The three of us were like little bees-- BUSY!!! I loved it!! We were so focused. Well, ok, they were. They got a ton of sewing done. I managed to finish ONE block. Oy. Oh wait, I finished two blocks ;-) There, I'm not a total loser!
We got there on Thursday morning-- an early start ;-)
The cabin was so inviting and we immediately got the cars unloaded and our sewing tables all set up and ready to go. Diane and Debbie are SO organized!!
These first photos are from Debbie's project. She was making a queen size quilt (one completed block and a book photo below) for her father-in-law for his Christmas present but has now been moved to his birthday present. Since his birthday is December 26, it's a day that went uncelebrated for years when he was younger so to help make up for lost time, Debbie is hard at work on this perfect and precious gift.
This photo shows her "re-cut" pieces ;-o!! And if I could make that "O" bigger, I would!!
I say "re-cut" because the day before, she had all over 1000 pieces cut and laid out to be packed up for the retreat. She and Gary have no children at home but they do have two BIG dogs, one of whom has a naughty streak... In her defense, she is a rescue dog who was VERY abused and now has some "issues" of which Gary and Debbie are very sympathetic to. They are GREAT doggie parents ;-)
Anywho, the dog-sitter left the door to that "off limits to the dogs" room open by accident and when Debbie got home from work, the pieces were all chewed up and messed on... YES-- MESSED ON!!!
She had to throw EVERYTHING AWAY AND START OVER!!! ;-(( BAD BAD DOG!!! ;-)
It took about 8 hours to cut it all out AGAIN-- aaaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!
Diane and I helped her out a little bit and by midnight, she was sewing ;-)
Debbie is extremely precise in everything she has her hand in and her quilts always turn out SO perfect and beautiful!! She has a high-stress job and I greatly admire her anyway aside from quilting but even more so after realizing what a gimoungous sense of humor she had ;-))) If it were me, that dog would not be breathing... ok-- just kidding, but he would be in BIG trouble I tell you!!!
Diane, who also is extremely organized and equally precise, had all of her projects cut out and ready to go in zip-lock bags. Each bag had it's own project in it. I can aspire to that ;-)
She had her individual blocks completed and was using the retreat to sew them all together into wall hangings. She started her own CPA firm this past year and was mainly working on seasonal wall hangings for her new office.
Her first project was a block swap that she did with 12 quilters that participated from the quilt guild we are all members of-- Hayfield Country Quilters. She had a Sandy Gervais panel (I am a huge "Sandy" fan!!) and all of her swap blocks were made from fabrics from the same famiy-- it turned out ADORABLE!!!
She went on to complete a couple of other really cute wall hangings made from panels (one of them by Sandy Gervais), both of which she purchased for .99 on eBay!!! Now, that's a shopper for you!! hahaha!!! She's really busy all the time with work so the visual I have of her bidding on eBay for quilting stuff in her few free minutes, just cracks me up!!! She's a great quilter and apparently one frugal CPA!!!
She also added a border to a wall hanging that she had sewn together a while back. I really loved this one!!!
As for me, I started out by finishing Debbie's swap block. I have only had it for the last 1.5 years hidden on my design wall by layers of other things... ;-0!!! All this time, I thought I had completed her block and was home free... I am such a slug!!
Her swap blocks were all blue and yellow Cival War prints. Mine was the only block she didn't have...
My one other accomplishment was block #3 of a large 9-patch quilt I started a really long time ago.
It has a center block (the wreath block with the center star), the corners are all one block (the pomegranate and stars block), and finally the N S E and W (North, South, East, and West) heart blocks are done!!! YAY!!! Actually, there is really only one corner block and one NSEW block completed but it has taken me this long to finish designing the blocks so they all work well together. I didn't have fabric with me to do the birds but you get the idea, right? ;-)
My work is laid out for me finishing this quilt now-- 3 more pomegranate blocks to do and 3 more heart blocks to do, then borders to figure out. It's always something, right? ;-))
BTW, each of these blocks measures 27" square. This is going to be another big quilt for me.
I haven't done a really big quilt in a long time so I'm excited about this one ;-)))
One more thing about these blocks-- Diane graciously "donated" the fabric for the Pomegranate blocks. I ran out of fabric to make all the blocks the same, so now the Wreath has one fabric, the Pomegranate's have another fabric, and the Heart blocks have another. I love "scrappy" anyway so this was golden!!! The borders will have all three fabrics in them so it will pull together beautifully ;-)
While at the retreat we did take a road trip and have a couple of nights out for dinner. This red tree was in a gully on the side of the road at a traffic light we were stopped at. The beautiful red leaves against the rough, gnarly branches with the gold field in the distance stood out to me. Those leaves were almost electric they were so bright!
We were on our way to the quilt shops ;-) One in Madison and the other in Charlottesville.
I had more fun than I'm allowed in each... that's just between us though-- shhhhhh... *wink
These two antique quilts were on the walls of the Madison shop. I wish I had taken a photo of the shop itself. It was in an old church on the main street of the old part of town. How cool was that?! ;-)
The shop in Charlottesville had this beautiful basket quilt in the window. I LOVE basket quilts!!!
I couldn't get a photo without the glare from the glass so I apologize for the poor quality of this photo but it truly was "sweetness".
I have been wanting to do a basket quilt so maybe this is a sign that it's time ;-)
Blessings,
Debra <3
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