Retreat time

 Don't you just love getting together with fellow quilters at retreats?  I sure do.  I don't know what is the best part:  sharing ideas, acquiring fabrics and patterns from each other, uninterrupted sewing time, or just comradery. And I can't forget the part about getting meals fixed for you and not having to clean up the kitchen.  Well, the snack table is also a "treat". 

Yes, retreats are the best!  It was a week ago, but I still wanted to post the progress and the other projects.

I was able to finish 2 quilt tops. 

The first one was started last fall for my daughter. It is a batik quilt which used the Moda Blockheads 5 blocks for group 1. 

This is my plan for the quilt using my RSC rounded log cabins made during the year 2021.

I had a box with 9 full circles and 36 single blocks.  During retreat I made at least 24 for single blocks for the setting. In between the blocks will be black sashing. 

Then I assembled the units for this flannel panel and pattern from primitive Gatherings and coordinating plaid fabrics by Bonnie Sullivan for sashing.

I fell in love with it the first time I saw it and have worked on it periodically. It has been in time out since fall. But now it is a flimsy. Hooray! 

Here are quilts from other friends:  Jodi

Chris

Corrine 

Karen: Tula Pink fabrics and pattern

Stitching away!

 This has been a week of progress on lots of projects:

1) Machine quilting (free motion) my Christmas Gnomes for my daughter in law.  Each gnome is quilted in detail with monofilament thread. All that is left is the background and the tree itself.

2) New blocks to catch up for Moda blockheads 5:   Only 1 left to do.

3) More paper pieced borders for my 9 patch quilt 10 out of 28 finished

4) 3 1/ 2 inch  churn dash  blocks for Midnight at the Oasis:  28/ 52 finished

5) Mini orange peel blocks for the same quilt  8/ 20 finished. I have been enjoying the hand applique by the television each night. 

What I need to do is bind my quilt, Over the River and Through the Woods.  However, I am debating on the quilting and whether I need to add some more to it. I worked so very hard and so very long on the hand stitching that I want this to compliment and accentuate it well. 

This week will not be as productive as I will be heading to Canada to help transport my mother to a care facility in Indianapolis where my sister lives. 2600 mile trip not all driven by me and over many days for packing and unpacking and such will be part of the experience. I am relieved that this is finally occurring . 

A little a day makes the projects go away :)

 Well, each day sewing some makes the projects get closer to finishing. And that does a body good.  I feel like I am accomplishing something and it motivates me to keep on going. 

Sew:  

1) A Christmas Sewcialtes 2 I have now got all the setting blocks made.  I needed to make a quick run to a fabric store for more of the same colors. 

All of these are 9 inch blocks:  16 each of the half square triangles. 8 of the red quarter square triangles. and 16 of the green ones. 

I hope to get the background squares and rectangles done as well as begin the piecing. 

2) New project:  Blockheads 5.  

I am making the blocks in batiks and started out with some I already had, but added a few more teals and lights to mix from a trip in August to one of my favorite stores in Appleton, WI: Going to Pieces.

These are 12 inch blocks and this one is paper pieced. ( Needs a good pressing)

Here are all that have been completed thus far. 

3) Finished the feather free motion quilting on my mini trees.  I even have the binding ready.  Now just to cross hatch the in between blocks. 

Travelings

 I have been here and gone again and again over the past 2 months. 

First I went on a quilt shop hop to Hamilton, MO, for the Missouri Star Quilt Company visiting, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and back home to Wisconsin.  Lots of fun.

Then my spouse and I went up north on two different trips for seeing Lake Michigan in Door County and then Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. Nature fills my cup with delights while hiking and sharing time with my loved one.

Back home and then an early morning  phone call to see Mom in the Kawartha Lakes in Canada. Fortunately, she turned around and is doing much better; she is 91 and a respiratory virus is going around. And we came back home again.

On to quilting news. 

For my Crabapple Hill quilt, I realized my backing fabric was not sufficient in size. So I enjoyed playing around with my leftover half square triangles and fabric to extend  it to the right size. And I then sent it off to my long arm quilter. So glad to get it off my plate. 

I am still slowly making progress on my 9 patch scrap quilt. I am in the process of assembling the 6th row.  Woot woot!

I had a baby quilt that was due in May for my niece in Virginia. And due to all the confusion of the summer, I finally started and completed it. A woodland animal quilt was requested with a slate blue focus for the room. Back in April I found a panel with many animals and used that in between an Irish chain blocks.  It turned out very nice.  I will say, I was not very successful with Dream Cotton batting.  I am not used to such a thin one. But the design process was fun.  It looks like flannel fabric, but is a printed series of tweed looking fabrics. 

The red seems to be ok, but the greens are more a light one and a forest green. 

Below is the front and back of the finished quilt. 

Looking for some quick projects, I am also trying to complete some projects on my pile. I had started to quilt my Fourth of July wall hanging last summer. So I finished the quilting using a walking foot around the star blocks and the flying geese. And then the binding.  Hooray for another quilt off the pile. 

To add to my creativity and enjoy a new colorway, I started the new Blockheads 5. Again on the use what you have, I pulled some blues and teal batiks and added a few to the mix. I intend to complete the 9 blocks for the short group which is due to finish my Christmas. So using up some fabric while starting a block of the week. I little old and something new. 

This is the first version:

Then I switched the arrangement for this version.