Once again I am linking my WIP Wednesday to the Freshly Pieced blog where many many of us post and share progress on any Wednesday we can make it 🙂

This last weekend I went to a sewing retreat at my local quilt shop Rosie’s Calico Cupboard. It lasted for two and a half days starting on Friday night where we set up our space (everyone gets a whole table!) and have a potluck, then we come back Saturday and Sunday for full days of sewing. At the retreat we have sewing choices, either you can work on the class project or you can work on your own thing. This time I chose the class project…and I was the only one who did, you just never know. The pattern is called Snow Day…Sew Day by Amy Bradley. Below is our class sample.

Actually it usually looked something like this during class (see below)

it was the backdrop for the food table 🙂

I started my journey with this quilt at home the weekend before where I spent a whole day cutting and fusing the pieces.

Having never done this technic it took a little while to get the hang of it.

By the end of the night I had ten little guys waiting for the weekend.

This is basically what my space looked like all weekend long. I chose to go over the dark blue sections first with a dark blue thread. Unfortunately…or fortunately….it didn’t really show up. On the one hand I don’t want my snowmen to read too “country” so too much blanket stitch may be a bad thing. On the other hand the blanket stitch does add another layer of cuteness, so I’m a bit torn. Although the dark blue is my most busy fabric and I’d hate for the blanket stitch to fight with the pattern so I guess I’m good. I’m going to try a darker thread for the light blue areas and the bird nest snowman…

that started like this (above), and has ended up with bold stitching and a little machine embroidery

It’s coming along.

Unfortunately I have to put this project away for a little while because I have to concentrate on the Sewtopia challenge quilt I’m making. That little sucker has to be completed upon arrival at the retreat in Salt Lake City on November 6th. I am not known for my speedy finishing skills (remember my sisters quilt did take 23 years to make and more recently my sister-in-law’s quilt took me about 6 months…or more). So I need to buckle down. It’s only about 50″x50″ so I should be able to handle it…we’ll see. I foresee binding on the plane or even worse binding at the hotel, refusing to go to registration until I finish. Fun fun fun.

As for the sprout quilt, that one is on hold as well. In fact that one may have to wait until the snowmen are complete. You see, my husband likes him some Christmas all over the house and I don’t have much to accommodate with. Usually we go away for the holidays and visit his relatives so our house is not an issue but this year we’ll be staying home. I can definitely borrow from my mom’s stash but I think some holiday quilts are for sure in order and luckily he’s fallen in love with this one.

Apollo has fallen in love with the sprouts quilt (I know the quality of the pic is pretty poor but it was dark and we didn’t want to disturb the little guy).