Retreat weekend

I feel like I have been out of commission as far as my quilting. School is in full swing and I do enjoy my new position. I don't seem to have energy to do any sewing or needlework after I make dinner and sit down.  

This is the only thing I have to show for 2 weeks.  I have done other sewing last weekend. I had a wonderful time at a retreat on a lake with my guild.  The weather was in the low 80s, a big change from the cooler days we have. But inside the air conditioning was running, and I was cold.  So hard to plan for clothing.   

But... I did put blocks together for a small baby quilt that had been leftover from my grandson's big boy quilt.  And I left it with one of the members to practice quilting on her long arm machine. 

This is my stash bee block for September.  ( We did another like it earlier in the year.)

We of course, went to the local quilt store and I purchased some Wisconsin red Bucky Badger fabric along with some blacks and whites.  I am planning to make a throw for my daughter's boyfriend.  He did graduate fro UW Wisconsin.  So I hope he will like it. I plan to use the Yellow Brick Road pattern from Terry Atkinson. 

I also started a tree skirt for my nephew whose wedding will be the end of October

These are the colors turned 90 degrees.  I have a few other strips to add to it and then cut wedges and assemble. I had a friend there who had the beautiful red tree fabric left over from another project. It is perfect to go with my Tonga strips of reds and greens.  I was so appreciative to find just the right fabric.

Back to school and Door County

This has been a long but good week. 

First I will show a little of my Labor Day weekend. My honey and I went to Door County which is the thumb peninsula of Wisconsin sticking into Lake Michigan.  It has several cute communities of little shops, bays with lots of boats, and unique eating places. ( no fast food chains). And we love it because of the water and will wade in it, sit by it to watch sunsets, walk the rock or sandy beaches, and listen to the waves roll and  splash. We love going on Labor Day as there is a Maritime festival with lots of music and even fireworks at night. We have gone for several years. It was cool but very restful and relaxing. 

I wish my camera phone took better pictures, because the colors were gorgeous. 

We tried a selfie.  It just shows how many laugh lines we both possess. And I earned every one of those.  But you can see the piers and some of the boats behind us.

The drive takes a couple hours from Milwaukee to get there.  I usually do some handwork as we travel the freeways. This time, I took all the beautiful pineapple blocks I have from an exchange a few years ago.  ( next UFO project). And as we drove I very carefully removed all those lovely shreds of paper in the stitching on the back. Ha ha! At least it was easy to see against the black.

Here is the wonderful tool I used. I had searched two quilt shows for something like this. A friend had one that was just a breeze to help remove those itty bitty corners and spots.  So I bought it from Amazon.  Really.

This will be my layout. I think I will use a 3/4 inch lattice of the black.  I currently have 28 of these 6 and 1/4 inch blocks.  "Why such an odd measurement on the block?" you ask.  Well, it is because the pattern which was master copied for all the exchanges was supposed to have 1/4 around all sides. But it was short 1/8 on one side. So I carefully trimmed them to a perfect square 6 and 1/8 on each side. 

Tuesday was our first day back to school. And to tell you the truth, I had not been looking forward to it. After the end of last year, I was a bit frayed.  

But...I have a new position to supervise students needing a little TLC and push to get their work done during their study hall. I have organized folders to keep track of their work and help set goals.  It has gone very well, so far. Hooray for a new year!

In the evenings, I have only felt like sitting after being active all day.  Very different from my sedentary life over the summer. And I have been slowing inching down these branches with my embroidery. This all that is left to complete on this panel.  

I leave you with another sunset picture.  Hope all is well with you and your projects.