Another quilty weekend

 I was away for a long weekend at the Coventry retreat that I've been to twice before.  I like it because it's not too far away, the hotel is fine (unlike some other retreats I've been on), and the people are really nice.  It's just nice to have nothing to do but make things in likeminded company, and not have to do anything else because all the meals and refreshments are laid on.  I had a good time but I'm really tired now! By coincidence, Chooky was running her quilting zoom call from Australia as well on Saturday morning, so I joined their call  and showed the Australians our retreat room and some of the things people were making.

I was in the boxmaking class which was hard work but we produced four really great boxes. The teacher's technique is a bit of a hybrid mix between the cartonnage I have done before, where everything is glued; and the old-fashioned way of making boxes where you sew the covered card together.  We covered pre-cut card with fabric and then used our machines to zig-zag the flat joins.  Then we turned the joined pieces into 3D boxes by hand-sewing the vertical seams, reinforced with glued-in lining card and bases.  The hand-sewing was quite fiddly, particularly as I had forgotten my new reading glasses so only had my two-prescriptions-ago sewing glasses. But I'm pretty pleased with what I turned out plus the teacher went through how to calculate your own size of box to make at home.  So I could make more on my own time. Her method is a bit quicker than the cartonnage method because you aren't using as much wet glue so don't have to wait so long for things to dry. But on the other hand, the zig zag stitching shows on the outside of the box, and the hand-sewing is quite fiddly.

The two bags at the back are ones I sewed in between making boxes, when I needed a break from fiddly stuff. They are the large and small sizes of the Retreat Bag, a free pattern from Emmaline Bags, designed to take a wire frame so that they open wide like a doctor's bag.  I am going to make my wire frames out of coathanger to finish the bags off. It's a great project for a feature fabric like this old print of American farmhouses and quilts hung on the line.

On Sunday (today) I started cutting out and sewing blocks for the  quilt kit I bought at the Paducah show with the embroidered blocks that I've been stitching since the spring. I'm still working on the central embroidered panel but I could put the rest of it together.

There was various de-stash for sale for charity at the retreat, I picked up several bargain spools of brand-name thread but I also bought a Janome Jem Platinum 720, which is a 3/4 size Janome machine with 20 stitches, for a very good price. The foot pedal isn't working but my own Janome pedal works fine on it. Apparently someone's mother had given the machine to them, but they didn't sew and the machine just sat around for years.  It seems in very good condition apart from the pedal and  it could probably benefit from a service - and it comes with a little extension table and a sturdy carrycase.  I had to take my big Janome to the retreat because my Featherweight doesn't do a zigzag stitch, but now I will be able to take the Jem instead.  Much more portable, and hopefully less likely to go wrong from being transported.

Large and little.

I also took my own de-stash to donate to the charity sale: several bags of yarn and various craft books, so I've cleared out some more clutter.  I've also got some sweater's worth packs of Rowan yarn that I will try to sell.

In the week I tried out another pattern from Mrs. H aka Swoon Patterns, which was a test that ran while I was in Shetland so I missed it. It's called the Expandable Pouch and comes in five sizes, with organising and travelling in mind.  This is the largest size and it's big enough to put bulky clothes into. Now that I understand the pattern, it's a fairly straightforward sew, and I might make some more as organisers.  To use, or not use, packing cubes while travelling is a surprisingly controversial topic with lots of videos for both methods on Youtube. I don't find normal packing cubes that useful, but compression cubes that squash your clothes or yarn purchases down by compressing out the air can be quite handy. So I wouldn't use this for travelling but for things like drawer organisation, they might be handy.

So that's it for trips away from home for the year, or at least, I have nothing else booked at the moment. I can concentrate on trying to salvage the very-neglected, and somewhat squashed by scaffolding, garden; and on various jobs around the house.  I am still wading through de-cluttering - I spent several hours this week on my box of 1960s Barbie dolls, looking them up online and giving them a gentle clean, and sorting out the clothes. Apparently a couple of the dolls are fairly collectible but none of them are in great condition as they were hand-me-downs from an older cousin then I played with them, and they've been living in various attics for decades. I've emailed an auction house to see if they would be interested in them.  They may be inundated with similar collections from others jumping on the Barbie film bandwagon.