Jane Stickle Quilt Retreat

Normally when I attend the Jane Stickle Retreat in Shipshewana, Ind., I work on several small projects. This spring I decided to change it up and worked mainly on a king sized Boston Commons quilt. I had sewn and cut the individual strips ahead of time so my time at the retreat was spent sewing the strips together and adding the borders.

The retreat started Wednesday afternoon. By noon Thursday I had the center pieced.

By evening I had added the cream center border, pieced and attached the corners and the pieced top section. (Sorry, no pictures of this progress)

I'm an early riser so by 6 am Friday I was sewing the strips together for the sides. When you are piecing a Boston Commons, the strips are sewn together diagonally so it is very important to make sure you are sewing the correct diagonal angle. By 10 am, I had those side strips pieced. I laid them down on the sides and I had sewn them incorrectly, my angle went the opposite direction. 

I spent the rest of the morning, afternoon and early evening taking the rows apart. During the show & tell Friday evening, I was pulling all those little threads out of the seam rows. After show & tell I pressed them and then started sewing the strips together correctly. I went to bed around 11pm. Saturday morning I was up and sewing them onto the main body by 5:30 am. (I never stay up late at night at home. My husband wonders why I'm so exhausted when I return home.)

After the main body was finished, I got the outside borders attached and the edge was zigzagged. I was finished by noon. The quilt flimsy measures 102" by 120". This unquilted top is one of my donations to the school auction my Pennsylvania grands attend. Someone there will hand quilt her before the 2019 auction. It's going to take awhile to quilt that giant quilt.

Boston Commons was the 4th flimsy to be crossed off my list of 10 unfinished quilts to progress to the flimsy stage this year.

I had taken another project along to work on and would have sewed on it if I hadn't had to spend Friday unsewing. I finished embroidering a block I wanted to finish before I started appliqueing the Star Dance border. 

I also made the bias vine for Star Dance. The appliqueing has started and I will show you the progress on Sunday's Slow Stitching post.

I'm adding links to other retreat attendees who have blogs. Rosemary will have several posts including a smilebox of show and tell.

Judy Hansen - Small Quilts and Doll Quilts; Rosemary Youngs - Reproducing an Antique Quilt; Rosemary Youngs - Smile Box from Jane Stickle Retreat. 

Linking to Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Let's Bee Social, Whatever Wednesday, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday