To Do Tuesday #104

Hello Everyone! I am back from the quilt retreat. Whew! What fun we had at beautiful Lake Tahoe, Nevada. There was 26 of us from all over the United States. The quilter who traveled the fartherest was from Wisconsin. Lots of quilting and games was had every day along with lots of food and wine.

I will be linking up with Carol for To Do Tuesday

Under the Needle Last Week

I went to the quilt retreat with the intention to learn how to Foundation Paper Piece. I feel I hit that goal right smack in the middle. Let’s take a look at what I worked on this week.

• For my AG Venti Sunprint FPP Quilt, I had two colorways for the Pineapple block. Finished all 8. This block had 25 pieces and seemed the most complicated. I don’t think I could do this block traditionally pieced.
• For the FPP quilt, I have two colorways for the Snail Trail as well but I only finished the one colorway that had only 4 blocks. I learned this is a four patch surrounded by multiple rounds of square in a square with a total of 20 pieces.
• The Dear Santa Challenge block
• The Patriotic 25 patch charity block
• Miss Rosie’s #7 block with peacock fabric
• churn dash block
• EPP Ruby’s Garden block 24

I brought 16 projects to the retreat to work on. I was having challenges sewing a quarter inch seam with my travel machine and the table/chair setup. I was also missing my favorite patchwork foot (simply forgot to bring). On top of that, I found that when you work on Foundation Paper Piecing, it is pretty exclusive.

I settled into conquering foundation paper piecing. The first block took me like three hours to do. I started with what I figured was the hardest block – the Pineapple block. By the time I finished the fourth block, I was feeling pretty confident and had a system going.

During cutting, I did not cut any of my triangles because I figured it was easier to transport as squares. Friday afternoon found me done with my first four Snail Trails. I went ahead and cut up the squares into triangles for the next 8 snail trails and carefully sorted into blocks. I had meant to sew one but by the time I was done, I needed a break.

I wrapped up the retreat sitting and english paper piecing. It was awesome as I could easily follow conversations and just enjoyed myself. I just loved this serene place with all these lovely ladies. So of course I signed up for next year! Sewical Retreats by Beth at Zephyr Point in Lake Tahoe. Most of the out of state people said they found the retreat on Facebook at some Quilt Retreat page. Next on my list is to find that Facebook page.

July’s Goal List: *Week of July 30th

This was what was left on list for the month. Being gone for most of the month put a kink in getting stuff done. With 2 days left in July, I am sure I can check off a few more things.

1. *Wind 12 gold bobbins for long arm
2. Cut batting for Sunshine quilt
3. Quilt Sunshine quilt
4. *July 13th-18th Cottage for 2024 Temperature Quilt
5. 2018 365 block challenge – Cut Sep 1 & 2 blocks
6. *2022 Scrappiness is Happiness – assemble Section 4
7. Sweet Childhood Memories – Assemble one side border
8. Continue working on Leaders & Enders project: Daydreamer
9. Tula Pink Butterfly quilt – make HST for section 1
10. *Sew first block for 2024 AG Stamp quilt
11. Pull fabrics for Queen of Diamonds EPP block 3-1
12. Ruby’s Garden EPP – finish block 24
13. *1920 Farmers Wife EPP – start block 47
14. Sash one block of Lost & Found EPP quilt
15. 2019 100 days 100 quilts (FEB UFO) – assemble backing
16. 2019 Zuma quilt (MAR UFO) – Make one side pieced border
17. 2017 Halifax Temp Quilt (APR UFO) – Finish Sep 2018
18. 2022 Bring Home the Tree (JUN UFO) – Pull fabric for one car block
19. *2018 100 days 100 blocks (JUL UFO) – Assemble Row 1
20. 2023 Gnome is where the Heart Is – Start January
21. *Finish Blooming Pointsettas
22. Finish appliquing A Year in Words Christmas
23. Start Sep Backdoor Banner
24. Start appliquing On Wander Lane Bunny Knoll
25. 2024 Reno Teeny Tiny Elephant Collage – finalize elephant
26. Finish Rainbow placemats
27. Assemble Patriotic Project Bag
28. Finish Patriotic Table Runner
29. Patriotic Napkins – pull fabrics
30. Patriotic Placemats – pull fabrics & pattern

Afterthoughts

Olympics started this week. I just love watching. Nala practicing her gymnastics has been very entertaining. So far I have been cross stitching while watching the Olmpics, but hope to finish my Ruby Garden block tonight.

I took some time yesterday to focus on my July UFO project ~ 2018 100 days 100 blocks SAL. I had picked 3 yards of cream from my stash that I thought would work, but when I laid the blocks on it, the yellow blocks were washed out. Plus it turns out that the layout I wanted to use, I need 4 1/2 yards for sashing and borders. I was sooooo disappointed 🙄 that I had to make a trip to the quilt store yesterday to find new sashing material. 💸 (See photo from Goal list for sashing I picked) I threw the basic layout in EQ8 and filled in the color block placement. I tried cornerstones (the pattern didn’t have them) but still wasn’t enough. BUT I found I liked the cornerstones. Here I have the cornerstones going the opposite color way. I am still deciding whether I am doing a colorwash (which would mean yellow cornerstones with yellow blocks) or the rainbow 🌈 look like I have here. I don’t think there is a wrong way.

Decisions. Decisions. This quilt brings back a lot of memories. It was my very first Instagram SAL. It was a growth moment as a quilter.

When I was looking through the book, I think I would like to do this again but maybe do a different layout. There are multiple layouts in the book. The book is really good.

Good luck this week everyone. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest projects. Happy quilting!

Peggy Stockwell back home in San Jose, California