone signal and make the call?"

Cub scout: "I would wait for the rescue helicopter to come."

Boy scout: "Ok, ok, but what if the helicopter could not land and you needed to get your friend to another place?'

Cub scout: "I would tell him to walk."

Boy scout: "Ok, but his leg is hurt so you have to make him a splint. You can use sticks and rip your shirt sleeve for bandages."

Cub scout: (tugging at his sleeve) "How do you rip your shirt?" and another cub scout: "I have on short sleeves."

At this point I thought the boy scout should get a merit badge for his patience. Here's my cub scouts just hanging around at spring camp....

Have a great day!

kathy

New Hair

Here's a before and after picture......and then I am off to sew some New York Beauty blocks! I'm heading out tommorrow night for camping with the cub scouts and will not see the sewing room again til Sunday if I am lucky.

Before, and I almost always wore it up in a ponytail since it drives me nuts when I have hair in my face.

After, where did all the hair go???

Have a great day!

kathy

A Surprise!

Thanks for all the great suggestions about what to do when you are in a rut. Most people suggested redoing a room in the house or going on a short weekend getaway. Would you believe I am planning to repaint my bedroom this spring and I am going on a quilt retreat next weekend??? The bedroom is going to be blue with some yellow stars and possibly a moon in the corner. Still in the idea stage though I did buy the paint already.

But today I decided to be bold and I went to get a haircut this evening. Now I have long hair......long, thick hair. People tell me all the time it is so lovely and thick......but thick hair has it's downsides. Here's they are:

1. Thick hair is heavy.
2. Thick hair doesn't want to do anything but hang straight.
3. Thick  hair makes your head hurt when you wear it in a ponytail.
4. Thick hair is very hot in the summer.

So today I decided to get it all cut off! And I mean all of it!!! It is now what you would call a pixie cut. I like it very much though the rest of the members in the house are still adjusting. Now getting all your hair cut off, that is liberating! I'm all fired up to do new things!

Have a great day and go get liberated!

kathy

An Irish Gypsy

My Irish grandmother had 8 children who produced 13 grandchildren. I was one of the middle grands and the only brown eyed grandchild (thanks to my Italian father). My grandmother always called me her "Wild Irish Gypsy"since I loved adventure and was always moving around once I left home after high school.

Where is this going you ask? Well, this time of year I always get restless......bored.....tired of the same ole same.....I just want to pack up my stuff and head somewhere new and different. Now this worked out ok when I was young but I'm older now and I have kids so can't just pack up on a whim. Instead I have to find ways to channel my wanderlust.

Any suggestions? What do you do when you are in the need for a change?

Here's my gene pool.......Hi Mom and Dad!

Have a good day!

kathy

Monday morning.....

It's early Monday morning......and I am sure you thought I froze from the Popsicle Plunge and was still defrosting since I have not posted in a week. The truth is........I have not had much to say this past week, shocking I know, smile. I have been working away on my New York Beauty blocks. I only have 6 more to go and then I am done. Of course I still have to sew them together and make the border but the blocks will be done!

In other news, I had the the strep again.....it turns out Brad, who never got the strep this winter, was a carrier for it. He has been giving it back to us every time we finished a round of meds. So now he is on meds and hopefully we are done with the strep for this season!

Been raining here for the last three days, ugh. Snow is much prettier but at least it is starting to warm up so I can think summer like thoughts. Like where to plant more coneflowers and sunflowers this spring.....

Time to get started on my Monday.......and I have two more weeks to get my UFO's done! I will give you an update on their status this week.

Have a great day!

kathy

Popsicle Plunge!

Today was the Popsicle Plunge! The weather cooperated too, it was sunny and 50 degrees. The wind was blowing a bit but it could have been much colder. Originally I was going to do this event with Jack but he had a basketball playoff game so Brad volunteered to fill in! He was so excited to be able to do this event.

Mikey came along and served as my official photographer when I went in the water. Here he is thinking about how to frame his shots.

The EMS guys are checking for rocks, logs, and other unknown objects before we head in. Not like anybody has done much swimming in the last few months! Don't worry, they have wet suits on to keep warm.

The Popsicle Plunge raisies money for the Marshy Point Nature Center. This year I was on the team "Katie and Wil Brady Foundation". Here I am with Brad and my friend Pat, she's a quilter too!

Almost time!! Ready Pat???

This year I went in TWICE!!! Once with Brad (kids group), you can see us in the picture below with our blue hats on. Sorry it's a little blury, photo boy Mikey is still learning the ropes. I ran all the way to the EMS guys, gave them a high five, and headed on back to shore. Then I did it again with everyone else. And I gave the EMS guys yet another high five and then sat down to so I would be "going all the way". It was a blast!!!

Got two more Karen Stone blocks done!!! Nine more to go!! Have a great rest of the weekend!!

kathy

Working away

I'm still working away on my Karen Stone New York Beauty. I only have, hmmmmm.....11 more blocks to do!! I love how the blocks are coming out. This one is my current favorite.....

Maybe because the flowers make me think of spring. Have a fantastic Friday everyone!

kathy

Decision Made!

Thank you for all your feedback, it was very helpful for me when I was stewing things over. What I decided to do was to finish up the commission work I have now and then take a break for a while. I'm really hoping to make some progress this spring on a few art quilt ideas I have been thinking about for a while. One of them is a follow up to "Ugly Kathy". I already have a name for it.......it is going to be "Purple Purple". Once I actually get started on it, I will fill you in on where that name comes from. I've been wanting to make this quilt for over a year but needed to think how to actually construct the quilt to my vision.

If you never seen "Ugly Kathy", here's a photo for you to enjoy.

I was involved with an ugly fabric swap challenge then I had two other challenges going on, a self portrait and a guild fabric challenge. So I decided to incorporate all three challenges into one quilt. I had alot of fun with this quilt and people either love it or hate it. I think it has a dark beauty to it.......kinda like those wrinkly dogs that are so ugly that they become attractive.

Today I was off work and decided to make Cincinnati Chili. Would you believe the recipe has chocolate in it? I am going to try it later on this week on top of spagetti. Here it is bubbling away.

And remember that Longberger basket I won last weekend at the Blue and Gold Silent Auction?? Someone decided it was a perfect place for a nap.

Have a great day everyone!!

kathy

Decisions.....

Hmmmmmm......I need some feedback from you all. I am debating not doing anymore commission work. In case you are wondering just what I do, the answer is pretty much anything, but mostly I quilt tops for people and make t-shirt quilts. And I earn a good amount of money at it.....enough to pay for my family's summer vacation and Christmas expenses so it is not an easy decision to make.

But here's my problem, the vast majority of the commission work I do is artistically not very interesting to me. I do it and I do it well but it's not what I would call fullfilling. I went back to work full time during the day so quilting time is more limited now.

And I am interested in expanding my workshop teaching beyond the local quilt shop circuit and start doing trunk shows and workshops at guilds......I really like teaching and my students have alot of fun. But I need more time to develop this before it would be a financially viable activity.

So what to do? Suggestions? I would love to hear your thoughts.......in the meantime, no posting is complete without a photo. Enjoy!

kathy