Some of the stuff that happened at the 4-day sewing retreat:
* Completed 7 small tote bags for the organization that requested them for preschool age kids.
* Completed the Tshirt cardigan that I used as teaching sample #1. I don't particularly like it, but it's completed. While finishing it, gave another demonstration for doing it to the people who had missed that meeting.
* Cut out and sewed 1 hot pad, trying out a new pattern. It's ok and functional, but I don't like it enough to make more of the same design. Saved my pretty cotton prints for a better one.
* Converted 3 Tshirts into tote bags. Ended up using 1 right away for a laundry bag to bring home my dirty clothes.
* Sewed a little bit on a blouse but realized that I was doing it wrong, so had to un-sew it. Set it aside. Ran out of time and did not even take the sports bra or jacket out of the projects bin.
* Cut a bunch of 2 1/2 inch strips from fabrics in patriotic colors for our upcoming Quilts of Valor sew-in.
* 1 of the attendees showed me how to do an easy quilt block using strips. I'll put the link to the online tutorial in the next post.
* Conversed for 4 days straight about sewing, social and political problems both local and world-wide (diverted that topic as soon as I could), gadgets, families, recipes, patterns, tips, fabric and where to buy it, the benefits of coffee, differences in techniques between sewing clothes and sewing quilts, shared stories of past sewing events, and many other topics.