The KF Retreat

As I pulled together the projects I planned to work on at the recent retreat, I mentioned that this might become known as the Kaffe Fassett retreat - that prediction was spot on. I made three quilts with this glorious fabric, and I love all three.

First, I finished a WIP (work in progress) that was begun while in Florida. I made blocks of an entire mostly-blue KF jelly roll. That was all done prior to the retreat. I set off those gorgeous blue/green/purple blocks with a narrow pink sashing, and used some blue from my stash for the cornerstones. 

That pic above looks washed out; here's a different angle; hopefully the colors look more vivid.

 The final measurements on this jelly roll quilt are 45"x50".

The second project was the project I planned to do with my dear friend Sharon. We'd spoken for a year or more about using our KF fabrics to make an Around the World quilt. I shared hers in yesterday's post. She'd begun it back in the fall while I delayed because - get this - I didn't have enough pastel colors in my stash. I had to buy more! (I know, you're all ROFLing, right?)

The wonderful floral pattern above was my center panel. From there, I just added border after border after border - all different widths and all selected with the idea of cohesiveness of color and design.

I really didn't know what it would look like when I began, but this is what I ended up with. I sort of expected that it would be more pink, but the fabrics led me to this and I'm pleased with it. It measures 48"x62". I could conceivably add more borders. Now that I am home and have access to my entire stash, I might just see what I find. However, I do like this and may just leave well enough alone.

Having this completed, I turned my sights on making a baby quilt for our new granddaughter. Both Cate and Reagan have quilts made like this, and I thought the newest little girl would need to have one as well. The last thing I grabbed when packing for retreat was a stack of solid fabrics piled on the end of a table. It was meant to be.

The  blocks for this quilt use the same general principle as Around the World - that is, begin with a panel of colorful florals or prints, border it with a matching solid, repeat a border of the floral/print, then finish off with the solid. Make 9 of these blocks and stitch them together. Voila! Baby quilt in no time. This one measures 60"x76". I am sure the ones I made for Cate and Reagan were lots smaller. Since there's not a set pattern, you end up with a surprise. I used narrower strips or started with smaller central panels on my previous versions. 

 I just found this picture in my camera roll; I'm completely clueless! One of these went to Reagan; I must have gifted the other one...but to whom? I forget...Below is the first one from 2022 when Cate was born.

 So, yes, it WAS a Kaffe Fassett retreat. Wonderful! It was really satisfying to complete 3 flimsies, all made (mostly) from my stash of KF fabrics. I'll be back soon with a final retreat report in which all the other quilters get grouped all together in one giant post.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Retreat - Sharon's Productivity

Eight lovely ladies attended the retreat this year at Nelsonville's Needles N Pines retreat center. We have all been together for previous retreats, so we just picked up right where we left off, stitching and catching up with each other. 

All of us are seasoned enough at this retreat business to know a few tricks to having a successful week of sewing. One is to show up with a project ready to sew. It is the very best way to progress quickly on a quilt. Sharon absolutely epitomized this theory with THREE - 3 finishes.

First, this Around the World quilt was a WIP (work in progress) and almost finished upon arrival. She'd started it last fall. Once she began sewing, she made quick work of it by adding a few more borders to get to this final quilt top. 

You may recall that I was planning to make one, too. Well, I finally dove into it at retreat; stay tuned for an upcoming post in which I reveal it. Now, let's move on to Sharon's other finishes.

She'd picked up a layer cake of juvenile fabric, and decided that her great nephew was sufficiently old enough to have outgrown his baby quilts. This is that same easy pattern so many of us have been making with our layer cakes. I will link to this post in which I outline the directions. It is also a pattern that can be accessed from Fat Quarter Shop.

And last, she found a treasure in the depths of her sewing stash. She had a fat quarter pack of French General fabric - possibly one of the oldest of all their collections. She also found the pattern for Turning Twenty. The result is stunning!

All these quilts went together so fast because she came with all the cutting done. Being able to just sit right down and begin sewing really does get ones momentum churning. And there's nothing too fussy going on either, so that is a bonus. A couple of the quilters had quite a great amount of fussiness, and I will be sharing those, in coming posts.

It sure feels good to boast 3 finished projects after 3.5 days of retreat sewing. Gets one excited to go straight to work on the next one! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

A Joyous Event

As eager as we are to arrive in Florida each January, I am equally eager to return to Ohio in April so that I can wrap my arms around the little granddaughters and all other family - mother, siblings, children, all. This year we anticipated an exciting new addition to greet - and now she has arrived!

Our family is thrilled to welcome our newest blessing! Annie James Dillon arrived at 3:44 pm yesterday, April 10. She weighed 7 lbs., 10 oz. and measured 20.5 inches. We couldn't be happier to meet our newest little love. Parents Erin and Jeff are doing well.

Big sister Cate, age 3, is as adorable as ever, and was absolutely brimming with equal parts questions and explanations of all the goings on. 

During the previous week, we'd had the chance to spend time with darling Reagan Jayne. Emma and Glen have quite a growing girl on their hands! At 18 months, she very nearly tops the charts in height and weight.

I missed these little sweeties so much over those Florida months, and while FaceTime is wonderful, it cannot equal the squeeze around the neck and the peck of a sweet kiss on the cheek. I am soaking up all the cuddles I can.

Our Easter celebration was with my side of the family at sister Sandy's - we had 39 in attendance. Both family and friends joined our feast. 

Easter was followed by a 4-day quilt retreat, and gosh was it great! So productive! I am eager to follow up with quite a few posts highlighting the quilts of all the attendees. Several posts are in the works; be sure to return for those!

Here's sneak peak, heh-heh. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Hello April! So Glad You're Here!

April is here! We here at the home of Jayne's Quilting Room have been eagerly awaiting this month since learning that we would get another grandbaby this month! She will be here soon!

 

  

Now you know why we just HAD to get back to Ohio by April first. We are awaiting baby girl's arrival any day now. 

In addition to being eager to welcome our newest little love, I am preparing to head out to a 4-day quilt retreat. Deciding what projects and necessary supplies to take is taking up a lot of my head space.

Other head space is being devoted to food prep for Easter celebrations coming up this weekend. 

My head is just full of stuff, isn't it!!? 

One project going to retreat will be this jelly roll quilt that I started while in Florida. I stopped work on it when I began having trouble with my sewing machine. It should be a quick and easy finish. The Kaffe Fassett jelly roll I used is one that came from my dear sweet Frienzie Kay, who passed away last year. I am so grateful to Kay for introducing me to KF fabrics oh-so-many years ago. 

This retreat may become known as the KF retreat, as this next quilt will see some sewing action. Trip Around the World, from the Fasssett book Heritage Quilts, is one I am making with my sewing bestie, Sharon. She has actually done a bit on hers, as we began it last fall. 

I want to have a pastel look and my stash, while extensive, did not contain adequate lighter colors to suit me. With that in mind, while at Florida's Quilted Twins, I shopped specifically for fabrics with lighter, pastel tones. I am pleased with the collection of 1-yard cuts that came home with me.

One more piece is a larger amount, because it is what I plan to use in that jelly roll quilt (see above) for the sashing strips. It will also work in the pastel assortment for Trip Around the World.

 Two KF quilts at a retreat? I think I can do it. I suppose I will also take along some back-up plans for just in case situations. Never want to run short!

Happy April, dear quilters, and Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Goodbye March

 

Last day of March!! 

 

I have just minutes to quickly get one more post published in March. We got back to our Ohio home early afternoon yesterday. It was an easy and uneventful trip, just the way DH likes it. I used time in the car to make my collage of highlights for the month, so let's get straight to it.

 

 

TOP ROW: The last week of March was filled with a lot of "finals" as most of us were planning to return to Ohio. The final dinner for our Moonrise gang was held at a new Mexican restaurant in Inverness. It was really good, and we had such a great time with our cute waitress, who is photobombing us. The final boat ride on the lake was Thursday afternoon. It is such a peaceful, calm lake - most of the time - but water levels across Florida are all very low, so our routes are limited. The final bike ride also occurred, and we chose a gorgeous afternoon. 

 

MIDDLE ROW: My new quilting friend, Charlaine, introduced me to a wonderful group that meets every Thursday in a nearby town. It was fun getting to know some like-minded people in Florida. One of my finishes for the month was this set of pillows for our lanai sofa. I bought the FQs at Quilted Twins, selecting colors that seemed to be suited for a Florida porch. It's so easy to make pillows with the granny square pattern - you just keep adding rows until you have enough to cover the pillow.  The rainbows shown in the last frame of the middle row occurred while we were at one of the two evening shuffleboard events. Normally, we shuffle at either 9am or 2pm. But a couple of times each month evening shuffles are offered. The day had been rainy, the courts were saturated, but the sun came out and gave us this double rainbow display.

 

BOTTOM ROW: The most significant accomplishment of the month was the completion of the little deck off the back of our mobile home. It replaces one that was terribly rotted and unsafe. This one will last a long time. The middle frame shows the workers doing the initial digging and prepping for the build. The last frame is of a SpaceX launch that we could see across our lake. Cape Canaveral is clear across the state but we have a great view - it's over 100 miles away by car. 

 

Now we are back in Ohio. I will get some unpacking accomplished and then promptly repack for a 4-day retreat right after Easter. I have my projects in mind, and will share those in due time.

 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

 

Goodbye, Florida

We are packing up and pulling out of our Moonrise Resort winter home for another season. T-minus +/-36 hours until we are on the road and headed back to Ohio.

The sewing room was the first room to be packed, as my sewing machine completely gave up the fight. It is a small, light weight machine, and I have used it like it was made for heavy duty. I am holding little hope that it will be able to be fixed. 

Since machine sewing has been out of the question for about a week, I have actually returned to Lake Effect and have begun addressing the border corners - back-basting applique is in progress!

Since this quilt has been a guessing game on how I connected most elements in this quilt, I will do my best to hide gaps in vine connections with leaves and berries. In reacquainting myself with back-basting applique, I did find that I picked up that skill rather easily; I actually look forward to the possibility that I might work on this in the car as we drive home.

Another winter in Florida - hard to believe it's over already. We sure have had some good times - biking, boating, shuffleboarding, thrifting, exploring, all the while making new friends and enjoying long evenings of playing games and dining out. 

I will try to come back with a post to finish March with a collage; I hope I can make one more post before month's end.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

A Long, Long Journey - Lake Effect

A mild celebration occurred late Wednesday night as I took the very last stitch on the piecing of Lake Effect. This near 10-year journey has had its ups and downs - 'ups' with my eagerness to start the quilt and with learning from some very seasoned stitchers how to back-baste applique; 'downs' with learning that I'd mis-measured the size of my hexies and that rather than attempting to 'figure it out,' I should have bought the pattern before making hundreds of hexies in the wrong size.

I did eventually buy the pattern, which helped a lot with the applique parts; I fudged a lot of putting the hexies together with the center and the border. This quilt is a strong representative of the notion "finished is better than perfect." I have quite a primitive-looking quilt in places.

You can see that all four corners of the inner border need to be tidied up. I have plenty of the vine fabric put aside for this purpose, as well as fabric for an extra leaf or two, should it be warranted. I really am flying by the seat of my pants at this point.

I took it on Thursday to Nobleton to trim excess from the back - shown above - and to remove papers. It has been a daunting journey, but I am so glad and relieved to be this close to the finish line, at last. 

The final part to be done on this was attaching the bottom section of hexies to the lower edge of the applique border. I had a bit of a conundrum which I stewed over before deciding how to proceed.

The stitching line for the white border did not come down to the wide part of the hexies, so I had to decide if it was worth it to insert all those little points. I didn't want to, but I eventually did it. It was the best way, honestly.

I cut the last of the full hexies in half and used them in the points. It seemed more tedious than it was, actually. I made the right decision.

Until I get back to Ohio, I am through with Lake Effect. At some point - soon, I promise! - I will finish off that vine and the leaves, then I will have completed Lake Effect to the flimsy stage. I have some ideas on how I will quilt it; I must marinate with that for awhile.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne