Road trip!!!

Oh my - I've been looking forward to this day for a while!  It's time to hit the road.  I was lucky enough to be invited to the inaugural sewing retreat for Forest Road in Midland or near Midland.  Here's a link to the Facebook page so you can see all the fun stuff.  I think I already posted that link, but in case you didn't check it out the first time, you can see it now.

That brings up the question of what did I pack? The retreat is three days so no need to bring lots, but I managed to fill up one tote bag. It's jam-packed with all kinds of prepped and ready to sew projects. As a backup and because my sewing tools are in my Monday bag, I'm bringing that one as well.

Monday bag and retreat bag - ready to go

I'm leaving in an hour and I haven't packed my clothes yet! That's just how it goes. And I have a bag of good, healthy food. Ronda has been told that if she brings BAD snacks that she is to eat them somewhere else than in front of me so I'm not tempted! I need to finish packing the rest of the food. Mostly snacks - veggies and fruit and almonds.

Yesterday was a great day. I got the upholstery cut for the last tuffet order at the guild. I sewed these pieces together and those were delivered last night. Yeah - that was a great feeling to get rid of that.

Upholstery batting run and prepped to sew for the tuffet covers

 I have another class on tuffets at the Hobby Horse - I believe that is in March and April so if you're interested, you can call them.  BUT they're closed for vacation until Feb 13th. I'll be putting up more details next week of some of the upcoming classes.

I handstitched that sleeve down while I listened to my audiobook. After a frantic search for the label and shipping address, I had to e-mail the coordinator and get that from her. Drat!!  How did that happen that I misplaced that e-mail? I just looked at it three weeks ago. No worries - all is good and the quilt is winging it's way to Los Angeles.

Sewing the binding on the Quiltcon Charity Challenge quilt

Then I hung it up so I could get a picture. Yes - there are a few waves in it. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. But I kick myself that I didn't take the time to redo those darn outer borders and split it in the middle and trim, trim, trim!!!!  DAMN DAMN!  Oh well - yet another learning experience.

Our finished quilt

Oh - the name of the quilt?  Go West, Young Rogue.  The name of our modern guild is West End Modern Quilt Guild.

 Before I hung this quilt up, I had to take the other one down and since it was my funky Christmas tree, I figured it was time to replace it with something else. This is what is there now. This is Wolfgang by Yanickca.  I was fortunate enough to end up with the quilt (I paid for it!) and now it's mine. I love it.

Wolfgang by Yanicka Quilts

It was quilted by Marilyn and it's just a gorgeous quilt. It's hanging right at the top of my stairs - that will freak DH out when he comes home later today!

The other thing that I've been forgetting is to post the rest of the links for QUILTsocial. Here are all the posts for this week in case you didn't get a chance to get in to read them. There's LOTS of good stuff in there as well as a temptation for that sparkling new sewing machine which I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  But loads of tips for anyone. Check it out.


QUILTsocial - Monday  - Introducing the Husqvarna EPIC 980Q

QUILTsocial - Tuesday - Tips on Piecing

QUILTsocial - Wednesday - Tips on Applique

QUILTsocial - Thursday - Machine Quilting

QUILTsocial - Friday - Binding


Wow -- so much going on, that it's totally crazy. I'm down to two more urgent quilts to get done - that's a project for next week and then the process starts all over again. There are already three new quilts waiting in the wings to be started on. I really must make sure that number remains manageable and that I time things appropriately so that they get done on time! Well, they are for magazines - they HAVE to be done on time. Submitting quilts to magazines has been a great learning experience for me. I'm still learning, but I'm getting better.

Oh my - I need to run. I need to pack or I'll be in trouble.

Have a great day!!!!  Don't worry - I'll be blogging from the retreat.

Ciao!!!