Back home again

I am recovering from one of the greatest weekends I've ever experienced!  As I said in the previous post, I was going to a weekend quilting retreat with my guild and it was fantastic!  Because, the members of the guild are fantastic!  I have always felt so welcomed in this group--they are amazing women and I consider myself very lucky to have found them and to have been accepted by them.

So, in addition to great food and lots of laughter, I managed to get lots of sewing done too.  My goal was to finish the top for the king sized quilt I'm making for my friend, Elaine.  We decided last spring to swap services--I'm making her quilt and she's making my draperies.  It's win-win for both of us--and we'll have to get together to exchange these things when they're finished since we live a few hundred miles apart.  Triple win!

Here's the finished top laid out on the floor of the quilting room we used.

Elaine chose the most beautiful autumn colored fabrics for her quilt and the pattern is called "Perfect Ten"  I think because the blocks are made from 10 fat quarters which are nearly all used up in the quilt.  The pattern is for a throw sized quilt but she wants this on her bed so I added extra borders on 3 sides. She wants the pieced center to cover the top of her bed and the borders dropping down. She didn't want any borders up at the top of the quilt since she doesn't bring the covering over her pillows.  For some reason, I ended up with 4 yards of extra fabric in one of the patterns and I think I'll make a couple of pillowcases for her out of that and she can do whatever she likes with the rest.

This one will go to my neighborhood long arm quilter since I don't have the energy to do this on my domestic machine, and I know that Carol will do a beautiful job on it.

I also finished the 72 blocks for this Sister's Choice quilt from Bonnie Hunter but didn't get started on stitching the blocks together.

I think I've mentioned that I'm saving the triangles that I cut off the flying geese blocks that form the star points in these blocks, and I squared up 100 1/2" half square triangle blocks to add to the 500 or so that I have at home.  They'll be going into the border when I get to that part.

One of the members, Pat, brought along her box of crumbs and she and I got distracted, working on making crumb blocks and before I knew it I had 6 or 7  4 1/2' blocks done up. They will go into my small but growing collection.  (Those darn little crumbs are so addicting!  It was really hard returning to my designated projects!)  One person was paper piecing with batik fabrics and she gave me all the scraps--tiny little wedges about 3/4" by 3" and I pieced a lot of them together to make crumb fabric. I know when I look at these blocks I'll remember the women who shared with me and all the laughter we had about being "crumby quilters."  

I did squeeze in some work on the Talkin' Turkey quilt but not much. That's the next piecing project on my agenda and when it's complete, I'm going to begin quilting some of the finished  tops I've had in my cupboard for the past several (or more) years.  Time to get them finished and on the beds!

So, today I'm tired and happy and ready to tackle the chores of the day. Have to push myself to get everything ready to go before we leave in a couple of days to take Lily to Maine.  Happy/sad task.