Lutherdale Retreat 2016

Last weekend I went to my annual retreat at Lutherdale Camp.  It's 5 days of non-stop sewing-- well, we stop for meals, but we don't have to cook them!!  I didn't have a large project that I wanted to devote time to, so I worked on completing some UFO's, making smaller projects and started one new project.  It was a fun time (as usual!) and just like other years, I didn't want to leave!

The first project I started with was to make a new sewing tool caddy.  I made one of these many years ago and it was officially worn out! I used a Kim Shaefer fat quarter and added a binding to the top edge of the vinyl.

The next project was to make up a few scissor cozies and an earbud case.  These are gifts for friends and take a deceptively long time to make. =)

Next up was adding sashing and borders to this baby quilt. I stitched the stripey/blue parts together as a leader ender last fall.  (The original post about it is here.)  I plan to donate this to Project Linus when it's complete.

Next up was to "finish" Mail Sack, a tote bag that I thought I had started a few years ago.  Well-- I hadn't started it at all!!  I just had the fabric and the pattern! I first made one for my mother in 2013 (I'm unable to find finished photos of it, but I know they exist!).  This took me nearly an entire day!! There is an inset zipper pocket and some other pockets.  Mad skills!

On Friday night, we had a drawing for raffle items.  One member of the group solicited prizes from different companies and we were able to buy tickets with the proceeds going to the camp.  I made out quite well!!!  

The last project that I worked on was a new quilt!  Woot!  The pattern is Cluck Cluck Sew's Pow Pow and I'm using a fat quarter bundle of Kim Shaefer fabrics and Kona Coal for the background.  I'm having some technical difficulties with this-- I won't go into the details right now.

Well-- this was part of the technical difficulties:

My 1/4" foot broke and the needle got lodged into the foot!  Yucky!!  I had another foot, but it had the "knife edge" and it isn't something I'm accustomed to using.

This is a long post with lots of pictures!  I'll wrap up with some photos of others at the retreat with their quilt tops.

Anna and her jelly roll quilt

 

Mary and 2 tops she completed

I'm practically counting down the days until next year's retreat!!! =)

xoxo

2016 - The year of the UFO?

Happy New Year! 



I'm very excited to start the year and have a great attitude about the next 365 days.  With the big change of moving last July, I am just now starting to feel settled in to my new home (and sewing room!!).

Project-wise, I'm not in the middle of anything right now.  It's a funny place for me to be!  I normally have something going and something queued up (or started before the prior project is complete!).

I finished Maize Maze in early December and hoped to quilt it over Christmas.  Due to technical difficulties with my mom's longarm, I didn't get to quilt it.  =(

I finished the top for Elephant Parade on the same day as I put the final borders on Maize Maze, so add this to the list of tops waiting to quilt...

Speaking of...  While at my parent's over Christmas, I pulled out two tops that are waiting to be quilted: My bed quilt and a civil war throw.  I didn't have a good picture of my bed quilt (it's been hibernating for years)!! And I don't know that I have any of this throw.  It was a kit that my Aunt Nancy gifted me several years ago.  I put it together super quickly and I have grand plans of quilting it in beautiful all over victorian feathers.  One little problem-- I'm not quite skilled enough to quilt it the way I want to.  =(  It looks like it will make a warm snuggly couch throw, perfect for this time of year.  I'm tempted to quilt it with a panto and 'git 'er done'.

I spent a good part of yesterday in my sewing room enjoying a commitment free Saturday.  I pulled out one of my UFO's, 'Cartwheels'.  I've been working on this for a few years now and I'm hoping to get the top complete.  I added the outer filmstrip border and just need to do one more border of lime green.

 

This list of quilts is just a portion of my UFO's and I'm hoping to finish more than I start this year.  All People Quilt is challenging us to make progress getting things complete and I'll use their chart, but I'm not sure I'll take part in the contest.

Thanks for visiting!  I'll wrap up by sharing a cute picture of Finn from yesterday.  The sun was pouring in the sewing room and he was very happy to sunbathe!

Quilty Weekend

I've had a pretty good quilty weekend!  It started right after work on Friday night.  Gael from Mad Mod is generously letting members use her luxe longarm to quilt charity quilts.  I was a little nervous about using a different machine and of all the negative space on the quilt, so I decided to do a panto.  Good call, because I didn't have to invest much mental energy into the design.  It turned out v. cute (if I do say so myself!).

On Saturday morning I attended a board meeting for the Mad City Quilt Guild.  I'm very thankful to be involved with such wonderful people.  They are respectful, open to new ideas, intelligent and very generous with their time. Until I had a conversation with somebody recently, I took this for granted.  Go, Mad City Quilters!  You rock!

After the meeting, I swung by Stitcher's Crossing.  I requested them to carry Essex Linen in 'Steel' and they called me on Friday to let me know it came in.  Woot!!!  I have no idea what I'm going to use it for, but I can't wait!  I went on a bit of a shopping spree... 2 yds Essex Linen in Steel, 1 yd in Taupe, a bunch of fat quarters and other bolt ends.

My plans were to go home and fire up my machine.  Unfortunately, I was wiped out and couldn't muster much energy.  A napped fixed that!  But then I spent 2 hours trying to understand my new camera-- I'm getting there!  I managed to make the quadrants for the last 2 cartwheel blocks and pull some fabrics for February Block Lotto blocks.

All in all, a great quilty weekend!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash!

Saturday Sewing Solitary Style

Last week, after spending 5 days at retreat sewing with 40 ladies, I took a little time on Saturday to be by myself. It was almost like my own personal retreat, because I didn't really do anything else all day except create.  

The most important project of the day was to prep for a paper piecing demo I am doing on Monday night for the Mad City Quilt Guild.  We are having a 'Schoolhouse' night.  Four people are presenting on different topics.  The members divide into 4 groups and rotate through each presenter's station.  I only have 15 minutes to explain paper piecing!  Gulp!  This is going to be hard!  My plan is to display a string of flying geese at each step of the process.

Over 1 year ago, I made a Circle of Geese mini quilt.  It was done except for having the binding hand stitched.  It's a great sample for my presentation, so I took the time to finish it.  Hmm.  The chalk marks are showing up in this picture?

Next up was to work on using up scraps in Rainbow String Blocks.  My scrap bins are overflowing, so I thought this quilt would help tame them.  Four blue blocks later and there isn't a visible difference. =(  I was thinking I would make 12 diamonds and donate it to charity.

Last up was to work on my Cartwheel quilt.  I got the quadrants complete on block number 10.  Only 2 more blocks after that!  Yay!

And that is when I was too tired to sew any more.  What a great day!

xoxo

Retreat Wrap Up!!!

I'm excited to share stories and projects that I worked on at my annual retreat at Lutherdale Bible Camp in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  This is my 6th year (I think?) going and I had a great time!

Per usual, I brought a million projects to work on:

(that is only the luggage for projects! no machine/cutting mat/notions/etc)

Not per usual, I feel like I got my fill of sewing!  For the first time, I arrived on Wednesday, instead of Thursday and that made all the difference.  In the past, I felt like by Sunday, I was just hitting my stride and it was time to pack up.  This year, I was sewed out by mid-day on Sunday.  Yay!

The biggest project I worked on was a bed quilt for Sylvie (friend's 10 year old daughter).  This quilt has been taking much longer than I expected and I really wanted to be able to wrap it up.  It still needs borders, but I'm thrilled to have accomplished as much as I did.  I spent half of Thursday and ALL of Friday working on it.  By all, I mean 8 am to 11 pm!!! Yikes!  Here it is:

Quilt retreats are like marathons.  You don't want to start running at full speed.  You need a warm up!  My warm up was to do a few more blocks on my Cartwheels quilt.  I'm up to 9 blocks complete and want to do at least 3 more.

(pardon the instagram filter-- this photo is a bit washed out)

As a bit of  late night diversion, I decided to attempt a fabric bowl.  I started this at midnight on Thursday night!! What was I thinking?? My hand eye coordination wasn't quite there... (it turned out ok)

At some point on Saturday early evening, I started to put my Catvent cats together.  CATVENT! Oh, how I love Catvent.  Maybe when I quilt it, I can tell the story of Catvent. For now, let's suffice to say it is a fun quilt.

Saturday night-- I told myself I would go to bed early (most nights I wasn't in bed until 1 am).  It didn't happen! At 11.30, tons of people were super focused on their sewing.  As Anna described it, "It's like a quilting sweatshop!" =)  I decided to prep some things for Sunday.  One thing led to another and I sewed 2 scrappy string blocks. And then did 6 more on Sunday morning!   My plan is to only use cool colors and make a quilt to donate to a charity.

This is a mighty long post.  I think I've covered the projects I worked on.  In another post, I plan to share some photos of the retreat and other people's projects.

xoxo

A little shopping...

I wasn't able to do any sewing today, but I did get to shop and that's not too shabby.

I'm working on the Cartwheel pattern from Lee at Freshly Pieced. Here is a picture of the 4 blocks I have so far:

While prepping for my upcoming retreat, I realized that I didn't have very much yardage left of my background fabric.  Why can't I plan better?  Never fear! I bought that fabric (Kona neon-ish green) at Hobby Lobby and one beautiful thing about Hobby Lobby - they keep the same stock for a loooooong time!  I stopped there today to get more (3 yards-- I will NOT run out!) and also got a bit of a fun grey and a turquoise print.

After that, I went to Stitcher's Crossing to get a few things.  I ended up with many things!

-A new spool of thread- quilt retreat is coming up and I can't dare run out of that!
-1/2 yard more of the grey Art Gallery blender I'm using in my Catvent. I want to make an 'Up Up and Away' Mini with the bonus triangles from the cat's ears and I'm not sure if I have enough background purchased.

-The wackiest Alexander Henry Print I've ever seen!

-3 books (I will talk more of them later...It's a surprise!)

-Foundation paper (see cartwheel + retreat above)

So Exciting! If only I had the energy to get crafty tonight.  It will have to wait until tomorrow or Saturday.