Weekend Report........

As promised I have returned, although not as soon as I had hoped. I have had a large custom show quilt on Max, and I had to finish that and "clear the head space" before I could take the time needed to write this report. I did download all the photos on Monday night, and that took me a couple of hours, deciding which ones to post, and by then I decided I needed sleep. In fact, I have picked up the laptop a few times since then with the same intention, but each time the eyes got heavy and bed won.

But last night I finished that quilt!!!!!!! And this morning I was out of bed by 5.30am, ready for another day, and lots of catching up. By 4pm tomorrow afternoon I will have another house full of eager quilters, ready for another mystery case weekend. (And there needs to be some shopping done, and food prepared for them yet!) Today it is Angels sewing day, and perhaps this quilter needs to work on some of their quilts in the queue??

But, I digress, so back to the topic for this post.

I try to vary the "allocation" process each time, and what we do, and this time it was a bit quicker, so they could get straight into sewing. The first to "choose" a quilt was Alison. They don't really know what they are choosing, as the cards with a picture of the quilt, are all upside down on the table. They all received a pick, in turn, and then could decide whether they are happy and want to keep it, or swap, or have one more pick. I think there was only one person who changed. I do want them to be happy with what they choose, so give them this option. (This still leaves a good range of choices for the group coming this weekend.)

Time to open their cases, and see what they have. (We did have the allocation process while they ate their evening meal of soup, to save some time).

These were there choices.

This was the first finish for the weekend, and no, it's not a mystery quilt. Alison came a day earlier than the others, for some needed "time out", and stitched her Antelope Canyon quilt together on Friday. (Mine is hanging up so she could see which bits to sew next, instead of looking at the instructions each time! And I have just discovered that it is 2 years since I made mine, and surprise, surprise, it's still in the queue, waiting to be quilted!!??)

I shall post progress photos of each person and what they were sewing.

First up is Chris, who came for her second mystery retreat. When she chose this quilt, called Bear Lake, she was rather concerned about the half square triangles and perhaps it was too difficult for her? But as the weekend went on, she was very happy that she kept it, and gained a lot of confidence as she worked her way through the case.

Friday evening everyone was keen to keep sewing, and it was almost 11pm when the last ones stopped for the night. (Maybe this is why I needed some earlier nights this week?)

It was easy to look at this picture, and think of how many HST blocks there were in the whole quilt, but the key is to work on one block at a time, which is what Chris did. (There were 256 hst!!)

It was Monday, and after steady progress, it was time for the final border!

Alison's quilt was made up of lots and lots of 2 1/2" squares, 297, in fact! I have called this quilt Stacked Scraps, and is inspired from a quilt that I saw online somewhere. Sorry I can't remember where, and if you know the origin of this, I would be very happy to acknowledge that. There is a great array of all sorts of fabrics in this, but it works.

Pleased to get the borders on, and call it done!

And because she finished earlier, Alison had another project to work on, and competed a Pokemon shirt for her son!

Margaret picked a card with a quilt called Letters from Grace. This was a quilt pack that I brought back from the US, and I used the fabrics, but adapted their pattern for use as a Mystery case. The fabrics showed up as quite dark in the scan, and Margaret was not too keen when she saw the picture on the card, but after I showed her the actual fabrics, she changed her mind. (Mostly the fabrics scan true to colour, but these were not so good).

Not long after this pic was taken, some serious unpicking was needed. Note the cream arrows in the top photo, and the dark ones in this one?? They needed to be cream!

                                             This is better!

                              A very happy camper with the borders on!

A queue at one of the ironing stations, was a good chance for a chat and a laugh.

Sadie's quilt involved a lot of trimming, and as a result was not finished when she went home. I have received a photo since of an almost finish.

Val was off to a good start, making her 4 patch units for her quilt called Twinkle, Twinkle..............

..............and then she was slowed down when the next bag told her to make 85 of these units........

                                           ............and a star is born!

This striped fabric was put to use for a border. It was in a jelly roll pack, that were used for the 4 patch units, but I didn't want to use this stripe in those, as it would be a bit "in your face!" So I decided to use it for a border. But, there was only 4 pieces, and not enough to go all the way around. (I did have another pack that had another 4 lengths in it, but only needed 2. And I was reluctant to open the other pack, just for 2 pieces!) So I added green to each end of the borders, as you can see in the photo below, and it worked great. Sometimes a problem with fabric quantities, works out to be a great design idea at the end!!

                                 Time for the final border.....................

.........................and a finish! Don't you just love that striped border? (I do!)

There was time for cuppas, in between the work,.........................

.................and a visit by Erica, who was unable to attend the weekend, but managed to come and say hello.

Sherrel's quilt, was made of soft floral fabrics, called Cottage Garden, and made with the scrappy trips technique.

Time for the border...........................

and a finish!

All the girls had started their quilts on Friday evening, and were well on the way. Saturday morning I received a phone call from Jean, asking if I still had a space at the table? Yes. Did I have any purple quilts in the cases? Sure do. So we added another lady to the table and Jean came to sew a quilt called Mystic Garden.

Another bit of unpicking occurred, and I think most of the girls "bonded" with their unpickers at some stage of the weekend. 

                             More stars are appearing.

Due to a later start then the others, Jean still had 2 side borders to do when it was time to depart on Monday. I am pleased to see this quilt come out of the case, as it has remained, not chosen, since last year.

This was Pat's quilt, called Atomic Garden, and named after the range of fabrics in the quilt.

Pat did not sew with us on Sunday, but still managed to get this far by Monday afternoon. She still had to sew her mitred corners but happily held it up for the photo.

The cutting table was busy place most of the weekend.

And of course we had to have a group photo with a group of very happy ladies.

There endeth another fantastic weekend where friends gather and friendships are made or renewed. The range of topics discussed are many and the world's problems are solved! Maybe the world's leaders should attend a quilting retreat and listen to the conversations??  But mostly there is lots of laughter and fun, and everyone goes home refreshed and ready to face reality again.

I am pleased to report that after missing out on rain recently, we have had good falls this week, and their is almost an inch of in the rain gauge. ( About 23 mls in the metric).

Be back soon, with another retreat report.

Blessings, From Jude