Like I didn’t have enough problems becoming acquainted with my new floor loom, I signed up for a second Quilt Retreat at The Abbey this coming weekend. If my new loom had arrived, as expected, a month earlier I could probably have avoided this hobby bottleneck but my self-imposed mid-November project completion goals are now looming large.
I ordered a quilt kit a couple months ago thinking it would simplify my readiness for the retreat. It is a lap sized quilt and has 20 large playful pumpkins on it, perfect for cozying up in during my favorite season. My previous quilts were simple squares and rectangles along with an easy scrap quilt pattern so I am a quilt pattern novice. To ease my nerves I asked my friend the “quilt whisperer” to come over and help me prepare to work with the quilt kit during the retreat. After two 4 hour sessions, I am now more terrified than ever.
I think I used my previous fabric applique experience and love of pumpkins to make my kit selection and not the number and size of the pattern pieces and the complexity of assembly to cut all the individual pieces and sew the pumpkin squares together. We slowly cut out all the pieces (3 colors & numerous patterns), pinned and placed them in baggies and labeled them by letter. The lettering started with A and went through V with multiples in each bag. Several letters had 80 pieces some as small as 1 X 1 inches and if you multiply 80 pieces by 22 letters of the alphabet, well you get the picture…I might have 1000’s of pieces to assemble and sew together before 20 individual pumpkin squares emerge. That’s where our first session ended. Yikes!
We scheduled a second tutorial session to sew one small, one medium and one large pumpkin square together along with one of seven star rectangles that fit somewhere in the design. In the process we found numerous omissions in our first cutting session and had to cut many more pieces further adding to the total number of pieces in the mix. She read the directions and handed me pieces to sew together. It seemed I sewed a few inches of two small pieces together and got up to cut corners off and press the small sown together pieces dozens of times. Somewhere in the middle of this exercise, my coach started talking about flying geese and she wasn’t talking about those honking in V formation over the lake. I’m so confused!
We only finished one full pumpkin square and given there are 25 small pieces of fabric making up each pumpkin square, I probably did get up to cut and press 20 times…for one pumpkin. I am a firm believer in getting my daily steps in but this strategy is just wrong. I think I am only allocated half a six foot table at the retreat so how I am going to get my machine, cutting board, fabric, iron, mat, etc. all comfortably nested in three square feet of working space is beyond me. This has all become overwhelming and I will be white knuckling it as I walk into what is supposed to be a fun relaxing weekend. I am just grateful there will be several dozen experienced quilt ladies there to offer advice and guidance. Did I mention that in the middle of this bottleneck I signed up for a 3 day online educational conference