2024 Fall Quilt Retreat, part 1...

This is a photo of the quilt I worked on at our 2021 Fall Quilt Retreat.  I haven't attended since then due to the retreat logistics, work, etc.

But, it is that time of year again, and I'm retired now (for the most part), so off I go!  Our fearless quilt-group leader has scouted out a new retreat that is all on one level, so no pesky stairs to maneuver.  Yay!

What am I taking to work on this year?  You're lookin' at it!  I will take this again, and may work on it only.  Someday I will get it finished.  I only promised it to someone 24 years ago!  

This quilt top was made by the grandmother of my bestest childhood friend, and when we attended her 25th anniversary and vow renewal in November of 2000, she took me into a spare bedroom and handed me the top, saying I was the only person she knew who would know anything about finishing it.  

Oh, how I LOOONNNGGGGG for the day I can hand it back to her done, and not have it on my conscience any longer!  On the other hand, I absolutely adore the bow-tie pattern and working on it.  It's very difficult to hand quilt at home, because I don't want Rudy under my feet and laying on the corners, etc.

I'll be back in a few days...hopefully with some progress to show! 

Monday at the library...

Terrible washed-out photo because of bad lighting.

Went to quilting group at the library today.  I'm pretty hit or miss with it since retiring, as last month I was working on its scheduled day, and next month I'll be working as well.  Now that the  nine patch squares above are sewn together, I will be cutting them apart and adding other squares and sashing before I'm done.  Could be another five years or so.  😂  But seriously, I hope not, but...

What I did on my autumn vacation...

Hope everyone is well and has yet to give up on my sporadic blogging.  Thanks for the reminder to get back to it, Barbara!  :) 

I've been on vacation this week, and spent 4 days at quilt retreat with my library quilting group.  I worked on this much-delayed work in progress.  The bow tie quilt top was pieced by the grandmother of my longest-term friend...not to be confused with my oldest friend.  ;)  She handed it to me 21 years ago and asked me to finish it.  Twenty-one years!  I am so ashamed that I didn't finish it and return it to my friend decades ago!

I've always loved bow-tie quilts, and wanted to quilt this one by hand rather than have it machine quilted which was part of what led to the delay.  I tried to give it back to her at one point, but she wouldn't take it.  We've been friends since the 5th grade, so since I've always been a procrastinator she had reason to know this was a possibility.  

I started the hand quilting of it on the first day of the retreat in a wooden hoop, but that was pretty horrible.  On the second day I phoned Carey and asked him very nicely if he would meet me half way and  bring my PVC standing quilt frame.  The retreat was over 2 hours from our home, so the rest of the group was mightily impressed when he said he would.  Such a sweetie!  When assembled this frame is about the size of a card table, so gave me much more work area and much less frustration.

I made good progress on it, but still have a long ways to go.  I'll keep you updated.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

I came home Tuesday and started (and finished) a book that a friend recommended at retreat: The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes.  Hard to put down.  About the Pack Horse Library Project which was a WPA project started in the 1930s.  The ebook was available through my library.

This morning I remembered to log on to work system and complete our insurance selections before the open enrollment period ends tomorrow.  Carey will be retiring at the end of the year (though he only has to work for another week and a half in actual days on the job), so have to make sure we both have coverage starting January 1.

Tomorrow I have a doctor appointment, and then hope to go get my Covid booster on the way home.

Not sure yet what the weekend will bring other than the normal work-week laundry.  Hopefully it will also bring some more hand quilting...don't want that to get pushed aside as I would really like to complete it before the end of the year.

Making it Monday (Christmas Eve edition)...

So I finished binding all the kids' quilts with an hour to spare.  I had so effectively procrastinated...cough, cough...that I had to do all the binding on the machine (I usually do the last step by hand).  By the time I was done, I had gotten pretty good at making it invisible.  I guarantee the kids will never know any different, and, on the upside, it is probably more sturdy.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, as I was about halfway around in the final step of binding the third quilt, I realized that the bobbin was making a sound like it was getting critically low on thread.  I was so exhausted and just did not want to stop to reload the bobbin, so there was a lot of, 'oh please, please, please be enough on there to finish.'  There was...just barely.  And the spool was almost as low as the bobbin!

We had our Christmas together combined with Sunday family supper at Kasey and Beau's.  Beau cooked a prime rib on the grill.  Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious.

We also played a game of Not Parent Approved.  No skill required, and good for a few laughs.  Beau, who never wants to play games with us, loves this game.  :)

Now I have some breathing room.  I have two more quilts to bind but not a huge rush.  Then maybe I will have some time to read or cross-stitch or take a nap.  :)

Edited to add:  I had intended this to get posted Monday morning, but I forgot to hit 'publish.'  Earlier today I received a text from Kasey with two photos, saying this was how she found the girls when she went in to wake them this morning..."wrapped in Grandma's love."

Made my heart happy!  :)

Home again, home again...

The fall quilt retreat was very productive for me.  I took a lot of projects that I had started at other retreats, but just hadn't ever quite finished up.

#1

This black and white starburst was pieced at a previous retreat.  This year I added the black border.

#2

This one is called Tag Team and is a Missouri Star pattern.  It has been sitting in its project box mostly done, but with a few rows of pieced blocks to be sewn onto the top.  This retreat I finished that up, and I added the two borders.

#3

This Meadow Mist 2016 Mystery Quilt has also been sitting in its box waiting for me to make a decision about borders.  I took it with me determined to just get it done!

#4

This jelly roll race I had done on a library quilting day awhile back.  It was smaller than I wanted, so this retreat saw it getting cut into two pieces (zip zip!) and I added the strip of blue with lighter squares pieced into it.

#5

Same issue with this jelly roll race, which was completed at a previous retreat in a 'race competition' (which I didn't win...ha!).  For this one I cut a narrow strip off of one side and then used a seam ripper to separate the top portion, and then inserted an aqua stripe, the portion that had been cut from the side, and another aqua stripe.  Not sure how I feel about this one, but i think after it is quilted and has an aqua binding added to it that it will be okay.

#6

This Irish Chain was started and finished yesterday, then I added the borders this morning.  The pieced top looks a little washed out in this photo, but it is very pretty in person.  It may be my favorite.  :)

#7

I think I finished this half-square-triangle top at the first retreat I went to.  All it needed was to have a piece of flannel pieced to fit for its backing.  That little chore is now done.

I have already called the long-arm quilter and made an appointment to take all of these to her for quilting.  Six are intended for Christmas gifts, and I will have to hustle to get them all bound.  The #7 is a throw intended for our sofa.  

I am SO excited at having these ready to quilt!  I'll be even happier when they are bound, wrapped, and under the tree!

Yesterday...

Yesterday was one of my busy days that are necessitated by my procrastinating ways.

I started early getting onions in the slow cooker to cook for 13 hours.  The Beef & Winter Vegetable Stew (which I'm making at the quilt retreat on Sunday) calls for 2 cans of condensed French Onion Soup.  But since one of our group has a pretty severe gluten allergy, and since the canned/condensed isn't one that Campbell's certifies as gluten free, I decided to make my own.  The onions are now cooked and stored.  I didn't add the broth, as I figured it would be easier to transport it packaged from the store and add once we get to the retreat location.

I also browned the stew meat, vacuum sealed it, and put it in the freezer to keep till needed.  I froze it pretty much in a single layer so it will thaw quickly.

I chopped the vegetables for the retreat soup and vacuum sealed those as well.  Now MOST everything is ready to just assemble in the slow cooker once there.

I did laundry.

I changed the bed.

I decided on what projects to work on at retreat, and all the individual project boxes are stacked and ready to put in the car.  I decided to work almost solely on WIPs (works in progress) and will  hopefully come home with several ready to take to be machine quilted.  Finishing that last little bit to make them ready to quilt is another thing I procrastinate on...therefore I have a lot of WIPs to take with me.  All should be fairly quick things, like putting on borders and piecing the backing fabrics.

I went to the city to drop off Goodwill donations that have been in the back of my car waiting to be dropped off for far too long.  I wasn't about to take the several boxes and bags of donations back into the house, and really needed my car empty so I could pack it with sewing machine, projects, and groceries.

While I was in the city, I purchased a few things I needed for the weekend...bobbins and needles and threads...oh my!  I want to have lots of bobbins already filled so I can just change them out as I empty one without having to stop and refill one at a time.

Today I am working, so I won't be doing much prep work at all today.  Maybe run to the grocery on my lunch hour to pick up some apples.  And then maybe I'll get those bobbins filled this evening.

No time for reading Wednesday...

There's been a little bit of this...a very little bit...just trying to learn how to use the new machine which I finally took out of the box!  It's the new version of the Singer Featherweight.  I haven't heard great things about modern Singers for years, but a very talented friend who teaches sewing techniques purchased this model within the past year, and she has been pleased.  Since I wanted it to be portable enough to pack around for quilting group and retreats, I went for this one.  (Plus my very talented friend will be available for any questions.  LOL)

There's been a lot of this...on a couple of different projects.

A little progress shown here...you probably can't tell what it is yet.  I'll show you...eventually.  :)

 

Then there's been some of this.  The white beads are seed beads.  I have no idea what fresh hell those teeny-tiny red beads are named for...poppy seeds maybe...or celery seeds...so very tiny.  And when I finished separating those...

...there were more...so very many more.  And these are the kinds of things I choose to undertake at 3 a.m....the dark of night...on black background.  Yes.  I'm crazy that way.

Ah!  All sorted and contained.  

And that is why I haven't been reading much.  It's hard to read when your eyes are strained!

Decisions, decisions...

I couldn't motivate myself to pull fabrics to try out for borders.  Frankly if I pulled even one fabric right now a stack of junk would probably fall over on me.

So the lazy way was to take the photograph of the squares and doodle on them in different colors.  I'm still leaning towards the blues, but the black and the yellow in the top photos are not bad.

Vote for your favorite, please.  :)

Making it Monday...

Today was quilting day at the library.  For the past few months we have been making 12 1/2" blocks to exchange.  Oh, and they were to be stash-buster squares, so made only with fabric we had on hand, nothing purchased.  

Each member made two blocks per month...collected and held by our fearless leader...with there eventually being twelve in total from each person.  The photo above shows them all laid out on a table this morning awaiting the exchange process.  

We drew blocks at random from each person's contributed blocks, so each of us has at least one from every other member.  Then what was left we drew at random so that we all had twelve.

These are the blocks that I received.  I ended up with two of my own; the spool (2nd column, 2nd row) and the butterfly (bottom right corner).  We are to have all squares assembled by our next meeting on December 4th.  How we assemble them is left up to us.  I am pretty sure I will be adding sashing and borders, but I haven't even thought about colors or designs, since I wasn't sure what colors would be dominant in the squares I ended up with.  Now I'm thinking maybe blue and white for sashing and borders.

These are not necessarily in their permanent locations, but I love the way they all look together.  I'll post when it's finished.

Home again, home again...

I arrived home from our quilt retreat this afternoon.

I made a lot of these 12.5 x 12.5 spool squares with different 'thread' colors.  These are for a group project that I had fallen behind on.  All caught up now.  :)

You've seen these Tag Team squares before here.  I made a lot more of them the last few days.  Then I laid them all out and started the process of joining them.  

 I joined all the squares into rows, then started joining rows into sections. I have a few more rows to join, then assemble the sections and add some borders before it can go to be quilted.  

I suppose I could have gotten more done, but I'm happy as it stands.  I also had some reading time, some video time, yummy meals, and lots of fun girl time.

Perhaps the best part of going away is coming home, and tonight I can't wait to sleep in my own bed!  :)

Tip of the week...

I purchased these Shout brand Color Catchers to use when washing new quilts to help keep dark colors from bleeding onto light colors.  They have been in a drawer for a long time.

I recently ordered some long-sleeved tops for fall/winter in darker colors...reds, greens, navy.  A couple of them were navy and white.  I was afraid they might be ruined in their first wash, so I pulled the Color Catchers out of the drawer and put two in washer with a full load of dark clothing (the new tops along with older dark clothing).  

A new color catcher is in the photo above on the left.  The two I washed with this load are on the right.  Quite a difference.  I'm not sure how these work, but they do seem to work.  The fabric of all the clothing came out perfectly with no tinting or bleeding.  Quite happy with this product.

Just drop one in the washer (2 for a large load with quite a few new, unwashed colors), add the laundry and detergent, and wash.  Discard after using.

Design wall construction...

I have had the materials to make a design wall for months (4'x8' insulation boards, batting, staple gun), but kept putting it off.  Today I admitted that I was not going to get it done on my own, so I enlisted Carey's help...which is a good thing, because he had trouble with the stapler, so there is no way I could have used it.  Plus it was invaluable to have someone for me to instruct and supervise.  (It brings to mind the time I explained to Caitlyn that the headband we made was TOTALLY her design, I just executed it.  LOL)

The second one went together quicker and easier than the first.  Now they are both in the sewing room, though not really in their permanent spot yet.

They are, however, perfectly capable of being put into use, which is good, because I could not make any further progress on this quilt top until I could lay it out.  And literally 'laying' it out wasn't an option with Rudy running around.  :)  I am thrilled to have them up and in service!

Making it Monday...

Today was quilting day at the library.  Most everyone was working on a mystery quilt.  I did a different mystery quilt a year or so ago, and didn't really want to do one again right now.

I worked on these butterfly blocks for a shared project the group is working on.  Each person is doing whatever block pattern they want as long as they are all the exact same size (12 ½ inches square), and made with scraps from our collection (no buying fabric to make them).  In a few months we will exchange so that everybody has one of each from everybody else, then we will each make a quilt top with all the different squares combined in it, so that each square in the quilt top is a different pattern and from a different person…kind of a keepsake quilt of our time together.  Each quilt will be different since we will each choose how we want to put our own block 'sampler' together.

Everybody else had done their exchange squares (2 of which were due today) at home.  I did the piecing at home, but I hand embroidered the antennae while at the library, because there are just some days I don't feel like packing up and loading and unloading my machine in and out of the car.  :)  When I was done with that I helped my neighbor un-sew a couple of boo-boos.  It was the least I could do, as she was falling behind due to my talking her ear off.

I love the first Monday of the month!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl...

Today is Kasey's birthday.  It's one of those monumental ones.  One of those that may make the birthday girl feel old, but it makes her mother feel ancient!

I delivered a quilt (along with a favorite pie) for her birthday.  It's one Carey's mother pieced in the '90s. She actually made two tops...this one is a throw size that she never had quilted...the other is a full size that she had quilted and used on her bed for many years.  They are both in the same fabrics and pattern.  Carey's mom cut and pieced each hexagon by hand.  I believe she bought the pink background fabric, but the prints were from a friend's scrap stash.  Did I mention that Carey's mother had never quilted, or even sewn much before?   Did I mention that she has never quilted or sewn since?  :)

When she was moving out of her house and downsizing, she gave me this unquilted throw-sized top.  I had it machine quilted last year.  I decided that it would make a special gift for this special birthday, so I took it to the quilt retreat in February to work on the binding, and finished all but the hand sewing.

I was up all night last night putting a label on it and finishing the binding by hand...because that's just the kind of procrastinator that I am.  Now I get to mark another quilt off my goal list for the year.  Woohoo!

Making it Monday...

Today was quilting day at the library.  I couldn't find the pattern for what I needed to be working on, so I picked up my WIP (work in progress) box containing Radio Days.  This one was started not long after I joined the library quilting group, so that's about two years now...it's a very low-priority project.  I've got eight squares done now, but it's going back in its box, since I have something more important to work on...if I could just find that darn pattern.

Happily, I thought to email the group last night asking if anyone else had the project book it was in (since I couldn't find mine), and one did and brought it.  Now I think I have everything assembled to get started on it.

I've been working on the office/craft room lately.  I'm still sorting through the books in the bookcases.  I'm hoping to reduce the numbers by at least half.  Then I will move my fabric stash onto the shelves.  My goal is to get my sewing machine set up permanently in there along with a design wall.  And I have a fabulous ironing table (on order from a friend's husband) that will need a home too.  It was the orginal impetus to get the craft room organized, because they said they will deliver it when it's done, and I didn't want them to see the room like it has been looking for the past few eons (not to mention that there probably wouldn't be room to get the ironing table into the room!)

Supper is in the Ninja slow cooker thanks to Carey, so maybe I will get off the computer and head back to the bookcases for awhile.  That is, if I can get Rudy to unpin my legs.

Home from winter quilt retreat...

I had a very productive weekend.  I took lots of works in progress.

(crib quilt)

(table topper)

 By the time I was on the third and largest of the binding projects, I was getting pretty tired of binding!  :)  I stuck it out by rewarding myself with one m&m each time I removed another Wonder Clip.  I worked on this one while we were all watching the Oscars, and I finished it just before the Best Picture debacle.

This one needs a border, but then it will be ready to go out for machine quilting.

Since today was a short sewing day before packing up to come home, I wanted just a little project.  Today I begged some of my fellow quilters for their scraps, and I made some fabric origami butterflies.  I've been wanting to try my hand at making them for awhile, but hadn't gotten around to it.  The antennae in the photo above were edited in since I didn't know I would be making any of these.  In addition to the one above, I made some cute ones out of St. Patrick's Day fabric.

And to share some of the gorgeous things the other quilters worked on at the retreat...

This one was made by Caroline.  I love the pink fabrics.

Laura finished up her Hunter's Star.  Can you see the arrow heads?

Debbie finished up this gorgeous blue and white one.

I'm glad to be home, and Rudy is glad I'm home too.  I think we will both go to bed early tonight!