What a difference a week makes

A week ago we were in the midst of our largest snow of the season and this week we are enjoying spring like weather - supposed to have thunder storms this afternoon -  and the huge amounts of snow are gone!  All in one week!  Guess that's what they mean by northern Michigan weather being so changeable.

Here are some more pictures of our great "Quilt Away" weekend.  The first one is a group picture - we had two attendees missing from the picture - Nancy and Vicki - next time I will get the picture sooner and I will move the chairs and tables, etc - but they add some character to the picture - don't you think?

This is Nancy - working dilligently on her project.

This is "sister Amy" - not a nun - just always referred to as sister Amy.  Amy and Nancy are sisters - have been quilting for just a couple of years but boy are they making up for "lost" time.  They are creating some beautiful quilts!

And as anyone that visits Hearts To Holly at Chatter Time or any special events knows - this is my sister Viv who provides us with scrumptous treats and our weekend was no exception - don't those chocolate covered berries look great?  And they were too!

Viv made us some great baked oatmeal for our Sunday breakfast and as promised here is the recipe -

Ingredients: 

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

In large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.  Beat in milk, eggs, butter and vanilla.  Stir in cranberries, spread into a 7 x 11 baking dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  You can mix this up the night before and keep in regrigerator to bake the next morning - just add about 10 minutes extra to the baking time.   Enjoy! 

Creativity at its best..........

When attending a quilt retreat or a get away, I always think the best part is the show and tell - where everyone shows what they have been working on.  The creativity that is apparent always inspires me and leaves me wondering and thinking about what I can do.  I am always pleasantly overwhelmed by everything the quilters accomplish.  Take a look at just some of our show and tell from this past weekend and be inspired!

You can't see her but this is Deb's Star Sampler quilt top made with one jelly roll and some background fabric.  Deb is going to do this class for us at Hearts To Holly.

Gloria's blue and yellow Take 5 quilt.  Can't you just see the daffodils blooming?

Ruth used just one jelly roll and some border fabric to complete this beautiful, springy quilt top.

Murph put this quilt together using fabric that looks like 2 1/2 inch strips. 



Durenda holds her beautiful quilt top.  Makes you think of sunshine and warm days!

These are just a couple of things that were shown - I will share more pictures soon - you can check out our facebook page too.  Happy Quilting!

When is it time .....

If you have ever been to a Quilt Retreat or a Quilt Camp, you all know that sleep is not a priority.  You just want to keep working on your projects and talking to your neighbors and the day and night just go by so quickly.  But every once in a while, you do something that makes you say "Ok it is time to stop and go to bed!"  Well that happened to one of our quilters Saturday night.  She was busy working dilligently on her quilt and just had to put the borders on it to complete the top.  So she put the border on the top of the quilt and then ------ you guessed it she put another border on the top of the quilt - the one that was supposed to be the bottom border.

So the quilter gave in and went to bed.  The next morning, the "reverse sewing fairies" took off the errant border and when the quilter came back to the sewing room after a "long" night's sleep she sewed the border on to the bottom of the quilt.  But that's not the end of the story..... this quilter then put the border on the side of the quilt - but as fate would have it, she put a double border on one side of the quilt......so should we have sent her back to bed for more sleep?   Don't know if that is what we should have done but we all - including the quilter - had a really good laugh!

Here are some more pictures of the weekend - hope you enjoy them even half as much as we enjoyed the weekend!

This is Amy with some beautiful blocks she and Nancy worked on over the weekend.

Marge finished handquilting a quilt that she started several years ago - doesn't it make you thing of spring and Easter?  Gloria is modeling one of her great reversible aprons.  Pretty aren't they?

More pictures to come.  Happy Quilting!



Quilting In a Winter Wonderland

Good morning all - we (Hearts To Holly) had our first Quilt Away Retreat weekend this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Everyone arrived safely Friday afternoon/evening and then the snow started falling.  What a great weekend to be inside sewing and planning, working on "old" projects and/or starting new projects. 

The hotel was great - sleep rooms were wonderful and the beds slept well - that's if you actually went to bed.

It was just so nice to work in the "sewing room" while watching all of the snow coming down and knowing that we did not have to go out in it.  And thankfully the hotel never lost power as lots of private homes did in the area.

It just could not have been a better weekend.  Thank you to all of the great quilters for their smiles, willingness to share and love of fun!

Over the next few days I will post some pictures of the amazing projects that everyone was working on.  It is always so inspiring to see the creativity of our quilters. 

Here are just a couple of the pictures to get us inspired for the day......

Louisa and Durenda both finished a Christmas kit that they had brought along.  It features fabric from Benartex.  Don't they make you want to start sewing now?

  
Cathy was working on a project featuring some beautiful fabric by Fig Tree Designs for Moda.  The colors were so warm and soft.  Can you tell that Cathy really did not want to "show and tell"  - we really had to coax her to be in front of the camera!

Great job Cathy!



Well that's it for today - will post some more pictures in a day or two - happy quilting!

Travels

Last week we made an unplanned trip to Pennsylvania, our home state.  While it is always good to "go home" we would have liked more time to spend with family and friends, more time to visit - to laugh and rememember but we made the most of the time that we did have and had a good visit.

While driving back to Michigan, we decided to take a little bit of a detour and visit a quilt shop close to Pittsburgh.  The shop - The Quilt Company - owner Karen Montgomery - is one that I have wanted to see for some time.  I have ordered several of Karen's patterns for the shop and have attended some of Karen's lectures.  Karen has some really "savvy" ideas for running a shop.

The building that her shop is in was built specifically for her quilt shop.  Can you imagine having a building that has all of the details in it that you think would be good for a shop?  It was a really nice looking shop - open, spacious with lots of walls to display beautiful quilts.  It was fun to look around and see what another shop has going on.  I bought some more of Karen's patterns and we already have things "kitted" and ready for our customers. 

Don't you love seeing other shops?  Each shop has its own flavor - every shop always has something different.  It's like having multiple candy shops with different tastes awaiting you in each shop.  Yum!

Yummy Stuff!

Have you all heard of the website Pinterest?  This is quite a site - it is like a giant bulletin board.  Everyone just "pins" information on that site.  And the information is endless in its amout as well as its variety.  There are pictures, craft ideas, recipes and more.  Check it out - but be warned - it is addictive!  Just go to http://www.pinterest.com/

Here is one of the recipes that we got from pinterest - and it works and is really yummy stuff!

Take one angel food cake mix and add one other cake mix - any other flavor - (we did one angel food mix and one devils food cake mix).  Put both of the dry mixes in a container - we used a zip lock bag - and mix both of the dry mixes together.  (You have to have an angel food cake mix as one of your cakes)

Then when you want a little treat:   in a small microwave safe mug, mix 3 tablespoons of the dry mix, 2 tablespoons of water, microwave for 1 minute and you get a great snack.

We thought about adding a Hershey's kiss in the middle of the mix before putting in the microwave and then it might be like a "molten lava cake" - you could add a carmel and some chopped pecans too - the combinations are limited only by your imagination - sort of like quilting!

So enjoy your next best snack while planning your next best quilt!

Happy quilting!

Different Path

When traveling to one place or another, there are generally different routes you can take to get to the same place.  Well the same thing is true with quilting - there are different techniques you can use to get the same result.  And as we all progress we are finding methods to do things that are really different than how they were done - even just a few years ago - but then that's the fun and the intrigue of quilting!

One of these techniques/methods is for the half square triangle.  If you don't like marking your squares down the center, sewing on either side of the line and then cutting here is another method for you:

To make 4 Half Square Triangles: 


1.  Take two squares of fabric (I used a 6 1/2 inch square but you can use whatever size you like depending on the size block you want) - one light & one dark so you have some contrast

 2.  Put them together - pretty side to pretty side - making sure all edges are lined up.

3.  Then just sew a quarter inch seam from the edge - all around the square.

4.  When finsihed sewing, just slice it on the diagonal twice and you end up with four half square triangles.

5.  Now you can arrange however you would like - makes a great pinwheel!

So have some fun and try things using a different path/method!

Happy Quilting!