Retreat Projects!

The annual quilt retreat is coming up this Wednesday through Sunday. I think I have all my projects ready. Wanna see?
I love these table tops and have probably made 10 of them to date. They take less than an hour to piece and quilt (really!), however I am a fairly fast piecer and can free motion quilt quickly. This pattern is from Quilting Arts Magazine, the holiday 2011/2012 edition. The picture can be seen larger by clicking on it.

Here are the ones I have already made for the retreat and I will just finish them there. These will be a good late night project, hopefully before several glasses of wine.

I am going to make this Christmas table runner from the Small Quilts and Gifts, 2011 edition of Quiltmaker Magazine called Holly Days Inn.
I am going to use these fabrics, even though to me, blue is not really a Christmas colour.

    
Another Christmas table topper I am making is the Homespun Holly from the Quilting Celebrations, 2011 from Fons & Porter. Below are the fabrics I am using.

 Another table topper I am making is this one by Little Charmers. This is a really quick pattern that uses those stupid 5” charm squares I keep getting. I had no idea what to do with such small pieces, so I picked up this pattern. (and my apologies for the background.

This is my ironing board for my Setacolour paintings and  sometimes they not dry when I iron them, hence the paint blobs you see).

Still with me? There ONE more table runner that I want to do. This one is called Field if Fire by Wildfire Designs Alaska. I love this designer—go check out the beautiful designs she has… You can’t see it, but I have her fabric with the wildfire on it somewhere in this bundle.

I also have some other projects I want to get to. I have made this triptych Hallowe’en  pattern about 5 times and my friends and family always want one, so here we go again. I noticed on the Patch Abilities website that these patterns now are sold individually. So not cool when companies do this..

Big Project 1. I have more projects! This is a kit from my LQS, Bear's Paw Quilts in Whitehorse, Yukon. I usually do not purchase kits since I have sooooooo much fabric, but I loved these fabrics by Patrick Lose (Kona Colorworks).

Notice the pizza carton? This is how I pack projects in my craft room. I add all the fabric, the pattern and anything else that will make this project go together. I pre-cut the fabric so all I have to do is grab a box and start sewing. I always, always cut the binding too. In this box I am taking the fabric with me and I will cut the binding when I know what the kit size for the binding is supposed to be.. I clearly mark the project name on the front of the box and then they are stacked 4 deep (no more than 4 projects ever), at eye level and I see them whenever I go in my room. Since they are not out of sight, but there are options, I can work on whatever I want.


Big Project 2. This great lap quilt is one I have made before. This pattern is by Lisa Moore and I LOVE all of her other patterns as well! Go see her unique ideas—she is an Alaskan designer and I get her patterns from the Skagway, Alaska store. I see from the link that she recommends Wonder Tape for this quilt. I had never heard of this before, and I need to read up more on it. You can’t see in the box below, but I have some bear fabric as the focal fabric. I know, I know—very hokey. This is for a guy, so I thought it would be good? The light green is the border and the darker green is for the sashing. 


Big Project 3. I haven’t cut this one yet since I haven’t decided what size I want the finished blocks to be, however this one use the 5 Minute Block I recently blogged about that I saw on the Tamarack Shack blog. This will definitely be one that I do this weekend, if for no other reason than to see what the block looks like.



And that’s it! Do you all think I need to have a few more stand-by projects just in case? Here is a panoramic view of all of my projects. And yes, I always worry that I will run out of things to do..  But this year I am so organized it is sickening.