Quilt Retreat

Last weekend, from Friday morning through Monday morning, 24 of us from the Central Florida MQG retreated to Luther Springs in Hawthorne, Florida. It's a Lutheran bible camp that caters to quilters and crafters, and is a wonderful place to "get away from it all," with delicious meals, comfy accommodations, and outstanding camaraderie. May marks the the month when, eight years ago, we first retreated to Luther Springs with members of the Gainesville MQG. Our chapter wasn't yet large enough to fit the space on our own! Oh how we've changed.

My work station...

I took along three prepared-for-sewing projects, but spent all my sewing time on only one of them, piecing scrappy Unallocated blocks. 

Initially I laid blocks like this, to see how they looked together. 

Unallocated was made by Michelle McKillop, and can be seen, with instructions, on her Instagram feed.

This is MICHELLE MCKILLOPE'S Unallocated quilt, measuring 74" X 74". 

Made by Michelle McKillope

Then, I used a design wall to arrange the 80 blocks I'd made That's when I had a "Oh! It's lovely!" moment. Light values in the vertical columns became apparent. It's also when I got excited about piecing more blocks. 

I had no shortage of cut-out scraps! During the entire retreat, I pieced 180 four-inch blocks...

....and pieced another 190 half-square triangles to be pressed, trimmed, and joined to short strips to become Unallocated blocks.

That will be a total of 370 blocks. It remains to be seen whether that's enough for a usable-sized quilt.

Considering that I was among the last retreaters to go to bed each night - at about 12:30 AM (up before 7 am) - and that I also taught a member how to use Instagram; consulted on a few others' quilt projects; attended a two-hour 2024 CFMQG program-planning meeting; took photos of other makers' "tah-dah" moments and posted them to Instagram (see their projects here); took our group photos; and did a wee bit of socializing, I'm happy with my Unallocated progress.

In addition to taking a smiling-faces group photo of our retreaters, each year I try to think of what might make a fun picture. Noting that a basket on the dining room side table was overflowing with bananas, I asked Miss Sarah, the camp director (and best cook) if each of us could hold a banana as a prop. "Of course," she said."They're going to become banana pudding." 

So... 

"We're bananas for quilting!"

Book Recommendations

The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner is another book about WWII. Having read so many fictitious war-related stories, I have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to another. This is a good one.

Four year-old Shira and her mother Roza, are Jews in Poland who have fled their home. Hiding in a rural barn, they find sympathetic farm owners, though at a cost. Forced to remain silent, Roza constantly tells her daughter to be quiet. That's very difficult for little Shira, who finds some relief from the quiet by taking care of her imaginary bird, and creating music in her head. 

When the Germans confiscate the barn for their purposes, mother and daughter must flee. Shira is taken to a home for orphaned children with the promise that Roza will come for her. While in the tender care of nuns, Shira is given violin lessons; her instructor recognizes her special gift. But when Germans bombings begin, Shira is again moved. In the meantime, Roza has walked 300 kilometers to the convent to find Shira, but the convent is in rubble. While Rosa continues to look for her daughter, Shira is taken wherever others lead her. Shira doesn't know her mother's name, but he always remembers her through her music.  

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister was a page-turner! That's because I am fascinated by the concept of time travel, such as The Time Traveler's Wife, and Benjamin Button. This story has a different time premise than others, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jen is waiting up for her son Todd to return home when she sees him walking down the street approaching a man. Suddenly Todd pulls out a knife and stabs the man. Her son is jailed. With support from her husband Kelly, Jen's trying to comprehend why her son would do such a thing. 

When Jen awakens the next morning, she sees that the calendar has turned back a day, and the murder never happened. How can this be? What does it mean?  

The author does a great job of making the story believable and very thought-provoking (What if we could live our life again, differently?) while manipulating the reader to draw the wrong conclusions about people and incidences. 

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

At Luther Springs, this is on the hallway wall as quilters walk into the large (chapel) room where we set-up for sewing. 

It was easy to praise Him for such a wonderful retreat experience. I love spending time in such a lovely setting; eating great food; and spending time with my bestest friends. We'll be back at Luther Springs the same Mother's Day weekend next year. Linda