I just spent a really fun weekend with the Pieceful Hearts Quilt Guild at their annual retreat in Hickory Knob State Park, South Carolina.
To retrace this, Susie Donnelly lives near Augusta and was the first person in our group of six to join the guild. One of my best friends, Carol Tarras, lives in Chicago and is Susie's sister. Shelley is Carol's daughter and also lives in Chicago, Nancy is Shelly's sister in law and lives in Pennsylvania, Jill lives in Atlanta and is Susie's daughter and then there was the California girl, me.
Not only did we get to work on our projects, Carol and Shelley brought patterns and supplies to make some fun things:
One afternoon we made the little bags and I learned to put in a zipper. Don't know that I'll do that again -- it's a little futzy for me. Too many things to remember!
Another day we made these bags and I learned how to use an edge stitch foot. This was WAY fun and I can definitely see making more of these for gifts and to hold stuff around the sewing room that doesn't seem to have another home. This was a free pattern called the One Hour Basket and it truly does take about an hour!
Here are Susie and Carol with all of our zippered cases and one hour baskets. Shelley's husband David had pre quilted all of the fabric that we used using a machine on a frame and his QBot, which he invented. There is a lot of information about this on myqbot.com -- definitely good for a browse and remember not to drool on your keyboard!
I took pictures of some of the projects around the room...
Of course, I zeroed in on the bat fabric!
And the finished quilt! Good bat ratio, so I loved it!
I had seen this pattern in a recent issue of Better Homes & Gardens quilting magazine and liked it a lot. The three snowflakes are the only piecing in the quilt and then there are solid red strips with some chain piecing in the darker color to form the border. So the quilt is mostly background leading to some great quilting opportunities.
For the first two days I worked on a beach themed quilt in shades of blue, coral and a white on white background fabric featuring lighthouses. I bought the pattern and kit at Bolts in the Bathtub, my local quilt shop located in Lancaster CA.
I made twelve of these books from the jelly roll strip and then made about a billion flying geese and four patches that go on the sides of these blocks. I didn't have space to lay them out before piecing them so I piled them all up and put them in a big Ziploc.
I had brought a jelly roll of the newspaper print fabric assortment from Moda called Paper and some turquoise grunge fabric to make a quilt that I saw in one of my magazines. I got a lot done on that, too, and will post some pictures when I get a chance to get back to the project.
Unfortunately, time ran out on the sewing front and I had to put it all away. No matter how long a retreat is, I always need just One More Day!
Right now I'm in an Embassy Suites room in Atlanta waiting to leave for a 1:50 flight home. Will only be home for a couple of days before I go to Denver for the Craftsy instructor event. I am so excited about this!! But that means no sewing this week.....maybe next?
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