What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I'm just home from a 4-day stitching retreat in rural central Ohio!  Do you have the opportunity to get away from your at-home sewing area and devote yourself to some stitching?  I hope so because I find it's a great way to refresh my state of mind!

I've been hosting and attending retreats for many years.  I've graduated (finally) from taking more than two people could accomplish in the allotted time to a reasonable assortment that keeps me busy and delivers a morale boost of reaching a few goals (not necessarily "finishes").   This time I also ...

I have returned to Oregon from 

the Idaho Retreat

I attended last week...

Happy Wednesday Friends! I posted this on one of the social media channels yesterday: Musings over coffee:Quilting is a gift filled with promise, hope, simplicity, complexity, beauty, hot messness. Each one of us gets to show the sublime uniqueness of our self, it is sometimes incredibly vulnerable and sometimes guarded like a castle surrounded by… Continue reading Coming Soon!

Here are Show 'n Tell images

from the Quilters at the Idaho Retreat 

Idaho Quilt Retreat

 I have been using design boards

aka flannel boards for years...

You can prop the design board up

in a book stand or small easel to keep it vertical

while ...

Staying at Spring House Retreat involved a lot of FIRSTs. 

We had the cat wrangling incident -- more on that tomorrow. We were ten people, which is the largest group that we've ever had and I wasn't sure if I would like it. Too many conversations at the same time, too crowded, too noisy, etc. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and YES there were times when there were too many conversations going on at the same time but I was in the corner and I just tuned them out! Actually, it's not the number ...

 It was bound to happen. I've been so lucky with all the bushwhacking I've been doing. Zero issues with plants that didn't agree with me. 

However, yesterday, I decided to explore a trail that wasn't good, and now I'm in trouble. Let's start at the beginning. 

I thought I'd go geocaching one more time, but I got about 3 KM from the house when I realized I did NOT have a pen. OK -- so maybe I'll go exploring and see if there's anything easy to get, and I'll go today ...

 Oh my -- they will have to pry all ten of us out of this house tomorrow! In the past, we've consistently filled the retreat house with the maximum number of people, and we were pretty happy, although we were always cramped, especially for sewing. Then during the pandemic, only a few of us could go, and we liked the peace and having plenty of room to work. 

So this house can sleep 12, and we weren't sure if we wanted to fill it, so we came with ten. But it could easily hold twelve people, and for sewing ...

So if I were to attend a quilt retreat in heaven, I would want it to be a super retreat. Well, I'm not in heaven, but I think we hit the jackpot in retreat houses. Yes -- I'm on quilt retreat again, and this one got planned simply because this new house opened, and I WANTED to be part of the action. 

If I were looking for the ideal retreat, this is it. It's hard to find fault with anything here. You can check it out - it's called Spring House Retreat. Let's see -- it's ONE ...

 I think my neighbor heard me! While my lights came on at dusk, her house was dark! Maybe they are not on a timer. Or perhaps she only turns them on when she has company coming? Either way, I hope we don't get to see them often. I've spoken to the neighbor between us, and she hates them also as they shine into her house. Hopefully, we'll all be neighborly and get along, but the people living there are pretty elusive. You rarely see them. Actually, I think it's just one person who lives there. 

But ...

Look at this gorgeous Quilt ! 

Just had to start out with Linda's

wonderful Pumpkin Seed quilt top: 

I brought my vintage Yo Yo top to the retreat

for Show 'n Tell:

I spent this week with the

Harlan Valley Quilters

at the HVQ Spring Quilt Retreat 2022

I decided I want this quilt to fit my bed,

so I added more of the white background

around all 4 borders...

I have the background fabric ironed

and ready to baste...

 While it is always great to be at a quilt retreat, it's always fun to return home. Again the weather cooperated, and it was one of the best days I've seen in a long time. How could you not feel happy and excited! 

I did go for a short walk in the morning and decided I'd better get myself back to the sewing machine to get something done! I managed to get the center of the flannel quilt done. 

Part of the flannel quilt done!

I still have MANY squares of flannel left, and I think I ...