Sew-Cation, Day 7: I’m sew tired of this sew-cation.

I really am.

This has been a lot more sewing than I’m used it. It’s burning me out a little. I’ll be glad to be home and back to my typical evening sewing.

Our testing finished up today. For anyone who hasn’t tried one of Terry’s patterns, please do. She is a phenomenal writer. She is an inventive designer. Her instructions are very straightforward and easy to follow. I wonder how her designing process goes. Even for the unpublished pattern, there were no huge errors. She pointed out the few mistakes beforehand and I ran into no trouble whatsoever. What a talented woman!

The sampler quilt consisted of 7 pattern types. We did three as a group yesterday, then I did one on my own and started another. Today we did one as a group, then I finished one from yesterday and completed the last. I was the first person to get my quilt sewn together. We even left two hours early.

I decided to keep this quilt for myself. It is a physical representation of a memory. I chose the pattern and color scheme because I liked them – not for someone else. Someone asked me who I was giving it to and I said I wasn’t sure. As I sewed, I thought that maybe no one would like it because it’s such a strange quilt. I would just be devastated to give this memory away to someone who wouldn’t treasure how much it means to me. It occurred to me that maybe no one would appreciate it as much or more than I would.

When I finally settled upon keeping for myself, I had it signed by Terry, Melissa (the hostess), Roseann (Terry’s helper) and Gwen (Melissa’s helper). My mom and I signed it as well. We each picked a different piece of the pattern to sign. There is one left open. I have high hopes of having that piece signed by Kate Spain – I used Good Fortune again and I feel like that would complete my quilt.

This is my 17^th quilt. This is the first quilt I’m keeping for myself.