Tuesday, May 21, 2013

UFOs and the Mothership

As you  might have guessed - the UFO theme for last weekends BamQ Retreat was taken quite seriously.  Aliens were everywhere, on fabric, posters, tatoos, peering through the window (pretty sure I screamed) thanks Amanda.
And then there was the honor of the hat. Not only did you "get to" wear it each time you completed a UFO, but you got to embellish it too. I added an eye patch because sewing with one eye covered at 2am is a really smart thing to do- note the furry puppy dog ears in this shot:
My favorite part of the picture however is Angela photobombing a "cheers" from the hallway.
The pieced binding in orange and aqua made me smile.  The Scrappy Trip Along above and Heat Lightning below were completely finished with FMQ and binding too.  The jagged bolt like quilting was the most fun to do all weekend.  I used the machine binding for these charity quilts based on this tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.
edit: Linking "Bolts" up to 2013 FAL Q2 - goal mosaic found here.
The pillow in the first picture was from a Hawaiian needle turn appliqué class from about 10 years ago.  This pastel baby quilt topped that at 12 years I'm estimating and will be a gift or for charity. 
I tried doing a sandwich method rather than binding and wasn't too thrilled with the processes. I  was pleased however with the quilting in a flower/butterfly pattern and happy it's no longer trapped in a bucket and that soon a special baby will get to cuddle in it. 
That concludes the total finishes and now for the partials... I added the border to the fairies log cabin, 
sewed the final row of Fruit Salad and pieced the backing, 
made two more Jumbo xPlus blocks (shown on the righthand side)
basted and FMQ'd Row Robin, all 80 inches of it, ugh. The binding I had with me deservingly got a thumbs down so I'm going to use a fussy cut navy white chevron like Ruth did on her fabulous quilt.
The very last project I squeezed in was the Taffy pattern in Ride. Here are a few parts mocked up on the design wall.  I'm excited about the progress and it'll go fast because - to quote Alison's song about me "Karen likes big blocks"and can you guess to what tune?
I brought 5 items that didn't get touched, boo. My original post of goals can be found here.
Wow - this blog post makes it seem like a sweat shop retreat but trust me it was far from work, work work.  There was a ton of belly laughs to go around - especially in the self proclaimed "rowdy room". The festivities included  a conga line, demos, super swag, prizes (ugh - yeah, I won.. twice: I hope I get invited back!), a glorious massage, a Rail fence speed contest. We were NOT the fastest but if you squint the seams match up - 'cuz I forced 'em to! 
My friend and roommate Miriam won a prize for oldest UFO finishing up the quilt top she worked on at our retreat in November.  See how discretely she poses with the hat.
The weather and grounds were beautiful, the food delish and best of all the company. Thank you BamQ for letting me join in. You are a fun, generous,  talented bunch of Modern Quilters! Check out more pictures on flickr .
Before I sign off - I wanted to say how exciting it was to have South Bay Area MQG mentioned on The Modern Quilt Guild blog today.  Our 31 quilts in 31 days charity drive was featured so nicely.  I hope it's OK that I've always affectionately referred to them as "the mothership". 

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday at Better off Thread, Let's Get Acquainted at guest blog The Sewing Chic, TGIFF with Sew Hungry, Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts and to  Fabric Tuesday with Quilt Story  - and not just because she posted my xPlus blocks on the blog and called them gorgeous :)
Happy Quilting - Karen

19 comments:

  1. Wow, woman! Can you bottle some of that energy and send it my way? I haven't sewn at all this weekend/week.

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  2. woo hoo! You sure got a lot done and looks like a great time too! Congrats for being able to check so many things off your list!

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  3. Wow you finished so much, looks like you had south dun

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  4. Wow! That is some progress and awesome finishes! And the hat! speechless. ;-)

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  5. That is so awesome!! I love being able to cross things off a list, not matter how old they are. Please keep sending me invites to the Friday sew-ins. I will get to at least one before we leave the area! I am bummed that I can have a lot of free days but somehow end up with something to do on those Friday's!

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  6. Wait- you won twice?? But you deserved it! And yes, you did scream.

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    1. oh no, oops - was there a win once rule I didn't know about? I won the Queen W&N batting (score!) for most clippies and then later my raffle ticket number was drawn - I will bring the book on Friday and you can re-gift it at your next event. Now I know for next year!

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    2. Pretty sure she was teasing you Karen!

      Thanks so much for joining in the fun!! You helped make the retreat a total blast!!

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  7. Close encouters of the fourth kind with quilter peeps? Wow!
    Esther
    ipatchandquilt dot wordpress dot com

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  8. Wow, I knew you finished a lot and worked on a lot, but you worked on even more than I realized! Good for you!

    Haha, that photobomb photo makes me laugh! So glad you like it too! Actually, it might be my very first photobomb, aren't you special?

    Thanks so much for coming! We loved having you there!

    And no, there was no win once rule. You weren't the only one that won more than once.

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  9. I think the hat may have to auctioned off on ebay. It is stunning and you were stunning in it, as were most of us. Joelle

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  10. Fanta-bulous work! Way to go on finishing those UFOs and making such great progress on your WIPs.I love the border colours you chose for your Scrappy Trip -- bright and cheerful! So glad you linked up to TGIFF!

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  11. wow!! you have lots to be proud of! such lovely quilts. My favorite is the Fruit Salad quilt. the colors are so sunshiney!

    -Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  12. I am amazed at the number of finishes! But then again, you have to have a lot of UFOs to have finishes, LOL! Squint for matched seams, I love it! Well done!

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  13. Wow, what a lot of finishes! I'm needing a retreat like that!

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  14. Love the heat lighting quilt. Congrats on all the finishes.

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  15. BTW what pattern did you use for heat lighting. I thought I would be able to quickly find it on the web but I guess not. :)

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  16. There is A LOT going on here! Thanks for linking up with TGIFF. It looks like an awesome time.

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