Concentrated crafting fun

Boy is it amazing how much sewing you can get done when all the chores of daily living disappear and you're entirely focused on the sewing machine. I returned home today from my first sewing retreat at a lovely B&B on Lake Huron and I'm pretty amazed at all I accomplished. We got there a day early, giving a day and a half of concentrated sewing before the retreat officially kicked off.

Jumping right in as soon as we arrived, I pulled out my stack of Laura Gunn fabric and Tula Pink's City Sampler book and got cutting. I worked out a good system, cutting at least 10 and then lining up the stack of pieces for each block on my long ruler to make it easy to bring back to my little station. Then I sat down and got sewing.

I finished 35 blocks, and both the rectangles and stripes chapters. (Stay tuned for lotsa photos!)

Then on Saturday I got started on the retreat project, learning a few new things along the way thanks to our super helpful and encouraging teacher Deb Beirnes. Before brunch on Sunday I finished the twelve blocks. Now I need to square them up, sew them together and add a few borders. I really like how the three prints of Chirp Chirp fabric I picked worked together. "Like a picnic" was an expression many of the fellow retreat sewers used. It's so bright and cheery with the green florals and pop of orange, which will be picked up in the binding.

Even better than putting together these nifty blocks, the teacher taught us a neat trick to eliminate waste while producing a whole whack of ready-to-go blocks. I love the wee triangle in the middle of the bigger blocks. And there's plenty for a good-sized project.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't get photos of the blocks made by the other three women (including my mom who kindly invited me to join her retreat group as a pinch quilter). They were all so very different, even though they were all the same block. Mine looked very modern, while others looked elegantly traditional. But thinking now the oversight is not too surprising when I think of another moment in the retreat. On Saturday night there was a brilliantly red sunset shining on the lake's calm frozen waters. Truly a rare sight. Someone mentioned it and everyone looked up from their sewing machines, marvelling for a few moments before returning to the task at hand. Beautiful sunset, yes, but there was sewing to be done!

The retreat was an amazing experience, meeting so many quilters with a wealth of experience and knowledge and seeing such an array of projects and fabrics. I realized just what a novice quilter I am, but it's inspired me that much more to keep quilting. Even after long days of sewing into the early hours of the morning, I can't wait to get back in front of my sewing machine.

The cow says moo

Too frequently I find myself in a quilting predicament caused by me forging ahead without a plan. Case in point: I bought a FQ bundle of children's fabric with adorable farmyard animals and a barn scene. I wanted to preserve as much of the prints as possible and avoid maiming animals, so I cut them up strategically. Which lead to the problem: I had an assortment of different-sized fabric pieces. The solution was building on those odd patches with the other three prints to make a standard block.

I think it turned out well and I used every bit of the cute fabric while ending up with an interesting quilt about 40" square with a variety of blocks. I have cosy Robert Kaufman flannel in blue, green and white for the back and binding. I think it will be a great quilt for a baby boy or girl.

Now I am taking a sewing break while I'm off on vacation to Malta, but shortly after getting home I'm off on my first quilting retreat!

Chockablock

My vacation started yesterday and I spent much of the day sewing, making good progress on my City Sampler blocks. I made it to Block 15, finishing the crosses chapter. (Blocks 1 to 6 were posted previously, but I wanted to change how I photographed the blocks and went back to the start.) Now onto rectangles!

I think this is my favourite so far with its framed birdy. Made with 25 pieces!

I really like this block, along with #14.

Some of them look deceptively simple, like this one that still has 11 pieces.

I also sewed binding onto a lap quilt - I can't wait to finally see it finished! And I unintentionally wrangled my mom into doing a holiday sewing project for me. She's so fast and way more adept than me. I also realized sewing clothing is really not my thing just a few snips into cutting out the fabric. I much prefer the precision of quilting as a perfectionist to the core.

On my way

I'm off to a good start after my first weekend working on the City Sampler challenge, finishing blocks one through six. The blocks are relatively small at a finished 6", so some of the pieces are quite teeny. And some of the blocks have many teeny pieces, as you can see.

Diving in

I'm a bit late to the game joining a QAL for Tula Pink's City Sampler: 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, but I'm excited to finally get started. A CFF and I decided we'd make our way through the book from front to back. After a Pentagon-level discussion on how to tackle this project, we settled on a goal of 12 blocks a month. I have no idea how we'll do with that, if it's too many or too few. But it's good incentive to keep the momentum going.

Today I assembled my coveted stash of Laura Gunn's Garden Wall collection. I love her fabric, but it's not so easy to find. That's why I've been saving it for something special, and this project most definitely fits the bill. The stack of FQs is joined by yardage picked up at a discount at the biggest fabric store ever another CFF and I stumbled on while on a road trip. (Amazing fabric marked way down - that's a bargain-crazy crafter's dream!) Then there's teal and chartreuse in Kona cotton for background since many of the blocks are quite intricate and need a solid to show off the patterned fabric.

I knew the first block, really the first cuts, would be the toughest, so I forced myself to jump in and just get started. Right out of the gate, I am super excited by the design and how the fabrics go together. The book breaks down each block with such a simple and easy-to-follow illustration.

I immediately moved onto the second block. Similar fabric, but totally different feel. So that's two down, 98 to go. But I'm not at all worried about this becoming a slog. Each block is different and its own little adventure.

Runner wild

While I have not yet finished my table runner started and mostly done more than a month ago, I did jump ahead and made one for my parents' birthdays in February. I pulled five floral fabrics from my stash and then picked up the green background. This may actually be the first time I've been brave enough to mix a bunch of fabrics from different collections and I love how it turned out.

This one is perfect, at least as far as the pattern repeat goes. A tough lesson learned while making mine after painstaking planning fell apart in the final moment of piecing. Oh well.

I really like the binding made with the large floral fabric. On the back I used the dark blue with a few strips of the diamonds and two accent strips in red.

Cuteness concentrated

I couldn't resist making another one of these ric-rac blankets for a friend's baby with the most adorable barnyard animal flannel ever. I love on the small print that all the animals are looking at you. "Oh, hello! Welcome to our farm!"