What I’m Working On….

I had a CRAZY busy week last week.  My family was pretty needy.  That’s okay.  I’m a mom first.  Sewing and the like comes second to all of them.  Happily my week ended with some Connie time.

Back when we were at the first retreat we put together a gal walked up to me and said, “You might not know this but you’re my bestie!”  I didn’t know her at all so I smiled and laughed…Who knew a year and a half later I’d be hosting her at my home for a sewing weekend.  It was fabulous.

It’s been fun getting to know Connie.  It’s always hard for me to get to know blog readers.  They know most everything about me by reading the blog but  I know very little about them.  Getting to know Connie has slowly evolved.  We’ve met in Rochester.  We’ve talked on line.  She came for a visit to pick up quilts to bind.  I’ve met her in Decorah.  It’s been fun.  Still only learning little tid-bits here and there isn’t enough.  I had told Connie I’d love to go with her to a retreat sometime Connie suggested on in January.  I told her I couldn’t take that many days off…so when Connie had a few days off of work and saw that the weather looked good, she offered to come for a sewing weekend.  I am so glad she did.

Plans were made for her to come on Friday and stay through Sunday.

I had all of these great plans to do some cooking, make a pot of soup…be real hostess-like but like I said, life happened this week.  I had Carver an extra day.  We had the ice storm, no school days, and the neighbor girl was over a lot.  The good news is that that didn’t matter.  Connie was so easy going and didn’t seam to mind us at all.

Connie came Friday afternoon just after nap time.  I still had kids here.  Connie was a huge help.  Carver was a bit fussy and he loved up on “Aunt Connie”.  He drooled all over her.  Nothing says love like putting up with baby drool.  The kids left at 5:30 and that’s about the time Craig came to get Carver too.  We debated on supper and I had told Connie that I was hoping she was okay with bar food….happily she was so we headed up to the local bar and grill and had the fish special.

We made it the two blocks home and up to start sewing we went.  Connie brought her mystery quilt to sew and had my mystery too.

I’ve not said a lot about it but I’ve been a bit disenchanted with my mystery quilt.  I sewed some colors wrong.  I didn’t like the coloring of one of the units….All in all, it wasn’t my favorite.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Bonnie’s quilt.  I really love it.  My version…I don’t like much.

Poor Connie started out sewing on my 301 and it wasn’t very cooperative.  She ended up on my Featherweight.  The 301 we determined is going to the shop.  I felt so bad that the machine wasn’t working the best.  Then the foot for the quarter inch foot for the Featherweight broke a bit ago and she had to create a 1/4″ guide.  Thankfully Connie was a trooper.

We laughed and laughed as my blocks came to life.  Neither of us really liked them.  Connie suggested I make a four block quilt and simply be done with it.  I told her I didn’t want all the other units left over.  I was trudging on.

Finally…my blocks were done.  I didn’t like them any better but sometimes, done is done.

Connie’s blocks were awesome.  She had more colors planned originally but we talked and worked our way through the design.  In the end, Connie liked this.

If you look you can see she replaced the “yellow squares” for half squares triangles.  I love it.

Mine…I put together like this. We talked and debated until this is about the best we thought mine might be.  It has no sashing.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the border…Not sure at all.  I’ll be honest, I want it done and out of my way.  It’s going to be a quilt for an upcoming wedding.  I think I’ll start with the neutral four patch border.  From there, maybe some pink…then back to purple.  I don’t know.  I’m open to suggestions.

Connie started auditioning some sashing.

Then decided to try it block to block with not sashing.

We sewed away talking and chatting.  I finally feel like I really got to know Connie.  I’m so happy I did.  We didn’t set a date but I do see another sewing day in our future.  I couldn’t be happier.

Saturday and Sunday we sewed….Most of our time was spent on the mystery.  Sunday afternoon came.  Connie decided to go to Kalissa’s and check out her LuLaroe clothes.

By then it was time to go.  Ruby was sad to see Connie go…me too.

We did have Kalissa snap a photo of us while at her house.  I hadn’t fixed my hair at all…it was great.  Neither of us cared.

Connie got to see our family live and in person.  Kelli, Kalissa and Carver were home on Saturday…Buck and Karl called.  Ruby was her cheerful self.  Hubby (who only cooks about four times a year) made French Toast and Bacon for us on Sunday morning.

It was so fun.  After Connie left Hubby said to me, she sure was nice…I agreed.  She is.

Oh..I forgot to tell you.  Saturday we had another retreater join us..I’ll tell you about that later this week.

To see what others were working on, check out Patchwork Times.