testing.  Haven't been able to post.

Woo Hoo!

The Retreat Challenge

The challenge for this year is to make a door knob hanger.

Size:  no larger than 5" x 14".

Subject: your choice.  It can be sewing, seasonal, landscape, whatever you want.  Limited only by your creativity. (There will be a prize for that.)

I'm posting some pictures that I took in a quilt shop to start you thinking.

Let me know if you have questions.  Have fun creating.  And, as always, participation is optional.

It worked :D 

Will we do secret sister again this time? :D 

Secret sister is not in the plans for this year.   Mention it in the evaluation.  If enough seem interested, there is always next year.

We will also be celebrating the life of Sharon!  Be thinking of your favorite story or time with Sharon.  We will spend sometime remembering….

we encourage you to bring things Sharon helped, inspired, or taught you.  Lol, it took me years to finish that first stack n whack she taught us!  I will bring that quilt, but we encourage you to bring yours, or bring pictures, or your stories. 

Sharon organized many of our block lottos, maybe you did those…this might be a great year to bring a Project inspired by Sharon that you need to finish…..( just a thought,…..)

I was inspired by Sharon to save some crumbs and make crumb blocks.  In October I took them to quilt camp up in Pinetop and put them together.  They still need a border.  I hope to have, at least, the top completed by the retreat.

BLOCK LOTTO

This year we have chosen another of the blocks from Marcia Hohn's site, Quilterscache.com.  It is a 12 inch finished block called Anvil.  It has a Southwest look to it so we decided to use Southwest colors.  Think of sunsets, cacti, desert, the mountains, native americans.  For the background, we are using a cream called Kona Bone

Last night I made 2.  It is not a difficult block.  The sample quilts Marcia shows on her site look great. 

It consists of (2) 6.5" HSTs, (4) 3.5" HSTs, and (4) 3.5" squares.  Be careful how you place the HSTs.  I had to take one out and reposition it after the block was complete.  Not my favorite thing to do!  For those of you with an Accuquilt, I was able to cut these out with a 6.5" HST die, a 3.5" HST die and a 3.5"square.  ETA:  The middle may be 2 fabrics.  Middle may also by Southwest prints .

ETA:  The blocks do not have to be in sets.  They can all be different.  Mine are.

The gold one is a regular cotton.  The red one is a batik.  You can use either.

Let me know if you have questions.  As always, participation is optional.  Lotto blocks do make some nice looking quilts. 

You can use more than one color per block.

Are we doing them all one colored?  Or can we use more than one color per block?

i can see some great 2 or 3 colored blocks……

I certainly understand the problems of having to fly and/or wait on flights.  That's why I've almost decided not to fly anymore and don't usually do day trips of more than a couple of hours. The last time I flew was from Detroit (connecting flight from Green Bay to Phoenix) where there had been delays I ended up in a middle seat between two overweight guys and literally the flight was the most uncomfortable I've ever been on.  And... it was a 4.5 hour flight.

We do hope you will be able to join us and we'll communicate via computer.