April is coming and with the month of April comes my last winter sewing retreat and the start of gardening and rafting season. March is always a hard month for me to focus on one thing or the other so I feel like my month slips away without accomplishing anything and then the month of April is my scramble catch up month. NOT this year! I am going to keep up on blog posts, get a couple of sewing projects done, finish planning a retreat, get my garden planned out and ready, plan some summer rafting trips, go on TWO back-country snowshoe trips and don’t you worry I will tell you all about each and every one of those things… Just kidding I will try to stick to quilting and/or sewing.
So, back on the Ranch in Wyoming… we all had a great time and I just want to share a few more photos of projects that I worked on while I was there.
The picture below features some friendship blocks given to me by the lovely group of friends that I sew with most often in Wyoming. I only used a portion of the blocks so I still have some to play with. I am really looking forward to quilting in all that lovely negative space. It has been calling to me in my dreams…
not all friendships are perfect
Next up is a quilt that I sorta designed myself. By that I mean I just started sewing and this is what is turned out to be. I really like the end result and again I am looking forward to quilting this top too. I used a jelly roll from Amy Butler’s Lark collection and a couple of yards of Kona, bone color.
I also started and finished a new purse for myself! I love updating my wardrobe in the spring and really who can afford that when all my extra green goes to fabric so instead I decided to put my skills to good use and accessorize! The tutorial that I used can be found here. The tutorial was great, I have used it a couple of times for myself and the piping adds a real finished look to the bag. I changed up the pleats just a little bit on mine just because the fabric yelled at me when I tried to pleat it more than once, it said “NO I want to be seen”!
During the weekend I was also asked to give a quick demonstration on machine binding. I was happy to do so. I found this tutorial on Pinterest awhile back and I think it is genus! It is called Susie’s magic binding. I used this technique to bind all of the Valentine’s placemats that I made for our very first Valentine’s breakfast celebration this year. I blogged about it here.
And now for the most important pictures of the weekend… I taught a class at Quilt Wyoming in 2013 and a couple of my students were at this retreat and they brought their finished quilt with them to show me. It really warmed my heart and made me feel accomplished. Thank you both for sharing and I hope to see you in future classes.
Betty with her finished quilt.
Lyn with her finished quilt.
She even used the teeny tiny cut off HST units on the back! I’m proud of you girl!
To end out this post I would love to know what some of your spring goals are? Are you stash busting with a scrappy pattern? Are you fabric collecting for a design that has been brewing in your head? Are you focusing on finishes for the month? What are working on?
Phat Bobbin Girl 
We are celebrating National Quilting Day this weekend…50 of us getting together at the Holiday Inn hosted by The Sisters of the Cloth. I am going to use your binding demo also…I will let you know how it goes. I am also working on the last quilt on my list of quilts for all of my brothers in law, sister in law, nephews, nieces, great nephews, and great niece. Now I just have to quilt them so I can gift them all at the same time!
Great Post Katie, Thank you for the link on the Binding, I am going to use it for the first time this weekend. I will let you know how it goes 🙂