As promised, here I am with the retreat update. My arrival on Friday afternoon found me greeting a few familiar faces as well as a few new faces. As I got settled in, I mingled a bit. Others arrived shortly after me and I assisted with toting and unloading them. I was to be borrowing a table from another quilter, and she had not arrived yet. :( I set up a small trimming and pressing station and started marking the sewing lines for my HST units... and continued to help others get moved in.
As it turned out, a sweet gal had a second table that she had planned to use as an organizational space for her pieces. The coordinator stated that there probably wasn't going to be room since there were 17 quilters. Wow! What a great group!
Gwen allowed me to claim borrow her extra table, and we were stitching away in no time at all... after figuring out our power situation. A few extension cords and power strips managed to solve the problem. ;)
By dinner I had all of my half-square triangle units sewn together, pressed and trimmed to size. I got the rows laid out and sewn and by 8 pm I had the top ready for borders.
I was done for the night and returned to the small area I had set up for trimming and pressing and pulled out my hexagon color wash quilt to hand-quilt. The location was great as others visited the station for their own pressing and trimming and I was able to talk and laugh with them. I stitched until I was tired and turned in for the night as others were busily piecing away.
The morning dawn on Saturday was beautiful, and pictures never do the moment justice.
I soaked in the beauty as I did my daily Bible reading and then went to work on the borders of the quilt. Slowly the other quilters arrived in the common area where all of the machines were set up with coffee in hand. By breakfast time (9 a.m.) I had my borders complete! The top measures approximately 62 inches square.
I had to modify the border to create cornerstones since I was limited on the amount of lighter/contrasting fabric I had for it. It meant that one of the borders has multiple seams, but it looks fine.
A small group of us went for a walk, probably about 2 miles. A snack was needed after the walk and then I settled in for piecing the second quilt that I had.
I took a scrappy approach to the yellow and teal HSTs for this one. Piecing was interrupted by several activities... gift exchange/grab bag game, a "show & tell" followed by strip poker. These are some wild & crazy ladies. ;)
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| Show & Tell |
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| show & tell |
Strip poker was a game that included a die and a jelly roll. Each quilter took three strips and took turns rolling the die. The marking on the die told you what to do... here's a link to the "rules", though our version was slightly modified. It took a long time to play out with so many quilters, but it was fun. I thought it was especially fun since I came out as the winner... and winner keeps all! Hahaha!
I was challenged to make a quilt with the strips and bring it to the next retreat in the spring.
The gift exchange was fun as well... so many quilty gifts, notions and patterns! Here's what I ended up with.
Our youngest daughter loves baking and aprons. She will be getting this one as a part of a gift. 💗🎄
After getting back to my machine I was able to get the yellow/teal quilt top ready for borders...
And then it was time for dinner.
I haven't had the time to get borders added yet, but I'm in no huge rush to get it finished. Here are a few of the other Walk About quilts made over the weekend.
First, I have a third Memory Keeper quilt to make for my HS classmate. Her other two were sent out and will soon be wrapping them in love from their Momma.
Here's the progress on Color Wash... I have three full rounds of hexagons quilted. I need to get the binding on it so that I'm not dealing with fraying edges.
The retreat coordinator is always on the lookout for fun games and activities... Do you have any suggestions?
Leave a comment... I'd love to hear from you (and share with the coordinator.)
Keep Piecing,
Melva
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