September 28, 2008

Solo Retreat Weekend

It's been a great weekend of sewing. I had a retreat all by my BIG SELF! DH was gone and I spent the past two days in my studio sewing away, watching old movies and making some progress. I had planned to work on the Spring Fling Round Robin II, but I need batik fabric. I don't have a lot of batiks in my stash and wouldn't you know it -- I didn't have the color I needed.

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Here is a picture of the quilt top for my DS & DIL. This quilt has 110 (yes, I said 110) 8-inch blocks plus two borders. It is the largest quilt I have ever made. I've been working on it for a LOOOOOONNNNNNGG time. I grew bored with making the same block over and over and would always find some other little project to squeeze in. Well, the top is ready, the backing pieced, quilting thread selected and ready to be quilted. I would have quilted it over the weekend but I didn't have a batting large enough -- the largest I had was a queen size.



Here is a picture of the backing (all pieced and ready to go) draped over the longarm.




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The very first quilting retreat I ever went on was nearly 10 years ago. In January, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary of retreating together. There are only 7 of the original quilters left out of 17. We still have about 15 retreaters though. We decided the 7 charter members would exchange churn dash blocks. The center was to be made from a grey fabric to look like tin, which is a symbol for a 10-year anniversary.


The block on the left back in August at a retreat at the Compass Centre. It just looks so washed out and I really didn't like it at all. The grey, pink and purple seemed to just blend together. SEW, I made new blocks this morning (the block on the right). The center looks like grey cat hair with the churn dash being a lime green and the other portion black with brightly colored paw prints. I still have to sign my name.

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A few posts back, I was soliciting ideas for organizing my fabric. When going thru all my fabric, I found these Christmas redwork blocks done on my Janome 10000 a few years back. I had forgotten all about making them -- what a pleasant surprise. They are stitched on a white fabric with snowflake motifs. I decided to put them together. I just went to the Christmas drawer (see, I got somewhat organized --LOL!), and found some fabrics that I thought would look good with the blocks.


I put a red "flipper" (my own personal quilting term) around each block before sashing with the green stripe and red polka dot cornerstones. I then put a red "stop border" around the blocks before adding the final border. I thought the border fabric that looks like old-fashion Christmas trees with toys was a good compliment to the red and green fabrics. It is ready to be quilted. I plan to use the red polka dot as the binding. Here are some pictures of the finished top.









15 comments:

Molly Mandeville Fryer said...

Girl! You did some quilting for real!! Josh's quilt is so great and HUGE! I understand about finding "other" things to sneak in. I do it "all the time". LOL
The Christmas Quilt is great too. I love weekends with nobody to bother you--you can just quilt away until the wee hours. Great Weekend. Hey--BTW--see why I had you to get up close and personal with your TDA block? It is a really great pic!

Gina said...

Wow you got alot of sewing done this weekend.
I love your big quilt. Well done on sticking with it.

Love and hugs Gina xxx

Rhonda said...

Boy oh boy, did you get busy....good for you. I was under the weather Saturday & Sunday was church....so....no sew for me......not funny. Take care.

Kathy said...

Molly, thanks! It was a great w/e of sewing. And, thanks for taking that picture of me with my block. I normally do not like pictures of myself, but I think this is a good one too. Thanks for being there with us!

Kathy said...

Thanks Gina. I'm glad that quilt top is done -- now to get it quilted.

Kathy said...

Awww Rhonda ((((((HUGS)))))))

I'm sorry to hear you were not feeling well this weekend. Hope you are better!

Teresa said...

How fun to have the house to yourself and be able to do whatever you want. The Christmas blocks are so cute and you did great with the layout. I do like that big quilt you made too.

I have a group of quilting buddies in Texas that I met over the internet and have been to Texas a couple of times to join in their retreats. Once at the Red Barn Retreat Center which is a great place, and once in a little town that I can't remember the name of . It was just a little south of Ft.Worth. I was born in Harlingen, so its always fun for me to come to Texas.

Kathy said...

Teresa, thanks. I had forgotten all about those Christmas blocks so it was a nice surprise.

I've been to the Red Barn Retreat several times. Did you have one of those awesome cinammon rolls? yummy.

I didn't realize you were a native Texan. I'm glad you get to come back sometimes.

Kath said...

Girl! Josh's quilt is wonderful! He is going to love, love, love it! And I love your Christmas one! Is that for me? LOL
I'm going to have this weekend to myself! Of course - I'll have the dogs to let out, let in, let out, let in. You know! But I have big plans!

Great posts!

Monica at Buttoncounter said...

ohmygosh...It is so cute. I didn't know that the flipper term was all thunk up by you. I have been spreading the term around like a bad rash and everybody I have told loves this alternative to an actual added border strip. You are such an idol...love, Monica

Quilter Kathy said...

My goodness, you have been very busy!
Love the Christmas stitched wallhanging!
What a lot of stitching in the quilt for your son...wow!

Kathy said...

Now Monica, don't be making fun of my self-created technical terms! LOL You know, the "flipper", it's that little strip of fabric that you fold in half, stitch to the edge of the block and then stitch on the other piece and the little "flipper-thingy" is flippy! ROTFLOL Just stick with me I'll teach you some more stuff YOU CRAZY WOMAN!

Kathy said...

Yes, Kathy, it was a busy weekend, but it was SEW FUN! My son's quilt is the largest quilt I've ever made. Now, I'm waiting on the batting to arrive so I can get that thing quilted.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Nana said...

I love the Christmas quilt! The fabrics are perfect! I am planning to make a Christmas quilt with machine embroidered reindeers on the blocks. I saw the quilt last year at the Houston Quilt Festival. Can't wait to see what I find this year.

Paula said...

The quilt you made for your son and DIL is beautiful! I love all the different fabrics....so nice.