WIP Wednesday -- Retreat

I want to start by saying that I won't be posting next Wednesday.  I will be gone on a bus trip with my quilt guild to Lincoln, NE to the National Quilt Museum.  We are doing a mini shop hop on the trip as well, stopping at 3 shops along the way.  My plan is to take my hexagons to work on for the trip.

The retreat was great as always.  I only took the one project to work on, other than making the President's block for guild.
I had thrown in a bag of fabrics left over from another project as well. 
I did make the President's block first, then I took that bag of fabric and did some cutting.

You can see the block in the picture as well as cutting for fabric for making the double towel scarves, strips for a toothbrush rug, 10 inch squares for microwave cozies, and 5 inch squares for future projects.

I really did spend the rest of the retreat time working on my string block quilt.  This is how far I got.  I found that I still need to make 2 purple string blocks before adding anymore to the quilt.  Hopefully I can get that done in the next 2 weeks before I post again!

As far as the rest of the week,  aside from working some in organizing my craft room (very little done), I only worked on making the plastic canvas jingle bell blocks.   I decided that I wanted to make the sets I sell in my Etsy shop a set of 3 instead of 2. 

Looks like that's it for this week.  Happy Sewing and Crafting!

I do link up with the following blogs:



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

WIP Wednesday -- Upcoming Retreat Etc

I'm anticipating the upcoming quilt retreat this Friday and Saturday.  I was just in my sewing/craft room and added a little more fabric to my project bag.  The big bag is totally packed so all I have to do Friday morning is grab the bag, my sewing machine, and my bag of food and go!

I've gotten back to my cleaning and organizing in my sewing room as well.  I cleared one large shelf and have a start of putting the items I have for sale in my Etsy shop on the shelves for easy access when something is ordered.   It's going to be a long process to get my room into the order it should be.

This week I did work on a few things.

I worked more on the plarn bedroll.  I would like to say that when I crochet that big ball of plarn in that it will be done, but I know better.  It will take at least another ball that large, and maybe even another one after that!

According to my pictures, it looks like the only other thing I did this week was get a start on 2 flannel rag quilts.  I cut the rest of the flannel I had, and got a start on sewing rows.  I need more flannel to finish both the larger and smaller quilt.  Rag quilts will always be an ongoing project for me.  As I find flannel at yard sales etc, I will just cut and make.

I did have a finish this week.  I finally finished sewing down the binding on the braid baby quilt and got it put up for sale.

Hopefully next week I will have some nice progress on my rainbow string quilt to show you after working on it at the retreat this weekend.  Past making a President's block for guild, it's the only project I intend to work on this weekend.

I link up with the following blogs.  I hope you will give each of them a visit.



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

WIP Wednesday -- Playing Catch Up

When my laptop went down, so did my sewing and quilting for the most part.  I missed the past 2 Wednesday's doing a WIP post.  There was about 10 days in there that I did no sewing at all, which made me sad.

I have lots of things to show that have been worked on since my last post, so here goes:

I worked more on the pin cushions, just have to sew them shut and add the buttons to finish these.

I'm still working on the plarn bedroll.  This is such a long process, but eventually it will be to the 6 foot long measurement.

You can't see what's inside my cat bag (with one of our cats behind it), but it's my string quilt UFO, packed and ready to be worked on during the upcoming retreat at the end of this month.  I intend for this to be my sole project at the retreat, and hopefully I can stick to that to actually make good progress on it.

The Arkansas Crossroads is designated my Sit n' Sew project each month.  I have row 6 together and I'm inching my way towards getting all of the blocks done.  Maybe row 7 complete next month?

I bought a scrap bag of flannel at the Mennonite Relief Sale, so I got out some other flannel I had come across and cut more squares for rag quilts.  I so wanted to get my sewing machine out and get to work on these right away after cutting, but didn't get to.  Maybe this week I can?  The flannel strips in the picture will be added to my stash when I get to start a flannel toothbrush rug.

And, speaking of toothbrush rugs, I finally got out the one I had started some time back.  I've been adding strips to the project box as I've cut for other projects and thought it was about time to get it out, organize the strips and get back to work on it.

Last, but not least on my list to share this week is my Sodoku quilt project.  I messed up and am short one black and white fat quarter of having the 9.  I had thought I would use the plain black as the 9th since I had a plain yellow, but then thought better of it once I got home.  I don't think that would be a good choice to use the same as what the sashing and borders will be.  However, once I get that last fat quarter, I can start assembling the blocks.

I'm linking up with the following blogs.  I can't wait to go and see what others are doing, hope you will too.



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

WIP Wednesday-- Quilt Retreat

You know what kind of past week I've had when you see that I've not done a blog post since last Wednesday!

Friday and Saturday was the annual October quilt retreat hosted by the local quilt shop, Cottonwood Quilts.
I swore to the owner of the shop, and to myself, that if I wasn't done with the yo-yo projects that I would work on nothing else at the retreat.

Well.........I couldn't do that.  I did jump back and forth between the yo-yo's and a couple other things.
I soon figured out once again that I didn't have enough yo-yo's made to finish the projects.  I stopped, but only had enough left in green Christmas fabric for 3 more yo-yo's.  This prompted me to stop on the table runner and get started on the 2nd valance.  I figured that way I would know what was left for the table runner, if anything.

Here is a picture of the one finished valance as well as what I have done on the 2nd valance and the table runner.  It's my hope to finish these by this weekend.

In between working on the yo-yo's I worked more on the microwave hotpads.  I do have my sewing machine out and plugged in to hopefully finish those up today so that I can get them listed for sale in my Etsy shop.
The other thing that I did in between was to get several fabrics cut for the composition notebook covers that I am making for gifts this year.

One lady that comes to the retreats always tries to bring things to give us gift giving ideas.  This time around she brought in what she said is originally called a LeCou towel.  I'm going to call it a double towel scarf.  I went home Friday night and got out towels left from when I did the crochet top towels, and I've had 5 yards of the other fabric in my stash forever.
I wanted to make sure that I understood how to make it while she would be there to help me.  I didn't end up needing her help, and I think they will make great gifts and possibly something else that I can make to sell in my Etsy shop.

I found 2 more sites to link up to each week.  I hope you will check out all of the blogs that I link to:



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

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WIP Wednesday -- Quilt Retreat Report

I sure do love the quilt retreats.  I love how I get more sewing done in 2 (or 3) days than what I usually get done in a month.
I always come home and just want to keep on sewing, but life just doesn't allow me that  LOL

What to start with----I worked on several things, but only finished one little thing.  I guess that's a good starting place.

I wanted to see just how easy it was to make the composition notebook cover as I want to make those my Christmas gifts this year.  It was really easy, and here is the one that I finished.

5 years ago I had my daughter buy me the Braid in a Day Pattern with template when Pat Knoechel (Eleanor Burns' sister) was at our guild.   I had won a Moda Sweet Roll pack in a blog giveaway, so put it in the project bag with the pattern.   I finally pulled that down and took it to the retreat as one lady in our guild is a certified Quilt In A Day teacher and told me she would help me if needed.

Now that I know how to do the braids, I really look forward to doing more.  These are with the 1.5 inch jelly rolls instead of the 2.5 inch, and I plan to make 2 into a baby blanket and the 3rd one into a table runner.

I didn't get around to getting out my blue scraps, but I did take along my green string blocks and finished those up.  I still need to get to the blue before I start putting these together.

I brought along my flannel pieces and cut what I could from them as well as sewed some of them together---together as the 2 together, ready to start sewing rows.  I still don't have enough of either for a full blanket of either size so I will be on the lookout for more flannel when I am out and about.

I worked on adding yo-yo's to the first valance.  I have just 3 more rows to put on to finish the first one.  I'm back to making the yo-yo's for now, and dividing them into bags to ensure that I have some of every fabric in all 3 items.  I really need to work daily on these if I expect to have them done in time.

I feel very blessed to have won so many things at the retreat.  In the silent auction I won 4 rolls of wrapping paper, and the 4 charm packs that were in the basket.  The other small things were in a basket for everyone to take something free.  I was sent home with everything that was left in the basket.   I never won a single game of Left Center Right that we played with the 2.5 inch strips, but I was sent home with all of the strips that were left after we were done playing the game. (oops!  The strips aren't in my picture either, but there is a very large stack of those that I plan to use most of making more braids)

I also won another door prize on Sunday that I forgot to take a picture of.  It's a roll of 100% cotton batting and a bag of supplies that include quilt pins, pencils, chalk lines and a chalk marker.  I'm super excited about the batting because it means I can get back to making the microwave hotpads again.

The next retreat I get to go to is at the end of October, and I can't wait!


I link up with the following blogs:


Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/