retreat wrap-up

Last weekend, my mom and I attended a quilting retreat at Bridge Creek Cottage in Augusta, WI.  We've been there before with essentially the same group, so it's nice that mom has this circle of friends away from home.  She doesn't have a regular sewing group at home, so this is a good chance for her to have some fun with the rest of the quilting group.

She was very busy and productive!  She made all the blocks and put them together for this pretty quilt that will go to a great-granddaughter.  She started picking some of these fabrics while we were on our trip to Sisters, OR.  At Bear Patch, she added more fabric selections.  The pattern is by Terry Atkinson and is called Birthday Presents.

Last night she sent me this picture --

She added the blue border, layered it with backing and wool batting, got it rolled onto her quilt frame and has started the hand quilting!  She's going to see this little great-granddaughter, Elsa, who lives in CA, this winter so she wants to have it done to take along.  After that, she will get going on quilting the one she's already put together for great-grandson, Jack.  She is on a mission to make each of her great-grandkids (6) a "grown-up" quilt that will fit a big bed and be suitable for them at a later date.

 I did some sewing on those 3 1/2 days, too!  Here's what I worked on:

A Christmas wallhanging with fabric and pattern by Sandy Gervais, to use in the Christmas display at the store.  This needs some interesting quilting in all of the white space.  Little buttons will be sewn to the tops of the trees and hats.
The back is also pieced with a star, but I didn't get that done yet.

Here's something that had been waiting for me to sew together for awhile.  This is called Hexagon Shuffle, and it's a free pattern from Moda that came with a pack of the solid colored pre-cut hexagons.  The 2 rows on the left are completed and sewn together.

I had worked on these stockings last year and finished 3, but I had 3 left to do.  They were mostly done, but needed finishing up.  They still need buttons for eyes on the moose and squirrel.  Then they are ready for gifts!  Pattern is Stopping By The Woods by Laura Heine.

This quilt started out as demo samples for using a special ruler, the Curved Slotted Ruler by Creative Grids.  I had prepared several "step-out" samples to show the process of making a block.  After the demo, I hung onto the pieces.  I figured out I had enough material to make several blocks, and this is what I ended up with.

This is not a sewing project at all, but it does involve fabric!  This is a piece of wonderful woven cotton flannel called Mammoth Flannels by Robert Kaufman.  It's available in many colors and designs of plaid, and I've used this for samples at Bear Patch last winter.  They make great winter scarves by just raveling a fringed edge.  This particular piece was from a bolt I spied at Stitch Supply Co. on the way to retreat.  It was a color combination I hadn't seen before and really called my name!  So 4 scarves were born!

This picture isn't very flattering, but it's 2 little laminated Trash Stash bags that were another old project just waiting for me to finish!  They have a little hanging loop.  I use one by my sewing machine and one in the car.  The laminated fabric came from Bear Patch, and we used the pattern  as a make-and-take project for a retreat.

Here's an amusing sight!  I sewed on my Bernina 820, which is one of the large bed machines so it's a little larger than some other machines.  Saturday night, I ran into some problems with bobbin tension that I couldn't figure out, even with the coaching of my friendly Bernina technician, Beth, by phone.  So I got to borrow a spare machine that Barbara had brought along.  It's a baby Janome!  It looks like my big machine just gave birth!  It sewed just fine, and is light as a feather.  I did get my machine straightened out Monday morning.  Well, actually, since the problem was operator error, I got myself, the operator, straightened out!

So, all's well that ends well, and this retreat was very fun!  By taking along some things that I had started before, plus a couple new things, I felt productive with my time.  I used to go to retreats more frequently.  For right now in my life, that can't happen, so it's good to get the chance to go to this one.  I don't get another quilting get-away until January, so I'll have plenty saved up to work on for then!