Prepping for Camp

Woo Hoo, it is that time of year again, next weekend is my local quilt guild's fall retreat. YEA, 48 hours of sewing with my best friends. And the name of this little adventure - Camp Wannamakeablankie. I am spending this weekend getting projects ready to take to camp, mostly applique projects

I just finished my 12th block on CWBQ, the animal block.

I feel real momentum on this quilt, I have three more blocks prepped - patterns traced on the back and all the fabric chosen and cut.

I also have been prepping a couple blocks for Roseville Album. I am doing a machine blanket stitch applique on this quilt so today I have been tracing applique pieces on the fusible material and "windowing" (cutting out the center and leaving only 1/4 inch of the fusible material on the edge of each applique piece).

I have discovered a great method for stems when doing blanket stitch applique. Instead of tracing the shape of each stem individually onto the fusible, I iron a rectangle of the fusible material onto the back of the stem fabric on the bias. Then I rotary cut 1/4 inch strips off the fused stem fabric as I need them, remove the back paper and lay it on the fabric.Because it is cut on the bias I can bend it as needed on the pattern. Easy Peasy! Once I have the whole block assembled I will iron it all down and start on the blanket stitching.

I will have a Civil War Bride block for hand work, 2 Roseville Album blocks to machine applique, and I have a paper pieced quilt project all ready to go (actually the paper pieced project is going to camp it's third year in a row-I fondly call it my retreat project since that is about the only time I work on it). Way more projects than I can possible complete in two days but isn't that the fun of it? Sharing what you are currently working on, laughing and visiting with friends.

Woo Hoo, camp in one week!!!

Have a good weekend all.

Happy Stitching,

Cheri