It's been stressful at work and it was really nice to just escape and enjoy a combination of the beautiful weather and some yard work and a whole lot of sewing.
Thursday was piecing day. And, I finished piecing this quilt. It was such a beautiful day that after a quick trip to the quilt store for supplies, I took a featherweight out on the deck and just knocked it out. I got everything but the border on it that day. I was going to piece New York Beauty blocks for the white blocks. I made two arcs, then realized that wasn't what I wanted to do and went back to the plain white. My rationalization was, 'just how difficult do I need this to be?' It's already a half sized Broken Star quilt. The whole things is only 44.5" square. Isn't that difficult enough for one quilt?
On Friday, I added the borders, which took the early part of the morning and picked out the basting. Then, I worked in the yard for a while, just doing some clean up and last minute moving things around. After lunch, it was paper piecing day and I pieced this block for my Jubilee quilt. It took all afternoon. Let's just say, I'm out of practice paper piecing.
Late Friday afternoon, the new sewing machine was delivered and I savored a few minutes of unpacking a new toy.
Now, before anybody freaks out that I've bought ANOTHER sewing machine, you need to know that my Pfaff 7550 is likely deceased. It's in for a long term hospital stay and an "estimate" of the cost of repairs. All this was a nice way to say, it's likely time to select a burial plot, and sell off the accessories. You all know that I am not the type to buy a machine made after 1962, but the older machines don't do the fancy stitches, and I'm going to make a quilt for Rob and need a machine that will make a blanket stitch. This one makes 100 fancy stitches, and it was less than $175 including free prime shipping, and got a lot of really good reviews. And, I've been happy with it so far.
On Saturday, I had applique day. I got up and played on a scrap of fabric for a bit, then I drew and cut out the pink flower and did a blanket stitch around the pieces. And I made these two camper blocks from Rob's quilt.
Sunday, well, Sunday was for finishing up my quilt entry forms, doing the fusible work on camper block 3 and setting up the Bernina to do some machine quilting on this quilt, named How Small Can I Go? And, a little cooking and cleaning for good measure.
This is one of the quilts I just entered in a show, so it kind of needs to get finished...pretty quick. Talk about incentive, huh? Anyway, there's a lot of quilting left to go. But, not so much that I can't finish it by end of March.
So, that's my four day quilting retreat. It was darn near perfect and I'm ready to go back to work and face the crazy. Everybody have a great Monday!
Lane
6 comments:
All your projects look great. That little paper pieced block is really cool but looks like a ton of work!
Wow, such a productive weekend! I love how your Broken Star stands out in brilliant color, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you'll quilt those blank spaces. And your other projects are a big ow, to, as always!
I'll be interested to hear how you like your new machine; it's self-oiling, it's lightweight, it probably has a built-in buttonhole...
Those campers are the cutest, ever!
Amazing.....seems like a perfect mini retreat....but you never took pictures of your retreat food! The campers look like a lot of work. Good luck with your new sewing machine. Mary
Brown and black are such unpromising colors for a quilt. That said, your brown and black quilt already sings. As does your half sized Broken Star quilt, only it sings in a different key.
You always do such beautiful work.
Your "retreat" sounds awesome, and you got a lot done! I love the Broken Star quilt. It's so beautiful. Hope you have a wonderful week!
Hooray for an at-home Quilt Retreat!! You got a LOT done!
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