August 2017, A Private Retreat

My Window Box

| Cindy Anderson

The Birth of a QAL

Window Box is the quilt that started the ball rolling for our current Mystery QAL. Tracy at It’s A T-Sweets Day read my initial post and fell in love with the QAL idea. Together we designed and implemented a new QAL. The rest is history.

A Little Background

My quilt began its journey darn near twenty-one months ago. That’s probably not too unusual for most quilts. Works of Art take time and I think this quilt certainly falls under that definition.

Back in June of 2016 I went on a shopping adventure with a group of ladies. Purchased by each of us was a piece of this fabric.

Challenge Fabric
Challenge Fabric

Jointly we decided to challenge ourselves to create a project using the fabric. The goal was to finish our piece, then gather again in six months for show and tell. Sadly the meeting never took place. In fact, I don’t even know if my traveling companions made something with their fabric.

My Commitment

I was determined to follow-through on my commitment. I searched my quilting books looking for a suitable pattern until I found the Window Box in a publication called Color Shuffle: New Quilts from Karla Alexander.

Getting Started

With my pattern selected it was time to pull fabrics. From my stash I found an abundance of possible candidates. After narrowing down my options I got to work slicing and shuffling, then stitching them together.

Window Box Aquas/Teals
Window Box Yellows

The process from piles of fabric to finished quilt top took six months.

Window Box Quilt Square Ready to be Stitched
Window Box Quilt Blocks

I finished the top while on a sewing retreat during the summer of 2017. The completed top waited patiently to be quilted until mid December.

The Finished Quilt

I had so much fun when I finally had the opportunity to quilt it. Using a brightly colored, variegated thread I stitched a straight-line geometric pattern.

I’m so thrilled to reveal my quilt. Please enjoy the following photos.

Window-Box-Quilt
Window Box Quilt
Window-Box-Closeup-1
Window Box Closeup # 1
Window-Box-Closeup-2
Window Box Closeup # 2
Window-Box-Closeup-3
Window Box Closeup # 3
Window-Box-Closeup-4
Window Box Closeup # 4
Window-Box-Quilt-Backing
Window Box Quilt Backing & Label

As you can tell by the volume of photos I am head-over-heals in love with my quilt. I’m so glad I decided to use the fabric color combinations that I chose. I’m also very, very thrilled with the quilting. I just can’t say enough about how pleased I am with the finished product.

The Inspiration

How cool that this Window Box quilt has been the inspiration for another QAL. Even more exciting is the fact that I am not the only one participating and actually making something this time. 🙂

On to the next reveal!

Thank You!

Thank You so much for sharing your time with me! I always look forward to our visits. Talk with you soon!

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Quilt Retreat Day Nine

| Cindy Anderson

I’ve been on a private sewing retreat for the past eight days. Over those eight days I have shared the events that made my time meaningful.  As much as I would like to stay longer, by day nine I have to admit that I have expended every ounce of energy. My tank is absolutely empty. So empty it is challenging to go through the motions of packing and cleaning the cabin. When all was finished, I turned the key in the cabin’s lock one last time, then grabbed Sadie and climbed inside the truck. Together the two of us are heading south for our long trip home.

This has been an absolutely amazing adventure. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity. Much has been accomplished but, for the majority of my projects, the adventure has just begun. Stay connected to watch the progress I make as I bring each of these items, as well as many, many more to completion. Shown below are photos of some of the projects I worked on.

Art Quilt # 22: Crossroads
Art Quilt # 19: Four Friends # 2
Art Quilt # 21: Backwards
Art Quilt # 20: Rising Star

Thank you for supporting my work through your likes and comments. Your continued interest is what makes this blog worthwhile. Links to all of my quilting retreat installments are listed below. Use them to catch-up on the ones you may have missed.

Cindy Anderson

Quilt Retreat Day Eight

| Cindy Anderson

Welcome!

My nine day private quilt retreat is almost over and it has been a busy one. Every available minute has been spent sewing or entertaining my furry companion, Sadie. If you are joining us for the first time or you have missed a day or two you will find links to the other days at the bottom of this post. Let’s see how productive day eight was.

Day Eight

Yawn!

Sadie and I were a bit slow at getting out of bed this morning. Of course that’s no surprise when you don’t retire until midnight. This was day eight of nine. With this adventure rapidly drawing to a close there was little time to waste so getting down to business was imperative.

My Goal

My number one priority was to finish the Teacup quilt and I’m proud to say I met that goal. After conquering that milestone I moved on to an improv piece. This one originated by accident. While pulling scraps for another project this grouping came together.

Option Two

I’d been keeping an eye on them all week daydreaming about their future.

I had a wonderful time adding to, subtracting from, slicing away, stitching and reattaching pieces to this small art quilt. The end result was miles away from the original grouping. My intentions are to fuse this art piece to a background of black fabric, then add further interest through quilting. This is my new improv art piece. I have name it Art Quilt # 22: Crossroads.

Art Quilt # 22: Crossroads
Art Quilt # 22: Crossroads

It may not seem like I accomplished much today since the only item I worked on was this one quilt. I must remind you though that creating art quilts without a pattern is way more labor intensive and thought provoking. There’s no mapped out plan to follow. Instead it’s loads of trial and error. In many cases way more error.

Tomorrow is my final day at my little cabin in the woods. The day will be filled with packing, cleaning and, if I’m lucky, a little bit of sewing.

Thank You!

I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts as much as I have had sharing them! This has been quite the adventure. Thank you for making it all worth while! If you missed reading any of the other posts you will find links to them here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six, and Day Seven. If you are not currently a follower, why not join in! To become a follower simply enter your email address in the space provided. Thanks for the opportunity!

Cindy Anderson