Back from Retreat... to a couple problems

I had a very nice time in Plymouth, Mass last weekend at the Red Barn Sewing and Yarn Center retreat. They have been in business 40 years this year, and this is the 20th year they've run this retreat, to this same hotel. I think it's changed ownership several times, but it is now the 1620 Hotel. We had a nice large room with 3 or 4 people at a grouping of 4 tables each. We each had a 6 foot table to ourselves, so there was plenty of room to spread out your projects. I spent several days prior to the retreat cutting fabric with my new Accuquilt Go Big cutter. I was all ready to sew!

I have had subscriptions to Quilty Box and the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler since last spring. I've been making the projects, with a couple exceptions, as I receive them. I just happened to get a Quilty Box last week with a nice line of winter themed batiks by Kathy Engle for Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quiltworks. I cut everything and brought it along. And I completed the top while in Plymouth. The fabric is called Blue Moon and the pattern is by Jackie Kunkel. The fabrics are snowflakes, tree branches and pine branches. Very pretty colors, too!

The only Quilty Box I haven't finished recently was the October box with 2, 1 yard cuts of a panel from Leah Day. They are meant for you to practice free motion quilting with Leah's lessons. I guess now I should get them out and give it a try. The Blue Moon quilt is about 40" square so I out to be able to quilt it myself. There is a nice example of what you can do with these panels on Leah's website. Here is a photo of the blue:

I found it very tiring spending all day sewing for 3 days. I took a couple days to rest and read. Then on Wednesday I lost the hot water. I've had plumbers in and out of the house for a couple days. One did something on Wednesday that seemed to work for a while. Then Thursday 2 guys came in the morning, and another 1 late in the day. The last was after the serial number for a warranted repair. Now, I should mention that my old house has a dirt cellar with stone walls, so it's not very nice down there. I haven't gone down in years. The last guy came back up and wanted to know why I set the water heater to vacation mode. Well, I didn't. I can't explain it. Gremlins? Oh well. I don't know when it will be fixed because they had to order a part. But I have half hot water. I showered with the knob all the way to hot. But at least I could shower.

I also managed to crack a filling in the last few days. It started to hurt on Wednesday and I saw my dentist today. I hope that's then end of trouble for a while. Now if the computer support scammer will just stop calling, things will be good!

I found, although probably saw it before but didn't remember, Finished or Not Friday on the Busy Hands Quilts blog. She does a linkup on Fridays for anyone to share an unfinished quilt project, so I've linked my unfinished Blue Moon project. It's fun looking at what others are working on. Have a visit when you can take a few minutes to read about other's projects.

Hope you find time to work on one of your unfinished projects!
Mary