Lost and Found

I have one more retreat story to share with you. Like most quilters/crafters would do, I took a project with me to work on while on the plane and during layovers (I had lots of long layovers!). I took a little bag filled with embroidery projects and I accomplished a lot of stitching! I finished two of the Christmas Wish BOMs and one block from the Quilter's Blessing BOM. I was so proud of myself!

I arrived home late on Sunday night, so it wasn't until sometime on Monday that I started to unpack my carry on bag. Suddenly, I realized the little bag with my embroidery projects was not in my carry on bag! WHAT!!! I started frantically searching everywhere, but I knew it was not there! I knew I must have left it on the airplane somehow. So I called Southwest Airlines, checked the Boise Airport website for Lost and Found info and finally was hooked up with Southwest's baggage claim office at the airport. I told her I'd left something on the airplane and she took all my information, then asked me to describe the bag. As soon as I gave her the description, she said, "Oh, I have that right here!" Whew!!! She said they could only hold it for 5 days, so I needed to make plans to travel to Boise right away!! I think most of you can relate to how happy I felt to have that little bag back in my hands. :)

Here are pics of my finished stitcheries that were once lost, but are now found!

Christmas Wish BOM -- Blocks 2 and 3

Quilter's Blessing BOM -- Block 11

Happy Quilting!

A little of this and a little of that....

First off, I want to thank MichelleB and Terry for explaining to me why my pictures are sometimes not clickable! The reason is because I move them around in the "compose" mode...I guess that changes something and they lose their clickableness (is that a word?). Anyway, if you need to move a picture after it is uploaded, you have to switch to html mode and cut and paste the pictures code. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to soon...I can't ever seem to load the pictures in the right order! LOL


Next, I wanted to tell you about this giveaway at the Silver Thimble Talk blog...I know this decreases my chance to win, but that's okay. I want to make sure all my friends have a chance to win too!! :)


We camped this weekend in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. It was gorgeous! Except for a little rain for most of one night and part of the next day, the weather was perfect! We hiked the mountains, played a little in the water (a tad too chilly this early in the year).

Instead of boring you with pictures of camping, I'll just post a link to my webshots album! :)

Red Fish Lake, Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho

And finally! Here are a couple of pictures of the projects I completed while at retreat. I didn't accomplish as much as I'd hoped, but I'm happy with these two FINISHED table runners that I came home with. I made progress on a couple others...but these are finished!!! (and I'm moving them in html mode, so let's hope it works and you can click them to see a larger picture!)

This runner is made from a kit that Robin gave me at retreat. It's a free pattern called Oh Cherry Oh Tablerunner from the Moda Bake Shop website. Isn't it just the sweetest thing?

Next is runner from Thimbleberries and Peggy put together a kit for me! Don't I have the bestest friends? They know how to hook a girl up! This is one hugemongous tablerunner! Luckily I have a large table, so it will fit just fine.

Here's a picture of Whiskers performing her rarely seen in public Quilt Inspector duties. I thought it was a good picture to show you how big this baby is.

And a close up of the snowmen...aren't they cute! I decided to use orange buttons for their little noses. :)

I think that's all for now! Happy Quilting!

Finally...some Retreat pics!

I don't know why my pictures are never "clickable" to enlarge them. grrr....anyone know how I fix that?

Retreat was wonderful! It was so nice to see my buddies Peggy and Robin, but also to see all the ladies in the group again and to get to know them better. There are lots of stories to share...everything from fallen trees and wicked thunder storms to scary Glade air fresheners!


I'll start by sharing a few pictures:

We started out our week by stopping at Back Door Quilts in Indianapolis. It was a great shop with lots of kits, fabric, and wool projects. As different groups brought back their purchases, everyone would say, "I didn't see that!" I don't think you could see it all in one trip! Look at our bags of loot!

Left to right: Robin, Peggy, Lori, Conni, me

Here are a couple pictures of our "sewing room." It was a great facility!

On the left is our wonderful Hostess, Angela and the always smiling, Liz.

Here is the table of pincushions waiting for our exchange to start. I made the brown, spotted chickens.


Here is Robin...her eyes are a little googly after all that late night sewing! :)

This was a bit of an impromtu retreat project...one of the girls had made a cute little basket from the pattern on this blog. The idea spread like wildfire and everyone just had to have one!

Peggy brought a boat load of scraps for anyone to use...actually, that's what it made it possible for everyone to make those baskets! Thanks Peg! Here are Peggy and Lori looking for treasures in the scrap pile.
Here are a couple of my gifties and also some door prize wins. Peggy made that cute little "grey" hair pincushion and Robin gave me the pink flamigo. And of course, that's my little Raggedy doll.


The first day of retreat, there was severe thunderstorms that struck the entire midwest. This tree landed on Conni's car that was just 10 feet or so from our building. We are thankful that the tree didn't fall even the slightest bit different as it would have landed on us!! You can see, her car is a total loss....my suitcase was in the backseat and Conni's was in the trunk! They were able to get them out the next day when the tree was removed. Mine was just a little rain soaked, but Conni's suitcase was mangled! I'm sure you can see why!


A couple of the gals wanted Conni to have a momento of BPF Retreat 2009, so they made her this "tree on a car" pincushion. Isn't it hilarious! It's perfect though!

I think that's enough for now! In the next post, I'll share the pictures of the projects I completed and a few other things!

Happy Quilting!

Another Retreat Project...

Here is another retreat surprise. These little bags are made from the pattern called BB Bags. I found mine at my LQS and the only place I have found it online was at Ericas. Not trying to endorse a particular online shop, but just in case someone might want to try this pattern! :)

I think these little bags are perfect for shopping...especially quilt shop shopping!! There are two zippered pockets, one in the front:


And one inside...along with two more regular pockets inside. There is also a pocket on the back.

I made a total of 7 of these bags! I also gave them to the Fun Friday girls (see previous post!), but I didn't mention it before because I didn't want to ruin the surprise for Peggy and Robin!

Retreat pictures to come soon! Have a quilty weekend!

Away at Retreat....

Helloooo! If I do this right, this message will post while I'm away at retreat! How cool is that?

I'm lucky enough to get to go on a 4 day quilting retreat in Indiana. I'll meet some quilty friends that I met through a Yahoo group and they have been meeting for this annual retreat for something like 5 years!

I can finally show you the surprises I've been working on. First, I made two of my bestest quilty friends a Raggedy Annie doll (and one for me!). This pattern is from Raggedy Old Annies. I've made dolls throughout my crafting years and these were pretty easy to put together...as with anything, if you just follow the steps, it'll come together! :)

There are lots of pictures...so here goes!

Here are their body parts...parts is parts!

As you can see, I found a secondary use for my lamp...perfect for hanging "wet legs." :P I painted on their socks and little black shoes. Also, see all those zipper packages? That's another project...more pics coming!

Their socks are complete! And look at those Zombie eyes! Creepy....

No surprise, Smokey is keeping an eye on things....

All the parts are connected now and look at their cute faces! Everything is embroidered, except I used little buttons for the eyes. 'scuse the nakedness....

....they need to put on their dresses and bloomers.

but first, they need a "tan" session...they were painted with coffee! Here they are hanging outside to dry!

The clothes were dunked into the coffee too.

TaDa!!! They are dressed AND have hair!!!

Aren't they cute? We need to come up with names for them...


Hope you enjoyed seeing the progress of my doll making adventure. I had fun making them! I hope Peggy and Robin will like them too!!

In the next post, I'll show ya where I used all those zippers in the picture above!

Bad, Bad Blogger....

I have been such a bad blogger. I just can't seem to catch up lately...I'm always running and seem to always be two steps behind. I'm VERY behind on reading my favorite blogs too! :( There are almost 200 posts on my blog reader, waiting to be read!

I can tell you that I have been sewing...I just can't tell you what it is or show any pictures!!! I've been sewing some secret projects for two of my bestest quilty friends (Peggy and Robin)...I will be seeing them next week at the annual Back Porch Friends retreat! I can hardly wait!! I'm packing up all kinds of projects to work on...so hopefully I'll have lots and lots of pictures to show you when I get back!

I do have a couple of pictures to share with you now though...remember I've mentioned the Fun Friday group and our first group project was the Snack Quilts? Here finally we have a group picture and all the quilts are finished!!!

From left to right is me, Kristen, Susan, and Jen. This picture was taken at a ladies retreat that we attend a couple of weeks ago in McCall, Idaho. It was so beautiful up there! Here is another picture the night before retreat...we had dinner together at On the Border and had Sangria Swirls to celebrate our finished quilts!! :)

Last weekend, a few volunteers helped to give the base Thrift Shop a new look. The thrift shop is run by the Officers Spouse's Group and the money raised goes to scholarships for military kids and spouses. It looks wonderful now with fresh paint and a few new (to us) shelving units.

Here are Kristen and Jen painting by the dressing rooms!

This is Rachel...she is the spouse of one the Singapore Air Force Officers.

More painting!! The Thrift Shop isn't always this messy!! We had things scrunched together, away from the walls...I will post some "after" pictures soon. One of the gals is painting our motto on one of the upper walls, so I'll take pics of that.

Finally...here is proof that spring is finally making it's way to Idaho. It's still cool, but things are starting to bloom!!

This is a small tree in our backyard. We live in brand new base housing, so the trees are fairly young.

Here is one in the front yard...isn't it pretty?!!

Hope you all have a fun, quilty weekend!! Keep your eye out for a special post showing all the secret projects that I have been working on!! I'll see you when I return from retreat!!