Five Days of Sewing

I really can't believe what you can get done when you just get to sit down and sew!  What a luxury!  Now I can't wait to do it all again next year--or maybe before then if we can get another retreat together.  The creative energy that happens when you get a group of people who love to turn what's in their imagination into reality is really something!

Aunt Maggie came a day and a half early, so the day before we left for the retreat we sat down and had a sew fest.  I quilted all 8 of the placemats I'd pieced at last year's retreat while Maggie created pillowcases.  I'd been cutting out things to take with me, and I embroidered the names on the stocking cuffs so they would be ready to sew.  Never before had I planned out what I was going to do in such detail, and for the most part, it really paid off.  Of course there's always the elastic that was left at home and the ribbing that got cut 90 degrees off that brought some projects to a halt before they were finished. 

We got to the retreat about noon on Thursday, and unloaded (a real chore). I wanted to get pants sewn for the girls, so Miss E got the purple cord (remember, she LOVES both  the word and the color purple) and a deep rose cord for Miss K.  I had also embroidered hearts on denim for back pockets for Miss V.  All that's miss in these now is the hems, and I need to see the girls for those.  I started a heart shirt to match Miss V's denims, but the aforementioned ribbing that was cut wrong brought that to a screeching halt.  Something to finish this week.  I also made of blue stretch pants that aren't pictured because they don't have elastic yet that are from the same pattern I made the girls' mother a long, long time ago!  Yeah for Stretch & Sew.  I learned a lot of good techniques for working with knits from those patterns, and that was pre-serger days.  I'm constructing the top totally on the serger now and it is so much faster--love my cool tools.  The first evening I put binding on five of the eight placemats , but my fingers got tired so I moved on to another project, so three more will be done later.

I also remembered Kit and Ruthie while I was there.  They  get to share both denim and aqua stretch pants which allows them to dress like their Mom. Ruthie  got a new dress, too.  The best thing, though, is the quilt top made from scraps from Miss V's big girl bed quilt that will fit on the trundle bed they share that turned up at Christmas.  There's enough backing fabric from the line to match, and I even have matching binding.  There's an evening of quilting in my near future, and then another to add binding, I'm sure.  I'll have to use the rest for a blanket for the trundle bottom bed.

A few other projects were started--a new set of placemats are being pieced, a sweatshirt for  me that seems a bit big, but I'll probably finish and wear it, and a pair of "surprise" pants I found all cut out, from who knows when, and decided to sew up.  I need to make them shorter, but they will be a nice pair of navy stretch capris when spring finally arrives.  All in all, a very constructive time shared with good friends.  A true retreat in every sense of the word!