Stories from the Sewing Room

Last week I attended a day retreat put on by a somewhat local quilt shop. There were quite a few people there, maybe 50? Six of my fellow small-guild members were there and I sat with four of them off and on as work and family schedules allowed. The other two members sat at the complete opposite end of the room from us. Those of us in the back were the "rebel youngsters". LOL. I am not young other than in comparison to many of the attendees.

Anyway, I sewed and/or socialized from 9 - 4 or so each day and then drove back home to be mom. {I am not at all a night person and by late afternoon I am done.} It was so incredibly relaxing. I didn't realize just how much I needed that!

I got almost all of the Malted Mystery pieces sewn. I just have to trim down tons of flying geese units. I own very few specialty rulers. I did happen to have the correct flying geese Bloc-Loc ruler for these, so it should go quickly.

Then I started working on the Log Cabin Stars (Emily Dennis) quilt blocks. I spent some time trying to sort out my fabrics into blocks as best as I could. This is probably one of those projects where you spend a bunch of time rearranging your blocks until you just give up and sew it. 😄 I got five of them sewn, so there are 37 more to sew. In the pattern, Emily recommends using Studio 180's Wing Clipper ruler. I didn't have the correct Bloc-Loc size and I liked that the Wing Clipper can trim many sizes. So I ran down to the quilt store and purchased the ruler. I think I'm in love! My flying geese came out so nicely. 

Both the Bloc-Loc and obviously the Wing Clipper are fairly recent purchases for me. I would have typically used my standard 6.5" square ruler, but since I have been so absent -minded lately, I think specialty rulers are good for this shape since you easily maintain the points and the corners with these tools. 

I've trimmed my Buttercups mini quilt. I'll try to get the binding made and attached to the front this week.

Monday my husband and I ran into town for lunch and a trip to Menards. While we were in town, he decided to take me to the surplus store to see if they had anything that would work for the base of my dress form. We were originally thinking of buying a wheeled office chair and just removing the chair portion. Well, they wanted $20 - $25 for a chair and most of them were in very poor condition. So we decided to wait. 

Before we left, we walked through the rest of the store because my husband likes to look in the tool/equipment section, which is on the opposite side of the store from the office chairs. While he was checking out some sort of cabinet, I noticed they had a few coat tree-type things. Coat trees are suggested as possible bases in the pattern directions. There was one thing that was metal and very clean that I thought would work. The wheels were pretty clean and rolled well. 

Meet my new dress form base, a steal at $15. We think it is actually an IV stand, but it seems to be perfect for what I need. The hook things on top come off, so this should be ready to go. 

I have just two/three quilts to share with you this week. The first one belongs to JoEllen. She requested African Foliage for the quilting.

The next one is Barb's quilt. It's actually two identical quilts that currently share a border.  She picked Mod Dotz for the quilting.

Not much else is happening around here. We definitely transitioned from summer to fall last week. Thursday I wore shorts to the retreat and by Saturday I was wearing jeans and a jacket. We had to turn on the furnace yesterday. One of these days I'll get around to cleaning up the gardens a bit--at least pulling out the weeds and removing the dead vegetable plants. Maybe. Oh, I get to park in the garage again! My husband's been busy cleaning up his mess! Now to get them to pick up the robot parts that are strewn across the living room floor...

See you next week.

Linking with For the Love of Geese, My Quilt Infatuation, Alycia Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.