Design Wall - Productive Retreat

Woo Wee!  What a weekend I had at the retreat.  I love my retreat girlfriends! (Of course, missed :(
having my best bud, Cathy K, with me.)  There were 17 quilters stitching at a very fast pace. 

The weather was less than favorable when I left.  We had rain and up to 60 mile an hour winds on Thursday night.  This is a view of the fairgrounds where we stable our horse.  Driving to the retreat I encountered water on the roads, flooded fields, rushing creeks and large mountains of snow along the roads.  At least no drifting snow because the rain had frozen a crust on the snow which was shimmering in the sun. 

 

The first thing I was shown after all the hugs and warm greetings from the group was Mera's tumbling blocks quilt.  Mera had worked on this quilt at several of our weekend retreats.  The first retreat that she worked on it she had a whole eight foot table full of triangle pieces sorted by color and tones which finished into this awesome quilt.  She has enough triangles left to make another.

Second, show 'n tell was this beautiful round quilt by Sylvia B. made using a 10 degree ruler.

 

Pillow cases were in mass production by Mera and Kathy C.  I believe they both made at least 30 each.  They came with them pre-cut.  All of them will be donated to charitable locations for children.

Here is a fun quilt by Susie R.  Everything on the center of the quilt is applique.  I bet Susie could now applique in her sleep! 

Congratulations on finishing your quilt top, Susie!!

 

Here's Sherry's Gypsy bag made out Australian fat quarters.  She plans on bringing future projects to retreat in this large, roomy bag.

 

 Here's Barb O's quilt.  She arrived with the blocks mostly done.  Sewed the center together and then asked for opinions on an outer border.  Never a shortage of brain power at our retreats!

Barb's next project was this fun quilt for a grandchild.  She didn't have a pattern and was a design-as-you project.

 

 Here is Mera's work-in-progress for the weekend.  She used strip piecing to create her quilt blocks.

 Mera and everyone helped move blocks around playing with the layout.  We used our cameras, taking pictures to get a different view of the quilt.

 When I was heading out the door Sunday morning, she was trying to get the units sewn together.

 

 Here is Mary's cheery batik quilt.  Some lucky friend will be getting this quilt from Mary soon!

 

Kathy C., who also made about 30 pillowcases, finished two quilt tops.

 Above is Kathy's leader and ender challenge from Bonnie Hunter at www.quiltville.com.

This a patriotic quilt for a veteran with a TBI. 

 

Nancy B worked on two lovely quilt tops.  Sorry, I missed  getting a picture of red, blue and cream quilt.  I love this study in red quilt, but not sure its on my bucket list with all the Y seams.

 

Kathy B. was busy working a this fun quilt for her granddaughter.  She had all her granddaughter's art work printed on fabric from Kindergarten to 5th grade.

 Next Kathy B. worked on a decoration for Easter.

 

Carol R. had a production line going.  Two tablerunners from her Alaska fabric, two pillow fronts for her grandkids, and a fun golf quilt from a panel.

 Carol R. also completed this sharp block for a guild project.

 

This is Susan May, our host and owner of Susan's Calico Creations.  Susan was "Super Woman" of the weekend.  She greets all of us individually, gets our cars unloaded and each one of us settled into a sewing station.  She also works upstairs in her shop, sews on her projects and helps us with problems on our quilting projects as they arise.  Susan is holding the 3 1/2" house block she paper pieced for the Washington, IL Tornado Recovery Project.  She also worked on sewing on two bindings this weekend and made her February log cabin block BOM for her www.quiltdoodledesigns.com.

 

 

Here's the biggest quilt completed this weekend.  Kathy D. had her center made but spent the weekend putting on the borders.  It is 114" x 114" king size.

 

I worked on the following blocks.

First, I worked on my February Country Threads 2014 BOM Blocks.

 

 Second, I completed my February stone cabin for the www.quiltdoodledesigns.com  2014 BOM.

 

Third, I worked a UFO.  My friend, Corry, embroidered all the states and the dates the state joined the union.  This has been a work in progress for about three years.  I have debated a long time whether write the states on fabric, hand embroider states or machine embroidery.  Machine embroidery finally has been accomplished.  I cut out two states and got them sewed.

Last, I worked on this UFO also.

 

Thank you for sharing my retreat design wall.  Wishing you a productive Monday!

 

Today I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.  Check out Judy's information about going gluten free and rolling your own oats, interesting!

 

Yours in quilting,

Terry