Retreat Results

The Central Florida MQG retreat I attended for four days and three nights (Thursday to Sunday afternoon) was exhausting and productive.

Exhausting because I have a tendency to push myself to take advantage of uninterrupted sewing time - I was the last one (of 22 of us) to turn off all the lights, the first two nights, going to bed at 12:50 am and 2 am. The two nights I stayed, I was alone for more than an hour, listening to an audiobook and piecing. And piecing.

As much as I'd like to show the 55" X 55" foundation paper-pieced quilt top that I completed, pictures have to be saved until the pattern (not mine!) is ready. Making that top was my number one priority at retreat, and I accomplished it by 12:50 am Saturday morning.

In this picture, I'm holding all the trimmings after squaring up the blocks for that quilt.

I then moved on to my next task - making Week 2 blocks for the ComfortQuiltQAL. I'm making a twin-sized quilt from the book Modern Heritage Quilts by Amy Ellis, and lots of blocks are needed.

By Saturday afternoon I'd made the 8 large blocks (6-1/2" X 6-1/2" unfinished) and 13 small blocks (3-1/2" X 3-1/2" unfinished) per the quilt-along schedule.

Since coming home and unpacking, on Monday I tackled Week 3 blocks: 15 large blocks; 20 small blocks. Next week's assignment will be to make even more! Sheesh. The next time I'm attracted to a quilt-along, I'll be giving thorough consideration to that before jumping in. This QAL is taking a huge amount of time. But the blocks are cute, aren't they?

Next I got caught up (until today!) on the Year of Scrappy Triangles that Leila is sharing. These are also foundation paper-pieced: blocks 27, 28, 29, and 30. My quilt is gonna be really bright and scrappy.

And lastly, I made a name badge holder. I've wanted one so I can wear it at QuiltCon next February, in Nashville (My room is booked!). The fabric I used is Central Florida MQG quilting cotton we had designed using our chapter logo. The fabric was made by Spoonflower.

The badge holder easily handles a cell phone (my iPhone 8 fits), social cards, and money... all those important things that we must carry.

Nice pockets for safely storing whatever's important. This is such a neat concept.

I started to play with fabrics and improv piecing for the quilt I'll make from Austin's artwork. I had thought to make a wall hanging, as the piece is for the "Central Florida MQG Inspiration Challenge," due in July. However, when Austin saw this picture (his artwork is on the left), he told his mom he can't wait to get his quilt. Guess that means I'll be making a larger quilt with bigger hunks of fabric! I need to be thoughtful about figuring how to scale up his 8-1/2" X 11" design to something that's 65" X 76" or so. I think I'll start on EQ8.

In between sewing and working on projects was fun - seeing what everyone else was working on, socializing, and enjoying drinks: Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, Buttershots, and wine - not too much though, nor all at once!
If you're on Instagram, check out our retreat hashtag: #cfmqg2018retreat

I showed a friend, Peggy (GummyBearGirlQuilting makes delicious, flavored gummy bears soaked in various types and flavors of alcohol) how to piece blocks together as a "Web." In this picture, the stack of blocks on Peggy's left is her quilt top, all ready to sew together.

In this picture, Peggy's quilt has been webbed (chaining connects the rows), and she's ready to join the rows. If you'd like to learn this method of piecing blocks into a quilt top, you can see my Web Tutorial here.

Retreat was a really, really great time, with everyone getting along, and sharing among all of us. There weren't the little pocket-clusters of friends who kept to themselves as I've seen at other retreats. Instead, everyone interacted, and changed-up who they sat with at meals - a perfect retreat in my opinion. We've already got next year's retreat planned for late March. Yay! Linda