Poinsettia Tree Skirt

Double post for today to make up for the skips....

I designed, pieced and quilted this tree skirt for Rachel's birthday. She wanted a tree skirt and a quilt and we agreed that she would get one for her birthday and the other for Christmas. She gave it back to me to put into the Tiadaughton Quilt Guild show this past October. When I got it, I realized that I had intended to sew some beads on it and didn't....so this is the now "finished" tree skirt.

My Spirit Song

Yesterday, I had the privilage of viewing one of the most magnificent quilt I've seen in a long time. Made from OESD 879 Spirit Song by Chris from the bernina_series8 yahoo group. Go here to view a slide presentation of it...it will take your breathe away. http://www.opsewing.com.au/SpiritSong.html

I attended a lecture by Betty Neff (those in PA might be familiar with her)Thursday evening. She had just won the Challenge put on by a local museum based on an artists paintings (sorry, I forgot both the name of the museum and the artist name). Using the concept of Spirit song, I'm going to go through my embroidery designs, find new ones if necessary and create my own "Songs of the Spirit), things and memories that have sang to me through the years. I'll use symbols for all the states I've lived in, sewing machine, words, song titles, trees, cactus, things that remind me of special things in my life, like when my grandson lost his new cowboy boot in the alligator pond at the zoo..all I need is a alligator and a boot...or a snail for the time I found about 200 crawling up the closet of my 4 year old son. All the little things that you want to capture and remember, little snapshots of memories. 'll use my own hand dyed, marbled, silk-screened, printed fabrics to create this quilt, I have lots of sample colors so I can include lots of colors
and I'll be preserving the skills & memories of the fabric I created over the last 18 years. We were challenged by Betty to create a Story Quilt and Chris's Spirit Song provided that inspiration. I'll start working on it right after I finish all my Christmas presents. In addition, once the quilt is finished, I'll make a Scrapbook with snapshots of all the blocks and write the memory that goes with the block. I cannot wait to get started with this project.

30th Quilting Retreat

Returned yesterday from a three day quilting retreat in Trout Run, PA at Camp Susqe. Our guild has done this twice a year for the past 12 years and once a year for the first three years.......a total of 27 Retreats over the last 15 years. We use to do it at Crystal Lake for three years prior to moving to Camp Susqe. I've only missed two retreat in all those years..that makes this one number 28 for this guild and 2 more for the Living Waters Retreat near Bedford. My how time flies.

I started pulling out old UFO's at the last retreat and working on them. With what I got finished (all but some hand work on one of them), I've eliminated 11 this year. I got four finished at this retreat from old blocks dated from 1994 to a quilt top that was about half finished I started this summer. The UFO count is slowly going down and I'm trying not to add anymore to it until I finish these tops or give them away to someone who will finish them. The quilt that needs the handwork (flowers & leaves tacked down) is pictured in this post.

Today, I start working on finishing Christmas presents. I plan to have all my presents done by this weekend. I have three more presents to buy and by this weekend, I will be wrapping them. I know, I ought to be shot, but Dad is not in the greatest of health and I have to be prepared to leave for NE at any moment. If he makes it to Christmas, I'll be driving there for a visit over the holidays.