Retreat!

And not the kind where you turn tails and run.   Unless that means running towards a great week at the beach with friends and fellow stitchers.  I am starting to laying out things on my dining room table to pack for my Friday travels  First up, is my semi-annual Guild Retreat followed by Jamboree at Salty Yarns the following weekend.   So it is a no-brainer to stay for the days in between.   Four of us rented a house of sorts…..It is a house that is part of the Lankford Hotel complex.  Sadly to say this may have been the last time we will get to stay there.  The Lankford has been sold and none of us know what the future will bring with the new owners.   We have been blessed and so very fortunate these last dozen years or more to a twice a year retreat at the Lankford. We have been catered to by those who own and run the hotel and all the other rentals.   So many memories of good times and so many good friends made.   We wish the family well on their next endeavor and look forward to a bright future for Sally, Sara, Mary and their families.

I am still encountering problems now and again with posting comments.   Shout out to Cathy B of With Needle and Thread - Sounds like a great road trip and retreat you attended.   And to Sue at I’d Rather be Stitching - Loved your tribute to the Queen.   She may be your Queen but just know she was loved world-wide.   And Carol as the Polka Dotted Chicken…just love seeing your quilting projects and your seasonal decorations.   Especially like your chicken with the party hat.  LOL

I have to tell you I am a bit happy with myself.   In early September I told myself, “Self, you are going to concentrate on some WIP’s and get them done!  No new starts!”    I  finished Red February.     I am not sure how I want to display this one but it is a finish.

Next I finished Christmas Rules by Primrose Cottage.  I am very happy this one is done and ready to fully finish for this year’s holiday season.

I managed the pre-stitch on the Friendship Tree, free pattern from Hello from Liz Matthews.  My guild is doing this as a one day Round Robin at the end of October.   I have the basket done and border outlined and I am ready for our first in-person meeting in over 2 and a half years!   I will pass it to friends at the meeting who will add flowers to my basket.

I want to stay on this path of wrapping up some loose ends on some UFO's but sadly I have to admit to a new start.  Not really by choice  and in my defense but by  truly my setting myself up.    I promised a friend I’d start the Civil War Huswif from Needlemade Designs so we could work on it together.   Well, when I set the date of October 15th as a start date it seemed so far away and YIKES! It is almost here and start I must do.   It is also on the dining room table waiting it's place in my luggage.   There really is not a terrible amount of stitching in this; the work lies in the assembly which is where she wants the help.  I also have the pre-stitch for a Guild project wee are doing at our November meeting.   With only two projects I should be able to make great progress.

October also brought me closer to finishing my 100 days 100 blocks quilt from Gnome Angel.   (I think I sewed #65 this morning.)  The ten minutes a day went out the window once I decided to add the sashing to each piece as I constructed them.  I then decided to start sewing the 4 x 8 and 8 x 8 sections together to make bigger blocks.   When I had enough blocks constructed, I sewed the 10 prepared blocks into a column joining the columns together as I could.   Taking little bites out of the work rather than saving the assembly until the end and trying to eat the elephant all at once is working.  Hopefully it means the quilt top will be finished not long after the last day.   I am looking forward to meeting with the gal that I will have long arm it and letting her do her magic.   First 40 blocks are assembled below.  I have the next 'column' assembled and ready to attached.   My selection of fabrics is from Aunt Grace and some solid kona cloth.   Aunt Grace fabrics are kind of 1920's - 30's style prints.  Best I can guess after adding borders, etc., this will be a queen size quilt.

I took the smallest amount of time to work on finishing.   This embroidered fall pillow was colored and stitched years ago.  I think it is called "tinting".   You actually use crayons to color the fabric and then iron to set the crayon and finally embroidering the outline.  (other steps are involved, so don't just try to color and iron.) I just never took the time to finish it.   It took less than an hour to machine sew,  turn, stuff and stitch the opening.   Why ask why……I’ve got nothing people.

So you may wonder where this motivation came from…..well truth be told I really want to start my Jackie DuPlessis project.  I promised myself that I would clear up some projects RATHER than drop them into the abyss of the Basket o' Shame.  Another motivator was  looking at my list of finishes for 2022 and it was kind of sparse.  I felt the need to put myself into high gear and get some of the dangling projects moved to the finished column.   You know, the ones you loved until something else shiny came along..   They also seem to be the ones that you pick up and say, hmm, I was so close why didn't I finish it?  I have two advent SAL’s starting December 1st and  I want those to be my only stitching obligations in December.   Come January, I will be able to start the Jackie piece with less guilt of what I have left in my wake.   That’s not to say there are still many o’ projects half finished bobbing in the water or totally washed ashore as I jet skied my needle through the fall. At least I can feel like SOME have been completed and moved off the to-do list.  

I am kind of in a movement now and think I  time might be well spent wrapping up some more WIPs’.   I have a retreat in Enfield, NH at the beginning of November and need to pull out a couple of WIPs to take with me.  One will be my year long SAL, Garden of Stitches.  I got a lot done but stopped at the last part of the September assignment.  I'm also in the finishing mood but I am saving that until November.

I told myself it is not necessary to have a new start at every girls weekend or retreat I take.  That's part of how I got into this mess o' projects.  And yet somehow I am starting the Civil War Huswif by Linda Vinson.   Ugh!   I digress……alas, there is no hope for me….

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Keep safe, keep healthy and keep on stitching.