Retreat - Everybody Else!

This last week has been so jam-packed with stuff that it's simply been impossible to direct my focus on finishing the task of sharing the last of the retreat sewing. I did promise, however, so here ya' go! Special note to Sheryll: I didn't take a single picture of any of your needlework! I'm so sorry!!

In this post you saw what Sharon worked on; in this post I shared what I accomplished. Now let's see what Terry, Becky, Jan, Lisette and Susan created. The variety is inspiring!

Terry is preparing for a patriotic year with this R-W-B stars and stripes quilt. Won't it be spectacular?

Missing at Becky's table was her sewing machine! That's because she didn't even bring it. Her intentions were to do handwork for the duration of the retreat. She has two in progress - stars and Grandmother's Flower Garden. What fun to watch these two quilts grow throughout the week. Becky is very skilled at color placement and fast, yet fine stitching.

Jan's impressive accomplishment was finishing this WIP (work in progress). She came to the retreat with most (maybe all) of the stars made. She constructed the checkerboard blocks and then put the quilt top together. Ever since I've known Jan, her preference for bold colors and strong, graphic designs has been evident in her quilts.

A WIP from Lisette was one of these trees; while at retreat she made and attached two more. She likes working with tiny pieces. For further proof of that, get a look at this next WIP.

 

This quilt is made with the narrowest of strips - scraps, potentially - using paper foundation. It is going to be so stunning when completed.

 This little beauty appeared on the design wall in the vicinity of where both Lisette and Susan were sewing; I'm sorta' thinking it was completed by Lisette. What a lovely little table topper/wall hanging.

Lisette likes to be organized as illustrated by the little clips of all her block units. I'm sure this increases her completion rate; I ought to take heed and try it myself, right?

These lovely flying geese strips are a WIP from the talented hands of Susan. I have forgotten the precise project she is working on, but it seems as though it's a sampler quilt. 

Another of Susan's projects was this pretty poison green/navy star creation. I don't know her eventual plan for this. I do know it was made following instructions using a disappearing 4-patch as the beginning point. The girls who are in a guild together had this demonstrated for them at their last meeting; it all seemed rather too complicated for me!

I mentioned that I did not take pictures of anything from Sheryll. Let me post one I have in my camera roll; I have lots of pics that never make it to the blog. This is representative of the handwork Sheryll specializes in; and it is always lovely.

While I show you this Christmas picture, I can tell you that Sheryll was working on a beautiful red bird design. Additionally, she was piecing some hexies for flowers; I apologize for not doing a better job of fact-gathering.

So our Spring retreat was a wonderful success. We go back in mid-August for another 3-night/4-day retreat. I so look forward to these getaways so much!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Hello April! So Glad You're Here!

April is here! We here at the home of Jayne's Quilting Room have been eagerly awaiting this month since learning that we would get another grandbaby this month! She will be here soon!

 

  

Now you know why we just HAD to get back to Ohio by April first. We are awaiting baby girl's arrival any day now. 

In addition to being eager to welcome our newest little love, I am preparing to head out to a 4-day quilt retreat. Deciding what projects and necessary supplies to take is taking up a lot of my head space.

Other head space is being devoted to food prep for Easter celebrations coming up this weekend. 

My head is just full of stuff, isn't it!!? 

One project going to retreat will be this jelly roll quilt that I started while in Florida. I stopped work on it when I began having trouble with my sewing machine. It should be a quick and easy finish. The Kaffe Fassett jelly roll I used is one that came from my dear sweet Frienzie Kay, who passed away last year. I am so grateful to Kay for introducing me to KF fabrics oh-so-many years ago. 

This retreat may become known as the KF retreat, as this next quilt will see some sewing action. Trip Around the World, from the Fasssett book Heritage Quilts, is one I am making with my sewing bestie, Sharon. She has actually done a bit on hers, as we began it last fall. 

I want to have a pastel look and my stash, while extensive, did not contain adequate lighter colors to suit me. With that in mind, while at Florida's Quilted Twins, I shopped specifically for fabrics with lighter, pastel tones. I am pleased with the collection of 1-yard cuts that came home with me.

One more piece is a larger amount, because it is what I plan to use in that jelly roll quilt (see above) for the sashing strips. It will also work in the pastel assortment for Trip Around the World.

 Two KF quilts at a retreat? I think I can do it. I suppose I will also take along some back-up plans for just in case situations. Never want to run short!

Happy April, dear quilters, and Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Retreat - Projects of Sharon & Terry

It seems ridiculous to group things this way, but I took a picture as we began our retreat. And since Sharon and Terry are in the photo, that seems a random enough reason to share their projects in today's post.

And I will say from the get-go that I did not get pictures of all they accomplished. Actually, for someone who wants to eventually blog about what all we accomplished, I am rather haphazard in my information gathering. My apologies.

Sharon, in the foreground, had as she called it, utility quilts to make. She was attempting to whittle down her tub of flannel fabrics and made some pretty decent progress on a couple of quilts that will undoubtedly make for cozy TV watching.

Layer cake squares went together fast for a floral beauty. Another, which I apparently did not take a picture, is a Rail Fence pattern of brownish/burgundy and off-white. 

A wall hanging for her daughter was also on Sharon's agenda. She made this as far as she could go with her fabric on hand. One more row of leaves across the top will be added, and then it'll be ready to finish up.

Last, her wonderful "WOW" quilt is another Alpine quilt. She's made 2 of these already, but wanted one for Christmas. These trees are stunning! Click here to see one of her previous versions of Alpine.

Terry worked on a complicated-looking quilt called Michigan by Laundry Basket Quilts. She did quite a bit of prepping before coming to retreat, so getting her quilt top together took just a couple of days.

This is an example of the prep work done ahead of time. Small units were ready to go at retreat which made construction all the faster.

 Don't you love the alternative color choices? These blues, greens and browns are much more suited to Terry's color palate than the corals on the pattern. It looks spectacular.

After finishing this, she stitched curved basket handles for a quilt she has in progress. And last she was concentrating on tracing a rather involved applique for a Christmas quilt. I do not have a picture of either of these efforts. I will surely see her working on them again, though, so stay tuned. 

A brief recap today, to be sure. We are heading off to pick up our sweet Cate for an overnight at our house! Fun on our horizon, right?

Happy Quilting,  Friends!

Jayne 

Retreat Wrap-Up - My Own Stuff First

I'm just home from a 4-day quilt retreat at Needles N Pines Retreat Center in Nelsonville, OH. We had 8 quilters happily and energetically zipping away on their projects. We got so much done! It has been challenging deciding how to share our various projects and accomplishments.

The easiest way for me is to start with myself, since I know that info best. It'll also give me time to be more thoughtful about grouping the other quilters and their work. 

I went with the plan to make my Wensleydale Quilt with the Tilda fabrics I'd prepared ahead of time. 

The paper piecing pattern requires 5 'rounds' of fabrics, and I followed a fantastically helpful YouTube tutorial by Quilted Chicken. Following her instructions kept my biggest fear at bay - wasting fabric. Tilda is not inexpensive, and my memories of paper piecing years ago involved a whole lot of waste. I don't mind that when I'm using scraps, but with brand-spanking-new FQ packs, I didn't want to waste anything.

All my pieces were laid out on my table in the order in which I would use them. I had my cheat-sheet of sub-cutting instructions nearby, too. I did a lot of fumbling around trying to establish a rhythm for making a block. My first couple of blocks took awhile to finish. It'd been many years since I last paper pieced, so I needed to relearn things. Here are blocks 1 and 2.

 

By the end of retreat (Monday morning thru Thursday morning), I had made 30 blocks - exactly half of what is needed for the quilt. 

I just love how nicely they stack with the foundation papers keeping them so straight and even. The stack above is only 8 or 10 blocks. You can imagine how sweet the stack of 30 looks. (I'll take that pic after I unpack everything.) *wink* 

When I had 28 blocks it seemed a good place to stop and hang them on the design wall. I can see that I will need to be more deliberate in placing these blocks; the bottom row of this particular layout has way too many dark-ish blocks. 

Looking at this layout of 28 blocks, I don't see a single one that doesn't please me. Tilda fabrics are so very versatile when mixing them all so randomly. I'd been collecting Tilda bit by bit for a couple of years with no particular plan for using it. I bought some from Annette at Sewing The Good Life, at quilt shows in both Circleville and Daytona. I also had a bit purchased also at the Circleville show from Mercantile on Main. When I realized that I'd need both more fabric and more color variations, I sent off an emergency order to The Quilter's Shoppe on Etsy. Shop owner Karen was exceedingly fast in delivering my order, and I had it in plenty of time to take with me to retreat. I am so glad I had the array of reds to add to my predominantly blue collection. 

Thirty blocks completed in 4 days is a lot. I know I will not make the next 30 as quickly. If I can average 5 per week, I suppose I would consider that a success. I just won't be able to have such extended time in the sewing room, but I will for sure try to remain focused on finishing these blocks.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

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