Eight Weeks to Quilt Retreat

Every spring for the past 9 years — has it really been that long? — I go to a quilting retreat with ladies from all over the country.  This year’s retreat starts 8 weeks from today.

Normally by this time, I have listed out in my head all of the projects I plan to work on and have set them aside. Naturally, I take way more than anyone could possibly work on over the 3 1/2 days we are there.  My excuse is I don’t know what I’ll want to work on and I don’t want to be bored.  This year, I’m running behind in my planning.  Or at least I should say I only have two things on my list so far.

1 – Scrappy Irish Chains — this will be a “new start”.  The quotes are because I have all of the 4-patches made. They were made leader/ender style for a couple of quilts that I want to go a different direction on.  The cool part, is I found the background fabric in my stash, so may just need to buy border and binding fabric.

2 – Double Wedding Ring – I have one more melon/arcs section and cornerstones left on the current row and then there is just one more row of 7 full rings (melon/arcs on all sides) to quilt.  Since I’m 8 weeks out from the retreat, I think I’m going to focus on quilting at least one ring a week — significantly more than I committed to in the UFO challenge.  But perhaps, I’ll be able to work on the binding at the retreat.  I think this one is going to have to be hand stitched down.  Here’s an EQ rendering of where I am:

I’m sure that these two projects will keep me busy for the 3 1/2 days, but that’s just a bit more hand stitching than I want to tackle in the time frame.  I have no desire for my wrist to start hurting when I’m supposed to be having fun.  So, I’ll keep thinking about projects that will be easy to carry along.  I wonder if I can get all my Orca Bay parts and pieces made by then…