Quilt Retreat - Day Two

Significant progress is being made at the quilt retreat!! Thankfully, the temperature is dropping, so it's much more comfortable. I don't think any building was comfortable the previous day. Yesterday, we were nice and comfy, and with lower temperatures today, we may not even need the AC. OK, so that's me, but the others may feel differently. I actually felt slightly chilly in the room this morning!

Shoot, I meant to take a picture of the sewing room, but I'll save that for tomorrow. 

I started the day (after several hours of sewing) with a walk. Of course  - I like my morning walk. But where to walk to? I just started walking on the road and went where it took me. The big question is, when should I turn around? I ended up walking to this little spot. 

My destination on the walk

Back in the day, I'm sure that was the spot for a little community, a school, a community hall, or something. Sadly, there is just this sign left. 

I was watching my FitBit to see the steps/kms I was taking, and the darn thing was lagging. Let's just say that I got almost my daily quota in that walk—it was close to 9 km! Thankfully, there was some decent shade for about half the walk and a breeze on the way back. And the temps were still lower. It was all good! 

But it was a two-nap day! I was just tired, and I don't think it was from the walk, although I'm sure that didn't help. But with all the pressures leading up to Quilt Canada, and now having "nothing" to do, my body just said - I'm tired! So I listened and had two naps. I'm perfectly OK with that. 

I didn't bring many projects, so the goal will be to touch them all! OK—I'll do what I can. I have this Mondo bag that I started at another retreat. I've brought it to several retreats since. My goal this time was to finish improv piecing the lining! There were four sections, and I'm happy to report that all of them are done! You saw section one yesterday. 

Section Two

Section Three

Section Four

Someone said I may like the inside better than the outside. The pieces are the leftovers from Urbanology. OH—I said that yesterday. Well, no worries. I still have a small bag of scraps, which I'll throw in the retreat bag for next time. I'll piece them together to make a zippered pouch or something. It seems a shame to let them go to waste. 

Yes, I know many of you wouldn't touch those small scraps, and that's OK. We each have our idiosyncrasies—I LOVE little pieces. Trust me, when I have to downsize, I'll be using those scrap boxes of mine, and they will keep me busy for many years. Should I ever get dementia, give me a bag of fabric scraps of various colors, and I'll spend all day sorting them. Then mix them up and give them to me the next day! 

I pulled out the next project. This one belonged to Diane. It is a nice geometric quilt, and the columns were sewn together, but I have to say they were not well sewn. So I decided to rip one of the columns (there are 18) apart and check if they were cut properly. I don't have a 60-degree ruler with me, so one is apart, and I'll check the cutting when I get home. 

Ripping apart some triangles

If all is good, I'll resew the column together. If not, I'll recut the triangles to a consistent size and sew them together. I sorted and folded all the strips, which thankfully Diane labelled. 

Ripping those columns apart and recutting (if necessary) would be a perfect job for a Virtual Retreat. There is one this weekend! It's Saturday night from 6 - 9 PM and Sunday from 3 - 9 PM. 

Diane's geometric quilt is sorted

Then it was on to another project. This one belonged to Barb. Yes, I know—I come to retreat to sew little scraps together or work on someone else's project, and I'm OK with that. It all has to be dealt with, and this next one is easy. Patience is a virtue!!!!! 

The next project

I made the half-square triangles for the blocks in the border. This morning, I added two small borders and made the pinwheel blocks. There are two more borders to add, and the binding is cut, and I'll work on that this morning. I hope to use all the excess fabric for the backing, and then that can be done and added to the "to be quilted" pile. It will be donated to Project Linus. I already asked, and they will take this kind of quilt. 

Also, in my retreat bag, I had some half-square triangles (enders and leaders) that needed to be pressed and trimmed. I take a wee break, press four, and trim them. 

Trimming half-square triangles

There is only one large project left in the bag—more scraps! Two bags of triangles (enders and leaders) can easily stay in the next retreat bag. I did very well packing for this trip. How many retreats did it take for that to happen?

And here's the sunrise this morning from the sewing room! 

Sunrise

It's a bit different being a guest at a retreat instead of the one who did all the organizing, and I LOVE it. When the group has questions, they ask each other! I'm free to do whatever I want and I can leave whenever I want—not that I want to leave early—but it's great fun! This isn't the first retreat where I'm a guest—I did attend a large one in the US many years ago! 

I took a quick trip to Lindsay yesterday to pick up lunch supplies. I can't believe I forgot those supplies, but no worries! 

Well, I must finish the blog, and then I'm going for a walk. I will not be going as far as I did yesterday—I'm only going one concession, not two! But this road is busy—school buses, cars, and municipal trucks. But all is good, and they give me a wide berth! 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!