UFO Retreat Report

Since my last post, thanks to medication, and much prayer, I am mobile again. Not sure just what the exact problem was, but thankful that I was able to be "on deck" for this weekends retreat.

It has been another great few days here at Number 8 where another group of quilters has gathered for a UFO retreat. There were some familiar faces who keep coming back, and some new, but it wasn't long before they all felt like they had known each other forever. Our young recruit (Pat's grand daughter) who I introduced to you a couple of weeks ago was back for more sewing time. I think she has caught the "bug"! They came from the city, from the South Coast of our state, local, and from just over the border. It was a full house, plus some day girls, and we had quite a few local visitors come to see what was happening.

I heard a comment from a lady, who said it felt like a sanctuary at Number 8, and the house across the road, had been called The Sanctuary. I was pleased to hear this, because I hope it is a Sanctuary for those who come. A place for some "time out" from the reality of their lives, where they don't have to think about the next meal to prepare, or the other distractions of home. 

Once again my garden has been seriously neglected, but nature has provided a touch of colour, with a lovely bed of daffodils, some stocks and freesias, that all smelled like spring. 

It wasn't long before everyone was busy working on previously unfinished projects, and in this photo there were a couple of the local visitors. The owners of the empty chairs were probably at the cutting table or the ironing board.  

 I tried to take progress photos of everyone's projects, but did miss a few. First up we have Maxine's collection of blue and yellow fabrics. These were some that had rescued from being thrown away, and there was a small project in mind. First up they were sorted, and some made into 4 patch units.

Then others were cut into strips.................

..............................laid out in a design...................

                                             ........until this small quilt was made...............

...................and after this it was time for some knitting.

Raylene spent more time sorting fabrics for me, and making more packs. I will  post more of this in another post. I will say that the trays of cut squares are being depleted, so there could be more scrap stash cutting in the future. My "fairy" has been here for about 18 days so far, and it will be sad to see here go home this week. So much has been achieved, and I am very thankful.

Val was working on a baby's quilt, but needed some help with the pattern instructions.........................

...................and then proceeded to work on it. Sorry I have no more photos of her progress.

There was also a lot of time spent on finishing the binding on a quilt that will be in our local exhibition in October, and quite a bit of time filling out the required entry forms that were given to Pat, who does the data entry for our show.

Our young recruit, Yasmin, worked on quite few projects and was very  happy with her achievements.
She started out by making some bowl cozies for gifts for friends.

How does it look as a hat??

                     And now we have a bag...............

                                and a mug cozy, and the top of a pin cushion to be...............

......................she has learnt how to "fudge" as this pattern was put on one of the bowl cozies, to camouflage a tear in the fabric!

Erica came with an unfinished Mystery Retreat quilt that needed to be finished. (October 2018 was when Graceful Moments was started and if you click on the word October it will take you to the post.)   Life had taken a "detour" recently and sewing time had taken a back seat. It was time to get the parts out of the case and see where she had got up to last.

By home time, Graceful Moments is almost finished for a photo with borders added, and just the mitred corners to be done.

Dot arrived with a fantastic collection of fabrics of African animals to make a doona cover. Some blocks had already been sewn into sections................

 .......and were then sewn into bigger parts, until it was laid out on the bed and the size was assessed.
A decision was then made to add blocks to the top and bottom to make it longer.

                          And a final pressing................

...................and a Ta Daaa moment!

Another UFO was then laid out on the table and with the help of other quilters, a decision was made on how to proceed. But sorry I don't have a photo of this project.

It was then time to pull another UFO out of the bag, and this was also a Mystery Retreat quilt from "awhile" ago. August 2017 is when Dot started this quilt, called  New Hats, Old Friends, and this was discovered after checking in the Visitor's book to see when she was last here.

The centre blocks had been sewn and it only needed borders, but I was constantly reminded that there were multiple borders!!

 Ta Daaa!! A finish and a happy smile from Dot. I love how this has turned out, and have another range of fabric that I hope to use in this same design.

Pat had planned to sew these blocks together last time when she was here, but got sidetracked with the Cleopatra Fans Die cutter and made a runner instead. So out of the bag it came, again, and laid out on the bed.

All the blocks are now sewn togther with the sashing, and wait for borders to be added. Lots of deadlines at the moment to finish things for our exhibition.

Another reason that Pat's sewing plans get waylaid is that she always seems to be helping others with their problems. This weekend she helped quite a few with their mitred borders. And there was no night sewing for Pat, as she is always keen to watch the cricket.

Robyn came for her first retreat in Bordertown, (and says it won't be her last), and was on a mission to finish her William Morris quilt. All the blocks had been appliqued, and now needed to be trimmed to size.

They were then sewn together and.............................

..................and then it was time to add the borders, which were mitred, with advice from Pat.

Ta Daa............... another finish.

On Friday I received a delivery from one of my suppliers of this lovely bundle of fabrics! I have already used one piece in a border for a Mystery retreat design.

These circle blocks are Robyn's next UFO and she needed a border fabric, so she had a choice to make, and ended up choosing 2 of these. Some rows of the blocks were sewn together and then it was time to go home, so it is still a UFO for another time.

One lady brought her cute little Elna machine, which is much easier to transport, and I thought it was a good photo, of the small and the big, with a large Bernina back to back.

I recently blogged about awards that customer quilts won in Adelaide and Melbourne, and one of the Melbourne ribbons arrived in the mail not long ago. The second one was delivered to me by Erica, who had been given it by Sherrel, whose quilt was the winner. It was a bit of fun to pin them both to my "front" and someone snapped a photo of me, and here it shows that winners are grinners! There might have been a few other comments that I won't post. (Thankyou Dot for the photo).

I stated earlier that I have not done any gardening recently, and in fact, I had not even been down into the vegie patch for some time. Maxine had been walking around outside, and told me about what she had seen, so I had to go and look, and just as well, because this is what I found. Probably would not have been long before the moths would have eaten this too. Don't think my winter patch has been very productive, so maybe summer will be better!!!! (I do have some onions and garlic that look ok though, so all is not completely lost.

Some lemons were gifted to me this weekend so I decided to use them to make Lemon Delicious, and I have to say it was very Delicious. I remember my grandma making this a long time ago, but I had not tried this recipe until now. Don't think it will be the last time though.

And I remembered the group photo this time, although one lady had already gone home before this was taken.

I mentioned earlier that we had a lot of local's calling in to visit, but this group rates a special mention. It's not everyday that we get a visit from the lycra brigade, so a photo of them leaving was necessary!! (Thanks Dot for the photo.) Possibly a photo of them in the quilting room would have been good, but it was rather crowded in there and I did not think of it anyway. It was very interesting to have a couple of males in the quilting room, who asked very different types of questions about Max and my business.

Now for a bit of background information about this visit. I have mentioned that we have a new pastor at our church, but I don't think I have mentioned that our pastor is a female, and in fact is also a quilter!!! Her name is Ruth (on the left),and one of my guests for the weekend happened to be her husband's sister. Ruth's sister ( who had also made quilts once), and her husband were also in town visiting for the weekend and they had all been for a bike ride, and called in to visit on their way home. (Are you confused about all the sisters and the brothers above?) They are no strangers to our town as all had lived here years ago. A few of us attended this morning's church service which was taken by Ruth and her husband with an awesome sermon by her brother in law! Quite the family affair.

Then it was time for lunch and the departure of some of the girls who had a distance to drive home. It is just Raylene and I here now, and time to finish this post and head to bed. Tomorrow I need to get back to some quilts with Max.

Blesssings, From Jude