Retreat memories...

It's been two weeks since I returned home from my mountain retreat. Let me share some of the highlights with you before I forget them all. This was such a relaxing, rejuvinating fun weekend. I learned new techniques, ate delicious meals(prepared by Brenda), enjoyed meeting and sewing with a bunch of fun ladies. What else could you ask for? This was the view from the front porch of the cabin. The weather was ideal. Cool, crisp, and you could smell the aroma of the pines all around you. I could feel a touch of fall in the air. Horray, my favorite time of year is near.

The Cox family cabin, this is where they hold the retreat every year. Bonnie and Brenda give up their week at the cabin so we have this beautiful place to meet. Thanks ladies for a great weekend. Are the recipes ready yet??

Thursday after everyones arrival we started right off with my trunk show. I got many compliments on all my quilts. They really liked "Shannon's Quilt", the raw edge dresden I created earlier this year.

The quilts just kept piling up on the floor as I showed them. I guess I can say I've been one busy bee over the last couple of years. And this isn't all of them. I couldn't take everything!

The newest bag ladies, these ladies were all in my Black Forest Bag class that I taught Saturday morning. Everyone completed their bags which makes me feel good that I did my job as a teacher. All except I forgot the chocolate! Look at their cute and rewarding smiles. Way to go ladies.

Machelle Preston from Cherry Tree Cottage here in Spanish Fork taught us how to Buggy Barn Friday night. Now this is something I have never learned in all my years of quilting. Wow what a challenge but now I can say I've done it. Now I just have 19 more to finish up to complete my quilt before Christmas. I can't say that I'm hooked but its something I've wanted to learn for a long time. I can now cross that off my list of things to learn. Mission acccomplished.

My very first Buggy Barn block. This method is kind of like putting a jig saw puzzle together!

They called us down from sewing at midnight! Yup, midnight and were still going strong. We had snacks and we played a fun get to know you game involving Skittles and a straw. Don't make me laugh or I'll spit in the bowl! Alot of fun.

And of course every quilter needs this. Flora Gillman brought us the chocolate bar to snack on during her class, the Honeycomb Quilt. Now that's my kind of teacher, one after my own heart.

This is Flora and myself in front of my Honeycomb quilt in progress. She had the neatest idea for a design wall. She had us bring a flannel backed tablecloth to design our pattern on. After we were done sewing on it for the weekend, we just rolled them up to transport our works of progress home to finish up. I had never even thought to use this in my own sewing room. See what I mean, you learn something new everytime you attend something like this. Thanks Flora for the great class and the chocolate!

Fridays trunk show was put on by Josephine. She has only been quilting for four years. You should see the amazing things this lady can do with fabric. Her quilts were just beautiful.

For one of the door prizes I threw in the sample Black Forest Bag. Everyone was just hoping their name would be picked. This is Gail, the lucky winner. Gail was my roomie and she came all the way from Georgia. She was so much fun to be around, always full of laughter.

Saturdays trunk show was to be put on by Flora but she had a little mishap with her car. Unfortately she locked her keys inside while loading some of her things. And guess where her quilts were? You got it.

In her trunk! So yes, literally we had a trunk show. She did show us a couple of quilts she was working on during the retreat that were still inside. The one pictured above is Jan Patek's Girl Gang club she teaches at Broadbents in Lehi. She is quilting it all by hand. Oh my!

Flora had no way of getting her car open, so she had to ride back down to Fairview on Sunday to get her car. She just laughed it off with all the rest of us. What we could see through the window of her car, her quilts look amazing. I won't look at another trunk show without thinking about cute little Flora!

This is all the fun loot I came home with. There were drawings all weekend for awesome things. I chose the 1/2 yard cuts of the Bate and Taylor fabric and then I picked out their Argyle with Style pattern to go along with it. I don't know when I'll get to it, but someday soon I hope.

This fun block I will use on the back of my Buggy Barn Hearts and Stars quilt. Brenda(Pie Plate Patterns) made it out of my scraps. Something fun and unique to remember the retreat by. Well the memories from this retreat will last for along time. I'm already looking ahead to next year's retreat. It's in the date book!

Scrap-Baby

Oh baby this post is exciting. I told you my freind Emily was going to be on Moda Bake shop sometime soon. Well today is the day. Congrats Emily. Emily has put together the cutest little baby quilt just from strips out of one Moda Scrapbag. I am lucky enough to look at this darling quilt because it is on display at the Corn Wagon showing you just what you can do with one little scrapbag and a little yardage. Emily is having a contest on her blog crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com, go visit her there if you want to play along and make sure you stop in the bake shop on my side bar to get her tutorial for the Scrap Bag- Baby Quilt. This is one you can make in afternoon. Hum, all you need is your scrap bag and I bet you by golly I know where you can get one. Try the Corn Wagon in Springville!

Let's Bake!

I'm so fortunate to know so many talented ladies. Two of my good friends are going to be featured on Moda Bake Shop in the next few days. You will want to do some of their baking! Emily with Crazy Old Ladies Quilts and Jana with Izzy and Ivy will both have tutorials for some really yummy things. I won't give their recipes away! The Moda Bake Shop link is on my side bar, follow it there.

Happy Birthday Dear Friend!

My dear friend Deanne celebrated her birthday yesterday and I failed to call and wish her a very happy one. I had thought about doing a post earlier in the month spotlighting her on her special day. This month centainly has slipped away from me so fast. So here it is just a day late. Deanne and I have been friends for a very long time, well should we say since our boys have been growing up. Almost 24 years! I am so thankful to have such a wonderful friend such as Deanne in my life. We have laughed, cried, watched girls dance, traveled, crafted, shopped and have done just about all things girls like to do. I know I can always turn to her for the love and support I need from her to see me through, she is always there. I value our friendship, and I know we have many more happy years to come. I hope your day was a very happy one, sorry I'm always so late getting things done for your birthday. Girlfriend, you are the best!

Love always, Shannon

I hunted all over in my picture files and this is the only picture I could find of us together, sad huh? Taken in California in 2004 on a dance trip with our daughters.

Wednesday Sew and Tell!

This is the Sherbet bag from Melly and Me. We will be doing this as our August's Bag Ladies Club on the 27th @ 6:00 p.m. The picture shows this bag at regular size, but I have enlarged it 20% and I am working on it now. I think I like it bigger already. If you want to join us on that night, stop by the Corn Wagon and sign up for the class and pick up your pattern and supply list. We'd love to see new faces.

I know Halloween is still a couple months away but I wanted to show you this fun wall hanging I just finished up for the store. It's called Scribble Monsters. It uses a panel that you cut up for most of the applique pieces, everything is appliqued on. We have the kits ready at the shop. Stop in and take a peep.

Simply Pumpkins!

With the breeze coming through my windows this morning I can feel a touch a fall coming on, which reminded me that I needed to post my next project for my Simply Sewing 101 class. It's time to get back on track now that the hustle and bustle of all the summer activities are dwindling down. We will be making these cute pumpkins on Sept. 8th. Just the right project to start off the fall season. Necessary items: 2 coordinating fat 1/4's or 2 1/3 yard cuts of pumpkin colored fabric
one long skinny scrap (to tie around middle of pumpkins)
2 dreid sticks('with personality' for stems, such as tree branches)
small bag of stuffing
thread to match
I know my regulars have been waiting for this day to come so don't forget to mark Sept. 8th on your calendars, and if you haven't joined our Simply Sewing group yet now's the time to do so. Come sew with us, we have lots and lots of fun.

OOPS!

I goofed! There is one more winner in the quilt guessing contest. I should read just a little bit better. Harmonie also guessed one away from 20. She will be recieving a prize too. Please contatct me Harmonie so you will get your prize. What a smutz I am.

The winners are:

Thanks everyone for playing along with the quilt quessing contest. The comments were all so nice and they really do mean alot to me. Sorry I'm just a tad late posting the winners. I've been pre-occupied with a baby in the house. Now that's something I'm not used to! I'll post about that later. So here's how it ended up. The correct number of quilts was 20. I had 2 of you that were right on and 3 of you that were just one away. I can't just give 3 prizes out, all 5 of you will be getting a prize from me, how about that? Drum roll please, and the the winners are:
Melody 20
Megan 20
Andie 19
Sarah 19
Shanna 21
Please contact me through my e-mail address, (oohsaahsw@aol.com) so I can get your address. I hope to have them in the mail by the end of the week. Thanks again everyone for making this so much fun. Happy sewing, Shannon

Decisions!

Ok, so here it is, the little contest celebrating my 200th post. I'm loaded and ready to go to the retreat today all except these piles of quilts. Pie Plate Patterns(who is sponsororing the retreat) has asked me to do a trunk show (show and tell) of some of the quilts I have put together. How's a quilter to decide which ones to take? I have so many favorites and way to many to take them all, but I did come up with a few I think will be fun to share with all the others. Let's see if you can come up with the same number of quilts that are in the piles. That's the contest, easy smeasy don't you think? This could be a bit tricky, watch for the hidden quilts squished in between and don't forget the one in the bag! Leave your guess in with your comments and let's see if we can't choose at least 3 winners for some really fun stuff on Sunday evening. Good luck and I can't wait to share stories and pictures of just how much fun is going to be had this weekend.

My Bags are Packed, I'm ready to go!

Well the project ones anyway. Thursday morning I'm leaving for the High Mountain Quilting Retreat up Fairview Canyon. I attended this retreat last year and had a such a great time I'm doing it again. But this year I've been asked to be one of the workshop teachers. I will be teaching the Black Forest Bag class on Friday evening. There will also be several quilt workshops. I have signed up for 3 of those plus the mystery quilt. There is always room for improvement or learning a new quilt technique, right? My kits are cut, seperated and ready to go. This year's theme was centered around the holidays, so if we wanted we could choose to make all of our projects to fit the theme. All but one of my quilts will follow the holiday theme. For a good amount of my projects I pulled from my stash. I had plenty of fabrics for all of them. Hum, does that tell you a thing or two? I have way to much in the closets!

Look at this wonderful new project bag I made about month ago. I've just been waiting to get it all packed for this fun weekend. I made it from charm packs from the Wonderland line for Moda. I can't get enough of this fabric. I just love the red scissors print, don't you? There's just something about scissors and fabric.

Here's my matching hot iron bag that I really, really down sized alot from the original pattern. I wanted it to fit my little travel iron and to hold my bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press. I can't
leave home without it! I was kinda of like the Energizer Bunny, I just kept going and going! I made a matching sewing machine cover and a couple little pouches to put in my large bag. And oh, did you notice the fun pin cushion to. It's a "SEW" Shannon weekend for sure!

***Hey there's going to be something special for everyone to get in on on my blog. When I went to publish this last post it said I have hit the 200th post. Wow, how did I do that? Don't you think that calls for a celebration of some kind? Before I leave on Thursday I'll post a fun contest to win a really fun prize. The more the merrier so tell all your friends to take a peep at my blog site. See you soon.

Sewing on the Side!

Hum, let me think about that! That's sounds kind of funny doesn't it? How can you sew on the side when that's all you do in the first place! Emily with Crazy Old Ladies Quilts has asked me to help her out with a little sewing project. So yes there it is, I will be doing some sewing on the side! She wants to give Dipped in Chocolate a make over. I'm making the new quilt for the cover of her pattern. How exciting is that? And better yet it involves the word chocolate, it's perfect. I'll take it I told her. The fabrics are in lighter shades of pinks and browns. If you haven't seen all of the amazing things this lady can do, visit her blog Crazyoldladies.blogspot.com and check out all her cute patterns. And by the way, Emily isn't old and she certianly isn't crazy! She's onto great and wonderful things. Moda has just picked up her patterns as have many other retailers across the states. And just think, I will be able to say I knew her when. Congrats, Emily on making the big time. I'm glad I can call her one of my quilting buddies.
Look at this fun bundle she gave me. What should I make out of it? Ahh, I bet I use one of Emily's patterns for this. This is called Blessings from Moda. It hasn't even hit the store shelves yet. I'm one lucky girl. Thanks, Emily.

Saturday Afternoon Drive!

What kind of fun can you have on a hot, muggy Saturday afternoon? We decided to take the Mustang and go for an afternoon drive. We ended up in Salt Lake doing a little birthday shopping for our cute grandson Hatch. We stopped in at A.A. Callister one of the nicest western stores in the valley. They sell just about everything a cowboy would want and them some! We found what we had been looking for for quite sometime. And that would be a Gus cowboy hat just like Grandpa's. We hope he will be happy with his very first Stetson.

This is the young man shaping Hatch's hat to look like Stuart's. Pssssst, I hope you can keep a secret because Hatch's birthday isn't until Friday, August 7th!!

After finishing our shopping we headed a little more north and ended at the Pagoda for supper. This chinese resturant has been in business since 1946. My mom and dad used to visit there when they would go to the city. I remember going there a time or two with them and thinking what a special treat it was to come all the way to Salt Lake to have dinner. So after Stuart and I were married I introduced him to the Pagoda. It's been one our favorite places to visit ever since. We also have had our kids there several times. This quaint little place in located up in the avenues. They don't open for business until 5:00 p.m. They have taken some of the original dishes off the menu but there is still such a variety of entries to choose from. You should check this place out sometime when your in the city.

Our fortune cookies summed everything up just right for the day. Here's how they read:

Stuart's fortune: Today is a good day for being with a companion.

Shannon's fortune: A four-wheeled adventure will soon bring you happiness.

After dinner we decided to drive up through Emigration Canyon, over through East Canyon and down to Park City. Then from there we were on our way home. So as my fortune stated, my adventure was a happy one.

Happy Birthday Marsha!

Never tell anyone you love Flamingo's 'cause it might just stick! These beautiful pink birds have been one of Marsha's(my boss and friend) favorites for a very long time. Not really! And boy has it stuck with her. So be careful what you say around the Corn Wagon. Years ago she was jokingly saying how much she loved them, so every year for her birthday the flamingos come out to celebrate her birthday. That's how we do the decorating at the store. Everything is centered around PINK! This year for her birthday I made her her very own flamingo carry all bag with some cute accessories. One of the other employee's had made her pj's out of the same fabric. Won't she be stylin' when she hits the quilt retreats? Everyone already knows her as the Flamingo Lady! Happy Birthday Marsha, hope your day was happy.