For those of you out in blog land who celebrate the American tradition of Thanksgiving, I hope you all had a wonderful day and that you enjoyed a delicious meal surrounded by your family and friends. We were blessed to have my brother and his wife, Bob and Cheri, and my folks here visiting with us. We talked, laughed lots, and the guys had endless Wii bowling tournaments and pinochle card games.
Did any of you get up in the wee hours of the morning the day after turkey day to hit the stores for super-bargain shopping? If so, what great buys did you find? I’d love to know…
As for me, I stayed snug in bed and even slept in for a bit until 8:30am on Black Friday. Warm and cozy.
A virtual stitching open house
With Thanksgiving behind us and the Christmas season promptly ahead, I thought you might like to enjoy a virtual tour of an all-day stitch fest I held here at my house recently. I invited my neighborhood group of sewing gal pals over for a busy day of sewing. We even had a potluck lunch and husbands, a fiance, and neighbors dropped by throughout the afternoon to nosh and socialize. My very thoughtful neighbor, Stuart, even surprised us all by dropping off a Wright’s famous hummingbird cake for us all to enjoy (thank you, Stuart!) It was the perfect combination of productivity and fun! But rather than tell you about it, let me share the day with you in photos.
We began the morning with a little show and tell. Charm (center) told us about her recent
weekend quilt retreat where she designed a king-size family heirloom Hawaiian style.
This is the king-size quilt she designed (every element was thoughtfully
chosen to represent each of her family members) and cut out in one weekend.
The red applique design is pinned to the backing by more than 1500 pins.
Simply stunning, Charm!
Jan stitching on her new Pfaff Creative 2.0. I think she really loves it!
She’s been hard at work on a beautiful pinwheel baby quilt at home.
Charm and Caroline ponder their fabric placement in our
project for the day: a braided table runner.
Once fabric choices had been made, we got busy cutting our strips.
Charm just got a new Pfaff Creative Vision!
She’s all smiles (well, to be fair, she smiles all the time) as she began stitching her project.
Caroline also got a new Pfaff Creative 2.0 as an early Christmas
present from her Mom and Dad. Talk about a happy girl!
Charm’s husband, Brian, stopped by for a bit. Check out the fish hook necklace he’s wearing. He carved it from a cow bone at the same weekend retreat where Charm designed her Hawaiian heirloom quilt. He not only made one fish hook, he also carved the one Charm is wearing in the pictures.
This table runner went together quickly using the quilt-as-you-go method.
Charm made her version in luscious fall colors.
Caroline made her version using gorgeous, elegant holiday fabrics.
With a little advance planning and moving some furniture,
there was plenty of room for everyone to spread out and sew.
Jan had fun learning how to make straight-grain binding.
Maybe a little too much fun — she stitched all the ends together and formed a loop!
No harm done — that’s what seam rippers are for.
Table runners stitched and quilted all in one day.
All that was left was to add was the binding!
From left to right: Charm’s, mine, Caroline’s and Jan’s.
They are all different lengths based on the place we plan to display them in our homes.?
My table runner has found a new home on my kitchen island and
it complements my blue and green theme perfectly. I love it!
Thanks, gals, for a fantastic day of stitching and gabbing. So….when’s our next sewing day and what do you want to make?
Kimberly,
Great pictures! Looks like you all had fun! We missed you at the Fall Retreat! Check out my pictures of the retreat on Facebook!
Roseanne —
Thanks so much for stopping by. Gosh, you have no idea how much I missed being at the fall quilt retreat. I thought of you all weekend! Maybe I can join the fun next year? Who knows….?
The quilt you made for the new book is STUNNING! Can’t wait for you to see it in print…. 🙂
Hi Kimberly,
Your sewing get togethers always look like sooo much fun! I’m so jealous looking at that studio of your – the cutting area alone leaves me green with envy…
And what a wonderful job everybody has done with their tablerunners. I just love your projects!
Hugs,
Birgit
Hi Kimberly,
I love the table runners! Is this one of the projects in your upcoming book? You said quilt-as-you-go? Wow, I need to do that…how do I get my hands on how-to instructions?
OH and I knew there was a reason why I love you guys…you love pinochle!!! We play partners after dinner on Thanksgiving until after midnight!! Four matches, girls against the guys!! Guess who won….girls of course!!
Birgit —
Oh, I so wish Germany wasn’t half way around the world! Then you could come and join all the fun. You’d fit right in! As for my cutting area…..we got those cabinets at the Rotes Kreuz in Sindelfingen!
Hi Darlene!
You’d fit right in with this crowd — no doubt! The pinochle marathons went on until the wee hours of the morning, but we sure had fun! (You know, we actually call the game “pigs knuckles” — because that’s what my Dad has called it for years and years, but no one knows why…” Anyway, congrats on the girls showing the guys how it’s done at your house! 🙂
As for the table runners, I wish it was my design but it is actually a pattern called “Braid Runner” by G E Designs in Iceland. Here’s the link: http://www.gequiltdesigns.com/qaygpatterns.html
This pattern is dynamite — quick, easy, and you can do the entire thing (start to finish) in six hours or less! Check it out if you have a minute….
And thanks for stopping by to leave a note today. Always great to hear from YOU!
Dear Mimi;
Your comment just tickles me — I’m so glad to know you enjoyed the blog entry today. Thanks a million. Truly, I wish you could just come on down here to my street and join the fun! You’d love these gals — and I know we all would love you! But if you can’t be here, I hope you’ll consider calling up some pals and invite them over for a day of stress-free stitching. It really will rejuvenate you, like it always does for me! 🙂
Love the table runners
Caroline went to Dunedin to look for quilting fabric yesterday….
Happy belated Thanksgiving
Today we took Dave to THE BARN~ his first time. They had fun.
v
Wish I were lucky enough to live in your neighborhood and join the group- the runners are beautiful and so are the quilters. There is nothing I need so badly that I would get up in the middle of the night to shop for it!!! Our T-day meal was shared with family and was sooooo peaceful. We had a second T-day meal on Friday with friends-also joyous.
Love the tablerunners. Your blue and green does a beautiful job matching your chairs. I see RuthAnn has commented on your posting – sure miss those times at Ramstein.
The Attic Window Quilt Shoppe has displayed your beautiful trunk show. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t seen some of those quilts in person before. They are fantastic. I adore the quilting on the Greek Isle quilt from your book cover – see something new each time I look at it.
Can’t wait to see you in August. Mike and I are still hoping to do the cruise but finances may not allow it.
Love it! All of them came out so beautiful — and we had such a fun day doing it! Can’t wait for our next playdate!