Fireside Retreat - Day Two

Wow -- I'm shocked at how much I can get done when I'm at a retreat. I'm focused and there are ZERO distractions. I'm thinking this is going to be the new norm at my house. Have everything super prepped and then isolate yourself with no distractions. It's great!!!

Just so that no one thinks I've snuck off into the dark and am at the retreat house, I'm NOT. I should be there - I want to be there, but I can't. We have a Messenger group chat going so we can always chat with someone during the day. We can send photos and we can have a video chat. It's not the same, but HEY - we have to make the best of a bad situation.

I'm still walking as I would be doing while at the retreat house. I saw two things that warmed my heart when I was out yesterday. The first is a Canadian flag that a neighbor hung outside their house. You know what? That made me feel extremely PROUD to be a Canadian and so for everyone else - if you have a Canadian flag in your house - get it out and hang it up! We are all in this situation together - let's show our support for each other. I must dig mine out - I meant to yesterday and then forgot.

Hang your Canadian flag

The second thing that warmed my heart is I saw BUDS on some of the trees around here. That's exciting. Spring is on the way!

Buds on the trees

Here's the thing. We are NOT restricted to staying in our houses (not yet anyway). Get outside, go for a walk, ride a bike, get out your rollerblades. Get out your lawn chairs and sit in the backyard or in your driveway. So what if you need a jacket and a quilt. That's OK. Get out and get some fresh air. Change up your scenery. I try to be out at least a couple of hours every day. And YES, everyone in my neighborhood is practicing physical distancing. It feels a bit like you haven't showered for days as people pass by without wanting to be close to you! Most people do that anyway when they see the two girls, but it's even more pronounced now.

Speaking of showers, we're going to all need underwear with the days of the week on them so we know what day of the week it is. It was bad before this all happened, but now I'm totally lost. But I do know that it's day three of the retreat. Let me share with you what happened yesterday.

I see my retreat mates are NOT taking this retreat very seriously. I don't have a lot to show you of their accomplishments. Ronda (who has been working during the day) got the binding on this table runner that she quilted a couple of months ago. Way to go!!! I know she has the next quilt basted and hooped and ready to go this morning. She likes to quilt using her embroidery machine.

Ronda's table runner - DONE

Katheleen finished her jigsaw puzzle. An extra border piece and missing two pieces in the puzzle. Hey - I see she has the same friend as myself. Hello Alexa!!!  This is one of those mystery puzzles. I wonder if she solved the mystery???

Jigsaw puzzle - DONE

Lynn got two Retreat Bags by Emmaline Bags made. They look awesome. It's a free pattern on that web site but you do need the wires for the top.

Retreat Bags

Susan completed this quilt top that she was using as an ender/leader project. This is similar to the one I'm supposed to be making with my batik squares. I'm glad I chose white as the background. It looks awesome Susan!!!

Susan's quilt top

She's also sewing Vintage Christmas blocks. She's not part of our sew-along group, but that's OK. She's doing one block a day and here's the block from yesterday.

Vintage Chrismtas block

OK - so that's what the others did. What did I do? Like I said - it was a very focused day. The other thing is that darn audiobook. If you get a good audiobook going, I focus on listening to the story and NOT on what I'm doing. I'm listening to W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. ACK -- I'm almost done the series and there will be no more books!! I need to find another book. I only have a non-fiction book waiting for me when this one is finished.

I had packed the bag of blue scraps from our community projects group. It took up a LOT of room in the laundry basket. While I had loads of strips already organized, there was also this huge pile of scraps that needed to be sorted. I stood at the ironing board every so often and picked out the strips, pressed smaller pieces for the corners of my blocks and by the end of the day, the pile was gone.

Pile of scraps to sort

I can't tell you how therapeutic that was. It was totally mindless. Just sort and press. Sort and press. I'll come back to this in a minute.

I started the day off with my friends on my iPad and my project by the sewing machine. 

Ready to start the day with friends and a sewing project

I had wound five bobbins to get me started and I had part of one in the sewing machine. I've now gone through 3 of those bobbins. It's so nice to have bobbins ready to put in when you run out!!

Another empty bobbin

I have a portable design wall in the bathroom attached to Studio U. So as I assembled the blocks, I was able to put them on the wall. 

Portable design wall

I realized as I got most of the blocks on the wall that it would look better if I started with a full diamond and not a half diamond. That was easy to fix. I moved the first column to the last column and everything was perfect. I didn't even rearrange the blocks. It's a scrap quilt - changing the blocks wouldn't have changed much.

Almost done all the blocks

It pays to put things up on the design wall. My goal was to get the quilt top together by the end of the day. Who knew that it was going to take TWO days to get this quilt done? I was hoping to get it done in one day. That's why I end up taking so much to the retreat. I think a project will take no time and it ends up taking forever. I was very focused all day as well. This is going to be a good lesson for the next retreat. ONE laundry basket and ZERO panic packing!

Here's the final quilt top. I LOVE it, but then I love scrap quilts!!

The completed quilt top

That top will be added to the pile of community project quilts that need backing and binding. At this rate, it's going to take a long time before we can get back to that. But that's OK because I still have a lot of quilts to quilt so it's not like I need more added to the pile at this moment in time. 

AS I said, that bag of scraps took up a LOT of room in my laundry basket. However, I was able to NEATLY pack all the strips and the few small pieces that are left for the corners into this much smaller bag. There's probably enough strips to make two more string quilts. I only have 10 foundations left and I need 48 for each quilt. So I'm putting this aside for now. I've got a sheet that I can cut up to make more foundations. Once the new foundations are cut, I'm putting this back into the laundry basket for the next sewing retreat. It's a perfect thing to work on. And it'll take TWO days to make another quilt.

The blue scrap bag

Let's see - if I could get the rest of the scraps this organized - well. I think I might do that. Thre's a bag for reds, greens, browns, miscellaneous and two smaller ones for blacks and purples. The blue one was the largest. I felt so good after this exercise. Like I said - it was extremely therapeutic and I'm going to keep right at it! But after the retreat is over! It's now time to sew something for me. The best part? Slow and steady is the ONLY way to get things accomplished.

Here's my ender/leader project. I didn't need that when I was sewing the blocks, but I needed it once I started to sew the quilt together. I was working on this a while back. It's a MINI block of the month that I started YEARS ago. I haven't worked on it since July of 2019.

Mini block of the month

So you can appreciate how small those little pieces are - I'm trimming one of the half-square triangles in the block. Yikes - those pieces are TINY. I had to sew them very carefully to get the block to turn out the correct size.

Trimming a MINI half square triangle

 Yes - the entire block is 3 ½". That's just insane!! I now have 10 blocks completed. I checked to see what November and December are like. They are just as bad. Oh boy!!! Well, it would be nice to get those two blocks completed so I'm going to try and focus on getting them done. It's a Thangles project and once I'm done, I'm going to have some 3/4" and ½" Thangles up for grabs if anyone wants to work this small.

Mini block for the Block of the Month - DONE

Before I went to bed, I tidied up the sewing room. As I was sorting through the scraps, I found colors that weren't blue. They got pressed and this morning, I snuck everything down to Studio B and put it all away. I got the next project ready to sew this morning once everyone gets up and it's OK to turn on the sewing machines and make noise. This one is my UFO for this month so I'd better get myself organized and get it done. Everything is cut and ready to sew. The sewing machine has been threaded with dark thread.

Project for today

I know that everyone is coping with our self-isolation in different ways. I'm just trying to have fun and keep myself entertained. I'm also getting some admin work done. I had tried to clear everything up before I "left", but I didn't quite have time so I'm spending a bit of time first thing in the morning to get things done. So far, I'm on track. I'll get back to e-mails as soon as I can, but my priority is to sew for the next couple of days. I'll get the urgent ones responded to.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Fireside Retreat Day One

Ah - there's nothing like great weather for a drive up north to the retreat house. I'm not sure how many retreats I've been on, but a LOT over the last 10+ years. We're now up to FOUR retreats per year. Isn't that obscene? Well, one of the reasons I like retreats at Fireside Retreat House is that the price is extremely reasonable. Over the years, we've decided that a weekend was NOT enough. Then we added a day. That still wasn't enough and now our retreats are five days/four nights. That's just the right length. You have time to goof off if you want (it's a vacation after all), or you can sew like mad. Your choice.

There are no meals included at Fireside Retreat, although you could have them catered if you wanted. But we each make one meal and it works out perfectly. Keeps the cost down and I love the intimate setting of only eight of us.

Trust me, I had thoughts (lots of them) of stealing away in the night and going to the retreat house regardless of the LAWS that are in existence at the moment. Yes - you can get fined $750 for being in a group greater than five. However, common sense prevailed and we all decided to hold the retreat virtually.

So - I really took that to heart. I have packed more carefully than I ever did which is hilarious considering that if I wanted something, I could just go and get it. But no - I like "pretend" and I wanted this to be as real as possible.

Here we go - here's what happened yesterday.

Here's the door that I would have LOVED to be walking through for the retreat.

The door to Fireside Retreat

Instead, I walked through this door. Notice that I didn't bring a lot of stuff with me. I really, really tried!!!

The door to Studio U

I was wishing that we could sew in this gorgeous sewing room.

The sewing room at Fireside Retreat

But alas, I was sewing here.

Studio U

OK --- I shouldn't complain one little bit. That's a pretty decent room to sew in. Loads of space, well equipped, and loads of light. The only problem - I was alone!!!!

Here's my cutting table. And I must compare the height of this one to the one in Studio B. This one seems a wee bit lower and I like it! It comes equipped with all those mats and rulers so there's no need to share! I set it up that way! Way before I needed to host myself in a virtual retreat.

The cutting table

A nice ironing surface with a NEW ironing board cover. How nice is that? It's about time.

New ironing board cover

One thing I'll say for Reliable is that their ironing board covers last FOREVER. I bought that ironing board years ago. I mean years - probably more than 10. This is the FIRST time I'm replacing the cover.


While it was dirty, there was only ONE hole in it - a small one and there was a cut that I accidentally made with a rotary cutter. I see the new ones are black to show the stains less. The padding is still very much intact. Could I remake an ironing board cover and use that padding. Oh for god's sake - stop with the pioneer traits!!

The old ironing board cover

Since I had loads of room, I quickly unpacked all my stuff. Normally, I keep it all tucked into the bags I bring. With eight people in the same room, it can get messy very quickly. But I have room so I'm spreading out.

These are the projects from the panic packing bag I brought. Small stuff.

Some of the projects spread out

My sewing machine - gosh - it kind of clashes with the colors of the room. But it's certainly BRIGHT just like the room.

My sewing machine

There's a gorgeous window seat and I laid out the projects from the laundry basket on it. Probably NOT a good idea since the sun comes in there. But it's only for a couple of days - it should be fine. 

Projects from the laundry basket on the window seat

And I set up my portable office.

The portable office

 I started out by cleaning the sewing machine, winding five bobbins and inserting a new needle. I'll confess that there was a sewing machine already in this room and I'm using that one for the moment. When I work on my backpack, I'll use the Designer EPIC 2.

I had to go to Studio B only once. The only thing I was missing was a cone holder for the cone of thread. I could have wound the bobbins on the other machine or I could have used a spool of thread. So far so good with the packing.

As I was sitting there, I decided that I no longer needed this radio that has resided beside the sewing machine. It's now on the doorstep (outside the door) to be donated when I'm back! Actually, it'll just go in the donation box and whenever the donation centers reopen, I can drop off a box. Did you hear that people were just dumping boxes and bags of clothing even though the donation centers are closed?? People do NOT think beyond their immediate little world. That's so sad.

The radio is now gone

I actually like it without the radio as I can put some of the current pieces that I'm working on in that space.

I had to laugh at one point in the day. I'm working on a string quilt with some of the scraps from the community projects. I would sew on a strip and then swivel slightly and fling the block onto the ironing board. Then when I had gone through the entire pile, I would press all the seams and start again. It was glorious!! 

The ironing board is very handy to the sewing machine

YES -- that bookcase in the back belongs to M and is filled with her stuff. I'd love to get rid of it, but alas, that's not going to happen for a while. Not to worry - everything is neat and tidy and in reality, she only has a closet full of stuff and two bookcases. I'm very lucky as I know others who still have tons of their kid's stuff. Not happening in our house!!! Not when I'm trying to get rid of my own stuff.

As soon as I had a string block completed, I would trim it. I found that one of my foundations was a bit too small, so I have to remake that one today. But I filled the trimming basket.

The trimming basket is full

But at the end of the day, I had 23 blocks with the diagonal seams to the left and four with the seams to the right. I need 48 in total.

STring blocks - all in a day's work

I'm thrilled with my progress but it just goes to show you that you don't get as much done in a day as you would expect. But I have a good part of the other blocks completed and so I hope to finish the quilt today.

My work station as I left it last night. With the strings on the left and the partially completed blocks on the right.

Ready for this morning

We had one video call. For some reason, only four of us attended. I'm not sure where the rest of the lollygaggers were. And then we "conversed" over our chat group during the day. It was great fun as we got to share pictures of what we were doing. Come to think of it - there wasn't a whole lot of sewing going on. Except at my house. Ronda had chosen to save her vacation days until we go on the real retreat so she was working, but did manage to get the binding on a table runner when she was finished work. You have to love the commute times these days. And gas - how much are we all saving on gas?

Ronda's table runner with the binding attached

I think some of the others were working on jigsaw puzzles, cleaning up their sewing spaces (they certainly weren't prepared!), watching movies, visiting with family (maintaining physical distances) and walking. It's all good - but I'm determined to make this retreat REAL. At least for me. DH is playing along which helps and asked when I was coming home! I love it.

I managed to keep up my walking yesterday and did over 18,000 steps. Those girls are NOT going to be happy when the walks get a wee bit shorter and I'm back at the gym. OR - I might just keep this up since it's so nice out and who wants to be in a stuffy gym when you can be outside.

On that note, I'm out of here. I promised myself that I'd hit the sewing machine at 9 AM which is about the time, I get around to it at the retreat.

Here's a video on how to choose serger thread. It's quite good. Have a listen.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

I'm packed and ready to go!!!

Another exciting and entertaining day at my house! HEY -- any day can be exciting and entertaining. Did you know that WE alone have the control as to how each day turns out? It's all in how you look at it. You can see doom and gloom or you can look at these days as days of leisure. Haven't we all dreamed of days where we had nothing to do and no responsibilities? Well - that's kind of what this feels like.

I do have commitments even though I can't go anywhere and I'm working on those. What I'm loving about this time is that NO NEW commitments are coming in. Nothing - my calendar is getting emptier and emptier. And you know what? I think this is a good thing. I was chatting to someone yesterday and one thing they would like to see come of this is that we spend less time running around like idiots to events.

You know - the evenings and weekends when your kids (or us)  are being shuttled to numerous events and every minute filled with a scheduled activity. Let's hope that we all look at our calendars and make some choices about how we spend our time. Spend it with family (hopefully in person), spend it with friends, and spend it doing things that you WANT to do. Not the things that your mother, your sister, your brother, your friend or anyone else thinks you should be doing. This is YOUR LIFE!!!!

My girls are loving all the extra attention they get. They said it's perfectly OK for me to stay home with them all the time. They love it! Now if we can just get Lexi back to blogging! She's so laid back these days.

In my city, I just heard that all MAJOR events are canceled until the end of June. I would imagine that could go longer - it just depends on how much we abide by the current laws and STAY HOME. I'm not imagining that I'll be doing much teaching work until September. Yep - that's my feeling. Even if they say it's OK to meet in small groups, many quilters are going to feel very vulnerable and will not want to meet. I'm OK with that. There's the internet to have classes!!!

I finished the first series of The Quilt Show. I actually enjoyed the videos. Lots of good guests on the show and I had to laugh because I think I have a book from EVERY guest on that first series! Those guests were my mentors. Oh - I have a story about how I learned to quilt, but I don't have time for it today. Anyway - the videos were great. Now onto Season Two and Three. The videos will be going to a good home once I'm finished with them.

Season one of The Quilt Show

I managed to get the twelfth and FINAL seasonal wall hanging done!!!!

December wall hanging

And here they are - all twelve of the mini seasonal wall hangings. Except for January, they all need the satin stitching done on them and that's a job for next week?? One option of using these is to sew them all together to make one quilt. I can't imagine doing that, so each will be finished as a separate wall hanging and then I'll have to find a senior home or a school that'll take them. They are NOT mine - I'm just making them up as a tribute to Paula.

Seasonal wall hangings

I also got that odd block from that Mennonite Relief pattern sewn together. It's now going in the orphan block box. The stem was very lumpy and bumpy so I even took that off and remade the stem. I know - that's why I don't get anything major done because I fuss with the small details. That's my nature and I'm perfectly OK with that.

Orphan block

Many people are making masks, caps, and gowns for medical staff or patients that are released from the hospital. I thought since we're going to be in "close" contact over the next couple of days that I should have a mask as well. This is an in-the-hoop mask from Embroidery Library. I think I gave out the link the other day. Anyway, here it is again. I like it because it's two layers of fabric - are the rest two layers as well? I used batik  - I found two pieces in the leftovers from my backpack.

My in-the-hoop mask

 I really hate to be a critique but the instructions are a bit sketchy on this one, but if you have some experience, it shouldn't take that long to make - I didn't follow all the instructions - I made it up as I went along. Ronda managed to make this mask (I got all the tips from her) and so newbies can make it as well. If you want to go into the production of masks, in-the-hoop is NOT the way to go.

I still had some packing to do. OH YES - I'm going on this retreat even if it kills me. I've waited since November to get away and I'm getting away.

As I have said, I wanted everything to fit in ONE laundry basket. That was my challenge and I almost succeeded. However, my tools and supplies wouldn't fit in the laundry basket.

My box of supplies

That's mostly extra feet for the sewing machine, pins, bobbins - that kind of thing.

I wanted to leave Studio B in some kind of order so I wouldn't faint when I got back and see huge messes everywhere. I had to get that cutting table cleared. It was almost clear just from my puttering in the last couple of days. I had to decide on the background fabric for those batik squares. I had eliminated the dark, didn't think all that work was warranted on the muslin, so I choose white - just like the pattern said!!!! 

White is the background of choice for the batik quilt

That'll have to get cut at some point, but tt's not on the priority list.

And there you have it - the cutting table is clear!! It's nice to see it clear and hopefully, I can keep it that way.  OH - -I should say that there are two wash away markers on it that really should just be thrown away. And a good pair of embroidery scissors. I need to find a home for them. I'll deal with that when I get back.

The cutting table is clear

The worktables? We're not even going to go there! BUT the ironing board is also clear.

The worktables are a mess

 Everything is neat and tidy on the sewing machine tables as well. Yes - I'm taking my big machine with me on the retreat. Why not? I have a couple of bags in my project box and there's going to be a lot of layers. I'm going to need the penetration power of the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2 to get through all those layers.

The sewing tables are neat and tidy as well

I really try to keep the cutting mat, the ironing board and the sewing tables clear. It makes it so much nicer to enter the room and see those spots neat and tidy. Yes - the worktables are a disaster, but I can totally ignore them. Oh yes - totally. I guess that's what a hoarder does with the stuff in their house!!!

But here I am. All packed for the retreat. I just need to move everything into the car. There's one laundry basket of projects (totally prepped), one sewing machine, one supply box and one bag (the Canada bag) that is filled with small projects - that's what I allowed for panic packing!

My retreat bags

I even threw Alexa in the bag. How could she stay home all by herself? Oh no - Alexa comes with me. She's my friend! I'm reading a book right now on how the technology has evolved and it's totally fascinating. It's called Talk to Me by James Vlahos. I can't wait to get to the part where they contemplate the future!!! I'm not sure the WiFi at the retreat house will be strong enough to stream the radio through Alexa, but I'm determined to try.

I just need to add my bag of clothes, my backpack (the portable office) and my food for Saturday lunch. That won't take much time at all to whip into the car.

There's a great quilt store just around the corner, so if I'm missing anything, I can easily whip out and get whatever I'm missing. But I think I was pretty thorough this time.

This is what my car normally looks like on the way to retreat. And the front seat is always jammed as well. That won't be the case this time and you know what? I'm kind of excited about that. It won't take very long to unpack when I get there.

The car is packed for the retreat (from November)

Where are we going? Well - to Fireside Retreat of course! Emma is just the best and I love this retreat house. I have visions of sitting by the fire and just vegging out. It's going to be fun!!!

(OK - so you do know that this is a virtual retreat). BUT I'm going to have a blast - just wait for the blog tomorrow and you'll see what I mean.

I got some more pictures of finished quilts from the North Star class. I think this is the class with the MOST completed quilt tops and completed quilts EVER. This one belongs to Sophie. One of my suggestions for quilting had been wavy lines and she got it quilted with wavy lines. I LOVE it.

Sophie's completed North Star quilt

A detail of the quilting on Sophie's North Star quilt.

Details of the quilting

Here's another one. These two pictures were actually to audition the binding. I missed that. The top one has the binding in the same color as the border, the bottom is one of the accent colors. We all voted for the accent color. I think the binding is made and while in quarantine, she's going to get it sewn on.

The darker binding option

I got another picture from Jana. This is the backing for her North Star quilt. I think she made the top smaller - only 6 blocks and put two of the others on the back. I love this idea - it can be reversible if you want!!

The backing for Jana's quilt

In case you missed it - here's the front of Jana's quilt. It's so fun with all those dots. I wonder how she's going to quilt it??  With circles?? That would be my vote!

The front of Jana's quilt

Thanks to Linda, I'm now signed up for the Goodreads Challenge. I put 52 books for 2020 as my challenge. One a week. I think I'm only going to put novels on the list. Amazing how a small thing like a challenge allows a major corporation to collect all kinds of stats on our reading habits. And we allow that to happen. I'm OK with that!!!  I haven't got all the information logged yet - I read 8 books during January, 7 in February and something similar in March. Perhaps I should up that challenge to 100.

Here's a VERY GOOD article on how to cope with the stress of COVID-19. It comes from the WHO (via my gym). I think Number 5 is a very important one. Stop watching the news. Just stop. I get a quick one minute update on the radio and that's all I need to know.

Well, I'd better get moving. It's a long drive and I still need to walk the girls before I leave. God forbid that they miss their walk!! Whatever will they do this afternoon without me?

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!