Tea Time-Day 1 of the Quilters Weekend

Well, after 8 months of planning, the Mountain Meadows Quilters Retreat/Workshop has come and gone...

We only had one RV camping on the property, but, in retrospect, one was enough!!
Discovered, that with unpredictable weather, trying to put RVs in any of our fields, would probably not work out!!! This one was parked in the gravel parking area, which worked out just fine!

The tea was Friday's event - and it went off without a hitch!! I had nothing to do with that! All the credit goes to Julie and Susan!!!

Susan and Julie, of Julieanna, outdid themselves- hanging vintage quilts around the room, quilt blocks and pin cushions as table decorations - Susan even came up with a lunch plate design of finger sandwiches that looked like a quilt block!!

Vicky was the official photographer!

Bobbi and Judy

Bobbi, Judy, Effie, Karen, and Kelley in backround

Cold melon soup with a sprig of mint - delicious!!! Blueberry spritzer tea, and teacup pins for all!

the quilt block finger sandwiches- how clever is this?

Winona and Kelley

The delicious scone - we thought THIS was dessert - we were wrong!

This goes with the scone 

We had a choice of several hot teas, the cold blueberry spritzer tea was in the goblet, and 4 courses!
Susan shared the 3 proper ways to eat a scone, and there was a lovely dessert to finish off the meal, AFTER the scone!!
Somehow, I did not get a pic of that - and can't for the life of me remember what the dessert was!! But, it was GOOD!!!
I'll get back to you on that one!!!

I got to put a face to at least half the names of the people signed up for Pat Sloan's workshop that day.
It was a wonderful start to the weekend!

Stay tuned for a detailed account of the Pat Sloan Workshop coming soon!!!

The Valley Gals Get Down and Dirty!

Our monthly artsy group, The Valley Gals, met in May at Julie's fantastic "manse" on the river.
Hers is a house I have always admired from afar, long before I knew it was her house!!

On the inside, (and maybe that's just me) it has the flavor of Under the Tuscan Sun- tall ceilings with vintage furniture and trappings- to die for ! The outside looks like a newly refurbished old barn or old schoolhouse. Deceptive, since it is a new design.

 Resident kitties getting out of the rain (note the camera shy grey tabby hiding under the wood pile!)

Anyway, enough drooling about Julie's house- we were there to get down and dirty!

We all came prepared, with gardening gloves, potting soil, and plants to share.That's where the dirty comes in!!!LOL

First we had a house tour, then a lovely lunch- Julie and her friend Susan are responsible for the fantastic food and teas at their shop Julieanna, in Broadway, Va. So, we knew it would be good!!

                                                Judy taking a pic of me taking a pic of them!!
                                                    (from left- Bobbi, Judy, Susan, Julie)

                                  The luncheon table overlooking the balcony/deck and river

                                        Lunch is served- from left: Bobbi, Judy, Susan

This delish salad, with dates, strawberries, nuts, egg, drizzled with raspberry vinaigrette, and a wonderful homemade bread, warm and fresh from the oven. I am still waiting for that bread recipe!!!!

Dessert was a melt in your mouth scone, and creamy dessert- not sure what it was, but it was GOOD!

                                      Washed down with either of two homemade iced teas.

Miss Darcy retreated to the comfy couch, when she realized her cute little face was not going to get her any crumbs from the table!!

After pushing ourselves away from the table, we moved out to the deck, overlooking the river, to begin designing our planters.

 I kept glancing out, hoping to get that elusive photo op of an eagle or osprey, but it was too late in the day for any to show up.....sigh.

At our previous meeting, we each had been assigned a group of plants to bring and share, there were plenty to go around, and some leftovers.

I brought several containers to plant in -couldn't narrow it down to just ONE!- an old tea kettle, a rusty little pail, and a tabletop greenhouse that has been sitting vacant on my porch for years.

                         I didn't get a photo of all the finished containers, but here are a few.

 

All too soon, the day was over, we carted our newly planted treasures out into the drizzle to head on home.

Julie's chickens were chortling away, checking out the activity as we left.

As a follow up to this month's planting theme, in June, we will meet back at Judy's, to try our hand at making hypertufas- stay tuned!!!!

Mountain Meadows Quilters Retreat 2012

Only 4 months to go before the first Annual Quilters Retreat on Saturday, August 25th!!!!

We have the wonderful Pat Sloan teaching a 6 hour workshop!

Master rug hooker Donna Bleam will be showing her works of art!

Tasty boxed lunches available for pre-order from Turner Ham!

3 baskets of goodies will be given away to some lucky workshop attendees (including a wonderful "locavore" basket!)

Quilters' tea at Broadway's Julieanna on Friday afternoon, August 24th- Susan and Julie put on a tea you won't want to miss!!

Bring a chair and drop back Saturday evening for a bluegrass concert by the fire with Thompson Store Revival!

Limited reservations left- Pat's class will be no more than 25- to allow individual attention to all! This class is beginner on up- how to turn your stash and "trash" into beautiful quilt blocks!

Pass the word and make your reservation- I will get your info packet in the mail to you!!!

Here is the website link for further information:

Mountain Meadows Quilters Retreat 2012

Looking forward to seeing you there!!!

Crazy Quilts and Pedestals !

We recently had the third monthly get together of our ladies' artsy group- I think we decided to call ourselves "The Valley Gals" (?) We do live in the Shenandoah Valley, after all !! Judy and Bobbi started the group, invited me, and now, we have Julie and Susan- all very talented and artsy women in their own right!!!

This time, the group was to meet at my house-Yikes!!! After frantically sweeping away the dust ponies, deciding which vintage china to use for lunch, locking the dogs away, and getting all the things together to teach everyone how to upcycle and make a crazy quilt block, we were ready!!!!

I thought the upcycled china would go very quickly- really, all you do is glue! So, I pre-made 6 crazy quilt blocks for everyone to embellish. I thought the blocks would take up the majority of the time- WRONG!

Everyone got so into making pedestals- I think Judy whipped together a record 12 pieces!!! I had quite a collection of orphan plates and candlesticks to share, and everyone brought some of their own, plus glue.

It was a chilly day, but we ended up having ceiling fans going and the door open - the glue fumes were a bit much!!

After asking on FB " which dishes should I use for lunch?" - the majority voted for my first choice!
A favorite thrift store score- of 1930's/40's plates- actually pretty much everything on the table was thrifted (except for my grandmother's silverware)

          Dessert was my featherweight pound cake, with Katie's bird's nest rice krispie treats!
                  Katie also made potato salad, wraps, and 2 kinds of sweet tea. We also had fruit salad.
The bar was set kind of high - in my own mind - because Julie and Susan make such delicious goodies at Julieanna- their shop and tearoom. Plus, Judy and Bobbi had wonderful lunches also!!! Pressure!!!

From rear- Bobbi, Judy, and Julie- engrossed in the decision making of which plate to choose!

                                                     Susan's trying to decide also

With some cool octagonal plates from my stash, Bobbi designed a 3 tier server

                                   
                                   Judy matched some plates up with votive candle bases.

Some "weighty" reading material snatched from my bookshelves, to speed up the glue drying process

                                                   

                                                               LUNCH BREAK!

Now, on to the crazy quilting- I made the blocks out of pieces in my fabric stash, all with a black velvet center.Everyone brought trim, buttons, embroidery thread, and got busy.

It took Susan a while, but she finally decided on a vintage earring from my stash, and glued it on as adornment! Off to a good start!!!

This is some of the beginning stitchery on Julie's block, with MOP buttons - crazy quilting is NOT complete w/o vintage MOP buttons!!

                                                     Judy working on attaching some trim.

                                                                     Bobbi's embroidery

This is some vintage yarn and silk thread that I was using on mine. The silk thread is beautiful, but kind of sinks into the velvet.

I don't have photos of the gals' finished blocks- I will try to get them at our next meeting.

                                                     These are two of mine - almost complete:

Close up of the spiderweb, done with the white silk thread and beads. And, on the other block, a vintage dress clip.

                        Some scraps of vintage tatting, the MOP buttons and my lousy embroidery!!!

I think everyone had a good time, and went home with lots of completed goodies!!
It got me inspired to create a few more things for the shop- online and brick.

Our next meeting of the Valley Gals will be at Julie's, and we'll be making dish gardens- each of us bringing a different type of plant. The meeting after that will be at Judy's, where we will be working on some hypertufa projects!

Let's get those creative juices flowing!!!