October 2022 Retreat Report

 Last weekend was my bi-annual quilt retreat with my mom and other friends in Shipshewana, Indiana. We head north on Wednesday morning and start sewing that afternoon, staying through Sunday. I always have the best of intentions to take lots of pictures when I go, and then I get into what we're doing and I forget! We have a great time and enjoy shopping at Yoder's and Lolly's, the two quilt shops in town, eating at old favorites and new restaurants around the area, and chatting with friends. In between all of that, we get some good sewing done! 

All set up and ready to sew with my Janome 6600

This year, I was able to do some pre-cutting, so I had two quilts cut and ready to sew when I arrived. Pre-cutting really makes a big difference when making a quilt because you can just pick up and sew, and I don't know about you, but I am less likely to make cutting mistakes at home in my normal setup than I am at a large retreat with lots going on. 

One of my projects all cut and ready for retreat!

At the retreat this year, I finished three quilt tops and two small projects. Here they are: 

The first quilt top I worked on (and finished) is Wind Drifter by Robin Pickens. My mom's quilt bee picked this up and decided to do it as a quilt-a-long together and I thought it was a fun idea to join them. I picked out a few fabrics from my stash and purchased a few new ones to make a Halloween themed quilt. This top has 104 small half square triangles (!!) and so it took a little while to make them, but it was so satisfying to trim them all up. 

A big stack of HSTs all trimmed and ready

I split up making my half square triangles into two batches and finished the first batch on the first night of retreat. I started the second batch and got all the way to a finished quilt top on Thursday. We didn't take too many breaks from sewing that day, so I was able to get it all together by the time I headed for bed. 

Wind Drifter Quilt Top

My friend Paula also made the Wind Drifter top, so we put ours out
 together for show and share on Saturday night. 

On Friday, I decided to work on a smaller project. These are the traveling utensil holders from APQ and I saw them on an Instagram post a few days before retreat. I thought they were very cool and have a few people in my life who I know will use them. I pulled fabric and batting from my stash to make these and am happy with how they turned out. 

Traveling utensil holders - camping themed one open, yellow one closed -
they roll up and you use the tie to close them. 

After finishing these up, I started on my next quilt top - this one is a pattern and set of fabric that have been pulled together for several years - they came to me via Lois, who left me her quilt stash when she passed away (you can read more about this through my Letters to Lois tag). This quilt was started on Friday evening and finished by the time we had show and tell on Saturday - it was really an easy quilt to put together and would be a great one for someone who is looking to work on their half-square triangle skills (it is a little more forgiving than the tiny HSTs in Wind Drifter). The pattern is Carpenter's Square by Calico Carriage. Lois had a great eye for color and I think she picked a lovely set of fabrics to make this quilt. 

Carpenter's Square top finished

Before I tell you about my last project, I want to share the results of our fabric challenge. For the last several years, we have had a fun challenge that we do each fall. One person from our group selects a fabric in the sale room at Lolly's and each participant gets a half yard of the fabric and then makes something (anything!) with it. We all reveal our projects and show and share one night. The fabric from last year is an orange with lots of patterns and colors on it. I used mine to FFO two cross-stitch pieces. Mine are in the middle of this picture. You can see there are also two bags in the front, an artist's roll and potholder on the left and two quilts. It is always a fun challenge and enjoyable to see how everyone uses the fabric so differently!

Half-yard Challenge projects

The last project I worked on is a baby quilt. I have a colleague at work with a new baby girl and I thought it would be fun to make a quilt for her. I saw this quilt made by another quilter in her Flosstube (a YouTube video about stitching and quilting) video and thought it would be the perfect pattern for a charm pack I've had for years - Curiosities by Nancy Halvorsen. I found a light grey with small white polka dots for the sashing/cornerstones and it worked great with the fabrics. It was a quick quilt to make up and you can find the pattern here. I did make mine a little smaller as the original calls for 52 pieces of fabric and I just had 40 in my charm pack, plus I used one piece from fabric used in the yellow utensil case. I am hoping to get this one on the frame so that I can get it quilted and gifted quickly. 

Lattice Baby Quilt top

So that's a wrap on our retreat - a very productive year and lots of fun too! It will be a year before I am back in Shipshewana as I decided to skip the spring retreat with it being close to graduation for my daughter. I know she will have activities and banquets in May and I don't want to miss any of them. Until then, I will be carrying the memories of good friends and good food! 

Sunset at the Amish farm where we had dinner