The first Quilt Retreat I did was maybe last year sometime. I don't really remember. I do remember promising details about it here on the old 'Blog. And here I am keeping that promise.
What I do is, I bring tons of half-finished projects, the bigger the better, and then work on stuff every waking hour, with the end-result being tons of finished projects. The first time, I stuffed the van to over-flowing and barely had room for the children. I also brought a lot of unreasonable projects. The last two times, I have brought stuff that's way more reasonable and do-able. Leaves room enough to bring the children's bikes. Anyway, here are some things I got done this last time, over Fall Break, despite feeling terrible because I have a Baby on Board.
1. Baby quilt. Sorry to spoil the surprise, Yara, if you're reading this. It's for Rafael. I started it during my Spring Break Quilt Retreat and it sat in my work room for 6 months. This time I machine quilted it, free-motion, and Emma helped me hand-stitch the binding on.
2. Wool project. I saw a stunning applique "bed rug" in a quilt catalog. It was a block of the month, costing nearly 1000 dollars when it was all said and done. I set about getting the supplies to make it out of 100% wool, pretty sure I could do it for slightly less than $1000. I'm gathering patterns I like from books and magazines, and for the materials, I've spent less than $200. I think I'm on track to achieve my goal. It's slow-going, though, since I apparently think I have until eternity to get my approximately one billion projects done. This is one I'm not thinking of abandoning. It's machine applique with invisible thread. This pattern is from William Morris in Applique.
3. I actually made two of this baby quilt. They're close to identical, just with different backing fabrics. The one Emma chose, the cuter one, is up top. This one is backed with the fun red print I chose, which is cute, but not the cuter fabric. I love the fronts of these quilts and envy the little boys who will snuggle with them. There are patches made of circuit-board print fabric, for crying out loud! I got this one machine quilted and Emma helped me bind it also.
4. Mending. I found these kids' jeans in a bag and knew they were in there for mending, not picnic quilts. I've mended the knees, which the children will blow out again within seconds of putting them on.
5. The Main Event: I, along with several friends, am making the O Tannenbaum quilt. I've talked about it before. The "block" for November was to make eight log-cabin blocks. I did the October block, another paper-pieced house, and then used the rest of my awake-and-feeling-good-enough-to-do-anything time to piece these monsters. I really had to push myself. I did them all at once, chain piecing and then pressing each log. I feel terrible for the ladies who did/are doing one block at a time. They will be sewing through the millennium, I think. Each log only comes out to 5/8 inch when it's all sewn in, so these seemed to be about 3 inches square for like two days. They never seemed to get any bigger! But I did it. It's a major accomplishment for me. And then the best part, was arranging them in my favorite log-cabin arrangement. They're stunning. Separately, all I see in each block is toil and sick-feelings. Together, they inspire me to make MORE log cabins!! Maybe...
These are some of the main things I accomplished at my Quilt Retreat this fall. I plan to go again, but maybe not until after school lets out and the baby's here and I feel awesome. But then again, maybe for Spring Break! Who knows?!
No comments:
Post a Comment