Friday, May 27, 2011

More Florabunda Block Pictures

This is a shot at the quilting retreat with all the Florabunda blocks together.  Block 12 wasn't quite complete at that time.  I've decided to change two of the blocks.  I don't like the colors of the leaves in either, and one block doesn't have any pink in it so I'm changing the color of the flower centers.  Otherwise, I'm very pleased with how they look together.



After those two blocks are finished, I can start with the 24" center block.  I think I have an idea of the flower colors, but no idea for the color of the basket.  I guess I'll have to play for a bit.


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Florabunda Block 12 Completed

I've been doing a little stitching nearly every evening, but finally sat down to finish the last of the 12" Florabunda blocks last night. 


Next is the 24" center block.  I'm excited to see it all come together!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Quilting Retreat

I went on my second quilting retreat this past weekend.  This was 48 hours of quilting, eating, sleeping and chatting.  Well, I did take a break at one point and took a walk to stretch my legs and enjoy the glorious New England spring weather, but really the rest of it was quilting, sleeping and eating in that order of the time I took.

The two things I like best about a quilting retreat is that I get a huge block of time to indulge myself in my favorite hobby, and a lot of space in which to spread out.  At home, it's a few minutes here and there or an afternoon if I'm lucky.  And right now, my sewing room is doubling as a storage area for most of the stuff that was stored in the basement while we remodel that.  So, it's not really usable for large projects. 

I went on the weekend with two quilt tops, and a few smaller projects in mind to work on.  My goal was to get both tops basted, one top quilted and make a  cover for my new Kindle.  I got that all accomplished and a little more.  I made the back, ironed, basted and machine quilted a UFO that was originally just a scrap project to keep me busy.  Then I was going to complete the top and donate it to a raffle for my troop.  But that never came to be, so I decided the quilt would be a Christmas gift for my sister.  That is not complete with the exception of a label and hand stitching the binding down.

The second project was to make the backing for and baste the maple leaf quilt top.  I had made 140-ish 4 1/2" maple leaf blocks by hand because I was looking for a hand work project to work on.  In addition, there are about 10 9" maple leaf blocks that I got as part of a box exchange project with my guild.  This project will be machine quilted and as of now, has no specific home.  But, I'm thinking I should be giving more of my quilts away, so this one will go to another relative.  I just don't know who yet.

The third project I did was a little, scrappy sleeve for my kindle.  My "table-mate" was making a lap sized quilt of bright colors and a white fabric with black swirls on it.  The method she used for the blocks made a lot of good sized scraps left over.  So, I scooped some of them up and put them together in a random fashion to make this sleeve.  It probably took me all Saturday morning to make, but it's bright and cheery and will protect my Kindle which is all the criteria I wanted for the item.

I found that Sunday morning is a perfect time for small, mindless sewing projects.  Sunday morning before lunch is a great time to gather up what I've worked on and just putter with little things.  I took some cut out applique flowers to make pot holders and sewed them to a background.  I've made a few of these before, but they aren't very heat resistant.  I have some heat resistant batting at home, so these three tiny projects will be finished up later.

Oh, and I also did some prep work for the last of my Florabunda applique blocks.  I don't enjoy using the iron, but being surrounded by other quilters makes it tolerable.  So now I just have the stitching to do on that block and it will be done.

The worst part of a weekend quilting retreat is that it ends.  I was tired because I don't sleep well in a strange place without Wayne, and I had a room mate that I didn't really know well and I didn't want to annoy her, so I was very self-conscience of  what I was doing.  So, coming home to sleep in my own bed is the good balance to coming home to real life and work.

I'll post pictures soon.