Safe At MJ's

I took refuge at MJ's on Sunday afternoon.... just...in case the pending ice storm made it impossible to get off the mountain.  Didn't want to take any unnecessary risks with my sewing machine you know.

I realized I never posted photos of some of my favorite things at Ann's house....so let me digress a wee bit.  The bed I slept in made me feel like a cherished 7 or 8 year old little girl.  Check out the sheets, pillowcases and the bedspread:

The  sun was streaming in the windows at Ann's farm house, so many of my photos have the bright sun washing out some of the details. 

Chickens greeting me at the door....now I must say that is the first time in my life I've been greeted by such feathery friends.

A real bathtub too!  My grandmother had a claw footed bathtub....I thought I was in heaven the entire weekend.

Ok, back to MJ's Sunday and Monday:

We took a little nap and then got straight to "work."  I wanted to get the borders on my Hugs and Kisses quilt.   Typically it takes another person to help when you measure borders.  Not any more....

 MJ taught me one of her tricks....use a real Iron....the Iron Irons to hold down one end of the measuring tape.

 It worked perfectly and I got all my borders measured correctly so they would not be waving at the long arm quilter....yikes!

 

  I even got to sew the borders on using her 820.....ohhhhh ahhhhh....you know I loved that.

 

 The top is finally finished!  Hooray!  Hooray!  Hooray!

I also put the binding on this little piece:

 It is an Anita Goodesign that I fell in love with.  There is a series and I'll be making the others for one of my co-workers.  He wants to be an Oceanographer when he grows up...I think he'll love this series.

MJ and I made microwave oven bowels.

 No silly, you don't pour soup into them...... :)

You put the bowl into the liner so when you get it out of the microwave you don't burn your hands.  They also soak up anything that just so happens to boil over.

MJ put the borders on this baby quilt she is making for her Great-Grand Daughter.  We were very busy indeed!

We also made 5 pillowcases!  Here are the two I made for my co-workers:

 I used 3-D fabrics by Hoffman....the boys loved the pillow cases.

 Tuesday morning came way too fast.  MJ packed this little basket full of food for my trip home.  Am I loved or what?

 We hugged and said our good byes....it is always difficult leaving.

 There was fog but no ice or snow.

I hit the Ohio border in plenty of time to get home before the boys got off the school bus.

And that was the end of my 2012 Retreat.....back home to see those little monkey's :)

 

Thanks for going along with me......I can hardly wait until next January!

 

Smiles,

Kelly