Virtual Retreat ...

A virtual retreat for quilters? And just what this might be? This weekend I joined the Stashbusters Virtual Retreat and found out. You set aside some time on a specified weekend and quilt. Because so many members are unable to get away to regular retreats, they started a virtual one. You do your own thing, blog about it, and then send a message to the group letting them know what was and is being done. Simple ...

I decided that I was going to try and accomplish two things:
1. get the middle block done for the Medallion Sew-Along,
2. try and at least finish the flimsy of a UFO that I found that dates way back to before 2005.

The Sew-Along is being blogged on it's own page  at:  http://2busyhands.blogspot.com/p/medallion-quilt-sew-a.html
It will be a donation quilt to the military group. Here I will use the cross-stitch square that I did some time ago in the center of the quilt and then, who knows - that is the mystery.

As with any stay-at-home project life tends to get in the way and so it has happened here as well. Danny was a quilting widower today as he went hiking by himself. I had some dehydrating to set up - check; housework - check; laundry - check; and class work - check; oh and sew in between all of these things. I decided to do a sew-work-sew-class-sew-work-sew-class and so on until all the chores were completed and then it would be just sew.

So here it is, now 7pm, and what have I accomplished? Got all the chores done and rice cooking for dinner; The middle part of the Medallion block done;

 On to Round 2 ...

All the flying geese done for the UFO, put into strips, and the sandwich being basted.

 "Roundtrip, Homeward Bound"

Why do I have 2 strips too many or 2 strips too few????? Just re-read the instructions and I did it right! I guess to make it work out evenly you end up with extra and that is why there is instructions for a pillow case as well with the exact number of left-over geese. Not for me - will put them into a baby quilt. I have a small piece of brilliant pink fleece that I can piece together with the left overs from "Roundtrip, Homeward Bound".

And now it is time to put things away as we are traveling again in the morning.

What does one do with little time ...

Surfing the Internet when we finally get online:

Found this tip online for dealing with metallic threads at http://aussiekiltedquilter.blogspot.com/ This deals with my Miss Betsy, my Janome 6600P. As I had already ordered some metallic threads will have to try this. My metallics always break at the most inopportune time.

Set up the indoors sewing room (table in the front of the RV :) ):

 Last night I finished up my panel Challenge with the online quilting group. What fun I had with this project and as I have already presented it for DD's birthday as an "unfinished" gift, it is good to get it finished only 4 weeks after the fact.

I FMQ the waves on the background and had quite a bit of trouble with it. Getting started, I was having a lot of trouble at the beginning of the stithing. The feed-dogs were down but it felt like they were catching on something. Suddenly with a pop, it came free and the stitching went well I stopped in one area and went to begin another area. Went online and found a posting on the Janome blog for the exact same thing. Tried what they said to do first: cleaned everything even though I had already cleaned before starting on the project. Then I tried the next thing suggested: i.e. change out the plate (luckily I had already received this with one of the extra accu-feed feet that I had ordered earlier). This worked. Yeah!!!!! Now I have to do some more work on getting the correct tension. I could not seem to get it right, no matter what I tried. Will do more work on that.

I put attached a hanging sleeve and then bound it. For the label I took a photo of her surfing and copied it onto cotton fabric after making it 50% transparent. Wrote on this with the printer. Thank you Adobe Photoshop. 

All I have left to do is get to town and buy some washers for weights.

Start another project:

In between all of this I took an afternoon and  started another flimsy - this one for our bed. Our bedroom is somewhat blah and I am limited in what I can do with it. For now I am keeping the old curtains and backboard as it is the original fabric for our RV. Want to keep it as original as possible for the time being (at least until we decide whether or not to buy a new one).  It is called "Spicey Spiral"

and I chose bright pinks and toned down teals for the colors. [photo]The pinks will brighten it up a bit and the teals will fit right in with the original colors. Now if I can figure out how to make a couple of throw pillows as well, I will be set.

Got half way through the sewing : and, yikes, I realized that I had missed one of the strips. So here I go, had to make another complete strata to cut one set of strips. Will have to think of something else to make with the remaining strata. 

Completed the flimsy. Now to back it. Of course, the piece of fabric that I was going to use out of my stash just is not long enough: Wide enough yes. So back into the bag it goes as I order a piece of fabric from Amazon. Will wait for the next mail pick-up to finish it off.

Send DH to storage unit for a specific UFO and he brings back a whole bag:

In this bag was the recently finished quilt to send to Panama. But beneath it I found 2 pieces of fleece for backings and a whole new project that I started to cut out and then put away. Probably because we left to go somewhere in the coach and I had to "lighten the load" so to speak. This project was from around 2005 I believe. So it is my next "go for it".

I will make the strips in a quilt-as-I-go onto the fleece that I bought for it. No batting except flannel. Shouldn't take toooooo long LOL famous last words!

Join an online Medallion Quilt stitch-along:

Decided to do a military "Thank You"quilt with this. Pulled out the bag of fabrics that I had accumulated for one and am ready to go. Stay tuned for this one as I sew along with [insert blog site] ...

Make plans for another overseas trip; apply for another Peace Corps assignment; and start an online Master's program, taking a class every 10 weeks. Do I have a lot of time left over? I better have as there is touristing to do, weight to be lost, books to be read, and bicycle riding to be done.

Have a great week everyone.