Three days of Fun

Day 1 — Got off to a good start at our Sit & Sew Camp.  This is a camp organized by 1 lady in our guild for her bee, and 2 other bees.  My bee is invited each time and we have a lot of laughter and good times.  A little learning goes on too, as we often ask and receive help from those around us.

We have several ladies who do demonstrations, and yesterdays was interesting, and included handouts. Monday’s demo by Mary Reddington showed us a quick way to turn rows into a Boston Commons quilt, with 3 simple cuts.  I should have taken a picture of her before & after. Hopefully she has it with her today, and I will seek permission.   Mary does many baby quilts with a group called Tiny Tots in our Guild. They donate the baby quilts to local hospitals and all the babies born whose mother’s are on Medicaid get one of the quilts.  She showed us many methods for fast assembly of your rows by labeling using simple painters tape the first block in the row, stacking them up and putting a pin in the top left.  Then, when she assembles, the rows, she “webs” them, not snipping anything apart.  I have seen Bonnie Hunter ( Bonnie Hunters blog ) do that when I’ve watched her videos.

Eleanor Burns – Quilt in a Day has patterns on her website if you are interested in seeing what a Boston Commons pattern.

I also found detailed instructions on another blog by doing a quick search online – check  out Traveling Quilter Fast Quilt Method Boston Common

I worked at my projects all day.  I got quite a bit done.  I am making 6 “Star Pillow” envelope style slip covers.  The front (star) is made for all 6.  I also got 4 “pillowcases” stitched up.  I went prepared with 6 pillowcases pinned and ready to sew; and all the pieces cut for the stars.  I made all my my half-square triangles ahead of time at home.

double starch

Marking for HST

Trim time

I need to add the border around the block this morning and then they will be ready to layer and quilt.

18″ finish size

I decided to quilt the front of the pillow so I added an extra 1/2″ beyond the original pattern instructions to that final border to allow for that bit of shrinkage that occurs when you quilt.  I have my batting and some VERY lightweight muslin all ready to go for this morning.  I think I will keep the quilting fairly simple! Taking my ditch foot for the walking foot, and will simply stitch in the ditch around the star.  Once they are quilted, I am going to have fun with the back of the pillow. I will be using each of the different fabrics on the back, just to spice it up a bit.  Wait & see.

Off & running for another full day of sewing with my Bee buddies.

NOTE: The star pillow pattern inspiration came from a blog post by Melissa Mortenson – Polka Dot Chair Star Pillow directions.  The sizes were perfect for what I was going to do.  (Now, when I looked at her blog again, I saw she channel quilted her pillows…..no, still going to ditch them and make that star POP). Anyway, I think Melissa wrote a GREAT tutorial/pattern instruction if you want to try one of these BIG blocks.

Whatever you do today, have fun with it!  You never know what tomorrow will bring, so celebrate today!

 

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