It seems like I just got back home from the retreat,
but that was Sunday evening and it is now Wednesday evening! I am still
settling back into my studio, putting things where they belong . . . since when
I go to a retreat, I seem to take about half of my studio with me!
I worked on three projects while at the retreat.
1. I finished putting the blocks together for my blue and yellow log cabin. Now to add
the flange to the edges and then a big wide border.
2. I made the four parts of a black and white 8-inch paper-pieced block
and assembled it. I need to complete eight more blocks and I will set it into a
lap quilt. It will end up being about 50 inches square, which will be a nice
size for the sofa or a wall hanging.
3. I
trimmed the blue and yellow paper-pieced
flying geese blocks I took with me. I need to make several more and will
put them into a wall hanging OR a lap quilt . . . haven’t decided which, yet.
Using the blue and yellow fabrics helps me keep my
pledge to use up a lot of my stash this year and actually FINISH many of my UFOs
(Unfinished Objects). I have some beautiful fabrics and they need to be put
into quilts . . . or aprons, coffee
quilts, or whatever! I have such a big collection of blue and yellow fabrics, .
. . (I definitely over-bought when I was in the acquisition stage for the log
cabin quilt!) . . . that it might be all I work on for quite some time, in
addition to the black and white blocks and
guild challenge blocks and the new
project we just started in our guild…a Row by Row Round Robin (RRRR) quilt.
For the RRRR, there are five to six people in a group.
It starts this month and we will start with a row of four 12-inch blocks that
we will make and take to the guild meeting in April along with four to five strips of
42x6 inch strips to pass along to each of the four people who will work on the
next four rows. They need to use part of the fabric you send along in the
blocks they make. You can state in a little journal you send along with the
quilt that you like certain colors, want a certain look, or that it is for a
certain holiday, or whatever, and the other people in the group will try to do something
you will like, but hopefully something that also represents something of what
they like, either in the style of block they choose, or the other fabrics they
add to the quilt blocks. At the end of the Row Robin, we will get our original
row back with four to five additional rows, each with a different size block for the
block set. The project will end in September when it has gone Round Robin!
So, I will be digging in my stash this weekend to discover what I have that I
want to use for this project!
Along with three other women in the guild, I am
planning to go shopping at a quilt shop this weekend to buy some fabric for our
next Museum Quilt Guild raffle quilt. The quilt is for the show in 2014, which
seems a long time from now, but between deciding on the design for the top, to
completion of the quilt, there is a lot of planning and sewing to be done! It
is our hope that we can get a lot of the guild members involved in the creation
of this quilt by offering techniques that will include patchwork, applique and
hand quilting. We want everyone in the guild to have the opportunity to use
their skills in completion of the quilt. Then, after the quilt is completed, there
is the sale of tickets, publicity and planning the venue and all the other
things that go into a successful quilt show. You will be reading more about this here in my
blog and in the Museum Quilt Guild’s blog:
www.museumquiltguild.blogspot.com
as we go forward with plans. Check out the Museum Quilt Guild blog for some fantastic pix of what
kinds of things our guild members make and what kinds of activities they are
involved in.
While it snowed big fat flakes today, I stayed home
and wandered around the house working on this and that . . . and worked a bit
on my newest mini album design. Here is a sneak peek at the cover. It is a
metal tile that I found at Michael’s!
What
I have learned:
I can get quite a lot done in a retreat setting!
What
I want to learn:
How to pack (and unpack) more efficiently for
retreats!
What I appreciate:
What I want:
More days like today!
Thought the block looks great! You were missed but good to see you return and energized to do more projects and UFOs. You seemed like you had a great time with friends.
ReplyDelete