Three days and two nights of quilting! I always bring more with me than I can possibly do while I am at a retreat but I like to have options in case I feel like changing projects. However, by the time I left today, I only had one project that I did not touch. Much was accomplished! I started out slowly with a warm up projects. I am making nine patch blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project this year. March's colour is yellow. They are a bit brighter than they appear in this picture. The lighting in the room washed them out a bit.
Next up...my shadowbox quilt. I finished the quilting at home this past week and put the binding on by machine at the retreat. It is ready for hand stitching this week. I call the quilting pattern "waffle quilting" and did it with my DSM walking foot.
Then I worked on a quilt which will be a gift so no pictures yet. I completed most of the blocks and then ran out of fabric that I needed to complete the last three blocks. I will work on this at home to finish the blocks soon.
This I Spy Potato Chip block quilt top was quilted and I put the binding on by machine. More hand stitching to do this week. I found the backing at my local quilt store on the sale rack. This was my first purchase in 2025 and I only have a small strip of it left after trimming the quilt. It's perfect! The binding was in my stash.
I have had an idea floating around in my head for a few months now for a wall hanging made with nine blocks. This morning, I made the first couple of blocks...yes, there are partial seams in these blocks. The background is Essex linen. I plan on making each block a different colour. The next block is underway.
I also did some hand quilting on my Arizona quilt after marking some more circles on my quilt. One of the other quilters had a nifty circle marking tool which she let me use. Here is a picture of the back of the quilt which shows how much is done so far. Those squares to the left and right of the centre may need circles in them too.
The church sewing group that I belong to is making 1200 inserts for reusable hygiene kits for girls in Malawi. They cannot go to school when they are menstruating unless they have these kits. We have already made 120 bags to hold the kits and other sewing groups at other churches are making some of the other parts of the kits. I have dragged out my serger from hibernation to work on these. I am getting really fast at my part of the process! We have 600 made and 600 more to go. The deadline is the end of the month. We only have 6 people sewing for a few hours a week.
My daughter is still working on the borders on her Christmas blanket. It's a big blanket and it takes a while to work her way all the way around it.
I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers as well as Frederique. Take care and have a great week.
