Cindy Quilts: Retreat

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Retreat

My houses

Quilt retreat was last weekend along with the final exchange for the house blocks we have been working on.

I chose mostly batiks for the fabrics in my bag. I have not decided on a layout yet. It will

probably languish in the pie safe with the other two exchange projects for a while. I think they are all getting together to talk about how they want to be put together!

One of our members enjoys hand embroidery and she embellished the blocks she made if we wanted her to. I said, 'Yes, please!". She did a lovely job.

It was four days of fun, good food, good conversation and lots of inspiration. I did not take pictures because I wasn't sure if these ladies would want to be in a blog post and I didn't ask anyone because no one that I know is aware that I write a blog. I started it as a way to keep track of my progress and have just kept it to myself.

Anyway, one of the regulars, Diane, has a sister who lives in another state. The sister, Barb, enjoys the quilts Diane makes and Diane is more than willing to share her quilts with Barb and family. Diane suggested that Barb learn to quilt herself. We all enjoy it so much and she was sure Barb would too. So Barb found a group and began getting some lessons, making enough 30 quilt blocks to make a nice size quilt. She got the top together at retreat so we all got to see it. It is and she was so excited to finish her first quilt. She had bought a kit for another and got it put together too! Another person finished her first big quilt - a patriotic panel surrounded by pieced borders. It looks great and will be given to a military son of a friend of hers. There were lots of other finishes too. Here are mine -

Ombre stripes set with very light gray squares and border, then a multi-colored border. I don't have backing yet. There is no pattern. It uses a jelly roll. There were two of each color in the jelly roll. Each strip is cut in half and a 2 1/2 inch square of gray was added. One goes dark to light in the center, the next strip is reversed to go light to dark in the center. The strips are off-set. I added a 4 inch border of gray and a 5 inch border of the multi-colored print.

Fading Charms to use up some of my scraps. Tutorial can be found here. It finished at 72 inches square. My husband is not crazy about either one,

but he was expecting me to be working on a Judy Niemeyer project.

Pattern cover

I worked on, but did not finish,

In a Pickle by Larisa Key Designs.

This project was started in 2012. Nothing like letting projects marinate for a while!

Arc Units - all pieced

The Arc units are all pieced. I have 3 more sashing blocks to piece. I still need to make all the flying geese sashing units and the side triangle units.

Sashing blocks

I had a productive weekend and lots of fun as always. Now back to normal, everyday activities like laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.

I did get new sheets on the bed and curtains

up in the sewing/guest room. Nothing fancy. The quilt that will go on that bed is being washed right now. We don't have overnight guests except my son and his GF. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, but I do want it to feel like a comfortable space for them.