Welcome back my Quilty Friends! I had a great week at Lake Tahoe with my Quilting Posse for the Studio B Quilt Retreat. This was our 3rd fall retreat we have attended. Such a gorgeous place to have a retreat. This year there was another quilt group there as well and we wandered by to see what they were working on. I love inperson retreats. I get so much inspiration! I will share more about the retreat a little later.
I will be linking up with Carol at Quilt Schmilt for this week’s To Do Tuesday Linkup. Be sure and check it out! To see other people’s projects, click on the linkup button on her blog. Then you can check out what others are doing for some inspiration.
New Starts At The Quilt Retreat
Almost every project for the quilt retreat was a new start for me. Last week I shared my Fade to Gray start. You will see what else I did this week in the WIP updates.
Lunchbox 2.0 from By Annie’s (Kit from Pink Door Fabrics)
I have never made a bag and in my infinite wisdom, I thought I could just show up with this kit and finish it in a day. (Isn’t that what everybody does?). Well, I opened up the kit (yes for the first time) and first thing I read is “READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE CUTTING”. I didn’t find a room full of 30 people quite enough to be able to read the instructions (and understand what I am reading). In the first paragraph it mentioned there was an add-on video I could watch. Off to my room (for the morning it turned out) to read my 14 pages of instructions and watch my video (which turned out to be 1.5 hours long). I think I made it to page 10 before I realized I did not have everything I needed to finish the project at the retreat. That kind of took the air out of my sails.
🧘 I took a deep breathe and decided to see how far I could get in one day. So I prepped and cut my materials to do the quilting portion of this project. I was tickled that I had this tent strip to use as my quilting guide. I bought some dark thread from the pop up store and spent the whole afternoon quilting my pieces. Once I was done with that I subcut it into the bag pieces and found little labels to use so I wouldn’t forget. This took me all afternoon. (I am slow). Lara stopped by my table and gave me some advice on finishing the cut edges of my quilted pieces which was a little more sewing than the instructions.
We went to dinner, then it was time for the Pirate Games and fun. I decided to set a side the quilted pieces to finish the edges on Thursday morning.
I got that all done before lunch. Whew! It was time to move on to a new project.
Welcome Winter! By McKenna Ryan
After working on the lunchbox, I was definitely ready for something I knew well – applique. This was a laser cut kit I purchased off of McKenna Ryan’s website. Thursday after lunch I pulled this out and got to it. I got most of the sections fused before dinner and knew that I wanted to finish the top before packing my sewing bags that night. I worked until about 10pm to finish the fusing and assembly of this top. I love the gradient background. It really adds some depth to the quilt. I am looking forward to machine appliquing this over the next month.
WIP Updates
I have not done any sewing since I got home from the quilt retreat so this everything I worked on while I was there.
EPP: Ruby’s Garden (using Paper Pieces free pattern)
Last week I had attached completely one of the 3 hexie units and started the second one. I finished attaching the second one this week. Once again this is using liberty fabrics. This will eventually be a diamond and is coming along nicely.
EPP: Tula Pink’s Super Nova with fabrics from Pink Door Fabrics BOM
I did not get much done on this block this past week. I made a new rainbow star! This one is a yellow-green. Number 7 of 10.
Starbright Paisley’s Strip Club pattern by Cozy Quilt Designs
I continued sewing four patches as a leader and ender project while working on my Fade To Gray quilt.
Fade To Gray by Tula Pink
This is a diagonal set quilt. While these light gray blocks will be the center of the quilt, it will NOT look like this. The wolf block is the center of the entire quilt and these blocks will be the “center” row of the quilt. The colored part of the blocks are actually the border.
The instructions for this quilt call for cutting all the pieces. I cut WOF strips but didn’t subcut until I need it. (I didn’t want to lose anything while at the quilt retreat). Not only did I finish he lightest gray blocks, I also finished sewing strip sets and subcutting into twosies for the next color up fromt he center – 160 of them. I sewed together the units for the short side of the block for all 10 blocks and even pulled the fussy cut centers. I have them pinned and ready to sew but had to set aside in order to work on the lunch box.
I am overly optimistic and was thinking I would finish this quilt top. After day 2, I was ready to move on to doing something else. Lol! 😂
Weekly To Do List
I haven’t gotten my sewing supplies and projects up to my sewing studio yet so I have not worked on these projects. I hope to touch them at least once before I leave again next Monday for another trip. Unfortunately, I have other priorities such as get my quilt show entries for submission.
Here is the list of what I checked off of last week’s to do list:
- Finished the center row blocks of Fade To Gray quilt
- Finished sewing the next shade of gray strip sets and cutting all 160 twosiesfor Fade To Gray
- Started the Tula Pink Lunch Box 2.0 project
- Worked on EPP Super Nova block 1-1
- Worked on EPP Rubys Garden block 27
- Start Welcome Winter! Applique project
This coming week’s list with priorities at the top:
- Make labels for quilt show entries
- Sleeves on all quilt show entry quilts
- Order design wall
- Sew short side units to next shade of gray focus centers for Fade to Gray quilt
- Lunchbox 2.0: cut coordinating fabric and do next step
- Welcome Winter: pull coordinating thread for machine applique
- Finish final 4 blocks for Teal Freelancer Star project
- Work on EPP Super Nova block 1-1
- Work on EPP Rubys Garden block 27
- Figure out where I am on my 365block challenge
- Quilt Turkey Lurkey wall hanging
- Quilt Patriotic table runner
- Load 2018 100 days quilt on long arm
- Sew zipper in my project bag
I am never going to get to all this, but at least I will not run out of things to do!
Musings about the Quilt Retreat
This quilt retreat is hosted by Beth of Studio B. She is based in Winnemuca NV and puts on a fabulous retreat. There is a week long block challenge (see in picture above). You get a raffle ticket for each block completed and use fabrics provided. She even has a box of block cards you can use for block ideas. Some lucky person wins all the blocks. Last time I made a couple of blocks. This time I was too focused on my projects to do a side venture.
One of our retreaters was collecting 3 inch finished 9 patches. I was going to make some but missed the memo of us using our fabric. Well I didn’t bring any extra fabric so I was unable to participate. Once again, participants got one raffle ticket for every block they completed. The retreater (Brenda) who was asking for these blocks did a daily drawing for baskets she had brought with her. These blocks were being turned into a large quilt for a co-worker who lost his home. (I missed the how he lost his home because I was distracted).
There were some husbands along this trip. They all went golfing each day and checked in on their wives (and us) each day. Gave a totally different dynamics to the quilt week.
The night we all look forward to is Game Night (Wednesday night). Each retreat it has a theme and this one was Pirates. For once, I dressed for the occasion(see above). I thought I did good (for me). Though there were many who went all out in full pirate regalia. It was fun! We usually play a game called Left Right Center with fat quarters but this year we played for prizes so there ended up being several rounds. Mimosas were served just to make it interesting.
People wander off to do touristy things like hiking, shopping, dinner with friends, gambling, swimming, etc. I am there to quilt, so I don’t go anywhere.
Of course, there was the usual swag by our hostess and some by various retreaters. There were people there from Virgina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Colorado etc. But most were from Nevada and California.
Great time! I paid to go back again in March and next September. Just love this retreat!
Peggy Stockwell in Vancouver, Washington