Rain, Shine & Quilting!

Who wants to start the day with a dirt road hike?!?

I found five willing quilters eager to get some steps in.

No rain in the forecast? Great! Let's go!

It was a beautiful morning, a bit overcast, but we didn't mind.  And this route is mostly shady by tree cover anyway.

Only one vehicle passed us as we headed up the long and winding gravel/dirt road in between two mountains and alongside a creek.

Welcome to a Virginia holler, ladies!

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A Full Up House!

This retreat is off with a bang!

A bang of laughter!

This is what I walked in to find yesterday morning as the August Quiltvillians 2.0 were just sitting down to brunch in the dining room due to rain.

2.0??  Yes!  Because we have 2 groups of Quiltvillians from my Quiltville’s Open Studio group that visit in August.  The first group is at the last few days of July and crosses over into August, and these lovely ladies come about 2 weeks later.  

At  any rate, we have 6 from Iowa, 3 from Illinois, 1 from Wisconsin, and the rest is a partridge in a pear tree!

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Lost In Strings -

I am back in the string of things!

I found myself with a couple of hours yesterday after everything at the retreat was made ready.

All of these little bits and pieces and strings and strips have got to be sewn into something.

The best thing about string piecing?  ANYTHING can be made with strings.

You can cover any shape.  You can color it anyway you want.  There are no right or wrong ways to do it as long as the seam allowance is enough to hold it together.

It's fun.  It's rewarding.

And yes - I even LIKE the tearing off of the paper when units are trimmed up and done.

And in the case of these blocks - I even like sewing the Y seams.  There.  I said it.

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Binding Bliss!

I already knew that Bliss was a heavy quilt.

Seam allowances are about 3/8'' instead of a 1/4'' so they wrap around the hexie papers enough to hold it more securely.  This puts the basting tacking stitches closer to the center of the hexagon on the back to firmly hold them in place.  

These are small pieces, and with all of that folding of corners on the back side, there is more fabric on the back of the top than is showing on the front, or at least it feels like it.

Add a batting and a backing to the whole thing and this beast is HEAVY!

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