Sadie, My Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Stories about my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quilt Retreat Day Seven

| Cindy Anderson

Welcome! We are about to start day seven in this nine day adventure. Over the last six posts I’ve been sharing the journey my dog Sadie and I have been taking. We are here, at my little cabin in the woods (LCITW), for a break from everyday life. The goal is to immerse ourselves in the north woods while sewing up a storm. If you have just joined us, you may catch up by following the links at the bottom of this post. Time now to get day seven rolling.

Day Seven

What an awesome change! It didn’t rain last night! This meant Sadie slept peacefully and so did I. Yippee! The clouds have thankfully moved on and the sky is once again a beautiful blue. Nothing like a ray of sunshine to brighten your day!

Before starting my sewing I took time to look at the pile of projects I’ve made during my stay here at my LCITW. I was so impressed–so happy! How wonderful to see completed items rather than stacks of unused fabrics.

A Little Detour

You know how I said yesterday that I was going to start my day sewing on an improv project–well you probably won’t be surprised when I confess that I took a slight detour. Before sitting down to begin I thought I would browse through my tub of projects to see which ones were left. Inside were three items. The first was a kit I bought several years ago from a fabric store that is no longer in business. The pattern is called Lulu’s Garden.

LuLus Garden Quilt Pattern.jpg

The second gem is a pattern from Missouri Star’s Fall Vol, Issue 5, Block magazine. The quilt is called Teacup. I would like to share a photo from the book but I don’t want to infringe on any copyright laws. You will either have to wait until I have mine assembled or follow the link above if you would like to see how it looks.

Teacup Quilt Pattern.jpg

The third little critter is also a kit. Do you detect a theme here? I saw this quilt already assembled and hanging in yet another fabric store. The real reason why I bought the kit is because of the bird fabric. I searched all over the store for the bolt but couldn’t find it. Come to find out it was only available via the kit. I’m really very fond of the other fabrics as well but not so much the quilt pattern they were intended for. Whether or not I will stray and use the fabrics in another way I haven’t decided.

Bird Fabric Quilt.jpg

Which One?

So those were my three options. Want to know which one I chose? The project that led me to establish a new game plan was the Teacup Quilt.

I won’t bore you with all the details but I will share a photo when the quilt top is finished. If you should decide to make this quilt I want to make you aware of a mistake in the pattern. The pattern calls for one package of pre-cut 10″ squares. It should read two. I didn’t realize this until I had my blocks assembled and was in the process of arranging them. If the fabrics I chose were still available I would have purchased more to make the additional blocks. Unfortunately the fabrics are no longer available.

Before Sadie and I turned off the lights I managed to even get the first border added and the fabric strips for the second one cut. By then it was darn near midnight–well past a reasonable bedtime. But who cares!

Catching Up

I mentioned earlier that I would share links to the previous posts. You may find them here: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, and Day Six.

Thank You

I am so thankful you have chosen to pay a visit. To those that follow my blog on a regular basis I would like to say “THANK YOU!”  A blog without followers would be a waste of time! If you have enjoyed reading my post and are not currently a follower, why not become one. Just enter your email address in the space provided.

I look forward to your return visit!

Cindy Anderson