A Colorful Sew Day with the Nuts

A colorful table setting for five on a weekend at my house can only mean one thing: Sew Day with the Twisted Nut Stitchers!

I forgot to get photos of the food, but breakfast was two quiches (spinach-cheddar and artichoke-roasted-pepper-olive-feta), sour cream cinnamon coffee cake and mixed berries. Lunch was turkey-cranberry sandwiches, grapes and freshly baked brownies. I feel about five pounds heavier already, but it sure tasted good.

Then we retired to the living room where everyone pulled out colorful finished and in-progress projects. I'm working on the placemat/table toppers above for my son's wedding this summer. Linda J. brought the very colorful coiled bowl for show-and-tell.

Linda J. is also our official bag lady because she churns out numerous colorful and highly detailed bags. Today she brought two fabulous bags -- one small and one large -- shaped like the old school lunch boxes. Inside were layers of zippered pouches that were velcroed into the bags and could be pulled out. She filled them with everything you could possibly need for a sewing retreat. The pattern was by "Patterns By Annie."

She also was working on a felt fold-over bag with this pattern, "My Favorite Sewing Bag":

It includes wool applique, piecing, quilting and a lot of special compartments for sewing retreat necessities like this little ironing pad.

Carolynn, meanwhile, continued working on her gorgeous crazy quilt for her daughter. She showed us some luscious new thread, below, called Floche by DMC, that she's using for her hand embroidery. It comes in a twisted strand rather than the typical six strands that have to be separated.

I can't remember who made the sashiko pin cushion, but it was really cute.

Linda P. worked on her hand-appliqued Christmas quilt. Here she shows how she places her freezer paper template on the back of her fabric and then paints a thin line of starch around the edges before ironing them over the pattern. After pulling out the paper, she runs a thin line of glue under the edges to hold them down during applique. Her corner of the coffee table was very colorful:

I missed getting a photo of Nancy, but she spent the whole day cutting pieces for a quilt pattern that looks like it's going to be awesome. I'm get photos when it's finished.

It was a truly inspiring day with treasured friends.

Have a colorful day