Retreat Recap (stash report week 42)

Better late than never, right?  I love retreats but they always wear me out.  I don't sleep well in a strange bed and after two nights, it usually shows.  As I mentioned in my last post - I forgot my camera!

If the camera had been around I would have taken pictures of our meals - yummy!  First, I should tell you where we were.  We went to the St. Louis Star Inn owned by designer Toby Lischko.  It is a great house with quilts everywhere. Her studio is big, but no too big, and has lots of windows.

Toby cooked all the meals - she obviously does not own one of these aprons that hangs in my kitchen.

With several of our meals there were FQs under our napkins! Quilty friend Joyce gave me a couple of hers, too!  I found a new book that Joyce might like....

Toby was also doing some de-stashing.  I picked up some Valdani thread, an orphan block, a few strips of fabric, larger pieces of Civil War fabrics, and some scraps of Christmas fabric that I used in the setting kit of my Be Merry BOM, which is now ready to be put together [yeah, in between all this quilting that's on my list ;-)].

If you missed my last post, here's the top that I cut Friday evening and completed on Saturday.  It's a retirement gift for my former boss, who is an archivist, and an aging hippie. It's based on the Spinning coins tutorial at Quilt Story.  As soon as I saw it I knew it would work with a gray background, which is the color that my boss painted every room in his first house.

I had no real plans to do anything special with the backing until I saw Etchings by 3 Sisters for Moda.  As soon as I saw these 3 prints, I knew I had to use them on this quilt.  He will probably use the back more than the front - I would, it's an archivist thing - LOL!

Monday morning, after retreat, Lesley of Sew Happy Me emailed that I was the winner of her latest giveaway sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop!  A gift certificate to the FQS and 2 of her adorable patterns: a lovely stitched pillow and a wine waiter.  You know how I love little projects! How is that for timing?!

Lesley is currently doing a Christmas stitch along - the blocks are adorable.  She leaves them up for a week - here is block 4.

Sew, 1 yard each of the 3 "must have" prints arrived Friday from the FQS - I ordered them on Wednesday afternoon (how is that for service?). I like the whole line so I threw in a couple half yard cuts for me,  Just love the reds and couldn't leave the paisley behind.

The architectural drawings look just like the turn of the century drawings that I worked with in my other life - that my former boss hired me to care for.  The Paris map is amazing, too.  The detail is fantastic and legible, just like going to the archives.  Now all I have to do is get it together and quilt it by next month.

Quilty friend Charla brought me some polka dot fabrics to use in my hexies.  This time, however, I restrained myself.  I only cut a few strips and a charm from each fabric.  Aren't they pretty?  I may have to sew one up this week.

Speaking of hexies.  Here's one I did this week.  I completed two more for the Inchy Hexagon Swap and they are currently en route to Australia.  I'll show you those after they reach their destination.

I finally started on my last two blocks for the Clover & Violet QAL.  At retreat I put the final strips on the blocks to make them 17.5" squares.

I did get in some quilting but I didn't get anything finished.  Now for the hard part - figuring all these additional numbers and seeing my "added" column increase some more.  It's not over....but that's for next week.

Used this Week: 0
Used year to Date: 49.42
Added this Week: 4 + 2 = 6
Added Year to Date: 106.82
Net Used for 2011:   -57.4

Head over the Judy's at Patchwork Times for more stash numbers.
Have a great week!!!