Retreat Day 2

I'm having a very productive retreat,  finishing up projects this weekend.  This star quilt is part of a paper pieced block of the month from a few years ago.  Finally got the borders finished this weekend and it's ready for quilting

Retreat Day 1

My current retreat is off to a productive start.  I finished 2 quilts that I brought.  This is one of them - a shop hop from a couple of years ago.  I finally finished (most of)  the blocks and came up with a layout I liked for the ones I had. Assembled the quilt and added borders at retreat,  and one project is off the list.

Mystery Quilts

Why is it that all the mystery quilts seem to start at the same time.  I have 3 going on right now. -  2 from guilds,  and one online.  And I know that Bonnie Hunter's mystery will be starting in a few weeks. Maybe I can avoid getting sucked into the New Years Day mystery overload I've done the last few years. The current mysteries are somewhat long term,  running until the spring,  so they should not be too much work each month.

These are my blocks from one of the guild mysteries.  The dark is my background,  and the light is my accent colour -  so I keep having to remind myself to switch the dark and light in the instructions. Hopefully I don't forget that little tidbit before next month's clue comes out.

It's a Butterfly!

Look what I finished today!  Well,  not quite finished,  because it still needs 2 borders. But the piecing is done,  the sections are together,  and the quilt barely fits on my design wall :)

Everything went together really well,  but this quilt certainly is good practice for sewing accuracy. I probably should have checked a few of the blocks before assembly, but everything seemed to work out in the end.

Quilted!

And here it is, fresh off the longarm. My plus quilt is finished, only a year later. I just need to finish the binding, and then add the Victoria's Quilts labels to it.  I'll hand it over at our next meeting, and they quilt will find a good home.

I quilted it with a freehand loop design. I wanted something quick and fun after a couple of weeks of steady customer work.  I really like the way this quilt came out, but I think it's one of those "I did it once, not doing *that* again" projects.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is a mess today, as I've started assembling bits of my butterfly. The wall isn't big enough to hold the whole thing, so bits are overlapping at the top.  Hoping to get this done in the next day or two so I can take it in the shop before I start quilting it.

I also started a couple of new projects recently. A mystery quilt that I found on Facebook (here), which is going to release clues twice a month. I figure that should be an achievable goal.  32 4-patches completed for step 1.

And a disappearing Dresden that I started yesterday at a class.  Just one more plate to make and then it's time to quilt it. We all agreed to take our finished projects to the November guild meeting, so hopefully a deadline will help me keep plugging along.

Retreat Prep

A couple of tweaks to the butterfly and I think it's ready to assemble. I want to finish the body section and get it up on the wall before I call it done, however. Just a few more flying geese to make.

In the mean time, I've been trying to clean my sewing room. I have 3 retreats coming up at the end of October, so I figure I need to be super organized in order to ensure I have enough projects to keep me occupied during all of that fabulous sewing time.  So, I've been collecting and organizing bits in my sewing room, and trying to get quilts to a reasonable state to take with me.

This is my "Edge of 17" shop hop from a couple of years ago. I bailed on the last few blocks and decided to just go with what I have. So working on a layout now. Not sure this one will get to a retreat, since it's going to require quite a bit of design wall time.  But at least it is moving out of the "pile of stuff I should finish one day" state.