I wanted to have my big project all cut out before heading to quilt retreat next week.  There are two reasons for this: 1. I don’t want to take over the shared cutting table for an extended period and 2. I knew it would take some focus, and a room full of excited, chatting quilters might not be the best scenario for that.  It turns out that this was a really good decision.  It took more than three hours to get everything pressed, cut and organized.

In Start To Finish #1 I had said that I’d use a mix of 2″, 4″ and 6″ strips – something I’d been pleased with in a previous quilt.  In the end I cut all of the strips 2″ wide and they will be finished at 1 1/2″.  Why the change?  Mainly because I wanted to make sure that I had enough fabric without having lots leftover.  Most of the strips are the full width of the fabric, or about 40″ wide.  The quilt will be 80″, so every two strips will make one row.  I kept a running tally as I cut and fortunately I had enough fabric to make 60 rows or 90″.  That’s pretty long, but it gives me flexibility to move things around and swap out rows that don’t work well.  Here are the cut strips.  At this point it looks like an odd jumble of random and unrelated colors, but I think it will come together nicely.

Right now I’m sitting in the ferry lineup at Horseshoe Bay, about to board the 8:30 sailing to Nanaimo.  From there it’s a 45 minute drive to Chemainus, where I’ll hop onto the 12:15 sailing to Thetis Island.  By 2pm I’ll have my car unpacked, my bed made up, my clothes stored and my sewing station organized for four days of sewing.

As a special bonus the torrential rain and strong winds have stopped.  There is blue sky and fresh snow on the mountains-a gorgeous coastal morning.  What a way to start a week!