Basting Day

I was at the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild's winter retreat this weekend. It runs from Thursday to Sunday, but between work and family and weather, I only managed to be there Friday and Saturday. But I had a blast, and I got a lot done, regardless.

I brought:

A Red Ridinghood throw for my daughter's room that needed to be assembled
A charm pack quilt I need to work up for a tutorial for this blog
A certain green and blue quilt I need to finish
The Cotton + Steel quilt that needs to be cut out
My flower mini quilt that needed to be trimmed and have borders added prior to basting
My hexies in case I wanted to do handwork
A coral and teal quilt that is in blocks that need to be trimmed and assembled

And two cuts of fabric to make pjs for me, and two cuts of fabric to make into kid clothes.

I worked on quilt 1 and 2 exclusively. Though some of the piecing I was doing as leaders and enders could be construed as part of quilt #3....

When I got this assembled it looked like this - there were hours of trimming blocks... and rows, and it was pretty sloggy work. I didn't use a special hexagon ruler, and I think made my life more difficult that it should have been assembling this. Anyway, I'd realized pretty early on that I'd left two blocks at home, hence the empty lower right corner, but whether I miscounted or misassembled the quilt (it is wider than I planned... somehow?) I also needed two on the top.

I got them cut out and slotted in when I got home, though.

As for the second quilt I worked on, it uses Barcelona charm packs, but I didn't do my math (story of my life) before ordering fabric, so while I had two, I need three, so I managed to piece three blocks, but I need reinforcements to continue with it. Once I'd gone as far as I could with the materials on hand I packed up.

Once home, I pieced the border on my miniquilt, and after a few minutes of hunting, I tracked down the backing and basted it today:

Then I trimmed and basted the Red Ridinghood quilt:

At 4.5 by 5.5 feet it is the largest quilt size I can baste in my living room without drastic furniture moving. And while I was hoping that the cat would be asleep through the process, she woke up and joined me at the end:

I think there is something in the cat's union rules about having to sit on the quilt while being basted.

Now I have to ponder quilting designs...