Tuesday Crazies Roadtrip.......

No roadtrip is complete without fabric. :-) Actually, in my book, no trip whether by bus, plane or train is complete without a bit of fabric! So, as I wound my way cross-country to my friend Sue's house for a little retreat with our Tuesday Crazies group, I made a stop to stretch half-way there......and, of course, I made it at the little town of Wells where there is a Dueber's Variety store. I would not have known it was there but my friend, Cindy, told me about it. She passed away last winter and so I stopped there because we were always going to take a roadtrip out to Wells and never got to it. When the clerk asked me where I was from and how I ended up in town.......I told her about Cindy. And so, I'm going to tell you right now....if you and a friend are talking about having a day together......do it before it's too late. With thoughts of Cindy on my mind, I took a quick look over the fabrics and found these.......
two vintage-looking pieces of yardage that will be used to re-create the patterns on a couple of those vintage quilts I've recently hung on the line. I'm not planning to re-create these quilts anytime soon but when I saw the fabric, I thought.....better buy it while you see it because it is perfect for that old vintage look quilt!

Then I chose these fabrics in the photo above that will end up in a couple of tablerunners sometime in August.

This selection of fabrics will be used to make a new version of a quilt I designed for the "Sew Close to Home" quilt retreat a few years ago. This project won't begin til this winter when I prepare samples to share at Kindred Kwilters. :-)

When I got to Sue's, it was as if we were at a real live retreat. There were treats and goodies like this gift that was on my bed. Actually, the polka dot bag was a birthday gift from Sue (a really yummy smelling "sticky buns scent" candle). The wooden bowl was made by her husband, Bob. Each of us received a custom made bowl in a different type of wood. Mine was wheeping willow. This is the second piece of Bob's work that we have all recieved. :-) Sue made us all little crocheted bookmarks just by looking at an old one done by her husband's Great Grandmother. I never learned to crochet, so I appreciate anything that anyone crochets for me!

Everybody was hard at work at their sewing machines...........

That's Adella on the left, Carol on the right in the photos above. And below, it's Kate on the left and Arlis on the right.

And here is Sue, hostess, friend and the one who was helping everyone with the project they are all making. You might be able to tell what it is but I won't show the finished project until my next post.

Pandora was a speedy stitcher and had finished her project before the other gals so she moved on to another little project that involved circles. She is deep in thought as she traces fabrics for little fabric flowers.

I wasn't making the project the gals were working on as I just wanted to relax and do handwork. I brought along my wooly pincushion project and when I finished it, I was "happy as a clam". I celebrated with a glass of milk. Love it with ice so I was twice as happy.

My happiness was short-lived, though, because I just wasn't happy with my stitching project. I spent almost two hours stitching what I hoped looked like corn in full bloom but to be honest.......it looked more like a bloomin' cactus! I got up on Wednesday morning and looked at it and knew I had to rip it out and start over. I decided to try to salvage the piece and it didn't turn out to bad...........

However, here's the new pincushion base that will go off to Brenda at PumpkinPatchPrimitives in tomorrow's mail and this time the cornstalk actually looks like corn I saw in the fields along the road!

I'm the nightowl in our group so just before midnight I was cutting and piecing a project from Pat Sloan's Sweet Liberty fabrics.............

and then...........

I cut out the pieces for a project from that Summer Solstice charm pack that I received in a contest at RJR Fabrics.

I'm only giving you a bit of a peek as you won't see the finish for at least a couple of weeks. Now that I'm back at home, I have a pattern to write this weekend for those snowy designs I created from the QuiltMinnesota fabrics for FireflyQuiltShop.

Okay, so that's Day One at Sue's Retreat........sometime this weekend, I'll share Day Two. You'll see the finished projects the gals made and the goodies that we found when Sue took us to her favorite fabric places!

Have a great Friday!

Sandi