Thready ORTs

Yesterday was the New Moon but I was so wiped after work I napped instead of blogging! We aren't too late to celebrate the Totally Useless Stitch A Long with piles of ORTs though!

My leaf bowl is filled with scraps from sewing the Dresden centers and the corner bits from joining binding strips for En Provence. The little pink cup was begged from my retreat hostess when I unpacked and realized I had arrived with NOTHING to save ORTs in! HORRORS! Doing Dresdens, it started filling up immediately, these are thread wasting blocks! 

My first Dresden at the retreat. Totally worth wasting thread. The mini iron and board came in mighty handy with all the pressing required to create these.

I think my favorite part is doing the Blanket Stitching!

A close second favorite was the blackberry cobbler they fed us for dessert one evening! Yum!

=^..^=

Now it is YOUR turn...we want to see your ORTs! Leave a comment on this post with a link to your April TUSAL post so we can come visit! If I hold a Totally Useless giveaway your comment will earn you an extra entry.

Wondering what a TUSAL is and why all these people are posting pictures of rubbish? Click here to learn more and join the fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

Retreat Fun or En Provence is a Wrap

At the end of March I attended a quilt retreat. This was a Christmas gift from Dash along with gift cards to the store hosting the retreat. I took my Dresden project which was planned and started just for the retreat. I also took my finished En Provence top, batting and backing to quilt on the longarm.

Retreats are such fun, even for me, so shy and bashful. I sewed on my Dresdens the first day (more on those in am upcoming post) but the second day was my appointment with the longarm!

I learned how to pin the backing to the stretcher bars.

And how to thread the machine! I chose this soft lavender thread.

The longarm is nothing like I imagined. The batting gets basted onto the backing at the top, then it and the quilt top just floats. See it all bunched up at the bottom?

Here I am maybe halfway finished. I got many compliments on the quality of my piecing and my fabric choices. All told, it took about three hours to get this quilted.

After I got it trimmed up, I returned to my table, made binding and slapped it on the front. Hand sewing it to the back had to wait until I get home. I was so tired that night! My body and brain had such a workout!

Once home, I spent several hours watching TV and stitching the binding to the back. I wanted to get a photo outdoors but it won't stop raining!

The backing looks fabulous, as I knew it would, and I love the lavender dot fabric on the binding.

I learned so much doing this Mystery Quilt! So many new blocks and how to longarm quilt. I really look forward to this years' holiday season...when the next mystery comes out!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox