Fits and Starts!

The dates of the Old Tippecanoe Quilt Guild Retreat are rapidly approaching, which is good because we are all wound up tighter than two dollar watches waiting for it to get here. On the other hand, the early panic is starting to set in, as I try to make sure all the hand-outs are written. Demonstrations will be relatively brief. The focus is the components to make one's own scrap quilts using squares, rectangles, half-square triangles and quarter square triangles. I make a constant effort to overcome the phobia that seems to be part of today's quilt making against bias seam lines. As my friend, Marguerite, often says, "It isn't rocket surgery."

My studio shows the effects. I started "plowing" yesterday, to get a larger path to all important areas. Then, of course, proud of my effort, I sat down to the machine to sew, reasoning that I would be a bit more relaxed. It was just so pleasant that I didn't make much more progress in the balance of the room. I have the incentive of my sister-in-law, Jan's pending arrival from Texas. Although, I'm sure she's very used to how I work, I still get qualms about the mess now and then. I try to sit down until the feeling passes!

I went through my quilt top collection to select some for the Retreat gallery of quilts and tops, designed to inspire our Retreat participants. That included revisiting some that don't fit the scrap criteria, but are lovely just the same. The picture is my interpretation of Lisa Schiller's Christmas Album. I enjoyed the process, but I remember being ecstatic when all those berries were done!

Here's another self imposed reason to tidy my studio . . . I promise to share some pictures.