The project I planned to work on at the Rogue Retreat will have to wait until I can get to it at home. Instead, I wanted to Manufacture some Sunshine by working on 288 half-square triangles, AKA my 2023 Shoe Box Swap with my Three-State Bee. After adding an additional 38 blocks with turquoise and oranges, yellows, and pinks, the quilt’s new name is a Touch of Turquoise!
It’s electric!
It’s vibrant!
The blocks nestled in like pups to their mama.
While trying to figure out how I wanted to tackle this quilt, one of the Rogue Retreaters (Karen) suggested I throw caution to the wind and, well, go rogue. She challenged me to “randoming.” Yes, a new word. Ha! Let random rule!
The first round involved dumping all 288 square blocks into a bag. Mix them all up, then pick two out of the bag without looking and keep on sewing until all the 2s were sewn. Then came the 4s, 8s, and lastly, 16s. The rows doubled with each round.
By the time I finished, the quilt was 16 blocks across and 18 rows down. The finished size is 64” x 72”.
After sewing for 28 hours (give or take an hour due to meals) in three days, I was beat when I drove home the two hours from Penn National in Chambersburg, PA. Retreating is my favorite sewing activity since it is dedicated time to explore my color combinations and creativity. There is no housework, no onsite meal making (I had premade a crockpot of chili for one of our meals), and nothing we have to do except what we want to do. That get to is the blessing all around!
I’ll sew to that!
We only had six sewists this weekend, down from last year's dozen in retreating, but equally great.
The entire weekend was actually quite zen for me. The steady push of pretty fabrics through the throat of my machine made me itch to do more and more. I fall in love with the process and project each minute or hour I work, and I can’t believe how quickly the day goes.
Due to a big holiday cleanup over Thanksgiving, and a three-day trip to visit the grandbaby, my regular routine to include all my supplies for the retreat was not met. I forgot, of all things, scissors and rulers! They are my all-time must-haves! My supply bag had one small pair of scissors, though I really needed my big ones. I brought a big rotary cutter mat, but I forgot my three favorite rulers, which I always use. Of course, quilters are generous and bring extra stuff, so luckily, I could borrow one little ruler at my workstation and a bigger one to use at the cutting station. Everything worked out. Phew!
I feel elated and proud of what I accomplished for the weekend at the Rogue Retreat!
Photos of my work/retreat: The red and white quilt was a BOM (block of the month) from 1997 - the winner, Margaret Herman, now deceased, had the blocks in her stash and never finsihed it. Her daughters asked me to "when I got around to it, but did not want it back." This weekend, I got to it!
Both are very pretty!