Last week, I left town for Perry, New York for a week of quilting at the Silver Lake Retreat House.
Our accommodations were cozy, the food was superb, and the view was fantastic--all ingredients to ensure a creative environment to sew.
As you can see below, the view was amazing; we were right on the lake. The weather was typical for late summer--warm days, cool nights, occasional showers, and fabulous sunsets. Inside the forecast called for quilt-making.
. . . And plenty of time to venture out to experience the abundance of activity available in this corner of western New York. Janet (my table mate) and I stopped at Cosmo Charlie's in Geneseo for a hot beverage break. Later in the week we wandered over to nearby Letchworth State Park for a delicious lunch at the Glen Iris and to see the falls. Letchworth is a New York state park, knick-named the Grand Canyon of the East.
When I wasn't out galavanting, I was focused on eliminating some of those ever-lingering packages of incomplete projects. Of course, I took way more projects than I could ever possibly complete during a week. However, once I decided on a target, I stuck with it. For example, I targeted an envelope, or perhaps better described as a project pouch, full of stuff.
The envelope included all of the supplies I used for quilt workshops featuring the Duck, Duck, Goose table runner and place mat pattern.
The pattern was developed years ago and features lots of small flying geese. One placemat top was done and included in the envelope. A second placemat was almost done. Backing and batting were also in the envelope, cut to size.
The envelope also had a bunch of tiny flying geese units, each finishing to 1x2". Many were trimmed to size, others needed trimming.
Two different color ways: Purple and green to match the pattern cover photo and project, and quite a few red and white, perhaps to illustrate using different scrap fabrics.
During the retreat, the plan was to finish or make a plan to empty the envelope. A few seams finished off both placemats. I decided to layer, sew, turn (envelope style) and quilt at home on my larger machine.
What to do with all the flying geese though? I couldn't decide so I put them back in the envelope to percolate. Once the envelope seal was broken, I was determined not to put this project back on the 'infinity' shelf of incomplete stuff. Back at home this week, I got busy making a small snack mat for my desk, inspired by the original placemat pattern. It's a bit busy, but I'll use it as a wrist-rest near my mouse pad.
That left those red and white flying geese units. How about a little mug mat (4-1/2" square) - or several of them. Christmas themed fabric on the back, fusible foam batting in between. A short stack will make a nice holiday gift.
Same goes for the purple and green geese. These are a bit more scrappy and wild, but, hey, scraps are scraps, and they'll be really fun when they're quilted and bound. They come to good use in the bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen for that tooth brush mug, or beverage container.
Because I like to mix in some new stuff with the old stuff, I used some fall-themed floral fabric to make a not-so-scrappy-but-still-pretty-busy table runner. This is a direct inspiration from the pattern, just a bit shorter (and not so many geese!).
With the retreat over, there is still more work to be done to truly finish off this envelope. However, once all these little bits are assembled, and quilted, that'll be one less envelope to open, and one more envelope to transport the next project to the next retreat.
This isn't the only project I tackled last week. There are other envelopes to open (and empty). For next time.
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
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