Back to the Hills

A few weeks ago, Jerry and I took a trip to the north Georgia mountains. This past weekend, I went back north again with the Batty Babes. We made our 3rd annual girls' weekend trip to Amelia and Gary's cabin near Hiawassee, Georgia...just a few miles from the North Carolina state line. They have a little piece of heaven up there and enjoy sharing it with friends.

We've been having a real heat wave for the last few weeks. Even for Georgia, it's been unusually hot. But it is normally about 15 degrees cooler up there. Their cozy cabin is so inviting...and the back deck calls you to come out and enjoy nature. Their back yard...lush with dense ferns and shady trees...ends at a small river. I could sit there for hours just feeling the breeze and listening to the water flowing over the rocks. As a matter of fact, I did! And so did Ardis. There's relaxed...and then there's completely relaxed.

There are a few things we can be sure of when we spend a few days up there together. There will be food. Lots of really good food. There will be margaritas. (Mimosas for breakfast) There will be laughter. Lots of laughter. There will be more food. And more margaritas. And there will be games to play. Lots of games. Old favorites like Rummikub and Phase 10. And we will learn some new games. This year's newbies included Hit the Deck, Spit and Monopoly Deal. My new favorite of these is Monopoly Deal. I've already taught it to Jodi and she's hooked. The others are fun, too. And there will be fun.

Some of the special little things this year included dinner out at a nice restaurant one evening, a boat ride on the lake, a trip to the spa and a stop at a toy store on the way home. "Babes in toyland" as it were. And, as usual, it was completely enjoyable. Thanks for your hospitality, Amelia. We can't wait to do it again next year!!!

Quilt As Desired - Number Seven

Robin is the youngest of the Batty Babes...and the last in the calendar year to have her birthday. Having a birthday between Christmas and New Years might get overlooked...but NOT by the Babes! We know how to do birthdays. We had her party last night and, as always, had a great time together. And I made her a full-sized quilt top that she can quilt any way she wants to. And in giving her that top, I also patted myself on the back for reaching a goal I had set about a year ago -- to make each of the Babes a large, scrappy quilt top for their birthday. There are nine of us, but one lives out of state and is not here for the birthdays, and the other is me...so that left 7 quilt tops to make. Sounded easy enough. I had planned on pacing myself throughout the year. But, like many of my plans, it sounded good and looked good on paper -- but I should know myself well enough by now to know I sometimes need deadlines. And they came fast and furious in the last quarter of the year. But I did it!

When thinking about what pattern and colors to use for Robin's, I just knew it had to be pastels. She has a houseful of three beautiful, sweet daughters. I found the pattern in a magazine and this is the final product. She liked it very much.

Now I find myself (temporarily) without definite deadlines. So the question is this: Will I enjoy getting creative with new projects? Will I get busy and finish up some long outstanding ones? Will I get more reading, gardening, and scrapbooking done? Will I waste time on the computer? Probably a little bit of all of those!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Quilt As Desired - Numbers 5 and 6

The Babes' birthdays are coming fast and furious now towards the end of the year. I gave away 2 more quilt tops in the last few weeks.

First ... on November 24th we celebrated Ardis' big day. She likes fall colors...reds, golds, rusty browns, etc. And she appreciates the traditional use of muslin. She also likes this particular star pattern, and a few years ago shared with us a cool way to piece that star. So I designed this one for her. It's just 3 different sizes of the same star in the colors she likes -- set against a background of muslin. Like the other Babes, she was very appreciative.

Then only a week later...on December 1st, we celebrated Liz's birthday. You'd think that having a birthday in December, she'd want to go out of her way to differentiate between HER day and Christmas. But to the contrary...Liz LOVES everything Christmas. So she's easy to shop for. I made this colorful Christmas scrappy quilt for her. The pattern is called a disappearing nine patch. A nine patch, for you non-quilters, is a block with just 3 squares across and 3 down. In this version, you make the center block a lighter, contrasting color. Then you cut each nine patch block in half vertically and again horizontally...and then turn them and sew them back together to mix it all up. As you can see -- she, too, was quite happy. That's her on the right...wearing the big grin and the antennae.

Happy birthday, girls!

Quilt As Desired...Number Four

My friend, Amelia, who had the flooded property I talked about in the last post, celebrated her birthday with the Babes last week. As for the previous 3 Babes' birthdays, I gave her a scrappy pieced quilt top that she can finish however she chooses. This one is called, "Prairie Vine" and I saw it in a magazine about 2 years ago and fell in love with it immediately. Actually, this is just the center of the quilt. The one in the magazine called for a wide, pale border on which a vine with 140 small leaves were appliqued onto it. I made this quilt for myself quite some time ago and I have the leaves basted onto freezer paper and ready to be applied...but I have yet to put the vine on and start stitching the leaves down. I knew there would be no time for me to do this as a border on her quilt. So I just made the center -- which I still love -- and she can finish it off with whatever kind of border she wants, or add more blocks, or anything else she might like. She liked it that way, too. Happy Birthday, Amelia!

Retreat

re-treat (ri tret') n. 1 a withdrawal, as from danger 2 a safe, quiet place 3 a period of seclusion, esp. for spiritual renewal.

Hmmm... I went to a quilters and scrapbookers retreat this weekend. But according to Webster, I wonder why we call it that. We do withdraw...but not from danger. As a group we withdraw from the duties, responsibilities, and loved ones in our lives that interrupt our pursuit of our creative hobbies and make accomplishing things difficult. As for it being a safe, quiet place. Well, let's just say it's very safe. We go to the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, GA. They have a huge, wonderful facility on 6,400 acres of natural wooded beauty. They have motel-style rooms and a large conference room where we can set up tables, ironing boards, a huge food spread and still have plenty of room to spread out and work. The quiet part of this definition, however, doesn't quite fit. There is no TV reception out there, but they have a big-screen TV that we can play DVDs on. We also bring our portable music and I'm still singing all the songs from Mama Mia in my head today. Definition 3 doesn't quite fit, either. Rather than it being a period of seclusion, we invite lots of good friends. This time 20 of us "retreated" to this wilderness together.

There were a few special things about the relationships of the group this time. Jodi and I almost always are there together. Me with my quilting friends, and her with her scrapbooking buddies. This time a good friend and one of the Batty Babes, Liz, who hasn't been to one of these in a very long time not only came along, but brought her daughter, Ellen, who is a scrapbooker, too. So we had two mother-daughter pairs. What's more fun than spending your weekend with your friends AND one of your grown daughters? Well...maybe the answer to that is spending it with a sister who is also a good friend. Another of the Batty Babes, Deanna, retired and moved to Charlotte, NC last year. She comes down to visit often and especially when we have something like this going on. This time she brought along a very good friend, Ilona, who also happens to be one of her sisters. Ilona lives in Columbia, SC, so they met up along the way and rode down together. We all enjoyed meeting Ilona and having her with us.

We were also glad to share some part of the weekend with a very good friend that most of us hadn't seen in a long while. Becky has been a nurturing care-giver for her husband, Robert, who has been battling pancreatic cancer for the past two years or so. He lost his gallant fight quite recently and went home to heaven...so she was able to come and share the love of good friends and the soul-nourishing time for creativity.

But you can never find a time that meets everybody's schedule, so we missed a couple of the "regulars". Ardis never misses, but she was off on a great anniversary trip with her husband. And Pam was able to only squeeze out a couple of hours from a weekend filled with working and caring for her mother who is having some health problems. All in all, I would have to say that I agree with most everyone who said, "This was the best one yet! When can we do it again?"

Quilt As Desired - Part Three

The third Batty Babe to have a birthday so far this year was Melisa. She turned the big 5-0 last week (and lived to tell about it). The weekend before, we all took to the mountains to celebrate with her. This is her sittin' and knittin' on the back porch. What else would an old lady do?

It was great that all 9 of us could get away for a few days at the same time. Amelia, one of the Babes, has a cabin in the north Georgia mountains and it is a little bit of heaven up there. Usually at least 15 degrees cooler than here at home, it is wonderful to sit on the porch morning, noon and night and listen to the creek nearby. We sew, and read, and laugh, and play card games, and eat and laugh and even drink "a little". We have a great time.

This is the quilt top that I made for her to "quilt as desired". For those of you who don't know, it's called a String Quilt. Varying widths of fabric strips (strings) are sewn together with lights being on one side and darks on the other. It's a very addictive project once you get started...and a great way to use little leftover pieces of fabric that you just can't throw away.

So thanks, again, Amelia. We all had a wonderful time helping Melisa over this big "hump".

Quilt As Desired - Part Two

Early last February, I posted a picture of a six-point star quilt top that I made for my friend, Pam's, birthday. I said that it was my intention this year to make each of the Batty Babes (my quilting group) a quilt top for their birthday. Each of them can "quilt as desired" by hand or machine. This is the longest stretch that we go between birthdays, but the other night we celebrated again. This time it was Elaine's turn to be spoiled with our gifts and good wishes.

I dug into my stash to find old fabrics, again, and made her this design called "Birds in the Air". Elaine is a long arm quilter. For those of you not familiar with that term, that means she has a professional quilting machine. It will take her no time at all to turn this top into a snugly, warm quilt. Here is a picture of her (she's on the right) at our party...with some of the other Babes...studying all the little fabrics. Such fun we have!

From now till the end of the year the birthdays will be coming fast and furious...so I need to get busy!

"Quilt as Desired"

Last night at our regular Batty Babes' quilt group get-together we celebrated Pam's birthday. We always have extra fun at the birthday parties. She got lots of wonderful things, because we spoil each other quite a bit.

I've decided that I want to dig into my fabric stash this year and make a scrappy quilt top for each of the Babes for their birthdays. I chose the six-point star pattern above for Pam because I have a scrappy six-point star quilt that she's admitted to "coveting". The stars on this one are a little bigger than the ones on my quilt, but otherwise, they look pretty similar. I tried to use old looking fabrics in this one and even more solids that we usually use in quilts today. I was trying to make a new quilt that looked old. I like the way it turned out and so did Pam. On her card I wrote, "quilt as desired". Since I quilt almost all my quilts by hand, I would never have enough time to make each of the Babes a quilt. But since they are all quilters, I figured I would give them each a top and they could then quilt by hand or machine in any way they liked.

The next birthday isn't until July, but in the fall they come pretty close together so I'll have to be working on the piecing pretty steadily all year. I have a few others started and ideas for a few more. Sew much fun!

Birthday Party

Last night was "Babes' Night" and it was my turn to host. We each host about 3 times a year. I made a chicken dish and got an ice cream cake from Brusters. This Babes' night was special because we were celebrating Pam's birthday. (Pam is second from the left in the picture posted under "A Night Out With the Girls") She liked the purse I made myself last month and said she'd like one. I asked her what colors and she told me she liked a particular line of fabrics that Melisa just got in at the shop. So I made one for her. It was just the right size to put some goodies inside. Two of her favorites: orange slices and licorice, and one of mine: a bottle of Chateau Elan wine -- Duncan Creek.

Jerry usually does a dissapearing act and hangs out with one of the girls when I host the Babes. Last night he went over to Jodi and Jeremy's and had spaghetti and played with the grand kids. When he got home he was asking about the party. He asked (facetiously) if she got anything to make a quilt with. As a matter of fact, she got books, patterns, fabric, scissors, a gift certificate to Sweet Home and all kinds of fun stuff!