Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Virtual Quilt Retreat

While the most cre8tive girls I know were at quilt retreat in WI, I was home with a sick little girl. I hadn't planned to go, simply because I'm nursing and couldn't be away that long from my 2 month old. But I did plan to spend time quilting and chatting with the girls while they were at retreat. I started Friday night and pulled out my mom's BQ2 quilt. It's made with Jim Shore Angels and mom and I had layed it out and pinned it at retreat in Sept. I sewed it all together, carefully pinning and matching all the seams. I got the entire top done, took a picture to send to Jen & 1I, only to realize it was layed out wrong! the seams weren't supposed to match and the way I put it together makes it look like theres a really off sashing. It's destined to be taken apart and fixed. I just don't like it the way it is now!
Saturday we did our errands, cleaned house, and reorganized our bedroom. Mikaela was coming down with a cold, so we turned on the humidifier, vaporizer, and boiled some water. We gave her a bath and put her to bed early, like 8PM.
Saturday afternoon I pulled out mom's quilty tablerunner and pulled out all the safety pins, put it on the frame and quilted it. I wanted to check out the tension on the machine and get it set before doing a bigger quilt. It quilted up really quickly.  It's a tablerunner she made in a class I taught last year. She took it with her friend Darlene, not because she couldn't do it herself, but for something to do together.
Quilt 006
She fussy cut the squares.
Quilt 007
The center block is my favorite. It pretty much sums up my mom, she loved to collect fabric and she definately was the WINNER with as much fabric as she had.
Quilt 002
This is the backing fabric. It's one we both picked up a yard of on a quilt shop hop. I think we were in Chamberlain at the time. I made mine into a bag.
Quilt 008
After Mikaela was in bed, I went to work loading a quilt for a family member. It's going to be a birthday present. I brought my computer down and turned it on and attempted to video chat with Jen and Regina at quilt retreat. I could hear and see them, but they could only see me. It was still so fun to wave and listen to them. We used IM for a while to "talk" too. It wasn't like being there, but it was the next best thing. It was about 11 when I started quilting the family member quilt and I figured I'd work on it until Mikaela woke up. I got the entire thing quilted and decided I didn't like the first two rows of tension, so I started tearing them out. About 1 I got tired and finally went to bed. Mikaela didn't wake up until 5AM, so I'm glad I didn't wait up for her to wake up!
Sunday I finished ripping and requilted the quilt and put the binding on it. I'll show pictures after I give it, since there's a chance the recipient will read this. I also put the binding on the quilty tablerunner. I cut out 8 pillowcases too. They will be birthday gifts, but hope to get a few pictures after they are made.
Last night I had good intentions of serging all the pillowcases, but I was having troubles with the threading on my serger and figured a different day would have a different outcome, so I quit for the evening. I put a label on a quilt and hand stitched it down. Then I worked on the quilty tablerunners hand sewn binding. I'm hoping tonight to get the serger going and get all those pillowcases done.
All in all it was a really productive weekend and I wouldn't have accomplished nearly as much without the encouragement of Jen & 1I!

3 comments:

BitnByAQuiltingBug said...

You had a very productive virtual retreat with us! It was so cool to actually SEE you, but we really had to look goofy standing there waving at you...lol! I'm so tickled that you shared some of your Moms' fabric with me. I picked the sewing fabric with the blue background. I have some of that in a larger scale! Thank you for being so sweet to share! Hugs! Oh...and I hope that little cute bundle is feeling much better now!

Jen said...

Hey Moneik - thanks for sending us surprises at the retreat. I have to think about how I am going to use it! The video conferencing was fun - I was trying to do "near - far" from Sesame Street in the video. We missed you!

Barb said...

Your runner is adorable!!