WIP Update and Quilt Retreat

I had a great week! I finished my Underground Railroad Quilt Code quilt just in the nick of time to take to quilt guild meeting Thursday evening. During show and tell I showed 6 quilts this month. I got a few jokes about "do you sleep?" I got a little carried away as I needed a break from working on the Dear Jane quilt. I hope to finish the last triangle and kite this week, and then add the final border. The best part of the weekend was that I attended a quilt retreat organized through my quilt guild. This was our first visit to Mercy Center in Clayton, MO. It was wonderful. The sewing area was very large to accommodate the 36 quilters. Some quilters had their own tables and we were able to have a few tables set up for cutting. Even the 4 ironing areas were accommodated in the room. We had 3 projects for this retreat: The Dump Bag was completed Friday night. This will make a great grocery bag. I pulled fabrics from my stash as I didn't want to purchase new fabrics for this project. The Jitterbuzz quilt was very challenging. The instructor had some problems with the EQ directions and a few sections had inappropriate cutting instructions, templates and quantities. I persevered and finally got the top pieced as I was determined the process would not beat me. I decided to wait to add borders. :0) I was also supposed to make the Magic Trip Around the World quilt but didn't get a chance to cut it while working on the Jitterbuzz quilt. Yesterday I cut it out and sewed this much of it together. I plan to finish the top tonight then audition border fabrics. Another new activity at retreat was that we had a Secret Quilter where each participant bought 4 gifts under $5 and a final gift of around $10. Prior to retreat, the participants completed a small profile like favorite colors, quilt magazine currently subscribed to, hobbies other than quilting, favorite quilt shop, etc. to give the Secret Quilter an idea of things to buy/not to buy. Then, we provided anonymous gifts for 4 meals in brown paper bags that we gave the coordinator when we arrived. The fifth gift we delivered personally, revealing our identities. Here is my loot. It was good fun and I hope you try it at your next guild retreat. We had one over achiever quilter that brought goodies for all 36 quilters. She started making things last April for the big day. Every year Connie makes wonderful gifts for the attendees that she donates. She is very kindhearted and talented. This year's retreat was themed "Valley Girls Buzz" and the committee provided the machine embroidered bee name tag. It is very pretty. Also, they made charms on shrink plastic. The committee was very creative. I hope I haven't bored you this week and that you'll come back soon. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update - Getting a Lot Done!

I had another busy week filled with quilting. Last Monday I went to embroidery club meeting at a local quilt shop. It's always interesting to see the various projects demoed and show-and-tell. We had a demo of an Origami Bag that I thought was cute. This is my practice bag. I see I have to play with placement of the embroideries in the next one.

I quilted Splat Attic Window and Wonky Hearts. It's great to get these two off the list.

I also quilted Just String Series: All Together Now which had been a UFO since 2007. Now I have a quilt for my office when it's a tad cold.

Another great accomplishment is that I proofed, printed fabric sheets and sewed the backing for my Underground Railroad Quilt Code quilt.

Had a quilting guild/bee meeting on Saturday. On Sunday I went shopping for my batting. I picked up 6 twin batts and 6 yards of Warm 'n Natural batting too. The way I've been quilting, I need to keep my batting stash stocked. They had sale on batting at JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics.

Hope you are stitching too. -------------------------- Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com

WIP Update

I worked on my WIPs a lot this past week.

I completed the Batik Quilt which I renamed Batik Rainbow.

First I quilted the Turning Twenty Again quilt. I started this quilt January 1, 2006. Then I went to add binding and don't know where that "special" place is that I would be sure to remember when the time was right. I didn't search too much as I have lots of projects to work on. If I don't find it in the next month, I'll just purchase binding fabric. Most of the fabrics are from Moda Chocolate line.

My progress on the Dear Jane quilt is awesome! I only have one more triangle and one more kite on the bottom border. The remaining three borders are on the quilt. I just needed a break so I started working on a few other projects to save my sanity. I'm still hyperventilating about all that hand quilting in my future.

I had 16 floral blocks that were waiting to be made into a quilt top. I sewed those and have decided that the quilt doesn't need a border as it is 80" square. I even pieced the back so I have another top ready for machine quilting. This top will make a cute Floral Garden quilt. I also worked on the Wonky Hearts. I had only made one block and had pulled various red, pink, and purple fabrics with and without heart/love theme. Then the project just sat in a corner. I needed 8 more blocks to make a quilt about 40" square. I made those and then completed the quilt top. Today I will baste it for quilting.

Splat Attic Windows got basted Friday evening and I quilted about one sixth of it yesterday. I also have an Underground Railroad Quilt Code that needs a backing. I'm putting various historical information on the back of the quilt. I had a draft on my flash that crashed so I spent a few hours retyping the information. I'm now glad that I didn't finished this project earlier since Barack Obama and Joe Biden are now President and Vice-President respectively. I've decided to add this accomplishment to my history as well. So the draft is back in electronic form. I have to proof it. After corrections, I'll print the pages on fabric sheets. My quilting housekeeping consisted of washing a few loads of home dec fabric samples. I'm going to make some simple quilts with these for various family members. My guild had a feature called "First Thursday". A member volunteers to have an open house of about 3 hours and usually provided snacks. I attended one last Thursday and had a great time. The entire family hosted (usually husbands and children disappear) and was so welcoming and interested in us as well as sharing their crafts with us. The husband did wood work and the daughter' creates scrapbooks. The member we visited leans more toward art quilting with various 3-d embellishments. It was really neat to see her quilts displayed as well as her very large quilt studio. The quilts not displayed were stored on pants hangers. I encouraged her to bring a few of those to future meetings to share with the membership. I had a great time! My other out-of-home quilt excursions consisted of quilting with two friends on Saturday, working on our Dear Jane quilts. On Sunday I went to a sale at a local quilt shop. Found two bolts for $2 per yard; will make excellent backs or if I change my mind would also look good on the front. I do hope you come back next week to see what I accomplish this week. I hope you are working through your pile of WIPs as well. Type-u-later, Tea in MO http://www.teaquilts.com/

117 WIPs...so far

Since my flash died, I've been looking in closets, containers, drawers, boxes, cabinets, and even my website to recreate my list of UFOs. To my dismay, I've counted 117 so far and I'm sure I'm missing something. Right here, right now, I vow to finish at least 10 of them before starting a new project (other than machine embroidery as I'm in a monthly club and I get points and retreat project I've already purchased fabric for that's later this month.) I'm just awed that I have this many WIPs, even though I teach classes and some are samples. I found while compiling my list that I have approximately 40 tops that need quilting and another 20 or so that need borders. I tend to make twin size or larger projects and some how the quilting has just gotten lost. Time to correct. So, I'm going to start with projects that do not require custom quilting and work on those first. It is a sad, sad day in my house. How sad is it in yours? LOL I'm sure it can't be as awful as mine.