In Pieces

Remember, ages ago, when I told you I was going to start the next big quilt? At the time, my goal was to hand wash all my batiks during the summer Olympics, last August. The Olympics came and went and my fabric never saw water...and then I learned about Retayne. I could do the color saving thing and wash them in the washing machine. Done. Well, thought about...for a while. I even bought the Retayne months ago and it sat...and sat. Then, this retreat came up, and I thought, "Well, that would be the perfect time to work on a king size quilt." So, for the last couple weeks, I have been washing, ironing, and cutting all the batiks - 61 of them - to prepare for retreat so I can just sew away. Tonight, I cut the last of the fabrics and they are in the tub ready to go. Here's the pile of them before going into the tub.

The only problem is that I made a mistake...a big one...not a huge one, but oh so frustrating when I thought I was all ready to go. See those triangles in the picture above? Well, there are supposed to be 4 that size and 20 twice that size....instead there are 24 that are all the smaller size. I don't know if I will be able to salvage them, but maybe they will turn into parts for pillow shams or a wall quilt to hang above the bed. Argghhh....

Before all this today, I got the charity quilt that I blogged about last week completed. I turned it 90 degrees to finish the borders, and in the process got a little tuck in the backing fabric. It shouldn't be too visible after it has been washed. Now I know why longarmers charge more to turn the quilt!

I also got Jack's wedgie placemat quilted. He's used it for several weeks and I just washed it the first time. It should have been quilted before washing, but was too gross to put through my machine. I had fun doing a little side to side meandering. Jenna thinks that it looks like a road.

I don't know if I will post again before next week, as I am headed off to my retreat on Thursday morning. We will be shop hopping from Cincinnati for a night, then headed north to sew all weekend...I have never had that long to sew without interruptions. I will be interested to see how I do. I have lots packed to work on, so hope to have lots of progress to show next week!