Stash Bash report, part 1

There is so much to tell; this is going to have to have many multi parts.

Stash Bash was awesome. I am so glad I went. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, since I found out the last day of registration. It is really hard for me to do things like this – go somewhere I don’t know, all alone, with people I don’t know who all seem to know each other already. But I am so glad I did. I met so many cool and fun and talented people. I had a lot of fun and a lot of inspiration. And a lot of sewing! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming.

The only picture I took of our surroundings.

I think the best way for me to tackle retelling is chronologically. We were at a camp. The grounds were beautiful, and luckily, so was the weather. The bunkhouse was right next to the large dining and meeting building, where we spent the majority of our time. We had a lovely view of the lake from our sewing room. I set my stuff in my spot in the sewing room, then went to take the rest of my things to the bunk. I was actually the first in my room, and even though there were detached beds I happily claimed this corner bunk. I like the cavelike security. 😀

My bed.

Once I got settled back into the sewing area and got my things unpacked, I had to decide what to start with. After briefly considering my ribbon border, I grabbed my citrus strips, because that was what I really wanted to work on. The online tutorial states, and I quote, “Here is the finished Strip-Pieced Bento Box lap quilt top (and assembled in only a couple of hours!).” (Now, I did do the twin size, not the lap size, but still….it’s only a few more blocks.)  So I figured, I’d spend a few hours putting it together, have a quick finish under my belt, then move on to my ribbon border. Yeah….

So I chain sewed the strips

Then pressed and cut them

And again…

and again….

14 hours later…

Yes, FOURTEEN HOURS I spent working on this on Friday. Pretty much straight. I wasn’t doing tons of socializing or breaks. And it wasn’t done. I didn’t even spend tons of time working on layout. Not as much as I would have if it was earlier and I wasn’t hurting so much. I actually did get the first couple rows sewn together before I packed it in at 1:30 AM. I was the lone holdout. I probably would have kept going if others had stayed as well, but everyone else turned in early. I unplugged the iron, turned out the lights and crawled into bed. And I HURT. My back, my shoulder, my head… everything hurt.

Oh, that bottom corner… One of my strips didn’t cut enough squares for some reason. I was going to just leave it and finish it at home, until I finally realized Saturday morning that I brought a bunch of scraps with me. I took a chance and luckily did find a big enough scrap of the fabric to finish that last block.

First thing Saturday morning, I was back at it. I thought things might move a bit faster at this point, but I actually didn’t get it finished until around 4 in the afternoon. Now, to be fair, we took a field trip for a couple hours to a quilt shop and I did a lot more visiting and socializing Saturday. I was more relaxed about it and not as rushed.

and here it is

This is my finished top. Well… I still have to do the border. I seem to have a problem with finishing borders. I didn’t bring extra fabric to make it, so I knew that part would get finished at home. The top row has full squares, it is just folded over that rail so I could take the picture. Whenever I look at it, I think I sewed some on backwards, but they are all correct. It tricks my eyes! I am pretty pleased with it. There are only a couple places where seams don’t line up, and I think I only had to rip three or four blocks that were missewn. So, I think that is really good progress… especially considering my marathon work on it and how late I worked. (Couple of hours my @$$!)

Linking to…

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