Lilla update

Day One of the retreat is finished!!!  We're still waiting for one more person to arrive later today. Sadly, she wasn't feeling up to par, but hopefully, she'll be fine today. It was super great to catch up with everyone as we don't see some of them on a regular basis.

And yes - I'm sitting at the kitchen counter while my oatmeal simmers merrily on the stove. I hate GAS stoves. Well, that's not true - I hate them because I"m not used to them. I couldn't find a temperature where the oatmeal wouldn't boil over. Last time I did - no problem. AHA - there's a dial for one burner marked ACCUSIMMER - and that worked like a charm. Got to remember that for tomorrow.

I love the new sewing table that they installed in the main sewing room. A longer table where two people can sit side by side. Since Ronda and Laura are installed in the dining room, I've claimed the long table for ME!!!  BUT - I did bring two machines and one of them is set up for me to sew on my projects and the other one is for the Quilts of Valour quilt.

I lost count of some of the pieces needed for the Quilts of Valour quilt so now I know that I have enough for all the centers because, besides the five blocks that got sewn yesterday, I sewed almost all the center two pieces together as well. It's a great thing to work on when I'm waiting for the iron or the cutting table. I see no reason why we can't have a finished quilt top by the end of the weekend.

Yum - nothing like an awesome bowl of oatmeal. Trust me, if I were just eating oatmeal - that's pretty bland, but I dress it up with chia seeds, flax seeds, almond milk (which is very good and flavorful), nutmeg and cinnamon, topped off with a banana. This is NOT my mother's oatmeal.

I accomplished a lot yesterday. I brought a variety of projects with me Some are brand new, some are UFOs, and I have a couple of kits that I found when we were cleaning out. So I cut and sewed together a small table topper that I had designed when I first started to work at Northcott. It's super cute - of course, I'll be sharing pictures with you when I get back. I had enough fabric in the bundle to make the backing and the binding. So that's one project - DONE!!!

The second thing I worked on was from the kits I found. It's actually a quilt that I'll be teaching at the Hobby Horse in the fall. All the fabrics were in the kits - I think I have pictures of them to show you later this week. Anyway - I thought that some of the fabrics in the kit were a bit too busy so I substituted TWO of the fabrics. I'm so glad that I did. You would NOT have been able to see the pattern if I had not done the substitution. The pattern is called BQ by Maple Island.

Anyway - it was mostly cut out except for one of the substitute fabrics which I had not had time to cut before I left. I made strip sets and I pressed them and cut them apart. Then the blocks got put together and now the quilt top is done! I had the backing fabric with me. It wasn't included in the kit, but I had bought some at the time I purchased the kit. The only thing left to make is binding. I'm going to use one of the fabrics that I substituted out for the binding. It'll be perfect. And the best part? I found a home for the remainder of the fabric in the kit. DONE!!!!!  I want to try and get this one quilted pretty quickly so all the excess fabric (including that in the backing can go to its new owner). I LOVE when that happens.

We made a trip (I won't say quick because it's never quick when there's more than 1 person) to Fabricland. It's closing and we wanted to check out the threads. Of course, I forgot to take my fabric so I could match what I was missing. But I did pick up some spools of cotton to add to that thread drawer I have at home. Only about 10 - I think I can find a home for ten in that drawer. And I got some embroidery threads as well - great to have small spools with lots of variety for applique.

I'll be back at Fabricland this morning because I pulled out a tote bag that I want to finish and guess what?? No threads for the topstitching and the quilting. Darn!!!!!  So now I have three projects that I need to match up threads. That's OK.

And last night was a first. I think the ENTIRE house went out after dinner for a walk. Say what????  Katheleen and I went the furthest - down and up the big hill. A great little walk after dinner. And that was after we sat around the table and chatted. That's what I love - there's no rush after meals, there's no need to get up so someone can clean the tables. Everyone pitches in and it's awesome.

Now for the pictures. I mentioned a couple of days ago about my Lilla quilt. I'm going to make it into two quilts and to do that, I needed 12 extra blocks. I had already made four extra so that left 8 extras to make. I went through the book and picked out some of the more interesting ones, but NOT the two troublesome blocks.

I managed to get FOUR of the missing 8 completed.

Blocks for Lilla quilt

Two more blocks

Here's the fourth block

Since I was on a roll, I've gone through the book and picked out the next four blocks to make and they are cut and ready to sew together. Hmm - some of them might already be sewn together and I just didn't get pictures. You'll have to wait for that!!!

Remaining Lilla blocks are cut and ready to sew

My ender and leader project while I was working on Lilla is another block from that mini block of the month.

Mini block

I didn't quite get that July block completed, but it's close.

I had to laugh as we've had several firsts on this retreat. First - everyone went for a walk last night. That was a HUGE first. Secondly, only three people went to Fabricland and NO ONE went to the quilt store. Normally, some of these girls have gone to both and several times on the first day!!  Sue is probably thinking that we didn't arrive yesterday!!!!

It looks like a glorious day today so I'd better get myself organized and off for a bike ride.

Have a super day!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!