Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Retreat, Retreat!!

 Wow, just got back from my second retreat for the season, 

(sadly my last this year) and yowzah, I got loads complete!

First of the first of.. ( notice all those firsts?), the black crazy

log cabins top is complete. The zig zag border started on a 

beautiful fall day at Gull Lake, Alberta, was finished up 

on a beautiful fall day at Lake Isle, Alberta.


 It would be so nice if that was a trend but unfortunately, 

no more lake time for me. 


Sixteen inside blocs were joined using a scrappy sashing. 

Then, after an addition of a one inch frame, a scrappy zig zag

chases around the outside of the quilt.

Five inch squares were bisected and then the

 1 1/2" cut strip of random scraps were stitched down 

the middle and the block reassembled. 

Effective when done and fun to do!  

The corners were a bit fiddly but welcome 

assistance from the other retreaters got 

me on track and a cheeky corner treatment was added. 

One top done!

It even has a flange!

The second finish of the retreat 

was another RSC item, a yellow 

log cabin, court house steps arrangement. 

The previous retreat saw one top completed

but more blocks were needed for the second. 

They were finished up in the past week 

and the top itself was stitched first at the retreat since

we could chat and the layout was not too complex.

It will get caught up in the next wild

pinning frenzy and get shipped off 

to our local child's service charity, Zebra,

in December.  Discovering more yellows

hiding in a drawer, really helped to bump

up the tone from golds and orangey to 

yellow and bright.


  This top received 

many sunny compliments at show and tell time!

The second of the black crazy log cabin quilts

was assembled at retreat and time just ran out

before the border was complete. 

It was finished up in bit of a sewing afternoon, 

after a good nights sleep to recover from all the retreating!

The center squares were joined together

without a sashing, in a 5 x 6 arrangement. 


The border on this is a simple pair of the 

scrap pieced strips with mitered corners. 

There are enough blocks in the bank for 

two more of these black, scrappy wonders. 

I just need to come up with some border treatments. 

The original inspiration for these black tops is

an article in  QNM for the April 2002 issue. 

Janice Gunner is the designer. I, of course,

changed the pattern to fit my skill and resource levels. 

A  lesson reaffirmed while making up these 

tops is that scrap quilting makes for a lot of threads!

Stay safe and sew on !

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Ohh , Shopping Trip!

 Well, with the recent events, my stash reporting feels a bit 

like a confessional! 

 I had a great time at a fabric clear out. 

I did find some treasures and beautiful quilting supplies. 

A conservative estimate of the new to me quilting fabric 

is  30 meters. It was part of a creative estate sale and 

I could not resist the great bargains nor the beautiful fabrics. 

A majority of the haul is in color coordinated scrap bags. 


A few good bits of flannel yardage was snapped up too!



Now I get to sew even more!! A few more log cabins will 

be zipped up this year and I am looking for a new 

go-to scrap busting pattern for 

next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

So here is the updated stash report.


2023 STASH TOTALS

  Used last week:     0 m


Used year to date:       133  m

                                      Scraps out               0.0 m   

                                   (1 bag=/.5 k=.5m)  

                                      Scraps In                0.0  m

Added last week:        30 m

                                 Added Year to date:            177 m bolt 27m, bucket batiks 15m

destash gift 68m

Net added in 2023         9.5 meters


I will definitely enjoy working with these wonderful

fabrics . I even have a place to file them. It will 

just need a bit of repositioning my shelves and 

I can set up the new additions for optimum usage.

Let's get sewing!

Linking up with: 

Stash Reporting


15 Minutes to Stitch