Friday, February 23, 2018

Retreat Report

Quilt Retreat 2018 is in the history books now. We have been retreating together as a group for over 10 years. All of the relaxing sewing time, the hilarious shenanigans, and the wonderful conversations with creative and wonderful woman have come to an end for another year. I will miss them so much since many of us only see each other once a year. 
Work space of an anonymous retreater!
It's probably a good thing that retreat is not longer than it is, because during olympic years we stay up way too late watching the coverage. And then we get up early and hit the sewing machines to work on our quilts. The thing that is missing is  s l e e p ! And a human can only operate for a limited amount of time on little sleep. 
In the next week I'll be showing updates for all the projects I worked on. Of course I started 4 new quilting projects while at retreat and here's the first one...

the Aurifil 2018 DOM. I completed their 2016 quilt in November and am happy with how that turned out - you can see it here. I really enjoy making complex blocks with many pieces and decided to start their 2018 project. Although I'm looking forward to making the January block, I had to skip to the February block because January's block requires a printed pattern which I didn't have at retreat. So I started with February's block which has 31 pieces. It is fun and easy to sew if you're organized and follow instructions well.


Here is the February block called Birch Ball by featured designer Scott Hansen. You can see many interesting versions of this block at the link up at Pat Sloan's blog. It looks like most people are going with the black and white idea for their sampler blocks.






When sewing the connecting corners, I always sew a second line to turn the cut off corners into HST blocks. I decided to save these each month and see what they might become. These are the leftovers from February's block.
Further project updates will be forthcoming after a brief nap!

7 comments:

Deanna W said...

I know you had a fun time at retreat! Missed your blog this week but fully understand the energy zapping retreat hangover!!

Lyndsey said...

I love the work space photo, what fun it would be to play with those scraps. The retreat sounds great fun.

Janet O. said...

Wonder who that anonymous retreater might be? :)
Very pretty combination of the blue with the black/white. Interesting block design. How large is that block?
Make it a long nap--you could probably use it.

Mary said...

Hope you got that Nap in. Great to see I'm not the only one starting yet another NEW Project. I have been watching some of the Olympics. I love the Figure Skating and it is over now so I wait for the final Gala Exhibition on Saturday. I'll be doing a Binding I hope. My OMG is almost done...

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time! Great to be around quilting buddies!!!
Now time to catch up on that sleep and you will be ready to get going again!

Julierose said...

You are so good at sewing the multi-pieces blocks--(privately, I call them "migraine" blocks lol). I definitely am not that good at them ,and do really really envy those of you who are so adept at these. They are SOO SOO pretty. I love that Feb block...hugs, Julierose

Louise said...

Glad you had fun at retreat! I like your BOM for February. Will you stick with those colors, or b/w plus different brights each month, or ??