Curves and more curves

 Hmm -- I discovered something this morning when I woke up. I've had a wee issue with some muscles in my neck, and I noticed that they were significantly less when I was at the retreat, even though I was sewing a lot. Could it be my pillow? My pillow isn't as thick and fluffy as the one at the retreat house - perhaps I need to try a new pillow. But I was off to the gym this morning! There are so few people at 5:30 AM. 

Well, yesterday was a great day! In the morning, I had commented that I would leave at 2:00 PM or whenever I finished my quilt top, whichever came first. In case are you're wondering, I left the driveway at 2:12. 

Before I let you see what happened, let's take a wee journey on sewing those curves. I see all kinds of aids in sewing curves. There was a PRESSER foot designed to help sew curves. Seriously????  Why??? All you need is a REGULAR quarter-inch presser foot. 

Now I see the trend is to GLUE those curves before you sew them. WHY????  Why would you go to all that extra work when it's so not necessary. I used TWO things that every quilter should have on hand to sew those curves, and that's all I used. I get it that everyone wants their two minutes of Instagram fame or whatever is the current social platform, but people - - we are losing the ability to do things SIMPLY just because someone thinks glue is a good idea. 

Sewing the curves

Find the center of the two sections and use ONE PIN to hold them in place at that point. Then I used my stiletto to ease everything in IF I needed to do that. I mostly used my fingers and lined the two pieces up and sewed. No muss, no fuss. 

Using the stiletto to sew curves

Keep in mind that I was sewing on a project that someone else partially sewed, so their seams might not have been accurate. This quilt will NOT win any awards for matching of seams - simply because of that. And some of the papers were starched to death, so they were tough to sew and remove. 

The papers were starched, so they resemble fabric

I used up three partial spools of thread that I found in my toolbox. 

Three empty spools

I decided to REMOVE all the paper as I went. Every section of this quilt was paper pieced. So there was a lot of paper. Some of it had to be removed before you could sew the seams, and some could be removed after the seam was sewed. But as I went along, I removed the paper. What a nasty job. I had the big garbage can right beside me. 

The garbage bin for paper removal

And it had a LOT of paper in it when I was done. 

Lots of paper from the paper pieced project

I'm checking the clock and checking my pieces. Can I get this thing done by 2:00 PM??? Check-out wasn't until 4:00 PM, but I had to get home as I had work to do. 

And then all of a sudden (well, not really!), I was on the LAST SEAM - the longest since the quilt was sewn on the diagonal. 

The last seam

And OH MY -- the floor is empty!!!!

Where's my quilt?

And here it is - the double wedding ring quilt is DONE!!!! Well, the top is done! I made it five rings across and six rings down, which works out to a generous lap quilt. I wasn't sure I would like all those crazy fabrics Paula chose for the background - one would have been better, but not my quilt. It turned out very nice. I'm sure the daughter is going to be very excited to get this quilt. 

The finished quilt top!!!!

And these are the components that I have left. I was discouraged because there was a LOT of that one component, but not the equivalent of the other side of the "melon," and there is NO more fabric for the melons. 

Leftover components

However, when I got home, I realized that I had MORE of those missing components in the containers. There are still THREE Containers related to this quilt. One is filled with components, and I counted them last night. There are enough rings to make a  second quilt, that is 6 rings by 6 rings!!!  

There are still THREE boxes related to the double wedding ring quilt

I'll have a better look later, but it means a LOT more sewing as I prep the rest of the components needed to make the second quilt. There is extra background fabric in the containers and all the paper pieces needed to make the second quilt. The second quilt is NOT being given to the daughter. It will be donated. I know -- what a quilt to donate! Does anyone want to volunteer to sew it? I'm kidding - I would not hand that off to someone. 

It took me 3½ days of pretty intense sewing (OK -- we talked a LOT), and this new one is slightly larger, so that's going to take a good four days to sew together once the remainder of the components gets made. Divide and conquer - it will get done! It's on the current projects table, and it would be awesome to get that done this year!

I could have taken only that container, and I would have been fine for sewing at the retreat! But I did very well, with only one container, which was mostly filled with small projects. Thanks to Tish for bringing that lesson home! 

When I got home, I emptied the stuff that needed to be out, and this is what I didn't work on, which for me is excellent. Mostly enders and leader projects or things that needed to be trimmed. Small stuff. I'm so learning how to pack for retreat. 

What didn't get touched in the retreat basket

Despite the lesson on packing, this is what I had to bring into the house. My one project box and the bag of finished stuff. Clothes, food, and portable office. But there's the other stuff -- the coffee maker, the tripod to take the requisite retreat photo, and the extra lights in case we needed them as we had never been to this house before. 

Unpacking

We didn't need the extra lights. As a matter of fact, there were times when I thought I might need to get my sunglasses to sew! The lighting is amazing. The house is well equipped and well - I'd go back in a heartbeat. Also, it took one hour and 4 minutes to drive home, which was good because I had work to do when I got home. Now that's awesome. 

I also cleaned out my travel sewing kit. There were a few extra things in there that didn't need to be there. Before I leave for the next retreat, I'll double-check that everything I need is in here. 

Travel sewing kit

I had two baby quilts that needed to be quilted. Here's the first one. 

Customer quilt - DONE

And here's the second one. I need to get them packaged up as the customer is coming this morning. 

Customer quilt -- DONE

I said I would never go to a four-day retreat ever again, but never say never. That was one of the best retreats ever! Close to home, great company - I can't wait to go again! But that's not for several months so I'll have to wait!

Of course, the girls were thrilled beyond words to see me. They are so funny - when I sat out in the back after dinner, I had to play ball with Murphy and brush Lexi. I didn't offer - they asked for that. It's their special thing to do! Silly girls!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got to play catch up on e-mails that I ignored this past couple of days, and I've got a few more quilts that I want to get out of the way before I take a quilting hiatus - at least from customer quilts! 

Don't forget to check out QUILTsocial this morning. It's all about making an embroidered postcard that I sent to someone. It's so cool. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!