Serger Pieced Frolic Top

I attended a Babylock demo recently and I know I've seen it before probably at my Bernina dealer Sew This - a serger created quilt top. So I had this pile of Moda Frolic line sitting around that I just had to have when I saw it at Denise's cute new quilt shop in New Orleans, Mes Ami Quilts. I decided I wanted to serge piece the top --- I know, not exactly a 1/4 inch but with this technique, it's all about speed but accuracy is still easily achieved as long as you take your time and don't rush it. I was able to whip this top and pieced backing together in an afternoon. I will let you know about the quilting --- I have a feeling it might be a little difficult with all that thread in there from the serger... we shall see.

Fall Quilt

This is a quilt I started at retreat in August and then completed when I got back home. It's a quilt-as-you-go technique where you sandwich your pieced block/batting/backing - the backing is cut an inch larger all the way around the block size. This will be used later to bind each block basically after you sew all the sandwiches together as a quilt. You make your sandwiches and then free motion quilt each block.

After you've free motioned all your blocks, you take two blocks with backs (right sides together) and stitch them along the edge of the top block.

You'll keep stitching your quilted blocks together.

I used a glue stick to help me with folding over the edges to cover the block's raw edge and then you stitch it all down.

and bam - you have a completed, quilted quilt! All done!

My first retreat - recap

I know it's been forever since I last posted on my blog - life just takes us on so many different adventures and time slips away so quickly when you are having so much fun! I am being sarcastic here folks! The last half of the year is just flying by and in just a short couple of weeks will be Quilt Festival in Houston -- Mom is coming in to town later this week and I've been busy cleaning every nook and cranny of the house which has been neglected just like my blog! LOL

I attended my first ever quilter's retreat this past August! Being my first retreat, I had no clue how much stuff I should bring - as it turned out, I should not have packed as much stuff as I did -- I was afraid I would run out of thing to do but I might also have some sort of ADD thing going because I was planning to do so many different projects and I wanted to get a major jump on the holiday projects. I can tell you one thing, not an inch of holiday fabric made it out of the van -- they stay packed up in the big rubbermaid tub they came in and back to the sewing room they went after the 4 1/2 day retreat was over!

Here is the sewing space I was assigned - an entire 8ft table - we had shared cutting/ironing tables setup so we didn't have to take up room on our tables for that. It was great spreading things out. Next time, I'll be packing and taking MUCH LESS with me, trust me.

I got to a slow start when I got there because I realized I had left all my rulers, iron, extension cords etc at home in my mad rush to pack everything else in the van that morning. My wonderful partner Jody was so nice to drive up the rest of my supplies to me --- he got to drive the 2 hours which was OK because he made it a business trip anyways. The gals thought it was so sweet of him to do that. I thought so too. Anyways, we all arrived on Monday morning - I got there around 11am - unpacked the van and got things setup up and then realized what I had left behind. After lunch I was still setting things up and then Jody arrived and I could finish my setup. Then some gals wanted to go on a road trip to the local pharmacy that just so happens to sell fabric and notions too. Well, we never made it - on the way there, there was car troubles after Theresa ran over fallen tree limb in the street. Glad we stopped because she killed her transmission pan with that limb - and we would never have made it past the first town. We got back and things got into motion to create my first project a blue/silver kaleidoscope quilt - paper pieced. I got through some cutting - got some stitching done and by nightfall I was ready to burn it all --- I don't think my mind was in the right place to stitch an tear the paper that night --- I am leaving the project for another time.

This little nap sack was one of the projects I completed at the retreat. Used Connecting Threads "cheap talk" fabrics.

I decided to show a quick project I whipped up on the serger. These little 4x6 notebook covers came together very quickly. I whipped up 3 of them in no time - gave away 2 and kept one for myself.

And finally I started an entire quilt project by time day 2 1/2 or 3 rolled around. Quick and easy with no seams to match up and it's a quilt-as-you-go project. More on this in another post coming soon.

I also whipped up a journal cover too --- I was very much into the fall colors that week!

All in all I had such a great time at this retreat. I met some wonderful quilters. I got to know some friends even better and it was relaxing to be away from life for a few days in the middle of the Louisiana woods with no TV and no distractions. We stayed up late every night - well, some of us did, and I even surprised myself that I woke so early most mornings - I guess I was just too excited and needed to get some sewing done.

Looking forward to next year's retreat already.