Quilting Retreat – Part 2

Okay now onto the quilting.  We had a huge room to sew in.  My sister, who organized the retreat, and my niece arrived early and set up the room.  The facilities provided long narrow tables and chairs for us.  The tables were set up in a U-shape almost against the walls.  Each quilter had their own table to spread out their stuff. 

In the middle of the room we set up a larger cutting table.  And here’s a clever idea – borrowed from a local quilt shop – they had created leg extensions using pvc pipe and pipe caps.  You just set the legs of the table into the open end of the pipe and you can raise the cutting surface by a foot.  Very clever and back saving.

At the other end of the room (not visible in the above picture) they set up a drink and snack table.  One needs to stay fortified and hydrated while quilting.  Hmmm – is someone drinking a glass of wine whilst quilting?  I do believe they are (okay we all did – we just had rules about using a rotary cutter and drinking – don’t drink and cut).

This was my very first retreat.  I think I behaved myself and will be invited back next year.  The only thing I would do differently is to bring more projects to work on.  I actually finished my Christmas table topper except for the final border (I have to order more fabric) and ended up working on my yo yo’s.  I even ran out of those to work on and ended up reading magazines and pestering the other quilters.

Out of the seven quilters four had Singer Featherweights.  I totally covet a Featherweight.  Mostly because they are so adorable but also because they are simple to operate (a plus for me) and they are small and travel easily.   The picture above is my niece Sara working on her Sanctuary quilt.  I love the pastel colors in this line. 

I’m not really telling this tale in an orderly fashion.  Let me start over and tell how it went.  Like I mentioned my sister and niece arrived first and set up the room.  Then the rest of us trickled in on Friday afternoon around 4:00 or 5:00pm.   We set up our sewing machines and got our gear all organized.  Then we had happy hour, chattering away and looking at each other’s projects.   We did a little bit of sewing before dinner was served at 7:00pm and afterward we went back to the room and sewed some more. 

Our sleeping rooms were right off of our sewing room – it was very convenient.  We all toddled off to bed around 11:00 or so.  The next morning some of us got up early and started sewing before breakfast and others of us woke up, wild haired and bleary-eyed just as the breakfast bell was ringing (okay that was me). 

I managed to get my table topper cut out and assembled by Noon on Saturday.  We had made plans to have lunch and visit a local quilt shop.   There was an adorable antique shop right next door and I think we spent more time and money in there than we did the quilt shop.  I bought some old glass buttons and some hankies.

It was nice to break up the day with an outing like that.  When we got back I worked on cutting out circles for yo yo’s.  My sister had some games and prizes for us.   When we went to the quilt shop in Danville (Called Quilter’s Inn, I believe – I can’t find a website for them though..) they gave my sister a ton of stuff when they heard we were on a retreat.  They were incredibly generous.  Patterns, books, even a $25 gift certificate!   The games tested our quilting knowledge and I failed miserably.  I did win a prize for the ugliest sewing machine though.  And I was promised I wouldn’t be mocked.  Harrumph.

We also did a white elephant gift exchange but we were all too polite to steal from each other so it was basically everyone just picking out a gift and keeping it.  Except Heather stole the two charm packs that Bette picked but then she felt so bad that she gave her one of them back.  Yes, quilter’s are nice people.

After dinner we did show and tell.  Everyone, except for me, brought a completed project to show to the rest of the group.  The only two quilting projects I’ve completed are a baby quilt that I gave away and a Halloween table topper that is packed away with the rest of the Halloween decorations.  I did have my bag of yo yo’s with me so I shared those.  Everyone was polite and ooohed over them. 

Tomorrow’s post will be all about the quilts.   I swear quilts are like finger prints – everyone has a certain, unique style that shows up in designs of quilts they make.  I have lots of pictures!