Sarah's Granny Squares

Everyone is making Granny Square's. I see them all over in blogland, and as I collect crochet ideas in my folder, there are many Granny Square patterns I have fallen in love with.
I remember GS's from the 1960's when everyone seemed to have one on the back of the couch in the den or family room.
The traditional dark colors didn't call to me.
Flash forward to today with all the fun colors in yarns, and now I want to play.

So far, my most favorite Granny Square pattern comes from Sarah London.
Sarah's coordinating white with the brights looks so clean and happy.
(*Make sure to check out her site. She has so many wonderful crochet ideas!)
I will be making one of these.
Not sure when, but it's a gotta have.

Cooler/ Cooker Bag Class at QW

Yesterday I taught a class on the Cooler/ Cooker Bags at Quilted Works here in St. George, Utah.

Very wonderful group of ladies.

I had made a store sample of the bag out of this beautiful Amy Butler midweight Quilted Works carries in their store.

The sample was in preparation to teach classes this fall.

But some of these ladies are from out of town, and wanted to know if I could do a class this week.

I said I'd be happy to.

With such an easy project, I knew they would complete right away.

There are only two pieces to cut out.

Even a beginner can do the sewing.

Quilted Works has a nice classroom with plenty of room.

QW even provided the Pfaff sewing machines.

The next step was to come over to what I called the "bean station".

Notice the high tech funnel I made out of card stock? (Hey, it works!)

Here we partially filled the bags with polystyrean beads.

Does this make us Bean Counters?

The ladies finished their bags, cleaned up and were ready to shop the store in less than 2 hours.

Easy class, and they were so excited to be able to put these in the trunk of their cars for the next grocery store run.

Here in St. George with the high summer temperatures we need something to keep our food cold during the drive home from the store.

Great job ladies!

I will be teaching more classes in the fall. If you are interested, make sure to come in/or call Quilted Works to sign up.

*They will also be putting together kits.

Crocheted Stones

I have been looking for little projects to crochet. Something simple that hopefully a beginner (like me) could accomplish.
Something that wouldn't cost too much $$, and yet be somewhat original in ideas.

Look at these wonderful little earthy stones!
Love them. Very organic looking.
Original idea by Margaret Oomen, with a free tutorial provided by Purl Bee.

They call them Little Urchin Crochet Covered Sea Stones.
Takes me back to my childhood of being raised near the ocean, and looking for shells along the beach.

*The Purl Bee is out of New York. They are one of my favorite sites for creative new ideas. You can find them on my sidebar.

Do you think Mr. Cactus will see me as odd for crocheting rocks and placing them around the house?

It's a Jungle Out There

Our good friends the Sears stayed with us this weekend.
It's been a lot of fun being with their family.

On Friday night we went to Tuacahn Amphitheatre and saw the musical Tarzan.
Tuacahn is only about a 10 minute drive from our house, and we feel very fortunate to have such wonderful theatre near our home.
Excellent production, and one that I would recommend attending if you have the chance.

Tuacahn is a 2,000 seat outdoor theatre that sits below 1,500 ft. red sandstone cliffs,and is often referred to as Broadway In The Desert.

Very hunky James Royce Edwards played the roll of Tarzan

There was a lot of aerial choreography that was quite impressive.

Our only discomfort was the temperature that hovered over 100 degrees.

Frozen lemonades helped.

The rest of the weekend was spent golfing, swimming, playing games and lots of food.

Lori Holt's recipe for Hawaiian Haystacks were a hit.

The house was full of a lot of laughter and silliness.

Judi with 4 of her 5 children.

Who ended up acting like monkeys.

Must have been the Tarzan influence.

Another Butterfly Quilt

When I was visiting with Susann at her retreat, one of her cousins was working on a butterfly quilt.

I love this version too, especially how she used various chenille's and textured fabrics for the butterfly's bodies. (Which was her own inspriation).

With the added antenna's these actually look a little more like butterflies than the quilt that I just finished.

The pattern comes from a book by Indygo Junction called My Garden Best

Look at this cute ruffly body.

You don't need much for these little pieces. This would be fun quilt to do as a group and trade body fabrics.

Susann's cousin shared with me pictures she had taken of a few other My Garden Best quilts done in various fabrics.

I thought one butterfly quilt was going to be plenty for my collection.

Now that I've seen this, I may have to flutter around and start spying out fabrics for version 2.

Susann's Retreat

My friend Susann has been in town this last week on a retreat with her sisters and cousins. Fortunately for me, the house they rented is right near my home, and I've been able to run over and say hello a few times.

Susann

This is their 18th year of going away on a retreat together.

Tables have been set up in the family room.

Some like to quilt, others work on digital scrap booking.

Between working on projects the ladies took time for shopping, swimming at the pool, and going to Tuacahn for a play.
Retreats are the best.

I thought you might like to see some of their quilts and projects that have been put together this last week.

Crossroads Quilt

Thread Catcher

Look at these cute little baby shoes!

Thanks ladies for sharing with us

Baby Granny Stripe Afghan

About a month ago I started crocheting a baby sized Granny Stripe afghan, and I now have a finish.
I wrote about the beginnings on post 6/19/10.
Lucy of Attic 24 was my inspiration, and offered a free tutorial. Her afghan is bed sized, and she just wrote today of her finish, too.

Finished size 42" X 35"
For my first real crochet project since high school (and we won't mention how long ago THAT was!), I really enjoyed making this baby afghan.
So relaxing just to sit in a chair and visit or watch TV while I worked.

Stephanie left a comment and called these
Candy Store Colors.
I agree! These are much brighter than I usually work with, but I fell in love with all the wonderful colors of yarn now on the market.

Anna shared that Amy Butler has designed her own Belle Organic yarns for Rowan. I love her fabrics and patterns so I know I will love her yarn. I must run over and check out her projects, too.
I'm already perusing blog sites looking for my next project to crochet, and have gathered quite a few ideas. I'll be sharing some pictures of my finds with you soon.