Planning for the Week Ahead

Some of you know that this coming week is the quilt retreat for the Frankfort Girls group I sew with. The pandemic forced our canceling last year's retreat, naturally. So we are long overdue for our week of stitching together. Instead of sewing, today, I am packing my projects, loading the car and prepping my contributions for meals.

Reviewing the projects I intend to work on this week seemed like a good plan for today's post. It'll be sorta' like a mini goals list.

In honor of Slow Sunday Stitching, my frequent Sunday post, I will share some handwork that will be completed this week: binding and applique. Two little quilts need binding, and I am taking Lake Effect (which I share most Sundays) to stitch on the applique vines, leaves and berries. Below are the two little quilts needing binding.

Both were quilted this week in my efforts to properly set the tension on the long arm machine. I put two small quilts into the machine at once, and focused almost entirely on upper and lower tension adjustments. I also concentrated on free-motion quilting.

After retreat, I have to work on finishing the commission t-shirt quilt, my reason for precise tension. I am almost there because I practice and tinker on small quilts of my own. This has been a good idea; with each quilt I do, with each pass of the machine across the frame, I gain more and more confidence in my mastery of the long arm.

But I digress. My focus today is retreat planning, not quilting for a customer. 

The marbled blue will be the binding.

 

Besides the hand work of bindings and applique, I have big plans for machine sewing. My agenda includes making the connecting blocks for the Double Irish Chain. I have completed the bigger task of making the 25-patch blocks. It should be relatively easy to complete the remaining blocks, and maybe even construct the quilt top.

Another near-finish on my radar is the red and white quilt, which I have not blogged about very much. I've been rather sporadically making star blocks (shown below), and now both sets of blocks are done; again, just connecting blocks remain. Since I am figuring out the quilt from a picture, this will require a bit of brain work, but I am confident I can manage it.

The connecting block for this quilt involves flying geese units, so. . . MATH. Oh dear. *wink*

And should all of the above be finished, I am taking a just-in-case project. It is from Grandma's quilting boxes, one that she worked on very late in her life. I have always thought I'd finish it, yet had no ideas for doing so. Now I believe I have come up with a worthwhile plan, so I am taking it 'just in case.' Here is one of Grandma's blocks.

That, in a nutshell, outlines the work I am planning for the retreat. I'm taking the laptop, so posting from our retreat site should be manageable. I won't promise any great or lengthy posts, but I do plan to check in.

Hope you all have a productive week! Tomorrow is Sew Along Update day, (link to last update) so come on back to see the latest news!

Happy Quilting, Friends!