Hello,
It feels like I have not done this work in a long time. Lots of things have gone on in that time too. First I went off to the Schweinfurth Open Studio Retreat. Three days of doing my own thing along with 8 other artists. Linda delighted us all with special cookies that her daughter had made. 
Victoria was working away on a fabric collage where she was using a part of one of night gown that was one of my grandmother’s.
Susan was finishing up her project from the workshop with Irene Rodrick that she had attended a few weeks earlier.
She did finish making all the units by the end too.
Nancy did lots of things, but this landscape was my foavorite.
Linda’s project was coming along beautifully as well.
Ellen was busy finishing up a project she had started in a workshop at QBL
I also visited the Q=A=Q show while I was there . Sharon’s work looked great!
She was busy on a new piece. It too is based on her trip our west last summer.
Judy, Sharon and I went off to visit Marty on Tue the next week. She is doing some fun water colors now.
Then Nov 15, I went off to the Sisterhood Retreat at Kuaka Lake. This was the third year we got together and it was a good experience too. The whole event was a bit disjointed this time. Ann did not stay on sigh and Deb went home ill on Sat morning with a bad cold. Lots of work did get done however.
We shared our solutions for the challenges. Liz made all of us little wallets.
Joyce did a great three-D landscape. I did too. Marcia was still working on hers. Next year. We did go shopping but decided ageist another fabric challenge.
Jeanne was the queen of production. She finished up this flower top and worked on this spider web project.
She also had a great quilt for show and tell .
Deb finished a baby quilt top and went on to build this Halloween top. before she went away.
Marcia worked on putting together two projects that were started by her good friend Perilla.
Next year the retreat will be in early October and hopefully a little more focused.
I had a FAD meeting yesterday and a Pixie Zoom meeting too. Life just dose not slow down.
Project Report: Nine Play #2 This quilt is 40″ X 41″. It is a partner with Nine play #1 as I cut the blocks for both at the same time and mixed them up in both quilts.
I was still doing lots of inserting of narrow strips in this work.
Applied Nine- # 3 in the series This quilt is 41″ X 41″. I started it at the Schweinfurth retreat and finished the quilting at the Sisterhood retreat. I really deviated from the rule of inserting narrow strips on this one and applied perfused pre cut pieces from my box of fused fabrics. I also split up the blocks before I assembled them to add interest.
I still have lots of perfused pieces and the box is still overflowing so I think there will be several more similar works in the furfure.
Twilight This quilt is 18″X 28″ and my entry for the Sisterhood Challenge. I only got the fabric from Liz( Her left overs as I had totally lost my fabric) on the Tue before the retreat, so it was done with speed. I did the tree on wash away with a wool center for the trunk and big branches. The thin limbs are all thread draw.
I no longer own this quilt as it went home with Patti at the end of the FAD meeting on Wed.
Lap # 20 This is the last lap quilt I will complete before I make a run to the local nursing home. I gave away 10 in the early spring and I will pass the second group off next week.
Rocky Tide Pool I continue to work away on this project from my Joyous Embroidery Class. I try to put in an hour every day on it. I am enjoying the textures.
Hands Off I started assembling this at the Schweinfurth retreat. I used all the remaining quilters hands from my work last year. The black and white scraps came from my collection of pieces from Ethel’s box of un used fabrics. I finished layering and adding the binding this week. Now I have started quilting by hand in the negative black sections .
Scrap Blocks When I opened the Ethel box earlier this fall I decided to finish up all the scraps and cut blocks from them. I finished that step and now have all the pieced sections added to a solid square of the same size and they are all added to one another as of this morning. I will begin adding the big 8.5″ blocks into rows for quilt tops this next week.
Spores In my search for inspiration for work to do at the Scherinfurth Retreat, cam across a photo of spores that had fascinated me. So I decided I would use it as a jumping off point. I quickly realized I wanted to us pompoms at a part of the structures and they are a slow hand work project. So I set them aside and will now get back to that project.
New Work I have not decided what to call this project so it is New Work. I wanted to take a class at the Schweinfurth in Nov and had paid my money to do so only to discover I had two impotent events that wee. So I gave my spot to Liz. Susan was at the Schweinfurth Retreat and was settings next to me so I asked her how the class was designed and I thought I understood the process from her description. So I attempted to do it at the Sisterhood retreat. While I was there Liz observed what I was doing and re educated me as to what I was suppose to be doing. So I will finish this in my own way.
Exploratory work Now I think I know what the teacher was trying to teach and with Liz’s explanation, mixed with what I got form Susan I am starting again and this is my drawing to do that idea. Stay tuned.
Food Story – Christmas Noodles
Christmas was always spent at Grandmother Ruth house when I was growing up. Seeing family and talking was the main point of the event. That was paired with the food of course and there were no gifts. Our family was coming from norther Iowa until 8th grade and then from Muncie Indiana after that time. We slept at Grandmother Ester’s in Morning Sun and then drove to Grandview, Iowa – about 25 miles on Christmas day. We were always the first family to arrive as all of Mom’s brother’s family and sisters families lived closer by and they had regular Santa morning get up. Mom would go directly into help cooking mode when we arrived. That usually meant she would start making egg noodles. After the ingredients were mixed she would begin rolling them out. The dough had to dry and set up so it was a task that needed to be done early. I recall trying to roll out the dough, but I lacked the strength to do much of it. The noodles had to rest on the top of the washer and dryer before they were cut into the noodle ribbons and cooked. The rest of the families trickled in as the morning went forwards and I along with the rest of the grand kids was shooed out of the cooking as the adult arrived. We eagerly went off to write our Christmas afternoon play that we preformed to entertain the adult s late int he day. The noodles were always a major part of the feast from my point of view and I really looked forward to eating them. They were popular with everyone too because there were very few left over for the late evening meal.
I hope everyone is now happily preparing for the joy of the season. I have started my Christmas cards and one had already come from my friend Sharron.
Keep Creating
Carol
Robert sent me a photo to go along with the noodle story-