On retreat

 I'm just back from a two-night weekend sewing retreat at a hotel.  It's so nice to just sew and make things all weekend with no other responsibilities.  Obviously I could do sewing all day at home, but I don't - I either get bored and go do something else, or I get interrupted or distracted or feel obligated to go do something useful like making dinner or laundry.  I didn't even do that much socialising because there was a big noisy class in the same room all running big embroidery machines so it was too noisy for chitchat with neighbours a lot of the time.  It was still nice to be surrounded by all the creativity and kit and people enjoying making things.

I spent a lot of the first day sewing down the rest of the crochet mats and doileys  on my Vintage Linens quilt.  I must have had half a dozen women come up and exclaim over the idea because they also have a collection of mum's/grannie's/auntie's old embroideries and linens and didn't know what to do with them.  It was a job getting the old linens attached fairly flat, a lot of them are a bit loosey-goosey with age but I managed with a few judicious tucks here and there.  I'm planning to quilt this with an allover design to hold everything down evenly.

Then I pulled out my prepared pieces for the Double Wedding Ring quilt and pieced together eight arcs, then puzzled through the not very clear directions on how to join it all together into a block.    I got there in the end, although it still seems like witchcraft to be sewing two completely opposing curves and end up with something that is sort of flat. This block is my total nemesis as I am not a very accurate sewer and generally find repetitive piecing pretty tedious, but it's been on my bucket list for about 30 years. Having produced my 'proof of concept' block, I started churning out pieced arcs - I need 120 more each composed of six pieces.  By the next day I had produced almost 100 but I've run out of some colours so I need to cut some more 'teeth'.  I'm chain-piecing them in sets of six arcs at a time.  I need to starch, press them flat, then cut them all into the final arc shape using the template.

Then I cut out a Fat Cat Dresden Plate quilt, using the Fat Cat Zimmermann ruler that makes a plate with only 12 wedges in it, and using up a Tilda Chic Escape layer cake and some Tilda FQs from my stash.  After that it was a lot of playing - I cut out and partially sewed a little kit for a teapot-shaped pincushion that I bought in New Zealand I think. And I pieced together and started embellishing a kit for a tiny hanging snap-clasp purse that I bought in Tokyo at Crib Quilts - the kit comes with the sweetest little buttons for decoration.

I won a raffle prize - someone had handpieced a little christmas themed bag which holds a large handmade christmas bauble, all beautifully made.

Earlier in the week, I finished my renovation of the sewing table apart from I still need to refinish the tabletop and screw the hinges back on.  But the padded lids for the tray are all done and covered underneath with matching paper.  I'm really pleased with it.  DH asked what I was going to use it for and I realised that I don't want to use it or put anything into it that could scratch or mark the paper!  So I don't know.  After all the work I've put into it, it seems too good to actually use :)  I just want it to stay pristine forever.