Just getting ready for a Quilt Retreat

I've been asked to do a Trunk Show and teach a class at a quilt retreat in a small place in Nova Scotia. I was asked in the spring, I think.  The theme of the retreat is Recycle, Reduce, Reuse. So my friend, Helen, and I talked about what I could teach in the class that would work into that theme and be fun and useful, besides.

And we settled on a bag in which you could carry all your stuff to and from a class or a retreat. AND while we were at it, the quilted pockets on the bag would be made from Chop Suey blocks. The blocks are scrappy - they are made from strips. If you cut billions of strips from fat quarters in your stash, you can, with time and patience enough, make a wonderful scrappy quilt AND use up some of that fabric that you just don't know what to do with. So you would learn two techniques at the same time. (And I have created a pattern with just that idea in mind!)

Remember, I said this was all arranged back in the spring?

Okay, I didn't leave EVERYTHING to this week. I had to design the bag. So I made a HUGE bag - too big, really. I was very pleased with my huge bag, and I'm going to digress to tell a story about it. I made the bag and brought it upstairs to show my hubby. I left it on the counter overnight and Molly (one of the cats) slept on it. (More on this in a moment.)

My daughter lives in Calgary, and she and I use MSN Messenger (or Messenger Live) to do face to face chats with each other. The thing that I thought she would especially like was a divided pocket inside the bag - one the exactly right size for an iPod. I couldn't find my iPod, at the time, so I popped my camera into the pocket. I put a water bottle in the loop and managed to hold it open for her to see. (She agreed that that was a handy option, and announced that she liked the bag.) We finished our chat and I took my water bottle out of the bag and tsked at the cat hair on it, and decided to pop it in the washing machine.

After the washer was running for about 30 seconds, I became aware of a thumping sound! MY CAMERA!!!! The washer is a front loader, and so the door locks when it is on. There is a cancel button - and on my washer, if you hold it long enough the machine shuts off, the washer drains a bit and you can reach in, in a big panic, and find the empty bag. What? I ran into the kitchen - no camera! I ran back to the utility room, splashed around in the water in the bottom of the washing machine and found my camera!

I bought this camera because I canoe - and it is waterproof to 6 feet and shockproof. I dashed into the kitchen, washed the soapy water off of the camera, and turned it on. PHEW! All was well, dried off the camera, and turned the washer back on. Close call - glad I couldn't find the iPod!

Anyway, back to the bag. It was really too big, so I made a smaller one - a prototype. And when the size worked out, I remade it with the chop suey blocks, took pictures of it, wrote up a proposal and was accepted.

So I have 6 students taking my class and 19 people have signed up for the retreat (the Trunk Show is open to the public!)

I sent out, a month ago, a list of things that the students needed to do for homework (the reason that we are making the bag, not the Chop Suey Quilt is that they wanted something that would be done by the end of the weekend. I have made two Chop Suey Quilts.

This is the first one I made. I took a class in Ottawa. (I'm looking at the background, and I realize that the quilt is being held up sideways! LOL)

And here is the second one I made:

These scrappy quilts take a LONG time to make. Each block is made of 4 Units and each Unit is made with 4 different fabrics. So that is 16 fabrics per block and when it as scrappy, you want each of those fabrics to be different! AND there is a secondary pattern - a hidden pinwheel, and it should have 8 different fabrics too! So you cut LOTS and LOTS of units before you make a block.

For the bag, we need 8 blocks, 4 for the front and 4 for the back - so we need 32 units - 16 different ones per side. I have a little box in my basement labelled Chop Suey Parts and when I opened it today (ummm, Tuesday - and yes, I leave on Friday for the retreat.) to make my sample bag I discovered to my intense joy that I actually had enough units already made to make a few blocks. So I put a Wedding Cake, a Square Strip, a Pair, a Unit and a Block in my sample box - and then I started making more units! I need to have 64 units, at least. So I finished 32 - which is enough for the sample pockets of my teaching sample...

 They aren't exactly different - there are fabrics that repeat, between the two sides. I used only a pair of units from each Square Strip/Pair, one for the front pocket and one for the back pocket. (Who knows which one is which!) I was careful not to duplicate them.

What do you think? These are on my (lovely) design wall (a striped flannel sheet) and have not been assembled into the two 14 1/2 inch squares. That's tomorrow.

I also, while I was making enough of these to have some variety, I made about 25 more units. In order to have enough variety, I am planning to have the students exchange units. (Keep your fingers crossed for me!!)

I have all the parts of two complete bags cut out. For ONE of them, I labelled all the parts with pinned on post-it notes. For the other, I have assembled the two interior pockets, the two bottle loops, AND the darned zipper plackets. I have the false bottom and regular bottom of the lining ready, and the lining itself is ALMOST finished (one seam left and the bottom to put on, after the zipper plackets are sewn in.)

I have the straps assembled, reinforced, and I'm ready to go with them. I can't decide whether to put them, actually ON the outside, or whether to demo that - maybe demo. I need to finish these two pockets, and get them bound... I'm not feeling panicked yet - I am almost ready.

I have 25 of the remaining 32 units done (I may have to go back downstairs and make more units when I am done this.)

On the upside, I made my name tag today! Wanna see?

It even has a pin on the back, and it looks good on too! I wonder how many times it'll go through the wash - I'm not good with pins! (Or washers, now that I think about it!)

And I have a To Do List - which is nearly all done. I LOVE To Do Lists - I highlight the things I have done - then you can see what you have accomplished!!! :-)

And I have a list of things to take! AND I have a list of the quilts that I am going to show in the Trunk Show! I'm getting there!!!!

Wish me luck!