Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Quilt Retreat 2015

 
Last weekend 6 of us showed up at Threads of Time in Danville, IL, for our annual quilting retreat. We had our own work room, called "The Parlor," even though we hadn't asked for this deluxe accommodation, because the retreat center was full. We enjoyed having our own space but missed the opportunity to visit with all the others who inhabited the retreat center with us and the opportunity to see what they were working on. We had to tour the building now and then to see. A bonus was seeing a couple of women from another group that we had seen last year and getting to touch base with them. We probably would have chatted with them more frequently if we had been out in the "big room." We still had a great time and could have stayed longer.
 
Here are Kathy and Becky. Becky is making faces at me while Kathy is diligently getting set up to go to work.

Brenda and Nanette are consulting on a seam for one of Nanette's t-shirt quilts.

Betty Sue is cutting strips for her string pieced quilt-as-you-go.

I love this shot--we are all looking at Betty Sue's blocks and trying to decide the best arrangement for them.
 
Here is our whole group. We missed a couple of our regulars: Rosie and Denice. Hope they will be able to come next year, along with a few more from our quilt group.

Brenda is displaying her blocks. She spent a lot of time cutting fabric so she was ready to sew when she finally sat down to her machine (then the pattern illustration was wrong--how frustrating--but she stuck to it and figured it out). Her blocks are lovely!

These are blocks I worked on during this wonderful weekend. The 2 on the left are disappearing hourglass from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The ones in the center are the East Central IL Shop Hop Quilt from 2012, I think. The block I am holding is for our Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. I have made a block for our congregation for the past several years.

Kathy worked on another library quilt for her daughter Anna. I love the hand-embroidered knight sitting with the dragon.
 
Here is one of Nanette's t-shirt quilts. I think she already had this one pieced when she came but she worked on 2 others while there.

Becky quilted on this beautiful flannel quilt the entire time (so dedicated and determined). The recipient is going to love this quilt.
 
Betty Sue's string pieced blocks--are they lovely? I can't wait to see it when it's done.
 
We are already planning when to go next year--in March this time so we hope it won't conflict with other schedules. We want to stay Friday through Monday this time too. Whoo hoo!