Category: Quilt Retreat

A scrappy Retreat

Tomorrow I leave for 5 days at my quilt guild retreat.

Our retreats are SO much fun and I am truly excited about it. We meet in one large room with the cafeteria on the floor beneath us. We sleep in rooms a few hundred yards away.

The schedule is simple…..

Sleep…..Quilt…..Eat……Quilt…..Eat…..

Quilt….Eat…..Quilt…………REPEAT!!

It doesn’t get much better than that!!

At this point, I am normally struggling to figure out what to take with me to work on, but not this year.

That is because I am going TOTALLY SCRAPPY!!

Last weekend I told you about the new quilt that I have designed to use up my 2-inch squares…..

A NEW quilt in the midst of the madness!

So, I spent bit of time cutting white squares to add to the scraps….

….and now it is boxed up and ready to go…..

Then there is the scrap quilt that I started several retreats ago. I had lost interest in it but decided to throw the blocks up on the wall anyway…..

….and was pleasantly surprised how the reds pop out. Then I started thinking about ways that I could quilt it to FURTHER emphasize those red strips.

SO….. it is also being added to the retreat bag…..

Then there is a quilt that I started at another retreat to use up my marbled fabrics from MANY years ago. ….

I’m still uncertain about what the layout will be but I hope to continue making strips to play with!!

FINALLY, a number of years ago I purchased all of the hand-dyes from a friend who was going out of business. She also threw in all of the off-cuts that came from the trimming process…..

LOTS of off-cuts!!

I have thought about these for a while, wondering what I could use them for. Then I had an epiphany…..

STRIP BLOCKS!!!

Okay…I will throw it in as well.

Do you think that I am taking enough???

PLUS, I want to leave some time for sitting in my favorite spot and THINKING!!

This Spring retreat is a perfect time for planning what I want the summer to look like!

Come back this week for progress updates!!

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..

MY retreat fun

Yesterday I showed you what everybody else was doing at the retreat.

Now it is MY turn!!!

I started out by working on the Monarch Challenge and left it at this point…..

There is a lot more to do on this piece and I will start giving you a “blow-by-blow” description of the process this next week.

The next project was the “Winnie The Pooh” baby quilt which I have shown you over the past week…..

Next, I finished a project that my friend Claire had started back in 2020. She had pieced all of the blocks and we had cut all of the sashings and borders so it was fast work to finish the piecing…..

It has been basted and given to Mary who has just bought a sit-down long arm. It will be a cheerful piece for her to practice on and then it will be donated to our guild charity work.

I found a couple of hours to spend at the lake, and yes, I laid down and took a nap in the swing…..

I had a bit of time left on the last evening so it was time to start another project.

Just before I left for the retreat, one of my clients told me that she was dropping off a “bag of goodies” for me. In it, I found these green and orange fabrics…..

I had watched a YouTube tutorial about making this block…..

….and it didn’t take long to graph it out…..

…..start cutting……

(I promise that these are orange…..they just photographed as pink!!)

I started by making the 4″ by 8″ flying geese blocks, but since there was so much waste fabric, I sewed a second line……

…..and ended up with 48 “free” 1/2-square triangles……

As the final morning of the retreat wound down, I finished piecing the 6 blocks……

….but it obviously needs some more planning to finish. It will make a bright and cheery charity quilt.

AND…..before I was ready, it was time to pack up and head home again……

I am already looking forward to the next retreat in September!!!

Retreat Recap…..

This time last week I was returning from my week-long guild retreat. It was a fun time of relaxing, sewing, and fun!!

My friend and roommate, Linda, gave me this gift when we were unpacking…..

It fits my foot pedal perfectly and kept it from slipping all over the floor…..

As ou r week progressed, various projects were finished including this top from Betsy…..

Vicki was working on this great pattern……

….and I loved her excellent organization system…..

Lisa was working on this beauty……

…..and Mary was finishing up this top…..

Rosie was making a wonderful quilt using these blocks…..

…..while Sue was making strip pieced blocks…..

She IS the queen of this technique!!!

Judy was piecing this bright beauty….

Linda started on a one-block wonder, getting some help from Rachel in the initial cutting process……

Isn’t it looking great…..

During the week there was a lot of sewing….

….and a little bit of ripping……

….and a whole lot of camaraderie…..

If you ever get the opportunity to attend a retreat…….. GO and ENJOY!!!!

Packed and ready

In Tuesday’s post, I expressed that I was getting ready for a retreat but didn’t have ANY ideas of what to work on while there.

Since quilters are SO helpful, I was not at all surprised by the number of comments and suggestions that came in. And, they were GREAT comments….

Most expressed the view that they wanted to keep things simple so that they could stay involved in the conversations……

…..without losing focus and making mistakes!!

For the same reason, many suggested that all of the cutting be done at home….

Anna provided a great visualization exercise…. “Try this: Sit down, breathe, and visualize yourself there…Ask yourself, what would give me pleasure making, finishing, and starting there? Can I concentrate on difficult tasks while with others? Do I focus? What is the expertise the others will bring? Anything I can learn from them? It must be fun not stressful!“

Isn’t this a great way to think about our retreat time!!!

Several people suggested that I fill LOTS of bobbins before I leave!!

Lorrie reminded me to take something that I could actually finish so that I would feel as if I had accomplished something.

Probably my favorite comment came from Linda…. “I always take too much stuff to retreats. I think I can get 3 projects done but I never do! And, I don’t have stuff precut either.”

Somehow I think that Linda and I would get along well!!!

The bottom line here is that, as I read the comments, ideas started emerging and now I have PLENTY to work on.

Firstly, there is the scrap quilt that I mentioned in the last post…..

Then my eyes landed on the block exchange that has just ended. Maybe I can get that quilt finished….

It will certainly add some brightness to my day!!

How about the baby quilt that I am planning…..

And finally, there is the design idea that I posted about from the Tower of London. Maybe I can play with the marbled fabrics that have been in my stash for close to 30 years…..

Finally, I will take all of my scraps so that they are available just in case some new idea POPS into my head.

So, thanks to all of you, I am PACKED and READY to go…..

Stay tuned for updates from the field!!