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Monday, July 30, 2007

Good as new!

I had a wonderful and relaxing quilt retreat this weekend.  
I made a list of all the things I'd like to work on and spent some time with each one. First I updated my 365 quilt entries. Here are my 3 months of strips hanging in the storage room. I bought a couple of new Zig millenium pens since the two I started out with seemed to be getting a little worn out.
I also worked on my Journey of a Quilter BOM and finished the stitching on block one. This was very relaxing and I am really enjoying this project. The photo is a little bit yellowy, but it was late at night when I finished. I made a couple of changes, such as I took out all the stitched blocks of T pins - just a personal taste thing - I didn't like the look of them, so I'm replacing those pin blocks with regular fabric. And instead of using the DMC floss colours Leanne recommended, I am using up the floss I collected from my days of cross stitching in the late 80's. Then I finished tracing the stitch patterns for block 2 and pieced block 3 which is the photo on the right.
I also did some hand beading and worked on an abstract challenge piece that is not anywhere near ready to see the light of day (it's ugly!).
I fixed a big mistake on my President's Challenge mystery quilt - I had sewn the last two rows on upside down! You can see these rows here. I carefully ripped out that seam and resewed it the proper way around. Then I added some borders and pieced the backing. I am so proud of myself for using all stash fabrics from start the finish. This is the backing made from leftover pieces from the quilt top. So now I am thinking about how to quilt it - I still have a month left to finish that.
Mostly I enjoyed the peace/piece and quiet of my studio. I sometimes listened to music, and sometimes listened to the birds singing outside. I feel well mended and ready for the second half of summer vacation with the kids.

6 comments:

  1. It's so nice to be able to get away once in awhile to sew! Glad you had a great time. It's also nice to have a DH who understands that.

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  2. Here we are both working on the same two projects. I'm enjoying both of mine so much. Yours are looking really great.

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  3. Your Quilter's Journey block is beautiful. I know how much you're enjoying it and I have thoroughly enjoyed mine. I haven't done much in the past few days however I'm ready to trace a new block.

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  4. good husband! I like how your journal quilt looks, sort of like parchment.
    My challenge from July isn't ready to be seen either! Yikes and it's August now!

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  5. Kudos for keeping up with the 365 challenge. I once joined a group to do ONE letter size (8 1/2" x 11") a month for a year. The pieces never made it farther than being sketches in a book.
    I am glad that you had a great quilty day. They are very nearly the BEST days.

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  6. Was this a retreat in your own house? How did you stop the kids/dh from interrupting you? I can't manage that, plus I feel guilty about ignoring them. What is your secret?

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