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October 2007 French Kick, Indiana

Each month I will write a little bit about what I am doing. Tips I may have, and hopefully pictures from you. This past month I had the privilege of taking a class with J. Phil Beaver at French Lick Resort in French Lick, Indiana. Phil's work is wonderful. It is full of life and spontaneity and makes you feel good just to see the quilts he has created. The workshop started on Monday morning when Phil taught us how to paint PFD fabric with permanent paints in a room fully carpeted! 20 students and a lot of paint, it was a scary time but I do believe the carpeting escaped undecorated. I traveled there with 2 friends, Kay Steinmetz from Rockford, IL and Bridget Olson from Bird Island, OK.


			Kay and Bridget enjoying a chat with a friend in California. This was taken on the front porch of the hotel where we stayed.

	There were people from California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Canada,Wisconsin, and New Jersey in the class. We painted on Monday and prepared our patterns. On Tuesday we started our projects and by Tuesday afternoon everyone had their project well under way. As Phil told us often there will be no failures and there were none. Class ended at 4:00 and Phil met us on the front porch of the hotel at 6:00 to escort us to his home for a homemade (by Phil) dinner. He claimed it was a short walk and not too steep.Phil is part mountain goat and if you live in Milwaukee this not too steep walk was like transversing a mountain.

			Phil leading a group of tired but exuberant quilters on the "not too steep" trek to his home. See that mountain in the background? you got it! The walk down was a snap!



						The goose is done and quilted and ready for next Christmas!

On Wednesday we resumed our projects. Oh, I forgot to mention this class included breakfast each morning and lunch each noon at a beautiful buffet served by the hotel. There was a wonderful array of food to please everyone's taste and then outside the classroom door, in case you were still hungry, more food! Yogurts, fruit, water, soda, cookies, dips, vegetables. It was delivered after the start of the class and then a new variety arrived a couple of hours after the first. The only danger on this this trip would be an expanding waistline.

Wednesday night we traveled back to Phil's house for another dinner and socializing. It was a marvelous adventure and I would recommend it to anyone. I am putting my project together and as soon as I have it pinned I will post a picture for you to see.

If you would like to see Phil's quilts, or find out more about his classes, please click on his web site address and it will take you to his site. I know you will enjoy the experience. www.philbeaver.com

Roberta

October 2007

	November 5, 2007 Sheboygan at The Sewing Basket

	On Monday the 5th of November five of us traveled to Plymouth ,Wisconsin to be the guests of Ann and Susan and to work together to create an 8 1.2" x 11" art quilt of an animal of our choice. We met at The Sewing Basket, a delightful quilt shop co-owned by Ann, Cheryl and Elaine in Plymouth. Ann and Susan provided coffee and donuts and we quilters went right to work! Susan gave us pointers on how to achieve a good likeness of our picture using all types of fun fabrics. I am posting the starting pictures here and when I receive pictures of the finished projects you will see them here. It was such a fun day and it is always a joy to share the creation process with others who love it also. Thanks Ann and Susan for a wonderful day!

				Susan, our leader, pondering the next piece of fabric




		She made the right choice!


							This is Ann's dog. Isn't this going to be great? we lost Ann for a moment as she was helping customers too!





	We lost Katie a few times. we were in a quilt store, you know! Ann had some perfect fabric for Katie's kitty. He will be done soon.

the macaw is finished and we gave him to Tom for Christmas.

I saw Karen on Tuesday and she is also working on her cat. She will be done shortly, please check back for updates!

Update - Karen started over and has made a new cat!

Update 2 - Karen's new cat finished!

	November 9-11, 2007 New Glarus Retreat Kay Montgomery and Kayann Steinmetz run this retreat each year in New Glarus, Wisconsin. It is a blast! Six teachers and a project for everyone from beginner to expert. It is a weekend devoted to quilting. No meals to fix, no beds to make, just sew until you drop. If you would like information about the retreat please e-mail Kay Montgomery at santasent1@AOL.com. We would love to have you join us!



		Nancy


					Camille

	Kelli

Rita

Karen

Mary Kay

Jan

Mary

Sue

	This was the class I had "Let's Fly together". As you can see the women worked very hard and all the tops were together! We started with the Mommy Cardinal, made some dogwood and leaves and then attacked the hummingbirds. I am sure these will all be done by next years retreat! Great job!!!!

	Phil Beaver Class follow upBridget and I have been busy. I finished my Phil Beaver goose and Bridget finished her stork. Bridget bought a new Bernina 430 with the BSR (Bernina stitch regulator.) and now she loves free motion quilting. I am including a few pictures of what we have done. As soon as Kay finishes her teddy Bear I will post that also. This was such a fun class that our friend Kay , with whom we took the class, has signed up to take another class with Phil Beaver in the fall of 2008.


	This is Bridget's beautiful stork. this was her first attempt at free motion quilting with Bernina's stitch regulator. I think she has got the "hang of it". Way to go Bridget! This piece is titled Be Still and Know



					This is my Christmas Goose. The pattern for the goose and poinsettias were done by Phil Beaver and the layout design is mine. As in Bridget's picture above, we painted the fabric and then created our birds from the painted fabric. This was a wonderful class and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in expanding their world of quilting.

April 9, 2008 Quilt Show follow-up

Our quilt show is over and it was a great success. I had a booth at the show with Colleen Solwinski and Laurie Johnson. Colleen and laurie make purse patterns and they put together kits for the show. I had my patterns and kits for Frame Fun, Nifty Notion bags and Let's Fly Together. We worked together so very well and even though we all had obligations for the show, laurie was a Co-Chair, Colleen, the Vendor chair and I was the Ribbon Chair , we were able to cover each other, meet our obligations and meet many wonderful people who came to the show. I also had the privilege of hosting our program presenters Kay Montgomery and Kay Steinmetz. After the show we were able to play Rummicub until all hours of the night so we were all a little tired on Sunday. It was a great event and the three of us would like to vend again. Lauren Focht, my friend, made the Heidi Bird quilt for her daughter Lindsay and it was at the WSQG quilt show where it won a ribbon. I am posting the picture of Lauren's quilt for you to enjoy.

I received an e-,mail from Sue Bruss who was in my New Glarus class in November telling me she had finished our project. She then sent me pictures of her quilt not only finished but with a label sewn on to the quilt! Way to go Sue. I am posting pictures of her quilt so you can see what a beautiful job she did on it.

I am also posting pictures sent to me by Bridget Olson as she has finished a landscape she did on her newly purchased Bernina with the stitch regulator. Bridget loves the machine and has finished 2 quilts on it since she purchased it. The Heron shown above was Bridget's first project on her new machine.

	Let's Fly Together by Sue Bruss. Please observe the quilting in the border following the vine of the pattern(lower right picture). The leaves were quilted with a contrasting thread giving them more definition (upper left picture). And a label... Beautiful job Sue!


			The Heidi Birds by Lauren Focht Done with a batik background and a bright beautiful sashing and border. Lauren made this for her daughter Lindsay who is graduating from UW-Madison next month. Lindsay is a avid bird lover. It looks beautiful.

I am doing a program for the Crazy Quilters this evening and I am really looking forward to that. I know several of the women in the guild and it will be fun to see them.

Yesterday, Jo Hellberg from Keepsake Quilting, called me and they are going to put the pattern Hillary in their Summer issue of the catalogue. This is very exciting and I know Hillary is watching over this pattern!


			Nap-time Made by Carolyn W. for Ben Way to go Carolyn!

August 2008

It is August and the summer has flown by... It has been a good summer, many nice things have happened. To follow up on the note about Jo Hellberg at Keepsake Quilting they bought 468 Hillary pattern so we were able to send a BIG donation to The Morris Animal Foundation.

The class with Barbara Olson was all we hoped for and more...Please check the Barbara Olson page for pictures. I will post pictures of the finished projects as soon as I receive them.

I am in the process of teaching 3 friends of mine The Heidi Birds and they are going to be very different and very beautiful. We have 1 more block to do and then the border. As son as they are together I will post a picture. I do know one of the women has started to put her blocks together using Heather bailey fabric for the background. I am really anxious to see it on Thursday when they return for the next birds.

I finished a number of projects and now I have time to finish my lyrebird and to work on some new patterns that are floating around in my head.

Carolyn W. finished Nap-time and sent me a picture of it. the quilt is adorable and I hope Ben enjoys having it. If you have a picture made from one of my pattens please send me a picture and I would be happy to put it on my web site.

Happy Quilting

Roberta