Retreat Projects

Last week I attended a 4-day quilt retreat in nearby Jamestown. Several of the Frankfort Girls plus a couple more attended. I thought it would be fun to share some of the projects we were working on. 

Terry: In a patriotic mood, Terry worked on three different projects. Alas, I have pictures of only two.  

The table runner and table topper will no doubt be ready to adorn Terry's lovely home soon. I don't think she used a pattern; rather she made these from pictures she'd seen online. 

Sheryll: In an effort to finish up a couple of UFOs, Sheryll worked on a couple of Kim Diehl projects begun a few years ago. I have only this one picture, but I'm pretty sure she worked on a second one after this. Plus she did some handwork.

Susan: Perhaps the aggravation  award goes to Susan for choosing to work on quite a complicated project. Not her style at all, this Tula Pink project (called Center Stage) was quite involved and at time gave Susan fits. It will ultimately be a gift for her niece.

The blocks were big, but were comprised of much tinier blocks and Susan was fit-to-be-tied at times with construction. It's gonna' have great impact when finished, though, and Susan has been known to create some real beauties; no doubt this will be yet another one.

Jan: As is the norm, Jan gets more out of a quilt retreat than anyone I've ever known. This one was no different. She finished the quilt tops for the two shown below and made a fair amount of progress on another which I did not photograph.

These quilts may look identical, but they are not. The same pattern used with two different fabric combinations. Jan really worked hard on these, then went on to begin at least one more and possibly two - I was rather inattentive at times, so I might have missed more.

Sharon: Yes, my good friend Sharon attended, and she happily finished off a quilt top that she'd been working on at my house for a few weeks. This is a Laundry Basket Quilts kit she'd gotten as a gift last Christmas. 

She finished her star quilt as far as the kit had fabric for, then decided she would make it bigger. She ordered more background fabric, made what remaining stars she could, the moved on to the 9-patch project, shown below.

Sharon had been given a collection of scraps from a dear old friend of her mother's. She sifted through the scraps to come up with a delightful collection of 2.5-inch squares that she proceeded to make into 9-patch blocks. What a wonderful array of vintage fabrics! This promises to be quite a beauty!

Mine: I had good success in my retreat experience. I finished the last of the 42 stars needed for a project I haven't even yet shared here on the blog. In a future post, I will provide some details, but for now I can show you a satisfying stack of stars.

After finishing the stars, I turned to a recently-found project in the depths of a clean-out in my sewing room. A tub of homespun remnants needed to be used up, and in a hurry. So I did the fasted quilt top I know how to make. Plain squares in a diagonal pattern across the quilt. It would be as big as the fabric allowed. The remaining fabric will be pieced for a backing, or turned into pillows.

When I finished this top, I turned to a very old kit I'd made for a retreat back when we were still going to Canter's Cave (2016, I think). I'd prepped about 12 blocks, made one block, discovered a cutting error, and immediately stowed it away for another day. I found it in that sewing room clean-out mentioned above, and decided the time had arrived to deal with it. Turns out the other blocks were all cut correctly. Yay!! I have renewed interest in seeing this little beauty completed, so I intend to stay with it. The pattern is called Best of All.

This pretty well sums up the sewing we did at retreat. This group just blended together so well; we have two more retreats on the calendar for next year.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne