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Hi everyone! I am so excited to share with you something I have been working on for the past FIVE MONTHS! I would like to introduce you to Transparendo - The Transparency Sampler Quilt, 12 Modern Blocks to Create a Masterpiece. This is my first official book with IBSNs. I can't believe it. I finally wrote a book and published it myself. I learned so much in the process too such as creating my own publishing company, being receptive to feedback, learning how to design cover artwork, and marketing my book. Are you curious? 

Would you like to see the ...

I peeled this project off the

design wall in the Thread Shed...

and took it with me to 

Quilt Retreat last week...

Looking forward to seeing this one hung

in our living room.

CLICK HERE to view the Quilt Retreat images

CLICK HERE to view all Fabulous Finishes 2022

Happy Friday Friends!

I barely managed to finish a quilt before leaving on retreat this week. It is a scrappy version of The Align Quilt.

This is actually my test quilt; the first of these I pieced. Everything in this quilt is from my stash. When I make scrappy quilts, I like to show them in a variety of fabrics. That way, no matter what kind of fabrics and scraps you have in your stash, you know the quilt will “work.” For this quilt, truly anything goes. The chain down the center of the blocks helps tie everything together. As ...

      Sounds counterintuitive, but going on a quilt retreat, if you plan for it, helps make huge progress in finishing quilts. I plan and take blocks that need to be webbed and all sewn together. I also take blocks that are laid out on freezer paper (ironed on) and put together those blocks. I take a couple of leader/ender projects. And snacks.
     Lately, it has been hard to get quilters to go on the retreats, which we do in March and November typically. We used to have 20 and a waiting list, now we get six, which is not as ...

I'm just home from a 4-day stitching retreat in rural central Ohio!  Do you have the opportunity to get away from your at-home sewing area and devote yourself to some stitching?  I hope so because I find it's a great way to refresh my state of mind!

I've been hosting and attending retreats for many years.  I've graduated (finally) from taking more than two people could accomplish in the allotted time to a reasonable assortment that keeps me busy and delivers a morale boost of reaching a few goals (not necessarily "finishes").   This time I also ...

I have returned to Oregon from 

the Idaho Retreat

I attended last week...

Happy Wednesday Friends! I posted this on one of the social media channels yesterday: Musings over coffee:Quilting is a gift filled with promise, hope, simplicity, complexity, beauty, hot messness. Each one of us gets to show the sublime uniqueness of our self, it is sometimes incredibly vulnerable and sometimes guarded like a castle surrounded by… Continue reading Coming Soon!

Here are Show 'n Tell images

from the Quilters at the Idaho Retreat 

Idaho Quilt Retreat

 I have been using design boards

aka flannel boards for years...

You can prop the design board up

in a book stand or small easel to keep it vertical

while ...

Staying at Spring House Retreat involved a lot of FIRSTs. 

We had the cat wrangling incident -- more on that tomorrow. We were ten people, which is the largest group that we've ever had and I wasn't sure if I would like it. Too many conversations at the same time, too crowded, too noisy, etc. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and YES there were times when there were too many conversations going on at the same time but I was in the corner and I just tuned them out! Actually, it's not the number ...

 It was bound to happen. I've been so lucky with all the bushwhacking I've been doing. Zero issues with plants that didn't agree with me. 

However, yesterday, I decided to explore a trail that wasn't good, and now I'm in trouble. Let's start at the beginning. 

I thought I'd go geocaching one more time, but I got about 3 KM from the house when I realized I did NOT have a pen. OK -- so maybe I'll go exploring and see if there's anything easy to get, and I'll go today ...

 Oh my -- they will have to pry all ten of us out of this house tomorrow! In the past, we've consistently filled the retreat house with the maximum number of people, and we were pretty happy, although we were always cramped, especially for sewing. Then during the pandemic, only a few of us could go, and we liked the peace and having plenty of room to work. 

So this house can sleep 12, and we weren't sure if we wanted to fill it, so we came with ten. But it could easily hold twelve people, and for sewing ...

So if I were to attend a quilt retreat in heaven, I would want it to be a super retreat. Well, I'm not in heaven, but I think we hit the jackpot in retreat houses. Yes -- I'm on quilt retreat again, and this one got planned simply because this new house opened, and I WANTED to be part of the action. 

If I were looking for the ideal retreat, this is it. It's hard to find fault with anything here. You can check it out - it's called Spring House Retreat. Let's see -- it's ONE ...