quilty love

I was so fortunate to be part of a group of women that made blocks and assembled a quilt for my sweet friend Penny. Every time I think about it I get overwhelmed at the vast amounts of love people put into these pieces of fabric and thread. It was an amazing international effort... the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia were all represented in a big quilty hug for Penny!

Kerry is the brains behind the whole thing; she got all of us together in one very secret Flickr group called Quilty Love and decided that we would use Penny's QAYG block tutorial.

I made three blocks:

 

 

 

 

I love how all three turned out, but the last one with the embroidered iron has a special place in my heart. I *really* love that one. :)

 

Tara generously agreed to assemble the quilt blocks. Michelle and I helped with pressing and sewing binding strips together.

We Skyped with Kerry last Saturday during our retreat and gave the quilt to Penny... everyone shed tears! It was wonderful. (Not the tear shedding part, although that was sweet, haha.) Penny was overwhelmed-- I think we all were-- and it was wonderful to let her know just how much we love her!

full quilt photos used courtesy of Penny!

 

The quilt is massive! Thirty-six blocks of quilt as you go goodness. I think Tara said it measured eighty-something square. And I love that the back is just as fun as the front!

weekend retreat

Oh, I love love love sewing with friends! Our retreat (dubbed the Lollipop Guild Weekend) was so nice.

I actually made a pretty good dent in my weekend project list. Let's recap, shall we?

1. Ruby's Prince QAYG: I finished quilting one lonely block. Three left to go!

2. Bee Blocks for the 4x5: no progress :(

3. Handstitched Quilt: no progress. Gosh, it doesn't seem like I made any dent at all in this list, haha!

4. FCMQG Bee Block for Michelle: DONE!! And she loves it! This was my first Swoon block and it was a beast! Although now I'm excited to start my own Swoon quilt. :)

 

5. Football Blanket: DONE!! And it's super cute!
 

6. Scrappy Mini Quilt: Sketched out in my head. Does that count?

I worked on another awesome project that is still in progress... will share that later!

I do have to admit that by Sunday morning I was missing my sweet baby a whole lot, and I was ready to come home to her and my hubby! This was the first time I'd ever been away overnight.... I didn't do so bad, and Emma had lots of fun with her daddy. Thanks to my hubs for holding down the fort so I could get away!

i didn't go to sewing summit...

...but I am going to the very first Fort Collins Modern Quilt Guild retreat this weekend! I'm super excited to spend a weekend sewing with friends. I have a loooooong list of projects to work on:

1. Ruby's Prince QAYG: I started this one last November at a retreat with Amanda Jean. I'm determined to finish it soon!

this is one of the blocks from Ruby's Prince

2. Bee Blocks for the 4x5. I'm in the Hexy Hive this round and I'm enjoying a combination of English paper piecing and traditional piecing.

3. Handstitched Quilt: I'm in the middle of the embroidery phase in the white space of this quilt, and I'm loving the handwork! The class is long over, but I'm still plugging away.

4. FCMQG Bee block for a friend who's been waiting very patiently since June. :)

5. Football blanket... in progress and super cute!

6. A mini quilt for this contest.

It's ambitious, for sure, but hopefully I'll get to a good portion of it!

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!