Mini Retreat June 2012

This past weekend three friends and I retreated to one of their homes down in Soldotna.  It is their retirement home, though retirement is still a few years off for her. We went down for the Quilting on the Kenai quilt show, see my previous post for more on that, and to sew the long weekend away. We headed down Friday morning, but no sewing actually got started until Saturday morning.

Sally spent the weekend working on a blue and yellow/gold Alaska Stars quilt from an Alaska shop hop several years ago. Mine is still in individual packages, so we will not go there.  She completed all but the borders as she decided she did not like the fabric she had bought for the borders and will use it on the back instead.  It is roughly a double to a queen size.  I love how it turned out so may be motivated to get mine out in the near future.  She also worked on a Christmas table runner that she started last December. It is the same pattern as the two I did only she did not like how it came to a point, so cut it off before that.  I am sad to say I did not get pictures of either of her projects. But here is a picture of Sally and Jan trying to get the cork out of the wine bottle.

Jan quilted a cute fish wall hanging and worked on log cabin blocks to make a valance for the sliding glass door at the cabin/house we were staying at.  She made 10 04 12" blocks and had them so the mountain was going up on one and down on the other.  The valances are sewn, now they just need a little quilting and pressing before they are ready for hanging. Again I am sad to say I did not get pictures of either of her projects, but I did do the fish wall hanging she did so may have a picture of it hiding somewhere. But here they are after they got the cork out.

I was the reigning UFQ queen when it came to projects completed this weekend, but I was a woman on a mission.  I finished four quilt tops.

Pastel Saturday Sampler Quilt top.

 This one was waiting for a border and this weekend I finally found fabrics for the two outer borders at Kenai Fabrics this weekend, though not my favorite it is now moved over to topville.  The pink middle border is not really my favorite, but it works and the top is done. 

This is the lizard quilt, named for the lizard fabrics.  Bryce started this quilt the summer between fifth and sixth grade when he was injured and I had to find a quiet activity for him to do. He was not allowed to run or bike for several weeks as his legs was healing.  He had been helping a little girl across a pond where her brother had left her and in the process she got scared and caused them both to fall in. He got her out and safely to the other side, but ended up with a long deep gash on his leg. He walked home and told us what happened. He is my Boy Scout. Due to the pond water not being the cleanest the doctor stitched his leg with space for seepage and put him on antibiotics.  He had a big canoe trip coming up for scouts and he could not go if his leg did not heal. The quilt was one of several quiet activities designed to distract him from playing outside.

Close up of the blocks

He helped with the cutting,  pieced all the nine patches and had the rows sewn together. It was put away and rediscovered when I was cleaning out my sewing room. I took the rows apart and trimmed up the blocks so they were uniform and fixed a few seams that were barely sewn, then put it back together. This weekend I added the borders and cut and stitched the binding.  I plan to quilt this one and give it to him for Christmas.

I also worked on the Space Attic Windows which Joel, my oldest, started back I don't remember when and never finished. He took a class at Quilt Tree when it was on Lake Otis and never finished the top.

He pieced the blocks I had pieced the blocks together  into rows, after taking a few apart and fixing some seams, and posted about it on June 17th. I put on the inner and outer borders and have the backing selected, it is the inner border fabric. Now I just need to find a navy, green, or red for the binding.  I plan to quilt this one and give it to him for Christmas also.

I had a set of red, white/cream, and blue blocks from a swap and decided to set them slightly off kilter with a border around each block, then sash the blocks in star fabric.  I used these two fabrics for the inner and outer borders and finished off this top this weekend also.

-->I may have enough of the inner border fabric for binding, if not I will use a navy blue as reds are not always easy to match .

 
I have two rows left to sew on my Clay's Star Quilt so it will be ready for borders. I need to find a red for the inner border and binding as I do not have enough left and this is the one I am considering donating to QOV (Quilts of Valor).

You can barely tell but there is a pattern in the navy fabric.

I sashed a part of each of three rows that make an on point setting of seven blocks and have them ready for me to figure out the setting triangles and borders.

 I really like these and am using the green for the setting triangles, the burgundy for the border and binding it in green.

I also finished an incomplete block and cut and pieces three more blocks to for a friendship star quilt that I have been working on off and on.  I plan on using the blue for the borders, but may do some smaller stars through out the quilt also.  I have 15 blocks. I have also not decided if I will set them on point or straight.

 I also bought this fabric to make pillow cases for Bryce, who is in the Army Guard.  I thought he would like this camo fabric more than the uniforms he has to wear.  He has some flame fabric pillow cases with ladies hidden in the flames that he loves, so I thought he might like this set for his birthday in July.

I finished off the weekend by cutting, and piecing bindings for three quilts.  I pressed them yesterday so they are ready to go.  Only one of the quilts for these bindings is quilted, so I am ahead on the bindings for now.