Empty Bobbins

It was retreat time with my gal pal. We've packed and talked about projects for a week in advance of going away for two glorious days with nothing but sewing, chatting, and snacking all day and into the evening. As we pulled up to our retreat room, we could see there were people in there, and after a gasp and confirmation that we had the right day, we found out the room had been double booked. But not to worry, those quilter's were busy at the cutting tables, and we couldn't get our blocks out and up on the design wall fast enough.

Here is the first project. I decided on the same setting as I've used before. Blocks are all stacked and pinned and ready to go together in my sewing room.

Next up was a few blocks of pink and brown. I've kicked around a few ideas for these and just left them up so I could see them and ponder.

I just soaked up the look of side by side,

Pondered using a setting square to break up the piecing,

And got busy on my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Carolina Christmas from 2009.  I got the 1/2 square triangles all put together, only 104 of them needed.

and had these blocks finished a few years ago,

and then got these little cream and red 4 patches all together.  They are SO cute.

Took a break from sewing and organized all the star blocks.  I wanted to make sure I didn't repeat any prints in the 4 patch that comes together in the center.

I put a few blocks up on the wall.  All the green sections were pieced in previous sewing sessions.  It's looking good!

I've kept all the instructions for every section.  It's all been contained in one box.  The reason for making this quilt was to become more proficient using the EA ruler.  I fell in love with it, and have used it so many more times since I cut for this project.

I got back at the machine, and started joining the green section to the red/cream sections.  See, sample sitting right beside my machine so I don't turn them wrong when piecing.  Look at that pile of chain piecing!

And then when pressing, I realized I HAD turned the block and got the wrong orientation.  All the left pile of blocks need to go to rehab...........

So I packed everything back into it's traveling suitcase, the bad blocks have their own special place; in a zip lock bag with a seam ripper for company. Then I closed it all up and called it finished................ for now.

To be continued.....

Hope you got to stitch this week, we are so blessed to be part of this amazing community of quilters.
Sharon

Addicted to Applique

Since the taxes won out, I managed to take several boxes, bags and folders of paperwork and reduce it down to this. These three years are now boxed up and stored away, hopefully to never see the light of day again!

The 2nd Tues of the month is our guild meeting, Moonlighters, in Bellingham, WA and our speaker this month was from The Applique Society. This group is based out of WA and has chapters all over the world. Check here for a chapter near you.

Some beautiful work was shown from different members.

All types of applique are encouraged, and Loretta Bilow touched on a process that I'd never seen before, appliquing from the back of the project.

After hearing this presentation and seeing that a group meets on a weekend in my area, I just may have to join in the fun!

My quilting goals for 2010 are finishing projects that I've already invested in. This was a Mystery project from Piecables in 2009. I was feeling pretty smug about only having to purchase 4 yards of fabric for this complete project, backing/border/binding included. Then I finished the quilt and was disappointed with the finished project. There just wasn't much interest going on.

After quilting it this weekend, yes, I snuck in one of my quilts between customer tops, I LOVE how it turned out. I used a large, (14") Anne Bright panto and burgundy thread. This is going on my bed as soon as I get the binding on.

It's sew good to be sewing instead of taxing!
Sharon