SpoolSpinner Retreat

I was on retreat with my quilting bee, the SpoolSpinners, from last Thursday through Sunday.  One of the quilts I worked on, and FINISHED was the Soccer Boy quilt.

It is simply a "strippy" quilt with soccer fabrics alternating with non-soccer fabrics.  But it has no flowers and no pinks, so maybe some father with a boy in the neo-natal unit will like it for his child.

Here's the back.

I also worked on the Liberated Round Robin's "curves" borders.

I used double wide, packaged seam binding in  black and red rickrack.  I am still in the process of sewing these down and doing the quilting.

We also were shown and then made a cloth wrapper for a small gift.  Our teacher gave us each two 8.5" square flowered fabrics and instructions which we could complete in about 20 minutes. Example on the right.

Later I tried my own fabrics and cut the squares 9.5" to see how much larger the package would end up.  The different is this: the original could hold six Hershey's nuggets, and the larger version could hold eight. [We had the nuggets available on our snack table.]

Sara

Gratitudes:
Another retreat earlier in the week with my spiritual accountability group
Dinner tonight with our DDIL Lynne
Singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" at Grand Rapids Women's Chorus rehearsal tonight

Two finishes and something new

 Just before the Bee meeting on Thursday I finished the binding on my third neonatal quilt for the March collection.

I made the back from four FQs with some strips to make the whole thing large enough.

Right now it is in the wash.

Catherine had also quilted the Green Strips quilt with wavy lines and an occasional square or circle. It is light weight and is the right size for a nap quilt.

And for the "something new" --  I was asked to run a "Block Lotto" for our SpoolSpinners Bee.  At least I am going to organize the first time through.   I chose the FIREWORKS block.

So I spend yesterday afternoon writing up instructions.  And of course I had to make several more blocks to photograph some variations.

That was fun!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Jean took me to the women's brunch at Grace Church

Turkey dinner in February--lots for left-overs!

Symphony concert last night

Retreat, Day One

Rumpledquiltkins' Retreat started last Thursday.  After all the packing and carrying and loading the car, and driving north an hour and a half, and unloading the car, and carrying, and unpacking, and organizing my work space .....I sat and stared at my sewing machine for a awhile.  Something EASY seemed the right thing to work on at that point.

My "monochromatic" green top was the ticket!  The two sections had somehow morphed into additional colors with green, so I added more strips of green in the middle.  Then I added some HSTs and hour-glasss blocks for a little visual POP.

At that point the top seemed big enough for a Nap Quilt, about 64" x 76", and the day was ending, so I called it finished.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Dry road surfaces for the trip
Lots of table space for working
Sleeping under "Extra Extra Fancy" for the first time

Time to Stop Strips

"Extra Extra Fancy" has reached the length of a queen bed.  Since it is to be a TWIN, I'm stopping with the strips now.  I will put a "stopper" strip down the sides and then a wider border.  I really like this strippy look!  And it is doing a good job working off some left over blocks and strips in my stash.

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Good last rehearsal before the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus winter concert this Saturday [7:30 pm at Trinity Methodist].  Lori, our Director, says that we are "ready for an audience".  No Christmas music, so it won't interrupt your observance of Advent.   Free will offering, no intermission [concert lasts only one hour], and refreshments afterwards.  A good deal.  Hope some of you can make it!

Sara

Gratitudes:

Warm bed last night, tho' TWO quilts are a little heavy
ipod lets me review last night's rehearsal
Progress on two quilt tops

"Extra Extra Fancy"

Still adding more to the Strip Quilt of Orphans.  I added the confetti blocks on the top of THIS half of the Strip Quilt.  And I want you to notice the words "extra extra fancy" on a part of a rice bag fabric.  I think it may be a good title for this quilt.

 And here is the other half with its row of confetti blocks.  To the right is my next row.  With four blocks like this I almost had the right width for the quilt, so I just added a little spacer bar between each to make it up to 48".  Not sure yet where this on is going to fit, probably in the center, so it will be sure to show, not be tucked under the mattress.

I found some time for knitting over the weekend while riding in the car, and while conversations were in progress.  I "turned the heel" in both socks and am now working on the heel gusset decreases.  Hope to get them finished for a gift.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Still turkey for lunch!
Making progress on the Two-socks-at-once project
A few more Japanese words made it into my head [for Women's Chorus]

Growing Strip Quilt

Back to the Strip Quilt of Orphan blocks.  I had two strips of left-overs from a charity quilt at the beginning of the year, rather poor quality batiks in pink and green.  By piecing them together I got the right length, twice.

I added one to each section of strips I had started.
I think these various rows will look better with a spacer in between too, so I added a red strip on the right where my next idea was going..

I had found a basket of waste HSTs from a project of two years ago, so sewed them together into three rows that were a little over 48" long.

The fabric was not really the best for HSTs this small [finish 1.25"], but they were already made!  And just another example of scraps I can't seem to throw away.  "Some day" I will use them for something.  Today was "some day".

So here is the next step in the Strip Quilt of Orphans.
Next a couple of rows of Confetti blocks.  I'll check to see if I have 16 of those, or if I have to finish off a few more.

I chose 48" for the width of this top because I think that will cover the width of the top of a twin bed.  When I have made the top about 60" long, I will add borders to bring it up to 60" x 72".

Sara

Gratitudes:

Saved cup of Wendy's chili heated for lunch
Winterberry bush showing red in a gray day
Warmth, light, food, good health

Batik Strip Twist finished

Washed and dried this morning:

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So here it is with crinkles.

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And the hearts still show up.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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National Parks show by Ken Burns on PBS this week

Dried cherries to put in my oatmeal

Grand Rapids Women's Chorus retreat today and tomorrow--lots of music!

New phone and hearts

We are joining our son's "phone family" to save some money.
This means we each got a new phone, but had to wait a few days for them to be delivered.


We are also getting rid of our land line. I am going to use the number from our land line on this cell phone, and that takes some time to arrange apparently. Mine was not ready to work for a while.


But now it's working! I could even see that it was Lynne who was calling me before I answered!

I just have to remember to carry it in my packet all the time, and plug it in every night. It's hard to stick with new habits.

Today I finished up the hearts I was quilting on the Strip Twist. They look better than I was expecting--partly because after three of them I made a template!

Next is working on the quilting of the border, which will be simple. The binding is all ready to be applied after that.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie cooked fish tonight (I need it three times a week)

Zeke, our dog, seems not aware he had surgery

Going to a play tonight, "Top Dog/Under Dog" [not about Zeke]

Quilting the Strip Twist

Charlie and I took a two-night trip to Stratford, Ontario, to see three plays, so I have been away from quilting for a while. When we are in the car I can knit on the current socks, but no quilting!

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Now that I am home again I have been working on the quilting of the Strip Twist. First I stitched-in-the-ditch through the diagonal lines to hold everything together. Now I am trying to get a "pinwheel" look in the center of these diagonal quadrants.

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I've tried a couple of hearts to fill in the remaining open space, but I'm not sure they are keepers.

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First I need to finish the step I'm ON.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

Pecan rolls for breakfast

Quiet, rainy day at home

Tigers ahead in the 4th inning

More Retreat results

There were a few pieces over the number I could use for the Strip Twist, so I put them together, and will have to do something with this little piece before it turns into a UFO. [How long does that take anyway?]

During the retreat I also refined my plan for the "Your Way Mystery* we are doing in the SpoolSpinner Bee. I now have black centers in my blocks, and I decided (at least for one block) how to handle the middle and corners of the 12" block so that it isn't too simple for that large size.

One the left are the 6" and 9" blocks, and on the right are the 3" and 12" blocks.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Quick insurance action on Charlie's dented car

More fun sock yarn

A quiet night at home

Retreat Results

I've been at a quilt retreat for three nights, just returned in time for the Super Bowl game on TV. This retreat is one where you just bring whatever you want and work on your own projects--and have someone else cook for you, and have a lot of fun. We were 21 in number, and some (not me) tried a little "snow dyeing".

Several of the gals who chat together about Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts suggested that we plan to work on a BLUE version of one of Bonnie's quilts on Super Bowl Sunday (when the men are all too busy with sport to care what we are doing). For this challenge, I took the Fat Eights of blue fabric that I had from an exchange last year and cut them into 6.5" squares. I had to add several light blues from my stash. I took these on the retreat with me, and on Friday evening and Saturday AM I put this "Scrappy Mountin Majesties" top together. It will be bordered and then given to the neonatal unit of our regional hospital.

Then Bonnie herself suggested that for Super Bowl Sunday SHE was going to be making "Strip Twist" and anyone could join her on that project.

I had 20 bright batik strips in a jelly roll, so I took them and her pattern on retreat with me also. I finished putting this top together just before leaving the retreat site this afternoon. I was interested in emphasizing the pinwheel effect in the middle of the four block sets. so I placed similar colors there to catch the viewer's attention.

More about the retreat results tomorrow, but now it is time to finish unloading the car and get the dirty clothes down the chute, and go to bed.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie and Ray prepared the Super Bowl supper
Dry, clear raods for the return trip for retreat
The game was more interesting than expected.

Selvages

Several months ago I saw an article on the internet about saving selvages from fabric and then making quilt blocks from them---a particular form of String Quilts. http://www.selvagequilts.com/

So have have asked my quilting bee and the sewers at retreats if they would give me their selvages, if they have no use for them. After the additiona at my last two retreats I found I had this whole box of "fluffed up" strips.

At the suggestion of the Heartstrings group I have finally ripped up an old sheet into 7"x14" rectangles for base fabric. Yesterday I had a few minutes for "mindless" sewing and began. At first I sewed a straight stitch quite near the tightly woven selvage edge (after overlapping the previous raw edge about 1/4-1/8th inch). I found that I wasn't keeping the seams straight, no was I sure about catching the invisible edge. So I changed to a zigzag stitch.

I now have two rectangles done and a narrower strip for some leftovers. I'll make some more and then start thinking about how this will be put together.

Sara

Gratitudes:

dinner at Dianne's

Sue's help with driving to and from eosophagus scoping

beautiful sunny day after a lot of clouds