Farm Girl Vintage Retreat and Blocks

I had a blast last week attending a sewing retreat hosted by Thimbles and Threads (a local quilt shop) featuring Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet.  Lori is a local fabric celebrity and designer for Riley Blake Fabrics. Her new line, Modern Minis is to die for! And since I am participating in the Farm Girl Fridays sew-along, this was a great chance to meet ladies who came to Utah to participate.  What a blast!

But let me backtrack a few moments and get caught up with other things. This will be a picture-heavy post.

I am lucky that I get to have my granddaughter Lauren every other Monday throughout the summer. She loves to sew and has been sewing for about a year, since I gave her a sewing machine for her birthday in April of 2014.  Last week when she was here, she made herself a tote bag out of this cute pink guitar fabric I surprised her with. She is taking lessons from her granddad (my ex-hub, Scott) and the bag will be useful to carry her music in.

Lauren and I also made zip pouches from a tutorial we watched from Missouri Star Quilt Company. They turned out so cute. Hers has the red stripe and mine is the pink horsey Tula Pink fabric. It is the perfect size to carry my travel iron in!

sorry for the blur.....

Another fun thing for me was that I was able to acquire, quite unexpectedly and rather inexpensively, a complete set of Pyrex Cinderella bowls in the Gooseberries pattern. They are highly sought after by collectors and are over 50 years old. Pristine condition!

Next up are the two blocks I created for week 8 of the Farm Girl Fridays quilt-along.

Farmhouse

Farm Fresh Flower

So, on Wednesday evening, the Retreat began with Lori Holt giving us a trunk show of dozens of her recent quilts. She is unbelievably talented and prolific. The majority of the attendees of this, the 3rd and final weekly retreat, was mostly locals (as the hotel space was limited due to the Utah Arts Festival). But we did meet about a dozen fun ladies from other parts of the country, too!

Here my new friends Betty and Rae Ann introduce their long-time friend and quilty peep, Lori Holt.  

Interestingly, for both Lori and me, was that I brought pictures from 1976 in California when Scott (Flox, my ex-hub) and I were newly married and joining the LDS (Mormon) church. One of our missionary teachers (and the elder who baptized me) was Kelly Holt who lived in Riverton, UT.  I asked Lori if they were related, and she said Kelly was her (late) brother-in-law. I showed her pictures of Kelly from 1976 and the cake he baked (complete with taper candle stabbed through the center to hold the layers upright, LOL). We had a hug and took pictures so she could show her hubby and parents-in-law.  It was really quite a heartwarming moment. I am just so sad I waited too long to look him up....

Apple Quilt

Farmhouses and Trees

Large Farm Girl Sampler

Lori kept us busy with new block designs, as well as all sorts of inspiration, tips and tutorials.  Below is Penny Pig and a new apple block. 

Penny Pig and apple

Lori always sews on her featherweight. So cute!

We also learned how to use many of her blocks together in “mash-ups”. We learned and made two new tulip patterns and combined her Crops (leaves) blocks with other flower blocks to make wall hangings or table runners. Mine just needs to be (pressed, then) quilted and bound!

Table runner

Below is  (right) a postage-stamp 6” block inserted into a 12” star block. The block on the right is my Feed and Seed block for this week’s Farm Girl stitch along.

Fresh Pears block for this week’s stitch along

Two of the ladies that I hung out with were from my home state of California.  Erica is pictured below with a huge tractor block she made one night. Several of the ladies stayed up until the wee hours sewing!  Erica came with her friend Joanne, who was also a delight and an amazing sewist. But I did not get a pic of Joanne (sad face).

Some of Lori Holt’s pincushions

My pig pincushion poses with Penny Pig

My friend Wannell  shows the cute patchwork top she made for her watering can pin cushion. Wannell joined Erica, Joanne and me for lunch together every day.

So, wow, is that enough cuteness for you????  Whew! It makes me tired just looking at it all. But it was a great week; fun, productive and hot as hell (over 100 degrees F every day). 

This week I am working away at my scraps for June’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge (light blue) so that I can begin working on July’s color, RED!!    Have a lovely holiday weekend and a Happy Independence Day!