Quilt Camp

North Fresno Quilters Fall 2010

Keola Fall Quilt Camp 2010

I know Quilt Camp was nearly a month ago so I'm finally blogging about it quite late. However, it couldn't pass without any recognition at all, so here goes:

There once was a girl who was going to quilt camp. She washed and cut her fabric to begin a new quilt project. She packed fabric for her Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt and backing fabric for two quilt tops that only needed to be measured so the backs could be cut and assembled. She gathered her tools and packed them in her car. She packed clothes for the chilly mountain weather. She purchased yarn, needles and printed a pattern for a "back up" knitting project *In case the sewing became tedious*. And then drove up the hill to Camp Keola. Once the table were set up for sewing stations, she began unpacking her projects to get a jump start on sewing projects. And realized that she had left the whole box full of washed a cut fabric for the new quilt project at home. Yep. That girl is me. I hied myself off to Quilt Camp without my quilting project. I had the pattern, the thread, etc. But no fabric. I called Jessica and Valerie who would be heading up the hill later that day. No answer. I called Doug to see if he could pick up the fabric from my house and take them to Uncle George's or Mark's house since they too would be coming up the hill later. He was on the path to do just that when I called Mark to see if that would be ok...No go...They were already in Prather. Bummer! Call Jess and Val again. Yay! They answered! And they were about 90 seconds from my house at Riverpark. Fweeeew...No wasted Quilt Camp weekend for me! Huge thanks to the team effort to enable me to be able to quilt!!!!

I was able to get quite a bit of the piecing done on the Vintage Cross quilt that almost wasn't:

Tyler LOVES to "help" Grammy sew. He takes his job very seriously:

Until the task is done and it's time to take a break:

Mom finished this amazing quilt:

Kim was able to wear this FANTASTIC sweater top that she knit:

(I love how in this picture, the sunlight totally highlights the top)

Obviously, "Quilt Camp" is a term loosely applied that does not necessarily indicate that quilting will be the main activity, as you can see by the fact that Kim, Jess and Val did not even bring a sewing machine:


Deb Friesen and Jessica showed me how easy it would be to make Magic Pillowcases:

The Magical World of Disney

I made my first (probably of many) Magic Pillowcase! After seeing how easy this was whilst at Quilt Camp, I decided to give it a go. I even did the French Seam on the inside...easy as pie!

I have a devious (ingenious?) routine of telling Tyler whenever we go to a fabric or yarn store that he can pick out ONE fabric or ONE type of yarn. He loves to walk around and tell me which ones he likes best and the reasons why he is considering that yarn/fabric. At the end of the trip, he makes his decision and we all walk away from the store happy...I have never once had him tell me that he does not want to go the the yarn/fabric store and it's actually really fun to hear his reasoning for why he chooses/rejects different fabrics. Sometimes he makes the most surprising choices. On one particular trip to The Bear Paw in Coeur d'Alene, ID, I found this fantastic dinosaur fabric that I was just sure Tyler would choose. No...Instead he chose the yellow you see on the cuff of the pillowcase here that is a bright yellow with small red and green pattern all over (kinda floral). I couldn't contain my incredulity when I asked him, "Really?!?" Yep... The boy has spoken...So. Here's that fabric in use. And he still likes it. Baffling, I know.

Now that I have tried it for myself, I've decided that kids aren't the only ones who enjoy fun pillows welcoming them to bed, so there are a few more in the works for me!

Closing Weekend.

It is always bittersweet to close down Lakeview Cottages for the winter. I love to spend time up there and enjoy the post-season quiet of the mountain, but dang is it a lot of work! This closing weekend, due to a rainy weekend a few weeks ago, we were still painting the two cabins slated to be painted this season. Dad painted Cabin G (he was a professional painter ;-) and thus has an airless sprayer which means he does all the "whole-cabin-at-a-time" painting.)

Tyler, Mom and I painted the trim on Cabin E (that one was sprayed a few weekends ago)

Duane and Uncle George got some amazing log splitting done with the help of some Keola teens raising money for a missions trip.

Cindy and Cheri painted trim on some of the one bedroom cabins and Mark, Dad, George and Duane worked on getting things ready for winter. It's a big task to maintain these cabins, but really...if you've got to be working--That's the place to be doing it!!!

Spiderman

I made some fun mittens for Tyler's birthday. They don't fit :-(

Supermodel Butter

Tall and skinny.

5 years ago today....

I looked like this: and then after a lot of effort, I had 9 pounds, 8 ounces of this:

In the process, I created 2 very happy grandmas:

One Papa who went AWOL:

Another who popped over "On his way to the Bank":
4 years ago he looked like this:

and was walking like a champ!

3 years ago he looked like this:

2 years ago he looked like this:

Last year he looked like this:

and this year he started KINDERGARTEN!