Baby quilt for Henry

Baby quilt

Girls' Weekend in Sunriver

Our annual girls' weekend in Sunriver was a great time. It was the usual gang with the usual craft items. Quilting, Knitting and now Card Making. Stephanie brought all the fabric for a quilt for charity and we whipped it out in a day and a half. Each of us has a preferred task: I like the planning so I do the math and organize the cutting. Stephanie & Darla cut fabric and ironed as Judy sewed, and Rhonda, with her artistic eye, layed out the blocks.

In addition to quilting, delicious food was prepared and consumed, conversations went well into the night, and a bit of shopping (fabric and yarn) was done.

As we were leaving town, Pat and Steve took over the condo for a couple days of guy time; an abundance skiing and golfing.

Girls' Weekend

We tried to take a long walk every morning with a stop at the coffee shop. It was SO cold and windy we couldn't bring ourselves to go out on the last day. You can see the snow on Darla's back in this picture.


We each brought a project to work on. This is Darla's quilt. She cut and sewed the entire top. Judy finished a quilt top too and sewed binding on another. Rhonda finished a pair of socks she was knitting for her son and worked on the coolest Christmas stockings for the twins. Stephanie worked on a sweater for her grandson and I finished my first pair of toe-up socks.


This is what the weather looked like the entire weekend. What the heck...snow in April.


The socks.

In addition to our projects, we ate really, really well. Each of us was responsible for a meal. We had homemade scones, granola, and croque monsieur for our breakfasts. Dinners were spinach and cheese in croissant dough and chicken curry. Of course, girlie appetizers were plentiful as well.

On our last day we went into Bend and had a lovely birthday lunch at Chow. The food was terrific; we shared 5 entrees and dessert and our tab was only $60 including tip. Especially yummy was the chickpea and barley salad.

We also hit the BJs Quilt Basket and a great new quilt shop Sew Many Quilts. After lunch, we went to Juniper Fiberworks to play with the yarn. I found a several skeins I 'had' to have.

Jill's graduation quilt

When I started this quilt

in 1999, I hadn't planned for it to be for Jill's graduation. I found the pattern in a Fons and Porter Quilt magazine and used Civil War reproduction fabrics. No two blocks are the same and I tried to make it look vintage by substituting a few scrappy background pieces in some blocks as if I'd run out of the fabric.

I had most of the blocks made in '99 but tired of all the small pieces, but periodically pulled it out and made another. In April, when the girls went to Sunriver, I brought it again and realized it was the perfect quilt for Jill. She asked for one that was red and gold like many of the blocks. What I didn't like were the backgrounds, they were all too light, off-white instead of beige. Took a drastic step and dunked them all in tea which toned them down and now they look wonderful.

During the weekend, Rhonda contributed fabric and Judy helped sew a few more blocks. About a week later, Judy helped me put the pieces together and voila! Found a great quilter, Sue Capell, in Newberg who did a great job with a feather pattern in each block and a wavy feather border.

Girls' Quilting Weekend in Sunriver

Had a great weekend with my quilting friends: Darla, Stephanie, Rhonda, and Judy. We went to Sunriver and sewed, walked, ate, knitted, and talked...

Darla's quilt on the design wall. We all talked her into button-hole applique on the picture blocks. She got them all stitched by the end of the weekend.

Finished my socks and started another pair.

Rhonda started a vintage 9-patch quilt for her daughter Kelly's wedding. 140 5-inch 9-patch blocks in green, gold, black, brown and a little blue. Lots of work...most of the blocks were done by the end of the weekend. Stephanie is quilting one of the charity quilts we are donating. I quilted the other one.

Darla, Stephanie and Rhonda out for a walk. We walked 6 miles on Saturday and on Sunday and 3 miles on Monday. Judy is the pace setter. She walks so fast, the rest of us have a hard time keeping up.

Judy and Darla collaborating on the Moose quilt.

Our menu:

Darla made a wonderful Chile Relleno breakfast casserole served with fresh berries

Stephanie - Pasta Fagoli, salad and kalamata olive bread

I made German Pancakes with strawberries, turkey bacon, and pineapple

Rhonda - Chicken and vegetables served with yellow curry over brown rice

Judy - Homemade granola w/yogurt fruit