Sew Day Report!

Your editor doesn't get to the Sew Days very often, but I am glad I went to the July Sew Day Saturday July 5 and am sorry I missed you there! I basted two projects that have been hanging around for a long time.

It was a great place to baste and cut out projects with pals rather than alone. Also, the tables at our meeting place are pretty big and it is much easier to baste using large tables than crawling around the floor . Much easier on the knees as well. First, I basted the Wonky 9 Patch (orange and blue above). This feels like a major step towards quilting and finishing them. Hooray.  I think I spent about 2 hours total basting, then I moved on to ripping.

As you might remember, I started a Jane Market Tote for something (BAMQG officer gifts??) and my 9K stopped working in the middle of the last decorative stitch I needed to finish the bag. Recently, Mom asked for something for her church auction and I thought of this bag. It was, after all, almost done and meant I didn't have to start a new project. Perfect. Photos when I finish it!

I had barely started to rip when Kelly, who was working on the binding of a small swap wall hanging, offered to rip for me, in exchange for sewing on her binding. She doesn't like hand sewing much and I was planning to be sitting there anyway, so we swapped projects. I hand sewed her binding and sleeve onto her swap project while she ripped out the decorative stitching on my bag.

We both finished at about the same time, though I finished a little bit after Kelly because I offered to sew down the sleeve as well.

Kelly is heading off to the Fat Quarterly Retreat and will take a quilt she got from the South Bay Modern Quilt Guild to donate to Siblings Together (a UK charity that keeps siblings together in foster care). After Kelly finished machine quilting it, Lynette took it to trim and bind it, so it's truly a collaborative effort. BAM's charity committee has also donated another quilt for this cause! We'll be well represented next week!!

Lynette worked on her Retreat mystery quilt and it looks really great. She added an original block to the eight blocks we made as part of the mystery pattern, so she had a large 9 Patch.

Amanda was there working away on her word quilt. It is a gift for friends who have been married for 25 years. All the words have to do with love and marriage. She has been working on it for a long time, yet she finished the last word block yesterday, so I think she is nearing the home stretch. Amanda is super nice making so much effort for a gift.

Geri was there making everyone laugh and working on a feather quilt--the Anna Maria Horner pattern.

Rhonda and Peggy were also there. Rhonda was working on her whole cloth quilt, which is a kind of sampler of free motion quilt stitches that she started for the BAMQG Whole Cloth Challenge. She has the middle all done and was working on quilting the outside of the design, which I would describe as the between sections of the rays of the sun.

Peggy, the Energizer Bunny of BAMQG, finished a charity top and back, then worked on another top of her own design which was a big hit. She took some leftover blocks (squares and rectangles from strips) from another charity project and cut them in half. She thought they looked like kites and voila'.

It was a small, but mighty group and we had a great time. Hope to share the fun with you next time!