It was an amazing weekend full of laughs and of course some sewing thrown in. These are my people, they get me. Many of us had been commenting how much we were looking forward to the weekend. It did not disappoint.
In addition to our own projects, we played games and shared laughs. So many laughs. We played two tense rounds of Left, Right, Center for fat quarters. Quilters are ruthless despite what some may think. Game one was intense and Lisa walked away the winner. Game two things got serious. Fat quarters were quickly getting throw into center. One of my rolls included a C going directly into my wine glass on the floor. Of course it did.
I was out of fat quarters but some were still floating around me. Within a couple of rolls I was back in and suddenly I won. I won! So many lovely fat quarters for me to enjoy. I almost cried I was so happy and surprised.
This weekend was really a chance for me to get through some WIPs that have been lingering. I wanted to cross some stuff off my self-inflicted to do list.
Solids String Quilt
Good thing no one took video or recorded our conversations this weekend. Lots of cursing and general dislike for the process with this quilt. I will dig more into it later this week. It was the first project I tackled and felt good to get this scrappy quilt done and bound on the first night. Scrappy string quilts are on trend right now.
Botanica Bee Quilt
Talk about an old WIP. Back in 2011 the guild held a bee. I picked large log cabins using this lovely Botanica fabric. Most of the fabric I had left was destashed last year, but I kept a couple of pieces in case I ever finished this.
My big goal for the weekend was to try free motion quilting for the first time. Without Darcie and Rachael pushing me out of comfort zone, I wouldn’t have tried it. Being true to my word from our goals meeting in January, I decided this was the quilt. It’s smaller and not on the bias like the string quilt. I wanted to tackle this first thing Saturday morning.
Holy camoly. I was a sweaty nervous mess to take my first few stitches. After a few hiccups I got the hang of moving the quilt around and the speed of my machine that worked the best. More practice is necessary but the overall process went well. I have another WIP almost ready to keep up my practice.
Note: my arms, shoulders and back were SORE from it. Something I didn’t expect.
V&Co HST Quilt
Quilt by committee is a wonderful benefit of retreat weekend. I had all of these HSTs but really unsure the layout I wanted. As I started to lay it out, others jumped in with suggestions. This wonderful layout was the winning choice.
Blush Charm Quilt
Let’s go back in time again to another overnight sewing adventure from 2011. IMQG traveled to one a member’s house for a night of sewing and games. I started a charm quilt with lots of white from the Moda Blush line. It’s been a bag ever since in my WIP cabinet. No more. The top and back are both done. It’s ready to be basted and quilted.
A couple of people brought their scrap bins for everyone to dig around in. We were like vultures if I’m being honest. It was fun to pull out scraps from their projects and envision them in your stash. Lisa even ironed and color sorted her scraps. Too much work for me but her scraps were to enticing like that. I snagged a few to help round out upcoming projects.
There are about 3-4 more projects I wanted to tackle this weekend. They are newer ideas and I chose instead to focus on older items. Look for upcoming series…Busting through old WIPs.
So many wonderful projects were worked on by everyone. It’s invigorating to be around other like minded people for a weekend and accomplishing so much. We sprawled our projects across the banister to get a better look at what we had done. I am lucky to know many wonderful and talented sewists.
Does your guild host a retreat? Have you ever gone away to just sew and hang out with friends? I definitely recommend it.