I had to "organize" another road trip

I consider myself a fairly organized person. Rarely do I have to search for my car keys and so forth, unlike my husband.  He used to misplace his keys all the time and it drove me crazy hunting for them, until he hit on the idea of paying the children to find them for him. "I'll give you a dollar if you find my keys"  was heard more than once as we  were getting ready for work and school. Years and years later, the kids confessed that it wasn't unusual for them to take his keys and hide them when they needed an extra dollar or two!   Clever little buggers, weren't they?

But I digress.  I've never paid my kids to find things for me because I can usually locate them myself. Except in the sewing room.  For some reason, I put things away in there and often times have a very hard time remembering where they are. Take my applique supplies for example. I'd taken a class several years ago on needle turn applique and bought milliners needles, silk thread and applique pins at that time, with every intention of practicing this art.  Over the following five years or so, I'd come upon these things from time to time, and I'd always thought I should put them together in a place where I can find them when I'm ready to applique.  So, yesterday, I was ready to begin the applique on Bless My Garden and do you think I could find the needles and thread?  Not a chance.  I turned the sewing room upside down, and could only locate the pins. So off to Eau Claire I go--again!--to get the needles and thread. (Remember, its a 25 mile trip each way for me to go to this LQS) I found the needles at one store but had to go to another to find the thread, not silk, but a 60 wt cotton, very fine.

Other than in the class years ago, I've never done needle turn applique but I thought this was a good project to begin on since it's only stitching circles onto a square of fabric.  The long thin milliners needles, or straw needles as some call them, are really easy to use and make it quite easy to turn under the seam allowance. And this fine thread disappears without a trace.  I'm happy to show you what I accomplished last night:

These are the  blocks that I appliqued last night and I have 9 more to go.  I'm really liking how the muslin embroidery looks on the rust fabric, and the lighter sashing fabric will look great as well.

While I was waiting in the LQS for the clerk to finish with another customer, I had to take a look at the Civil War repro fabric that this shop specializes in, and what a treasure trove I came home with! Take a look at these 13 fat quarters that now live with me!

As always, the lighting in my house gives everything a yellowish hue so these are really not quite as yellow as they appear.  They'll join the others in my bin of CW fabrics, and this morning I decided I'll take them with me to retreat this weekend, along with half a dozen foundation papers for my Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt. I began working on this project last summer and set it aside as I got busy in the fall with the quilt festival followed by holidays and then our winter sojourn in Alabama.  But I'll have them with me to work on if I feel inspired.

The LQS didn't have the silk thread I wanted so I went to a locally owned sewing center also in Eau Claire, and while they didn't have the silk, the owner was very helpful.  In addition to the thread, I also picked up several Frixon pens since mine are empty and dry after only 3 or 4 years--Can you imagine!  They also had some sale fabric and I picked up this floral thinking of a Stack and Whack quilt in my future.  I've heard this referred to as a "one block wonder" as well.  I think this will make a very pretty and feminine quilt.

While I was in town yesterday, I made a grocery run at one of my favorite stores over there, and after I was home and put everything away, I had time to spend in the sewing room. First I made up the applique blocks that I worked on after dinner, and I also made a final decision as to the charity quilt I'll be working on at retreat. Drum roll, please!  The Final Decision is to make the quilt out of this "Warmth" fabric that I bought, again, several years ago--maybe 5 or so. 

I have 4 charm packs of this collection and I'd also purchased several yards of coordinating dark red, navy blue and cream fabric to go with.  I'm making flying geese out of the charm pack squares with the cream as the background.  I'll use the red as the sashing and the blue for the outer borders.  I haven't decided on a layout for the geese yet, but I'm leaning toward the layout used in the Underground Railroad quilt. But in mine, the goose bodies will be colored and the background will be cream. This design may change as I work on it, with the other option being putting the geese in strips with some sashing between. We'll see how I feel as it progresses.   

Depending on how many of the charm squares I use to make a twin sized quilt, I may have enough left over to make a second quilt. If so, they would both go to the Hands2Help group I'm participating with this year.  They're due in June, so I have to get a move on.

Today, I MUST get my seeds planted or it will be way too late. I'm pushing it already, as it is, then it's back into the sewing room to get organized for the retreat.