This past weekend my friends and I attended a quilt retreat.  We had a blast.  Even got a bit of piecing done.  The top picture is Nickle and Dime from Kansas Troubles.  My friend S had gotten as far as getting the quarter blocks done, so I didn’t  have much left to do.

The next day after a bit of shopping – bag pattern, FQs, yardage, charms, mini charms, rulers and book (not pictured) I  made the zipper bag pictured below.

The fabric is from a couple of different Kansas Troubles lines and the pattern is Zippy Strippy by Atkinson Designs.  The shop had a “story board” showing how the zipper was put in and I decided I had to have the pattern.

Finally I worked on my Nifty Thrifty blocks.  I got all of them made and started on the sashing.  Now that I see them up on the design wall, may need to make a few more blocks.

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls.

June has gotten off to a slow start as far as piecing goes.  Last week I packed up the quilt I was working on in preparation to go to the quilt retreat and prepare for quilting the Birthday Quilt.  We all know how far that got.

The blocks up on the wall are from my young quilting friend.  She called tonight to see if she could come over Tuesday to make some blocks and I had to tell her no because I would be working.  So we’ve made plans that she’ll come the weekend of the 22nd.

So, what’s in the stack? The bottom box really is a box of hanging folders. I’m 99.9% certain the project box is empty (I had Sew Scrappy in it). Then there is a bit of leftover batting. The plastic bag contains the pre-cut pieces for Nifty Thrift, possible border fabric and the book.  I can’t believe I’ve had enough restraint to not work on it since I finished cutting it out back in early April.

The brown box contains a Nickles and Dimes, a Kansas Troubles quilt that my friend S started a while back. I told her I would work on it at the retreat since she’s not going to be able to go. The clear “box” (got to love zipper sheet bags) contains my Sew Scrappy.

The cat bed zipper pouch contains Candy Sunflower Seeds which needs 4-patches made with the correct fabric for one of the borders.  The salad box contains the remaining spool blocks I need to make. Finally the zip bag on top contains the fabric for a quilt for a friend’s husband or grandson.  I’m not sure who exactly it’s for.  It’s a panel and now that I’ve found the right green fabric in my stash it should go together quickly .

I’m rather certain that I will not be able to get all of these quilt tops done during the retreat (noonish Thursday – noon Sunday) so I may leave Sew Scrappy behind since I’m considering taking my DWR to get a bit of hand quilting done.

Generally I take the day before a retreat off to run around, do laundry, pack, pickup last-minute items,  etc. But this time, I have to work, so all of that has to be done over the next 3 evenings.

Hopefully next week’s Design Wall post will have a couple of tops on it.  But in the meantime, hop over to Patchwork Times to see what other’s have on their design walls.

I had high hopes of counting the backing for the Birthday Quilt this week, but since it is nowhere near finished, all I can count out is the fabric I used on the border of a label I made.  Good thing I don’t count batting I picked up 2 Queen and 2 Full batts at half-price.  Of course there is there is the fabric I found at the thrift store.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 3 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 116.619 yards

Fabric Used (or left the stash) Since Last Report:  0.125 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 45.946 yards

Net Used for the year -70.673 yards

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

Today was the day. I was going to do free-hand custom quilting on the Birthday Day. Got the quilt loaded, took a deep breath and started quilting.

Well, the tan thread is going to be OK…and the quilting is not obnoxious.

Second star. Rats. I missed a star point.  Oh well, I’ll catch it on the next pass.

Star 4.  Why aren’t the loops filling the space like I expected them to?  Oh, I need to be doing 9 instead of 7 in the side triangles. Perhaps no one will notice.

Drat the bobbin thread broke.

I re-loaded the bobbin and it took forever to get the bobbin thread drawn up and secured.  I finished the other side of the feather, did the loops in the side triangle, stitched the star point and got half of the corner square quilted and realized the tension looked funny.  Sure enough, it wasn’t right and needed to be ripped out.

So, since I was hot and time is money at the machine, I decided to carefully fold up the quilt (gee I wish I bought a batting w/scrim) and bring it home to rip out. I just have to decide if I want to start all over again — ripping out what I’ve done, or pick up from where I left off.

If I rip out I can revisit thread color. My husband couldn’t believe that I spent 30 minutes looking at thread and then came home with the decision to go with the tan that I already had.

It’s been a busy week,  not that you would notice it in my quilting.  I’ve been working on the quilting design for the Birthday Quilt and packing a bit for the quilt retreat.  After a stop at Quilted Memories to make sure I have my quilt top and backing attached to the zippers correctly and to look for thread, I stopped in at a couple of thrift shops.

The Kansas Troubles 4-Patch Stacked Posies is complete.  The fabrics are from the Wildflower Serenade II line. The binding was finished Saturday and Sunday I printed the label,  stitched it to the back of the quilt and then washed it.  I love how it crinkled up.

The quilt measures 55 x 65.  I used Superior’s Omni thread in tan on the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin – I’m not certain of the color – some sort of beige. I ran out of bobbin about 2 passes before the end.

The batting is Hobb’s Tuscany 100% Bleached Cotton — not because I necessarily wanted bleached, but because that’s what was available.  I quilted it using Pajama Quilter’s Floral Echo.

In addition to finishing up this quilt, I worked a bit on Sew Scrappy, but I’m about ready to contain it to take to retreat. Most of this week will be spent in preparation for quilting the Birthday Quilt – squaring it, attaching it to zippers and practicing my quilting design on the white board.

Check out what others have on their design wall by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

F is for Friday the Thirteenth – the fifth block of Dorothy Young’s alphabet block-of-the-month.

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I haven’t done Judy’s Getting It Done Challenge since February – when I finished just one thing on the list.  I haven’t done the Lovely Year of Finishes since February either — and I didn’t get that one done either.  So, here it is June and I’m going to leap in with a laundry list of goals.

• Make ‘visible’ progress on my DWR – ‘visible’ refers to being able to update the progress chart on the side bar
• Complete Sew Scrappy top
• Complete Nifty Thrifty top – the blocks have been cut out for months waiting for the retreat
• Complete Candy Sunflower Seeds – it just needs borders, one is pieced
• Begin quilting the Birthday Quilt – I have time reserved on the long arm
• Make the “F” block in the Alphabet BOM.
• Complete 18 Scrappy Trip blocks on the treadle

And since I need a finish I’m going to try to complete the Birthday Quilt.

It’s allergy season, so I haven’t felt like sitting at the sewing machine for very long or wielding my rotary cutter.  But I have been able to finish the binding on the Kansas Troubles 4-patch Stacked Posies, but I don’t have the label on it yet.  That’s my goal for today then I can wash it and post a picture.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 113.619 yards

Fabric Used (or left the stash) Since Last Report:  3.6 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 45.821 yards

Net Used for the year -67.798 yards

To see how others are doing check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

Last week I made an appointment to quilt this quilt a week from this coming Saturday. Admittedly I was waiting until the batting went on sale.  But then I started playing with quilting ideas for the Birthday Quilt and I’m looking forward to working on it.  So this afternoon I called to see if there was a machine free.  There was.  So, I gathered my supplies and went quilting.  Now to get it bound.

As for my upcoming quilting appointment?  Well, I’ll either be ready for the Birthday Quilt or I’ll pick something from my stash of quilts.  It’s not like there’s a shortage of quilts waiting to be quilted.