Home and Away

This is where I was last Saturday, a church camp on the shore of Green Lake, at a meeting of the Wisconsin Quilt Study Group.  We had gathered for a retreat to learn about quilt history and enjoy each other's company.  (Click HERE to go to our web page, currently under construction.)

We met in the chapel on the grounds, which has huge windows to let in light and scenery.  These items were part of the silent auction.  It was great fun, and raised over $600 for our group.

So that's my excuse for not blogging last week.  While I was at the retreat I was knitting hats in odd moments to add to this collection.  The hats will go to the Mittens and More drive sponsored by Milwaukee Public Television.  You can click HERE to go to their web page if interested.  The drive ends on November 4th (which they don't tell you on the web page).  There are collection places all over the greater Milwaukee area.  Some of these hats and the little mittens were finished last year, but not in time to turn in.  The hats and mittens go to kids who need them, at no charge.

Here's my loot from the retreat!  Check out the water bottle.  My awesome roommate Cathy made and applied the logo herself to enough water bottles for the whole group (!), filled them with candy (!!) and wrapped each in a fat quarter (!!!).  I got the plaid fat quarter from our super speaker, Sharon Pinka, and bought the rest of the fabric at two different quilt stores.  I'm not going to run out of cute stuff any time soon.

I did finish a quilt in the last two weeks.  It's another baby-sized quilt for charity, made from 2.5 in. strips.  Each block has an equal amount of light and dark fabric, so it was fun pairing up the strips and using them up.

Mr. Biddy is checking it out.  I got this pattern from a super scrap quilter in our local guild, who saw it somewhere on line.  If you know the name of this pattern or where it originated, could you tell me in the comments?  I like to give credit where credit is due, if I can.

Speaking of credit, the free pattern for the quilt above comes from the Moda Bakeshop, and you can find it HERE.  I made the top for charity last year (larger than the original), and the wonderful long arm ladies at our quilt guild got the quilting done.  This week I finally bound it, and it's ready to go to a new home.

It's a twin size, with lots of florals in the blocks.

Isn't this purple backing great?  You can see the quilting here, it's done in lavender thread.

We went to the apple orchard this week, and my little buddy got to get up close to his favorite thing on earth--a tractor!  He also got a free apple to eat from the nice people at Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon, Wisconsin.

Here's what I got--apples!  A bushel of Cortlands to can for pies and crisps, plus some Honey Crisps and Golden Delicious for eating, and even some pears to eat fresh.

I had better get to work on those apples!
Have a wonderful weekend, a Happy Halloween, and a great week ahead.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

 Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (check out her giant pin cushion!)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap