Report From Retreat

Greetings from Martinsburg, West Virginia!  Sue's local guild is holding its spring retreat here at the Comfort Inn in Martinsburg, a new venue for our group.  Our previous hotel location in Winchester, VA, is under renovation so we had to find a new location.  This location seems to be working well.  We arrived (most of us) on Wednesday and will be staying through mid-day Sunday.

Here's our workspace before the arrival of any retreaters (except for the committee).

And here we are with many projects in progress.

Our theme is "Wild and Wonderful" and we chose this butterfly design as our logo;  we screen printed it on tote bags that  we used as our "goodie" bags for each attendee, and also on t-shirts for the committee.

This is an area set up as the "fishing hole". Folks bring fabric they no longer need, books, magazines, and patterns and then you can go "fishing" for anything you want!  Recycling at its best.

We also are collecting 2.5" strips for a "wild and wonderful" strip raffle; everyone who brings 2 strips gets their name put in the bowl for a drawing - the more you bring, the more chances to win.  We are also working on blocks for charity quilts using donated fabrics (samples on the board).  

And this is project #1 that Sue is working on, more to come on that.  

And more to come from retreat!  That's all for now.

Fall Guild Retreat

Sue spent last Thursday to Sunday at her local guild's fall retreat.  It was great to get away for some dedicated sewing time, though it was touch and go whether or not she would be able to go.  The week before she scratched the cornea of her left eye and it was questionable whether her vision would clear in time.  Fortunately it did, though bright sunlight was (and still is) hard to tolerate.  That meant staying inside and sewing!

Each retreat has some sort of charity project.  This time we made blocks for quilts that will be donated to Facets, a Fairfax County non-profit that works to provide emergency shelter and secure safe and affordable housing for families in need.  These are the 3 blocks Sue made; she is curious to see what the layout will look like.

The next project was actually garment sewing - not typical for a quilt retreat but it was one of those projects sitting around for over a year, so it was time to tackle it.  It really is a simple t-shirt pattern, both front and back in one large piece, so it was pretty quick to sew.

Here's the pattern, "Simple, Elegant Tee" by CNT Pattern Company.  And the finished shirt below.

The fabric is a hand-dyed rayon purchased from a vendor called Fabrilish at the Quilters Unlimited quilt show.  I couldn't find a website but there is a Facebook page at the link above.

Then, it was on to a wallet pattern (again, a non-quilt item).  Sue seems to be on a mission to try out various wallet designs to determine which might be most functional and/or meet her needs.  This is the Mini Diva wallet by Sew Many Creations.  There is also a Diva Frame Wallet which is longer (Sue has that pattern as well!).

The picture below shows the open view of both the outside and inside of the wallet.  Sue added the strip of cork on the outside.

Now it was time for work on some quilt projects. This is a block for a quilt that has 20 blocks, that seems to only get worked on at retreats.  At least she is finally over half way, with 12 blocks completed.  Progress!

Another charity project that the guild works on is making preemie quilts for the NICU at Children's National Medical Center in DC.  This top was sewn together at home, so it just needed to be quilted and bound.  All the fabrics are animal prints.

Then it was time to start the final project of the weekend.  While in New Hampshire in August, Sue and Elizabeth went to the World Quilt Show in Manchester.  There she bought the pattern and materials to make a jelly roll rug by RJ Designs.  For those not familiar with the term "jelly roll", it is a set of forty 2.5" width of fabric strips.  The jelly roll rug is currently an internet sensation; there are 2 versions - oval and rectangular.  Sue chose the rectangular version and a Moda jelly roll of black, white and grey prints.  If you search "jelly roll rug", you will also find the original oval pattern and lots of tutorials. The other thing needed for this project is strips of batting.  A company called Bosal makes rolls of precut batting (2.5") that match the width of the fabric strips. It is available from a number of sources on the Internet. The fabric and batting are layered together, long edges folded to the center, and then folded in half and stitched.  Sue raced the clock to get all the strips stitched, but ran out of bobbin thread on the next to last one.  Sigh.  At that point it was time to pack up and go home, so the final 2 strips still await.

Here are a couple pics of the retreat sewing room; we had about 75 members in attendance.  It's always fun to see the projects everyone is working on.

We have been holding these retreats at a Hampton Inn in Winchester for several years, but the hotel is closing for renovation so next spring we will be traveling to Martinsburg, WV to try out a new venue. 

Studio Work

Wow, hard to believe it's been a month since our last post.  Time to catch up!  Elizabeth is off traveling in Asia, so this post is from Sue about what's been going on in the studio for the last month or so - late spring/early summer.  April was a really busy month for me, so May and June were intentionally slower as far as projects go, plus during both of those months I spent time in PA with my mother.  Is it really almost mid-July already?

One thing I did was to finally finish my spiral quilt from Susan Carlson's class at the QU show 2 years ago.  This is done with Susan's fabric collage method; all the pieces are held in place with glue, then covered with tulle and quilted to hold it all in place.  All the handwork, including binding, label, and sleeve is now done, so there's one quilt I can put in next year's show! 

In June I took a second class on quilting with rulers; it was actually day 2 of the class I first took in February.  I went with the intention of getting more practice with the rulers I already had, but of course we were able to try other rulers and I ended up buying more - no surprise there.  I took along a quilt top I had found in my studio clean up earlier this year in the hope that I might use it to practice on.  I found that I liked the overall design that could be done with the apple core ruler and started quilting in class, finishing up the binding last week.  I'm not sure what this pattern is called - its a piece that's been around for a good 10 years or more!

Here's a close up of the apple core quilting pattern.

June was also the month when spring postcards were due for my swap group.  Our theme this time was "perchance to dream".  Since I recently found out that I will have a quilt on exhibit at Houston this year, I decided to highlight that as my dream come true.  Here are the 6 postcards I made - a city skyline with the word "Houston" screen printed on top.  Elizabeth and I will be making our first trip to Houston this year!

I have also been trying to finish a quilt top called Paint Chips that I started in Karla Alexander's class at VCQ's Celebration retreat in April.  I got all the rows together in May, and finally finished adding the borders yesterday. Now to find some backing and work on the quilting.

And last but not least, my regional SAQA group issued a challenge due the end of July to make a 12" piece that illustrates "making your mark".  I'm working on mine, starting with thermofax printed fabrics and adding hand stitching - mark making in progress.  Here is a sneak peak.

It helps to catalog here what I've been working on.  Sometimes it doesn't seem like much, but then I look back and see I've done more than I thought.  Now to get back to some other started projects!  And maybe some new ones too!

In the Studio

What have we been working on in the studio?  Now that taxes are done, we're trying to get back to the backlog of projects. Sue's got several things in process, and more planned on the agenda.  Here are 4 preemie charity quilts that are sandwiched and ready for quilting - a good opportunity to practice free motion quilting.

Another work in progress is this wedding quilt - top done, backing pieced. Needs to be sandwiched and quilted, and finished before the first anniversary in a couple of months!

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been busy with mug rugs.  Last week it was St. Patrick's Day.

This week she's moved on to Easter.  Cute!

What are you working on?