Summer recreation

It is the summer vacation, my son is out of schook, and we spent last week at a family retreat. We had to play at being “Indians”, which was great fun for the many many kids that were there, and relaxing enough for the adults if you did not get started on how much of a projection it is when pale faces in Germany put up a tipi and talk about “Indians’ wise sayings” and other activities.

The most relaxing part was that the kids were busy all day and in a safe environment, so parents didn’t have to do a whole lot of looking after them. Except for forcing them into taking a shower at the end of the day. If they could still be awakened after falling asleep beside the fire while ‘guarding’ it.

Sleeping like a 'real Indian' - my son on fire duty...

Another rather relaxing part is the fantastic salad bar this place offers at lunch and dinner times (in addition to 'real' meals), certainly a perfect reason to go there no matter what the topic for the family retreat is!

As I can’t well be without fabric for a full week, I had taken a little bit of work with me. No sewing machine, though. Did some stitching on Shapes 8, blue sibling to Shapes 7, which is already on display in Grünstadt.

And as I am very well onto the finishing straight with one of my UFOs, which really only needs putting together now,

Scrappy version of Underground Railroad pattern -
made entirely of (mostly my) handdyed fabrics

it seemed like a good time to start another. So I had also taken a box of fabrics, and started marking pieces for yet another Undergraound Railroad/Jacob’s Ladder quilt. 

Notes to remind me about what I had been thinking while marking -
the new project is supposed to be a little more thought through than
the other one...

I got started on working this pattern for recreational quilting when I saw this quilt in the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh in 2006 - my most favorite quilt ever.

This new UFO of mine will of course again take years to finish, and is still not going to nearly as beautiful as that African American quilt. But it will be good for recreational piecing and quilting...