Spanish Rose With The Bitter Bees!

The Dining Room at Quiltville Inn was as busy as a bee hive with the applique section of our on-going Spanish Rose workshop during our retreat with Debbie’s Bitter Bees from Ohio!

We felt the dining room was better for gathering for handwork, and it sure encouraged the laughter and conversation too –

Even if we had to pass around the “No Whining Zone” sign from time to time. LOL!

Learning new techniques can be tricky. Many had not done any applique before.

In this case, we were learning back-basting where the design is drawn on the backside of the background fabric, and then applique pieces are basted in place, trimmed, and basting stitches removed a few at a time, allowing the abric to turn easily along the perforated lines left behind by the basting stitches.

It was also an opportunity to encourage newbies – applique is NEVER perfect. And things will get better if we keep doing it, learning as we go.

You can’t start AT PERFECT. Ever.

But we can strive for getting better, one stitch at a time.

It was a great morning!

We needed to do tings in order – first the leave showing us how to turn points. It was a stand alone shape, not tucked under anything or applied over anything –

Then we moved on to the short stem (which would be tucked both under the flower and the main stem) finally moving on to the flower which would then have another leaf shape applied at the base of the flower:

The flower itself was an opportunity to learn not only peaks, points and rounded areas, but dips and valleys needing to be clipped into a “V” area.

Busy hands, tiny stitches, and loads of patience!

And I love this setup – a puzzle tray for holding everything.

Great job, ladies!

After lunch, everyone had free time to work on what they wanted to….and about half the group took off to visit a local quilt shop.

Those who remained set to beautifying the dining room table in preparation for a lovely Italian-All-The-Way dinner happening last evening.

Isn’t this pretty?

Uhoh. What happened here?

Evidently my mind was on applique and not on piecing and I turned some blocks around while sewing them together. Who knows how this happens? It sure gave me a laugh. Time to grab the seam ripper.

Fixing everything and putting it back together!

And this is where I left things last night –
I’m just about half way. More to come today – MAYBE?
It’s supposed to reach 70+ today and I have some ladies wanting to get a hike in so after this morning’s string piecing part of our Spanish Rose workshop and a bite of lunch, we may head up to the park to see if there are any ponies around.
Or we may do a walk that’s closer to the inn. We’ll see.
At any rate this day is full and I’m not sure if I’ll get more piecing time or not. And that’s okay!
It’s okay to step away from the machine and get some fresh air and camaraderie in!
It’s also time for this:

And the three winners of our Quilt City: Safety Second Gift-Away are:

Deborah K Cattell

Betty Jane O’Donnell

Sharon McGinnis

Ladies, thank you so much for participating! Please find my email in your inbox and reply to it with your mailing addresses and I’ll have author Bruce Leonard get your signed copies out to you.

I’ve long been a fan of Bruce’s ability to bring characters to life.

And throw in a quilting theme like a needle and thread running through everything? Perfection!

You can find the entire series HERE.

Bruce Leonard

How can you trust that Bruce GETS quilting? His wife Sedonia is a textile artist and loves to dye her own fabrics. HE gets us.

Even more exciting:

The audiobooks for the first two, Quilt City Murders, and Quilt City: Panic in Paducah, are also available.

The audiobook of Quilt City: Measure Once, Cut Twice is set to be released on March 25th.

The voice of Biz Lyon brings Hadley and her crew to life in the first two audiobooks. She’s truly talented, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the job she’s done.

I do a lot of listening to audiobooks while I drive, or sew.

If you do too, you are going to love the audiobook versions!

Yes, there is a Quilt City cook book –

And even a step away from the quilty genre with a fabulous new series featuring Jack Drake, Private Eye in Hard Exit.

And I know this is getting long, but don’t forget about this drawing happening TOMORROW!

In case you missed it – this happened and is on-going!

My Waterford PDF pattern is now available in the Quiltville Store with an automatic 25% introductory discount good through 3/31/25.

It was inspired by a tile floor I photographed on my last trip to Ireland, when we took our Craftours group to the Waterford Crystal showroom in Waterford.

Waterford measures 80” X 80”, but is easily made smaller or larger just by changing the number of blocks.

And yes, there is a Gift-Away!

I’ll be drawing for two winners who will each receive a Waterford PDF pattern from me and a Notable Neutrals fabric roll from our friends at Cotton to Quilts

We’ll draw for those winners THIS SATURDAY 3/29/25. Whew!

Is that enough for today?