Category Archives: Quilting Retreat

Sew-in Fun!

Posted on September 8, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Last week I had the good fortune to spend four days in South Carolina with a group of talented and fun quilters! Everyone brought their own projects and worked away all day and into the night. Mostly we had hot sunny days and were able to enjoy the outdoor pool.

These hat pin cushions were made and gifted to each of us by Judy. I absolutely love mine and am so thankful for her thoughtfulness and efforts.

Here’s Laurie with her very impressive bin full of 1 1/2″ solid scraps. She’s turning them into the now popular spinner blocks. What a great use of scraps!

Debbie lives nearby and is the one who introduced us to the Homeplace B&B that we were at. Thank you Debbie!

Studious Susan is carefully planning her next project. (Something I need to get better at)

Sandy really worked away consistently. She not only machine sewed but also worked on some English paper piecing.

This square in a square quilt tells Susan’s life story. The grits block was definitely a favorite!

Lots of trimming and squaring up. Sandra was another who sewed, sewed, sewed!

A log cabin quilt for a friend of Laurie’s who recently purchased a log cabin! She’ll add a border – what a wonderful and thoughtful gift.

Judy is cutely peeking out from behind her 30’s print quilt. I love the design this layout makes.

This is such an impressive paper pieced beach quilt! Lorel isn’t finished with it yet. She’s planning on adding on some amusement – shells? crabs? beach balls? Can’t wait to see the finished quilt!

Debbie brought her very impressive woven (from bed sheets) rug. Wow!!

Sandy finished this Frozen quilt top with a special little one in mind. How cute!

This minimal and very striking modern quilt was completed by Susan. I can’t wait to see this one quilted.

Five O’Clock Coffee Time!

Unfortunately, some did not get into the picture, including myself. There were eleven of us and I do believe a good time was had by all. Lucky me to be a part of this group of fun and talented ladies!

Endless cutting and August Progress

Posted on September 1, 2019 by heARTs Creations

A blogger I follow, Quilt Diva Julie recently posted about a string quilt she was doing called Optic Strings, using prints and solids. I loved it and immediately knew what fabrics I would use from my stash! The prints I pulled are all the Tula Pink prints I had and matched them with coordinating solid shot cottons. It was a blast to pull and match!

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The cutting marathon began. The strips are 1 1/2″ wide by 10 1/2″+ long. There are 37 pairs of fabric and I cut two sets of each fabric with 4 print strips and 5 solid strips for each block. Whew!! It took me days because I cannot cut very much at once. The tennis elbow has improved, but I can’t push it. The blocks are all cut and clipped together – yippee! I do not have permission to post a pic of Julie’s blocks, but you can follow the link above to see them.

This past month I did manage to complete and prepare the backings for two quilts that are now at the long armers. I quilted and bound a scrappy flannel quilt that will be added to the Hospice quilt pile. I will share pics of these at a later date. And I made 8 Baby Tag Blankets. Because I am attending quilt retreats in September, October and mine in November, I have been very busy prepping so when I get there I can just sew!

August WIPS

How about you? Have you gotten to sew in August, or did end of summer activities take over? Either way, I hope you had fun!

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Posted in block pattern, charity quilts, Fabric, Hospice Quilts, Pattern, Projects, Quilting, Quilting Retreat and tagged Charity, Color, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Cutting & July Wrap-up

Posted on August 11, 2019 by heARTs Creations

A small retreat awaits me come Labor Day so I wanted to do some prep. Most of my Works in Progress are not travel worthy – they are at the point that there’s too much thinking or I’m just not motivated to work on them. Interesting how when I begin my projects I’m SO excited and then, WHAM! Somewhere along the line I lose that enthusiasm. Fortunately, I tend to regain it later, sometimes even years later and manage to complete the project!

I recently purchased a kit on clearance and knew it was perfect for retreat. It took very little time to cut as there were two charm packs that did not need to be cut and a solid that was cut into strips and then subcut. Here are the charm packs – such pretty batiks!

Then there is an off white neutral and this really pretty dark turqoise batik. The pattern picture shows this fabric used as a very narrow border, however, it is nowhere in the directions! That would make it tough for a beginner, but I’m okay. I’ll decide the width I want to use once the body of the quilt is together.

And here’s to hot, hot July. I did escape to the mountains once and then to the beach for a few days. It may not look like I did much sewing, but I did complete a very large flimsy – a bed quilt for our master bedroom.

July WIPs

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Posted in charity quilts, Color, Fabric, Modern Quilting, Pattern, Projects, Quilting, Quilting Retreat and tagged Color, Patterns, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Polka Dot Fun

Posted on May 19, 2019 by heARTs Creations

When I was getting ready for my April Quilt & Sew-In, I prepped an easy and quick quilt using the many polka dot fabrics I have. I paired them with some striped fabric I had and cut all into 2 1/2 inch strips. I got the inspiration for this quilt here, which she called the Ernie Quilt. For me, it’s best to have something fairly mindless, quick and gratifying for when I am facilitating a retreat. This worked!

Here is the quilt top on the design wall at the retreat:

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And, very unlike me, I quilted it as soon as I got home! I used evenly spaced curvy lines. Oh my, that was a lot of sewing and I love the look. SEW worth it! I find myself looking at other fabrics I can use this pattern for. Some of the donated fabrics I’ve received for Hospice quilts will be perfect for this pattern. Hmmm, maybe these strips coupled with solids? So rewarding and fun!

Linking up with Needle & THREAD Thursday

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Posted in block pattern, Color, Design Wall, Fabric, Pattern, Projects, Quilting, Quilting Retreat, Stash and tagged Patterns, projects, Quilting. Bookmark the permalink.

Post Retreat + Enjoying my Passions

Posted on May 8, 2019 by heARTs Creations

After being home a week, I’ve finally made it to the computer to do a wrap up of my somewhat productive sewing at a quilt retreat I attended in South Carolina. I began the week full steam ahead by making string blocks for a border that I cut into fours. I then paired each with a white on white square and made half square triangles. All of my notes were at home (why oh why??) so I just made bunches! This is the quilt top I was preparing the border blocks for:

These are the border blocks, not yet attached to the quilt:

And these are the leftovers! They will make a sweet little quilt. I will either add a couple of border to make it a baby quilt or add to it to make a lap quilt. That is a decision to be made at a later date.

Following my “string fling” I just piddled. I did some pinning, some sewing, but didn’t really attack anything else with much vigor. Mostly I enjoyed my time away and being with an awesome group of quilters!

What’s really been keeping me busy is the great outdoors. I am in the process of dividing my ferns. They are truly glorious this year! And tree work was done in our yard and this pile of mulch was the result. I can only load a few wheel barrels a day and do the spreading. Hubby cut this pile of wood and we’ll need to get a log splitter to finish the job. This is not fun yard work.

There is also much weeding to be done. I attack it a bucket at a time and have the wonderful ability to look past the weeds and enjoy the pretty plants and flowers. Fortunately, my one side bed manages to stay weed free!

The temperatures here have been glorious so I am enjoying the outdoors fully. I will sew more when it becomes very hot – mid to high 80’s and gardening do not go well together for me!

Embrace ALL your Creative Passions!

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Posted in Art, Color, Design Wall, Fabric, garden, Projects, Quilt Setting, Quilting, Quilting Retreat, Scraps, spring and tagged Color, flowers, garden, projects, Quilting, Quilts, Scraps, spring. Bookmark the permalink.

Prepping and More Prepping

Posted on April 27, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Off to another retreat! I’m a guest at this one, so I get to do a lot more sewing. Prepping has been going on for about a week and I am SO ready! There’s something wonderful about being in a room full of creative quilters that serves to feed my creativity and productivity.

First – a scrappy flimsy that needs a border. It’s a strip quilt and I’ll be doing more strip blocks, making them into small half square triangles with a white-on-white, and adding as a border.

Second – a baby scrappy quilt that was started a very long time ago. The paper piecing portions are complete and now I need to do the curved piecing. Each block is cut, pinned, and on its own paper plate.

Third – Log cabin wall quilt. I worked on this last year at this same retreat – made many, many blocks but didn’t like the way they were squaring up. So now I am starting all over but this time on a paper foundation. I’m definitely committed to accuracy on this one!

Fourth – not that I’ll really need it, but just in case something goes awry with one of the other projects, or I just don’t want to work on one of them. This will be a queen size for our bed. Very simple – green leaf prints and white on white, all 3 inch squares finished. Simplicity is what I’m going for.

Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some impressive results!

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Posted in Fabric, Organization, Projects, Quilting, Quilting Retreat, Scraps, Stash and tagged Color, projects, Quilting, Retreats, Scraps, Sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

A Touch of Elegance

Posted on April 14, 2019 by heARTs Creations

Several years ago I made a pretty set of pillowcases for our bed and hubby loved them. How disappointing when one met its demise. He asked for another set! What a nice break to do some easy and quick sewing. I did them on my Jazz because it sews really fast – 1,000 stitches a minute! The first set I did is rather bold and fancy and goes with our burgundy set of sheets.

PC 4 (Medium)

Next I chose a print to go with our turquoise set. It seemed a bit plain until they were all together and on the bed – a great look!

PC 3

For the third set, I chose this feather print. It goes with our gray set of sheets and is really quite elegant. Pillowcases are also a great way to use up yardage that you may not necessarily use in a quilt.

PC 1 (Medium) PC 2 (Medium)

Funny how the little things can make a difference. Now I’d like to make a few sets for our guest beds (but after I finish another quilt or two!) (NOTE: All the fabrics used in these pillowcases were prewashed)

Spring has definitely sprung here in the Piedmont. Every day there is an explosion of growth and color – absolutely my favorite time of year. The pollen is the downside, but so overshadowed by the wonderful goodness. Here for 34 years, and have not yet taken it all for granted!

Spring (Medium)

heARTS Creations

Category Archives: Quilting Retreat

Sew-in Fun!

Five O’Clock Coffee Time!

Unfortunately, some did not get into the picture, including myself. There were eleven of us and I do believe a good time was had by all. Lucky me to be a part of this group of fun and talented ladies!

Endless cutting and August Progress

How about you? Have you gotten to sew in August, or did end of summer activities take over? Either way, I hope you had fun!

Cutting & July Wrap-up

Polka Dot Fun

Post Retreat + Enjoying my Passions

Embrace ALL your Creative Passions!

Prepping and More Prepping

Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some impressive results!

A Touch of Elegance

Next I chose a print to go with our turquoise set. It seemed a bit plain until they were all together and on the bed – a great look!

For the third set, I chose this feather print. It goes with our gray set of sheets and is really quite elegant. Pillowcases are also a great way to use up yardage that you may not necessarily use in a quilt.

Funny how the little things can make a difference. Now I’d like to make a few sets for our guest beds (but after I finish another quilt or two!) (NOTE: All the fabrics used in these pillowcases were prewashed)

Spring has definitely sprung here in the Piedmont. Every day there is an explosion of growth and color – absolutely my favorite time of year. The pollen is the downside, but so overshadowed by the wonderful goodness. Here for 34 years, and have not yet taken it all for granted!

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