In The Assembly Zone!

The last time I took over the Quilting Quarters at Quiltville Inn was in the months before we even opened for retreats.

I used this space for the laying out and assembly of Winter Blues a few winters ago.

I have to admit, it's nice to have a space large enough to lay out a big quilt - and it is kind of fun to indulge in a solo-retreat by myself (at least during the day time - I'm home by dinner!)

The upside this time, is that I can also move tables around to provide more support as the quilt top grows through the webbing together process.

I started this with this arrangement - and as the quilt top began to grow, I added one more table later on.

Laid out on the floor -

All of those skinny sashings and cornerstones.

Getting this together is really going to take a while.

3 rows of blocks and sashings in - I can start to see secondary patterns emerge.

And of course, there is one long line of air sewing do deal with.

You are not a REAL quilter unless you have dealt with an "out of bobbin experience" on a regular basis.  LOL!

About this time I slid another table over to help support the weight of the growing quilt top.

You can also see that I've got my leader & ender squares at the ready.

During the making of the blocks for this top I was sewing on the Juki because I needed the thread cutter during the paper-piecing phase.  Short seams in the center of paper templates don't make for great chain-sewing so leaders & enders really haven't been employed during the block making process.

But now??  Watch out world - it's time to throw them back into the game!

Is there any redemption for these old, outdated and somewhat ugly fabrics?

YES!

I was working through a bin that had leftover 2 1/2'' X 4 1/2'' rectangles in it, and cut everything I could into the parts needed for these Triple Treat blocks.  

I know many have finished their Triple Treat quilts already, but for me it's a year-long challenge and we are only half-way through.  This will get there.

And I'll be incorporating newer fabrics soon to spread these oldie-moldies a bit further apart.

My latest obsession!

This tea is SO SO SO yummy, and tastes like Christmas in a cup. A girl's got to have what she's got to have to keep sewing!  Do you have a favorite?

All that's left.

I worked from about 10am to 4pm yesterday - and there is still this much to go to get the whole top webbed together. Once it is off the floor I can start on the cross-seaming which I can do from everywhere.

If some snow days happen - I can easily bring the webbed together top home and work on it from here - or move it back to the QPO.  It's just getting it off the floor that is crucial for now.

But I kind of like occupying the Quilting Quarters - gas logs burning in the fireplace, podcast playing from the sound bar - just me and my machine.  So we'll see.

More Chilhowie Part Three progress!

Looking great, Patricia!

Love love love that backing fabric!

More shares from our #chilhowiequilt and #quiltvillemystery tags on Instagram.  Looking great, everyone!

Tomorrow is Part Four release day - so you know that I'll be setting the quilt webbing aside at least until I finish the PDF and get everything ready for tomorrow morning.

Also - a guy is coming to remove my old CompuQuilter from my long arm machine - which means ALL of those string bins from underneath need to be moved again - I have a feeling I'll be spending some time dealing with the dust bunny population in preparation for that happening.

He's also going to do some machine maintenance while here - 

His planned arrival is either tomorrow afternoon, or first thing Saturday morning so - I'll plan for tomorrow just because.

I think that's enough for my to-do list today.  Oh, and it has been raining steadily since yesterday afternoon.

It rained all night long.  It was still raining (or raining again?) when I woke up this morning.

At this point I'm not ready for snow - so I'll take the rain.  But after the long arm is dealt with, all bets are off.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

When I remember those early days of first apartments, hopes and dreams and scrambling to make ends meet I smile!

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We really didn't think we had it that bad at the time, yet we would never want to go back!

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Grateful for every step of the way.

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!