Quilt Retreat 2012

I have just returned from my annual quilt retreat and am exhausted from all the fun we had. We did a little sleeping, a little drinking, a little crying, and a whole lot of talking, eating, laughing, and sewing! I believe that I truly am a very lucky person to have met such wonderful women and have had the privilege of retreating with them for many years. To be in their company is as healing as salve on open wounds (a very old saying but it expresses how I feel), and I can't wait until next year's retreat to be together with them again. 
At retreat I worked on 8 different projects and will post them on my blog over the next few days.
This is my February UFO project a scrappy version of the pattern called "Hip  Baby". The quilt top is now sewn together,and there was enough fabric to make one border and a binding, which is all ready to go. 
I just need to get the quilting and binding done in the next 6 days to meet my February UFO goal. 

Here is a photo of me machine quilting the border of my Dr. Seuss quilt and I hope to finish this quilt by the end of the month also.
We are anticipating perfect quilting weather tomorrow, with a major snow storm coming. Too bad I didn't get snowed in at retreat!

Design Wall Monday #8

I have never been so happy for Monday to arrive! I am going to my annual quilting retreat today...yippee!
All that is on my design wall today are these 2 little projects. You can read about the larger 4" heart blocks here and I started another smaller version with 2" pastel hearts...soooo cute! I can't decide if I like the mini hearts without a sashing or not, so I'll leave them there and decide when I come home.

Hop over to Judy's blog to see the design wall Monday postings - click here.

Here is my luggage all packed up for the retreat...only 4 bags this year.  In those bags I have managed to pack 10 projects! I'm not taking any machine or hand quilting to do this year since I have so many UFO's to work on and piecing to do. Oh yah...I hope I remember to pack some clothes and PJ's too!

I have also packed up the books I made from last year's retreat. It's very easy to make to make a book from your blog. There are lots of book making companies out there now but this was my 4th year using Blurb to make a book full of photos and memories from our annual quilt retreat and they do a great job.
In 2007, I ordered 2 copies of my book and they cost $27 each. In 2011, I ordered 17 copies of my book and they cost $22 each...it's a better deal every year!
If the retreat centre WiFi is working, I'll post blog updates every day this week.

Back from retreat

I can't believe that my quilting retreat is over already. It was a wonderful getaway as always and very inspiring to see all the amazing bags, tablerunners, wallhangings, and quilts being made by quilting friends.
This is my project tally:
11 projects made the trip this year...I tried to be more realistic and reduced by 3 from last year!
5 did not get opened (apparently I am still a little overly optimistic!)
2 new projects were started...1 from stash scraps (see below) and 1 from a kit which I disliked and put away quickly
4 ongoing projects saw some major progress however I have no finishes to announce...I spread my time working on various projects until I felt like working on something else
One of my goals was to start the machine quilting on Carolina Crossroads which I finished piecing at retreat 2 years ago and pieced the backing for last weekend. Don't you just hate it when the bobbin runs out in the middle of machine quilting!  This quilt now has about 3 bobbins worth of quilting and it's maybe 1/3 finished.
My new project that I enjoyed working on is Quiltville's Scrappy Trips Around the World. I used some fabric from a scrap bag I bought at Hancock's in Paducah last year, plus lots of fabric from my stash. This photo shows the 20 blocks I pieced.  It was fun to sew and a great stash reducer. I want to make at least 4 more blocks, but I had sewn as many strips as I brought with me.

I took along the box of scraps that Julie sent to me - click here. I gave away a few pieces that some friends were coveting, then pressed the strings, sorting them into lights and darks, and sewed them into the Quilt-As-You-Go blocks I have been working on since 2007. I had hoped to make more progress on this project with sewing the blocks into rows, but I got so distracted with watching the Olympics that I didn't get much done! I did get the finished blocks sewn into twosies and the sashings are ready to be hand stitched.

This photo of me reminds me of Bonnie's blogpost about quilters dressing to match their quilts - click here. I am sewing with purple thread and working on purple sashing with a purple backing...and wearing purple!
That's the report for 2010 quilt retreat. Now I am off to get some much needed sleep!

Retreat Projects Report #4

I think I am almost done posting about my quilting retreat projects! This is the new quilt kit I cut out to start sewing at retreat (it's no fun to just work on UFO's!!).
These fabrics are old (5+ years percolating) batiks from my stash. I just love the look of all these pieces cut out and ready to start sewing for a quilt...no mistakes made yet, no realization that your colours choices are horrendous, or that you don't like the pattern!! Just hours of happy sewing ahead and the potential for a great quilt!
I wanted to use the pattern called "Buzz Saw" that I saw posted on the Happy Valley Quilter blog almost 2 years ago. I printed out the fabric cutting info but not the sewing instructions thinking a)I was saving paper and computer ink and 2) I'm sure I can figure it out. So when I pulled out the project to work on at retreat, I couldn't figure it out!!
I asked one of our retreaters who went home to sleep if she could check on her computer when she went home. The next day she reported that the block looked right, and we figured out that I had cut all the light rectangles in error...no where for them to go in the block. So this is the Buzz Saw block and I had cut enough for 20 blocks. Since coming back from retreat I have sewn the blocks together and am thinking about using the mistakenly cut rectangles for an inner border. I think it needs another border after that...any suggestions?!?!

Retreat projects report #3

One of the projects I have been working on for almost a year is the Quiltville Orange Crush mystery. I already have 15 blog postings on this quilt, and that's more than enough! But here is a photo to prove that I took this baby to retreat and did more quilting on it. Jackie took this picture of me and if you are wondering why I tied my scarf on my head, it is because I almost machine quilted it into the Orange Crush!! Perhaps most people would have just removed the pesky scarf...don't know why I didn't think of that?!?!
I finished the 'C' loops that I free motioned in the light chains. Then went back to working on the orange blocks, which I really wanted to put some quilting in, but couldn't get the thread to stop shredding. At retreat I tried a 100 needle and it worked wonderfully! So I am back to enjoying the quilting, am about half way finished the orange blocks, and feel like the end is in sight for this project!

Retreat projects report #2

One of my goals for quilt retreat was to piece a block for a black and white block challenge at Reichards. All participants were given a square of black fabric and were asked to make a 9" block. The blocks collected will be assembled into a quilt that will be auctioned at the Mennonite Relief Sale in May, with all the money raised going to relief efforts around the world.
Before the retreat I had printed out one of my favorite paper piecing patterns in Electric Quilt in a 3" size. I figured out the white and black placements and wrote the information on the back of the papers. At retreat I spent a lot of time fussy cutting the centre fabrics for each block, and cutting the wavy fabric so it would go the right direction to form a diamond shape in the block.
And here is the finished product. I was happy with how it turned out, but unhappy with the amount of time it took to construct!! Winners of the block challenge (which are decided by viewer's choice) can win various cash amounts, and I promised the retreaters that if they voted for my block and I won, I would use the winnings to bring treats (ie. fabric!) to quilt retreat next year!! I have seen some of the blocks submitted and the variety of the results are just amazing. I will post a photo of the quilt when it is finished.

Retreat projects report #1

This is one of the first projects I wanted to finish at retreat. In my previous mini class I taught the wheel of mystery a.k.a. winding ways (you can see my first quilt here). The pattern is from the EQ5 block called "four leaf clover". I thought it could be easily changed to this variation of the design by drawing heart lobes on each petal and it could become a Valentine's mini. I had finished most of the applique by retreat, so I just had to stitch in the ditch, buttonhole stitch around the hearts, bind, and sew on the buttons. I think the bias binding gives it a nice edging. Blcoks are 3" and the quilt measures about 9.5".
Warning...mystery spoiler ahead!
I must have been still thinking about Valentine's day because my next project turned out to be more of the same theme! I had printed out the mystery block from Paper Panache and gathered the fabrics a while ago, but didn't have a chance to get to it until retreat. This is what the pieces looked like from the front and how the block pieces fit together from the back.

And this is the finished block...a Valentine's rose.
The process of these mini paper pieced mysteries is truly one of my favorite quilting activities...not too time consuming but complex enough to be a challenge. Thanks to Linda who has been providing these delighful free mystery blocks for years ( I have made 7 of 50 her mystery blocks).

Back from retreat

I am home from my quilting retreat...exhausted but happy! Today I feel disappointed in my progress, since I had high hopes for accomplishing my goals. As with everything I do, I try to fit in more than is humanly possible, and I packed my car with 14 projects! I take a lot of ribbing from my friends about my obsession, especially since we have someone at retreat (Sue) who brings ONE project and works on it until it is done! Say what?!?!

This is the tally:

14 projects taken to retreat

4 small projects were finished (3 mini quilts and one quilt block challenge sewn)

2 other projects were worked on and some progress was made

1 quilt was started (I HAD to start something new, right?!?)

6 project boxes/bags were not even opened and 1 bag didn't even make it out of the car into the retreat centre

This is NOT the reason why! This was a totally contrived shot and I was innocently working away on my block trimming when this alcohol was placed on my table!

Over the next couple of days I will show you the projects I worked on, but today I will share the two new things I remembered about myself.

One is that I definately like variety - "variety is the spice of life" right? My friends decided I am a Spice Girl....my new nickname is "Mini Spice". This seems much funnier at midnight than it does on the blog page!! I like to work on lots of things at once, and have each project in every stage of development. I cut a little, sew a little, make one block, press a little, etc. I never

complete one stage and then move on to the next stage. Exhibit A - this is my scrappy flying geese UFO that I inherited from my friend Liz (see this post). I have a bag of pieces untouched, and the following piles... sewn HST's, pressed HST's, trimmed HST's, flying geese sewn, 2 geese sewn together and 3 geese sewn together. Overall at this point, still a big mess!

The second thing I remembered is that I HATE when retreat is over! Here is a photo taken of me at 1:50 pm (retreat ends at 2 pm). Everyone else is packed up or gone and I am still trimming blocks. However, once the friends leave, it's really not as much fun!

Retreat Report #4 -Hand Stitching

Whenever I go on a quilt retreat I like to take a variety of projects because I never know what I will feel like working on. I usually like to take one project to machine quilt, some paper piecing , some machine piecing, and some hand work to relax with.

I had seen some fellow bloggers posting photos of their Capricorn Quilts Block of the Month. You can see Jeanne's here and Connie's here. Bea of Capricorn Quilts is posting a new hand stitching pattern each month...and it's free! I had printed out the patterns for January and February and had purchased some DMC varigated floss so I was all ready to go. I used the Roxanne's Quilter's Choice pencils that Meredith gave me and they worked great to trace the pattern. I really enjoyed using the varigated floss and was able to finish January's block, while listening to all the good discussions going on into the wee hours of the morning! I got a good start on February's block, which is good because the March pattern is already posted and I better get going!

Retreat Report #3 - a finish!

At last year's quilt retreat I pieced a scrappy bargello pattern using Bonnie's instructions at Quiltville. I used up a bunch of teal scraps that were donated to the guild, and you can read about how much I disliked the fabric here! Although I disliked the teal fabric, I really enjoyed piecing this pattern and I'm sure I will make another one someday using up more scraps. The quilt top waited the entire year for me to be motivated to finish it, even though had Barb donated the backing fabric last year, and I had a piece of batting also just waiting!
Oh well...I finally worked on it at the retreat. Thanks to Jacoba, who helped me to pin baste the quilt. I free motion quilted wavy lines following the bargello pattern in the quilt. I extended the wavy lines out to the edges, and where there were spaces in the quilting on the borders I quilted fish. Why fish? Someone said (I think Sue S?) that it looked like an under water quilt, so the fish idea came to my mind. On the right is a photo of one of the corners and the finished binding ready to attach to the quilt. You can also see the backing fabric which is a green/teal colour.
I sewed the binding to the quilt and guess what? It was 3" too short! UGH! So I had to piece in a different colour of teal to fill in the end of the binding.
Here is the finished quilt, with the binding attached. Can you spot the 3" fill in? I think it's on the top right hand side...must not be that noticable if I can't see it now!
Nancy volunteered to hand stitch the binding to the back and she will bring it to the next guild meeting and it will be finally FINISHED!

Retreat Report #2

The first project I planned to work on at retreat was my mystery quilt from Quiltville. When I arrived at the retreat I discovered that 3 other quilters were sewing the same mystery...small world! One quilter was assembling her blocks, and the other 2 were working on their piles of 9 patch blocks. It was fun to see their quilts developing and I hope it was encouraging for them to see my finished top.
I had already finished piecing the quilt top before the retreat and my goal was to cut and sew on the borders. I had a black and white fabric from my stash that I thought would make a fun inner border and I cut and pieced it so the sayings would be complete around the quilt...that took some figuring.
Then I cut the fabric for my outside border, which was my only stash fabric that was suitable colours and a large enough piece. But I came up a little short, so had to add in corner stones. Here is a close up of the corner borders. I might take those blue corners out and make them green if I can find enough pieces leftover. I really cleared out my greens and the black and whites from this mystery quilt! What do you think...should the blue corners stay or go?!?!

Retreat Report #1

I am back from this year's quilting retreat and am catching up with all the household activities today. Seems the family managed quite fine without me this year! It gets easier each year to be away as the children get older.

I have lots to tell about my retreat projects so decided I will write a blog report every day until I am done, so you will have to check back to see what I accomplished!

First of all, I will tell you about the retreat book I made. The inspiration came from Annie over at "Annie's Quilting Adventures" blog and you can read about it here. She inspired me to create a book using the Blurb software, based on the blog I wrote about last year's quilt retreat.It was labour intensive and a real learning curve with the software program, but I was happy with the outcome. It's a small, soft cover book (only 20+ pages) and I ordered 2 copies which cost me about $27 each with shipping and handling charges. Kind of expensive, but I like the paper it is printed on, and the quality of the photos is much better than I had thought it would be. I was very happy with how it turned out. It's a great idea if you are interested in producing a hard copy of your blog.

So what did I do with the 2 copies? Well, one is for me and one I gave away at the retreat by drawing a name from all the quilters that attended last year and this year. And the winner was Susan! Here she is looking at the book with Jackie and Barb. Everyone took turns reading about last year's retreat and remembering some of the adventures that I had written about and captured on film.

So now I have to get busy and write a new blog for this year's retreat. I will ...as soon as I catch up on some much needed sleep!

Retreat Hazards

I should warn you that there are some negative aspects about going to a quilting retreat. The longest lasting problem is sleep deprivation. I was exhausted from all the laughing, staying up late at night sewing more blocks, giggling with my roommates until the wee hours of the morning, and then the early morning risings - because I don't want to miss out on any of the fun! I am still catching up on my lost sleep. I was lucky that friday was a "snow day", which meant that my children didn't have to go to school, and my quilting classes were cancelled, so we didn't have to get up early...and I could catch up on some much needed sleep.

A second problem is that the scenery is so pretty out in the country, that it is tempting to spend lots of time staring out the window. It was such beautiful winter weather, snowing gently for most of the time. On the right is a photo of the path to the dining lodge....you can see the snow flakes falling on the way to supper.

Many of the quilters enjoyed going for peaceful walks on the trails. Here are two anonymous walkers! It was cold!

But if you spend lots of time enjoying the weather, you have less time to sew! So much fun to be had, and so little time!
The third problem is that I was so inspired by the projects of everyone around me that I have an uncontrollable urge to go fabric shopping, and to start new projects. This is a problem because I am working on reducing my UFO pile, not increasing it! Fortunately for me, I am too busy right now to find time to go shopping, but I have started a list and can't wait to buy some new batiks.
The fourth issue for me is that I feel so happy and relaxed when I'm at the retreat. Here I am sewing my "quilt-as-you-go" blocks on the last day, surrounded by my scrap fabrics, sitting in the sun, listening to the laughter and conversation of quilting friends....really, does it get any better than this?!?!

So why is that a problem, you ask???

Because the re-entry into my regular life is brutal! It's a shock to the system to feel so happy, calm and relaxed and then to have to hit the ground running when I get home....dog to walk, food to cook, house to clean, my paid job to catch up with, the children to pick up, homework to supervise....back to my reality. It's a tough transition.

But I have made progress on my quilting endeavours and have lots of wonderful memories with quilting friends from my retreat days.

So I will happily endure these challenges...when are we going again?!?!?

Retreat Fun

I am back from my 3 day quilting retreat. I sure had a great time at the retreat...did lots of laughing, visited with old friends, enjoyed yummy food (for which I didn't have to plan, shop, cook or do any dishes!!) and revelled in the seemingly endless time for sewing. I always learn a few new tips and get re-energized about quilting when I see all the beautiful projects that everyone else is working on.
I brought a pile of teal scraps and fat quarters that were donated to the charity quilt program at the guild. I don't have any teal fabric in my stash and have never made anything in teal, so I thought this would be a good challenge for myself. The first evening I cut the 2 1/2" strips to make the scrappy bargello quilt on the Quiltville website and started to piece the strip sets. This is a photo of me sewing the second strip set....the first pieced panel is behind me on the design wall. That was a fairly boring job, but made fun by the other quilters comraderie and encouragement. I didn't have enough fabric to make the pattern as shown on the website which has 4 panels, and I had to do some piecing together to get enough squares to make it 3 panels. It turned out okay, but by the second day I was really
hating teal even more!

When that top was finished I got out an old UFO, which is a small quilt for the Memory Quilts program at the guild. I had pieced it years ago, and it was quilted by Ruthanne Finnegan. After I sewed the binding on, I hung it on the design wall with a note asking if someone was willing to hand sew the binding down. Miraculously it was a finished quilt within the hour! Don't you just love binding fairies?!?! The finished quilt is on the right.
Then I had a real change of gears and opened up a new miniature paper piecing pattern, which was a gift from my retreat roommate. She thought it would be a challenge for me and she was right! It is a Carolina Lily pattern on pre-printed tissue paper. I have done tons of paper piecing and usually really enjoy it, but this was quite a challenge. I have never sewn on tissue paper before and it was quite fragile....ripping easily. And the seam matching was difficult. I had to sew a main seam twice, and even then it didn't quite match up. I'll try to fix it with a green marker! The pattern had 24 blocks in it, and since the first one took 3 hours, I'm guessing I won't be making all 24 blocks!!

After supper on the second day, I took out the guild Blocks of the Month from October, which were blue 9 patch blocks with a white centre. I cut the blocks into 4 equal pieces, an idea which I first saw on the Quilted Forest website for a mystery quilt. Then we had a chance to play around with possible block layouts on the design wall. By the time all the blocks were ready (one had to be re-sewn to be the proper size and two new blocks were made to make the number of rows we wanted) it was getting late, so I selected the layout that had the fewest number of seams to match, and the easiest construction requiring the least amount of brain power....which was the bottom right layout. A big thank you to Barb for all her late night help with the unsewing, and seam pressing.
On the morning of the third day, I started a quilt-as-you-go project to try and make a dent in one of my scrap bins. I used 6 1/2" pieces of leftover batting, a variety purple pieces for the backings, and made one half of the block dark scraps and the other half light scraps. I only got 14 blocks finished before it was time to pack up and go home. I'm not sure I like the black and white pieces as they really jump out at you...I might remove those. But it is looking like a happy quilt and will be a good demo piece for the guild "newbie day" demo.
So those are all the projects I worked on at retreat. My next blog entry will be on the downside of quilting retreats....believe it or not, it's not all good!