I am packing my project boxes for the Shipshewana Retreat next month. It begins in just 5 weeks. I can hardly wait. The little boys will be home in their own home for 2 whole weeks and I get to play with my friends. How does one decide what projects to pack into a car and drive 7 hours into the next country 2 states from the border? Five whole days of stitching. I have limited space in my mid sized car with 2 others and their stuff and room for all our shopping.
I have my BTCT box for some hand work. This is the Beyond the Cherry Trees Quilt block of the month that sentimentalstitches had a few years ago. I bought the whole digital pattern and started in June 2014. I have 20 blocks complete. Five almost done and 2 not yet started. Then there will be the borders. Four of them. My OMG for this month is to complete these 3, then I will pull out the other 2 that are half done and get them ready to have some hand work for next month.
Dear-daughter-block-of-the-month launches this week. There are over 800 members in the facebook group. I rummaged through my fabric cupboard and came up with a whole bin of reproduction fabrics dated 1830s and 1840s. I am using a Kona Snow background because I have enough and years ago I bought the rest of the bolt of a blue print from one of the Sturbridge Village Blues collections I can use for the sashing. There are broderie perse options here. Still undecided if I will do hand applique or raw edged machine applique.
I think I will be taking 2 machines. One for applique and one for piecing. I cannot sit at one for hours or days at a time but have to change up what I will be doing. I thought I could take a whole bunch of Bright Jane blocks. But all that foundation piecing takes its toll on my arthritic hands. My best to date total is 7 blocks in a day.
I had initially thought I would take the 150 Canadian Women box and see how many of those 6 inch blocks I could make. Still thinking about this since I only made a few blocks last year after cutting out lots of pieces with my GO cutter. There is no foundation piecing on this one. Have to find the box first.
I have all the machine applique to do on these Huguegnot Friendship Quilt . I am still considering using silk thread and doing a very simple straight stitch. Some doing these laser cut blocks are doing elaborate painting and machine embroidery. This is a "squirrel" quilt to be made quickly.
Not to forget my Morrell Quilt. I have all the saw-tooth blocks prepped with foundation patterns ready to go. I plan to add a few broderie perse appliques from Di Ford-Hall's Bally Hall Birds collection. The colours are perfect.
In the meantime, I have been machine quilting on my Dear Jane quilt this week. Not excited about how the thread tension is behaving. The Brother rebelled and would not drop its feed dogs nor pull all the bulk nicely. So, I switched over to the Bernina.
I have my BTCT box for some hand work. This is the Beyond the Cherry Trees Quilt block of the month that sentimentalstitches had a few years ago. I bought the whole digital pattern and started in June 2014. I have 20 blocks complete. Five almost done and 2 not yet started. Then there will be the borders. Four of them. My OMG for this month is to complete these 3, then I will pull out the other 2 that are half done and get them ready to have some hand work for next month.
Dear-daughter-block-of-the-month launches this week. There are over 800 members in the facebook group. I rummaged through my fabric cupboard and came up with a whole bin of reproduction fabrics dated 1830s and 1840s. I am using a Kona Snow background because I have enough and years ago I bought the rest of the bolt of a blue print from one of the Sturbridge Village Blues collections I can use for the sashing. There are broderie perse options here. Still undecided if I will do hand applique or raw edged machine applique.
I think I will be taking 2 machines. One for applique and one for piecing. I cannot sit at one for hours or days at a time but have to change up what I will be doing. I thought I could take a whole bunch of Bright Jane blocks. But all that foundation piecing takes its toll on my arthritic hands. My best to date total is 7 blocks in a day.
I had initially thought I would take the 150 Canadian Women box and see how many of those 6 inch blocks I could make. Still thinking about this since I only made a few blocks last year after cutting out lots of pieces with my GO cutter. There is no foundation piecing on this one. Have to find the box first.
I have all the machine applique to do on these Huguegnot Friendship Quilt . I am still considering using silk thread and doing a very simple straight stitch. Some doing these laser cut blocks are doing elaborate painting and machine embroidery. This is a "squirrel" quilt to be made quickly.
In the meantime, I have been machine quilting on my Dear Jane quilt this week. Not excited about how the thread tension is behaving. The Brother rebelled and would not drop its feed dogs nor pull all the bulk nicely. So, I switched over to the Bernina.
I bought tickets to see the musical "Half Stitched". It is a quilting themed story set in Shipshewana Amish country. I saw it a couple of years ago in Ohio with a bunch of Guernsey dairy farmers. One of the guys said he was watching me as I watched the show and he said I was having way too much fun. And I was. Really. This time I got us front row seats. Hope that is not too close. They had a whole array of antique quilts decorating the set but we were not allowed to touch any of them. Check it out here.
Blessings,
Chris
Wow! Are you going to take all of those to work on? Those are some serious projects to finish - have fun!
ReplyDeleteHaven't decided yet on all I will take and finishing is not the intent but progressing several projects since I will have 5 whole days to work on them. And I certainly intend to have fun. I plan to take my bathing suit to spend time n the pool.
DeleteWill be anxious to see the projects that you complete. Nice projects that you have been working on! Have fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am not intending to compete them yet.
DeleteI'm so impressed that you have room for 2 more people in your car with all the stuff! I'm prepping for my retreat too. Hopefully we'll have spring weather in 5 weeks. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteWe better have better weather but I will be leaving the snow tires on.
DeleteI can’t get over the array of beautiful projects you have on the go. What lovely fabrics you have chosen too. Good luck with the packing and have fun at the retreat!
ReplyDeleteThank you. There are so many beautiful quilt projects out their and I want to make every one.
DeleteI'm impressed you're even thinking about what to bring yet. LOL!!Retreats are so fun and it's so nice to have the interruptions of laundry ect. :) :)
ReplyDeleteI spend a lot of time sitting in my happy chair here and have lots of time to think. If I wait until the last minute I will plan poorly and forget things. Also, belonging to a few monthly goal groups has me planning ahead to meet my goals.
DeleteI would love to see more fully what is in your BTCT box. It looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteGo have yourself a great retreat! It is smart to plan ahead to prepare for it. I have found if I take several things I get more done and have choices.
I will do another blog post about it after I complete the 3 blocks. I will put it on the wall again so I can look at it again an again.
DeleteI would love to see that musical - sounds fun! And what a quilt to have bothersome machine/tension issues with!!! I have my Dear Jane on my UFO challenge list, and at the beginning of the year I hoped its number would get drawn way at the end of the year, but now I find myself hoping it'll come up next. :D
ReplyDelete