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| my iPhone for scale |
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| a 6" block |
I'm at a quilting retreat this weekend. Our guild runs 3 retreats each year. Two are at the Silverstream Retreat in Upper Hutt, and one is at the Island Bay, Home of Compassion. This will be the fifth year in a row that I've attended the Island Bay retreat.
We have a lot of fun at retreat, and get so much sewing done without having to stop to cook meals etc. Each person has their own bedroom and bathroom, and the staff at the venue do all the cooking for us. We sew in a lovely big meeting which gets lots of natural light. It's also nice and warm because it's winter here, and we definitely need good heating.
We are all guilty of taking too many quilts to work on, but it's better to have too many than to run out of things to do. I'm going to take my Dear Jen blocks along. This is a mystery hand piecing programme being run by Jen Kingwell from Amitie Textiles.
I've only made the first 6 blocks so far, so I could spend the weekend catching up on blocks 7-18, although I don't think I'll get them all made in one weekend.
I'll also take some hand quilting, because it's easy to hand quilt while talking to friends. I might start hand quilting my Cartwheel quilt by Kaffe Fassett. It's all basted and ready to go. Don't ask how I'm going to quilt it yet, because I'll figure that out once I've got the needle in my hand!
Or I could do a bit more hand quilting on my Shuttles quilt. I do love that yellow Aurifil 12wt I've chosen for the quilting.
So many options - and only 3 days of retreat. Perhaps I need a week long retreat!
If you want to see what everyone else is up to at retreat, you can follow Capital Quilters on Instagram and Facebook, or look for the #homeofcompassionretreat hashtag on social media. That's our logo above.
Now it's time for the Peacock Party. What have you been up to lately? Feel free to link up a recent post below.
Looks like you have some wonderful options to keep you busy! Oh, that tiny piecing!!! So precise.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for you to get to go on a quilt retreat! Nothing beats it for getting a lot done, or getting to make and know friends even better. I admire you for doing hand quilting on retreat. I've never done that. I wish I was there to sit beside you when you get started because I'd love to know your thought process for coming up with a quilt design. Right now I'm hand quilting too, but finding it a bit challenging because I'm quilting small concentric circles. I don't have the skill to quilt without turning the quilt to either be quilting horizontally, or toward myself. So, it's taking a while to get done! Here's hoping you accomplish lots and lots, and have bushels of good times while you're doing things!
ReplyDeleteI really must start to add more bright prints in my fabric collection I do not have near enough and I always love your bright quilts and other quilts that I see from New Zealand and Australia
ReplyDeleteYour retreat looks like sew much fun! Those tiny blocks--takes my breath away!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the retreat Wendy. You need a lot of projects otherwise you'll run out of things to do! I like your shuttle quilt; it will look spectacular quilted in yellow.
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