retreat sewing

This past weekend, a couple of friends and I attended a crafty retreat a few hours north.  I say crafty because it wasn't limited to quilting and there were quite a few scrapbook gals there.

I had been prepping for quite a while - cutting fabrics to make kits for projects I planned to work on.  The intention here being if pieces are cut, I can sew sooner and make faster progress.  Also, less to lug around!

The first project on the list was Easy Addition done in a different colorway than the original.  My fabrics (well, some of them...things changed as I cut and found I had too little of something...):

We arrived around 11am and I promptly got my stuff set up.  I also helped a friend who rode with me, as she is a few years older and needed some assistance.  (I'm paying this forward and hoping there is some young quilter to assist me when the need arises!)  We sewed and talked and laughed and ate and at the end of the first day - about 10pm, I had many blocks done:

Yep, this seems like a lot, but with 36 blocks planned/needed, I wasn't done yet!

I made it up early enough for breakfast the next morning (despite talking into the late hours) and made a good finish of it the following day:

I was having a hard time getting the navy backgrounds to show up navy and the lighter block focus fabrics to show up correctly as well, so neither of these is quite right.  The lighting was good enough, just not natural, so harder for photographs.  (Never mind my phone hates purple and whatever else it wants to have a tantrum about that day!)

For this project I started a brand new spool - 300 yards - of navy.  As I sewed the last block I had this:

Whew!

(There was still a good portion on the bobbin, but man did I go through those 300 yards in a snap!)

Pick up the blocks from the design wall (such a luxury to pop each block up there as I sewed) and get out project number two, the Tumbleweeds Quilt.  Which also has a dark blue background because, well, I'm stuck in a rut?

This one had a lot more cutting to get a kit made, but also a lot more fussy sewing once I got to that part.  I had little delusion about the amount of time this would take, but it seemed to take even longer!

By bedtime (11pm, though again we stayed up and talked for hours in our room), I had a few blocks to show off:

They look a little wonky on the outer edges, but remember there is seam allowance still there, so it will be fine.

Day three was spent - all day - working on more.

Well, there was talking and eating and laughing and all sorts of stuff that took away from the sewing, but I didn't go shopping or anything.  I just stayed by my machine mostly and sewed.

I thought I would get faster at the curves and maybe I did, but I also shared an iron and ironing board from my roomie because, though I had brought my iron, I forgot my little board.  And this gem...

...provided by the retreat folks, liked to grab edges and wad them up and make a wrinkly mess of things.  For the larger blocks of the first project, I could handle it.  Also, I had steam, which helped a lot.  So maybe I got faster?

We decided to go to sleep at a reasonable hour the last night and I think we were asleep by 11pm.  I slept better that night than any other, but came home quite tired.  The bed was good enough, the pillows were good enough, the sheets were clean and nice, but it was just not MY bed.

Day four dawned and I made it to breakfast again (I got there all three days!) and then headed right down to get sewing.  I knew we needed to be ready to go no later than 3pm, but I wasn't sure how early my roomie/carpool buddy would want to stay.  She was working a few things and sometimes you just hit a good stopping point and it's easier to pack up and go than to try to start something new.  This project was pretty easy to stop and start, but I wanted to get as much done as I could.

Turns out, we drove out of the parking lot just before three and I have one more block in the curved piecing stage done, but 16 units not joined, than I have to show here:

It's not as much as I would like to have gotten done.  Truth be told, I wish I had made it to project three, but these do take a while and they're fussy and I wanted them done well.  This leaves me with just six and a half more to go and that feels pretty good.

Project three will be ready for me here at home, no worries.

On the way home, about halfway, I saw the gas gauge looking a bit low (we were driving my roomie/carpool buddy's car) and stopped to fill up.  Really the least I could do for her letting me drive her (bigger, better on bad roads) vehicle.  I looked up at the display when the pump shut itself off and this is what it had done all by itself:

I've heard talk of a mythical "perfect pump" and I think maybe it contains more zeros than this, but I still thought this was pretty cool.  (And yeah, if you wanna do math you can see how much gas cost us at that station on that day, but I've given up really looking except in general.  It goes up and down and when I need it, well...not much choice!)

So now I'm home, reminiscing about all the fun.  There was a foursome behind us that were scrapbookers.  Two younger gals (they had elementary-age kids) and two older gals (one was the mom of one of the younger gals, but I think both were about the same age) and they were hilarious.  They did all sorts of goofy things and giggled a lot and, being so close, we couldn't help but hear what was going on.  We joined in the fun, and the "naughty corner" was reborn.

There was also one guy there, with his wife, both quilters.  That was pretty cool.  We have two guys in our guild, so guy quilters were nothing new to me, but it's fun to have a mix of people in your group because you definitely get different perspectives.  He was pretty quiet, but his wife was really nice.

The food was good (even if there was ALWAYS salad!) and the room was a good temperature (sometimes places can be too chilly or too warm because of weather and/or irons) and everyone was friendly and it was a great weekend.

Today I'm back to reality.  Lots of chores to be done, or caught up on, but I'm nearly through them (just one load of laundry in the dryer yet, and that is pretty passive until you have to fold all the doggone socks!) and I had some help earlier...

Finn helped me pay the bills.  As you can see, he has managed to insert himself on the pile of bills to be paid, the calculator for balancing the checkbook, the checkbook itself and blocking the computer screen for checking the balance online.  He is also laying on my pen.  (The blue blobs are things that really are nobody's business that he was unwilling to cover up for me.)  (And the empty thread cone is to remind me what color I like next time I order thread.  It also doubles as something the cats can knock down.)

The other kitties have been very attentive and snuggly, but not quite as dedicated as Finn.  Toby helped me refill the bird feeders and Freddie made sure the suitcase containing my quilt stuff was properly unpacked.  (Also that it was empty...about 15 times.)  Gabby made sure my face got a lot of furry (thanks to spring shedding) bonks last night before I went to sleep.

I have my sewing stuff put away or set up, but I'm not sure I'll get any done today.  Though I had fun this weekend, it might have been a bit of overload?  No worries, it's there when I'm ready.

Happy quilting,

Katie

PS Project Quilting challenge 5 is percolating, so if I don't want to finish the curves, I've got something new to start!