SOYO 2014

Each year in January the Black Hills Quilters Guild puts on a SOYO - Sew On Your Own. Basically it's a chance to get away and sew without taking classes or working on set projects. Each person brings their own projects to work on. This year was the first year it was held at Terra Sancta, a Catholic retreat center less than 5 miles from my house. It was super cheap and close to home, so I just drove home and slept at home both Friday and Saturday nights. I went with my aunt Jane, her friend Joyce, and my friend Nicole H.
My goals for the weekend were put the sashing on Ed's Crown Royal quilt and put the sashing on Swoon. So I knew I had to start with those or I would put them off and not do them. Since there was plenty of room to lay out quilts it was a great time to do it. I spent most of Saturday afternoon putting together CR. I had it this far by supper time and was missing 2 CR bags!!! Grrrrrrr! I tried to convince my hubby to pick up a couple bottles at Sam's but no such luck. So I put it away for the night. Jane had a couple at home and brought them Sat. morning so I could finish it.

So since I couldn't finish, I worked on a UFO of my mom's from the first SOYO we went to together in 2009. This is the top.

I needed a quick project, so I put together this hexie table topper. It was a partial sample from my class in Dec.

Then I worked on Swoon. I initially planned to do a wider sashing, then I read the directions and realized that would be huge, so I did what it called for, without corner stones.

I decided it needed something else, so I put on a border of the main fabric which brought it all together. Love it! Now I can't decide if this is "the one" to have professionally quilted or do it myself.

I had forgotten the borders for this hexie table topper, so I picked them up at home and finished it first thing Sat. morning.

Then another quick finish with borders of the backing for mom's Loralie quilt.

Then it was on to the CR quilt top. I am so glad to have it finished! Now I need to get my quilt frame bigger so I can finish it.

I had thrown these friendship blocks in, not knowing what I was going to do with them. I finally ended up sewing them together in a small wall hanging and there will be one for a table topper since I had 10 blocks.

Saturday afternoon I worked on making the blocks for the Giant Star Burst QAL. I was a little too cocky and didn't lay it out before I started sewing and ended up with this. So Joyce and I started tearing and ripping out the thread. I spent the entire show and tell ripping.

By the time it was over it was ready to put back together. As Mikaela would say So much better, So much better mommy!

Since we were still sewing the night away, about 10PM I started this table topper and got it finished. It matches several other quilt items I have with this fabric. I've had it a couple years, so I am glad to finally have the top done.

I had planned to make this one, but forgot the pattern, so I didn't get it done. Monday night I whipped it together. It's a 2nd sample for my Day Break class coming up next week. I left it separate, so I could show how they are joined.

We all got a good laugh out of having the football game on, without volume during the playoffs. The TV was huge - at least 60" so it felt like we were right there.


Everyone else I was sewing with worked on small projects. Jane quilted this table topper.


Then she made this one. We ended up going shopping for backing for it on Saturday.

Joyce made this table topper.

Nicole made this table topper from my class start to finish.


It was such a fun weekend of sewing with my aunt and our friends. We all left Saturday and didn't return Sunday due to commitments, but we all felt like we got a lot accomplished. I know I was so excited to complete my two goals for the weekend, so everything else was just icing on the cake. I sewed for a total of 25 hours over the two days, which was so wonderful. I'm looking forward to a mini retreat with friends in a couple weeks. I left my projects packed for that, so I'll be ready to go.
I'm linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday.