Retreat: overabundance of confidence

The List: too much?

This is me preparing for retreat:

dig

dig

dig

thru the many piles, drawers, bins and bags of WIPs to determine what I might work on for three days.

Three days = not a lot of actual time, but a great deal of imagined time.
And that statement pretty much sums up The Story of My Life.

quilt top

My must finish project was to complete the borders and piece a backing for the 1930's scrap quilt that I last worked on at retreat in February.

border close-up

This was a scraps-only project, and I had run out of the soft yellow used for the X blocks.  Which implied some fiddly piecing would be needed for those borders.  Also, I wanted to make the quilt rectangular (I have a general distaste for square quilts).  Needed to piece an inner border to finish off the central design.  Boy, can things get fussy and complicated in a hurry!

the back: scraps a-plenty

The Back: I won't say I'm totally fond of the pieced backing.  I was going for cute.  Not sure if I succeeded; but I did use up all of the cream chicken-wire print and the blue dots & checks (from Moda: a single fabric with four designs on it)

Asian BOM sample

Finished!  The top, backing and batting went to the long arm quilter the day after retreat ended.  Mmm-hmm, that feels good.


Other retreat accomplishments

• Participated in Block Challenge (blogged about previously)
• Made two sample blocks for the upcoming Asian Block of the Month at my home shop
• Made a sample block for the Circles Block of the Month that will start in the fall (again at my home shop)
• Hand tacked down the bindings on yet another Sew Together Bag; I will teach this class again in July.

Circles BOM sample

•  And...transported nearly an entire suitcase full of fabric (see The List, above) up to Oregon and back to California.  As checked luggage on an airline--what is wrong with this picture?