I spent the weekend on a quilt retreat with friends. We stayed in a gorgeous location here in Colorado, right on the Arkansas River at a B&B called Liars’ Lodge. The rooms are comfy, the food is superb and the sewing is uninterrupted, unless you choose to walk outside and listen to the river’s roar, or soak up the sunshine, or just enjoy the view of the majestic Collegiate Peaks. All in all, it’s a vacation to die for.
Getting the car all packed up is tricky, especially if you’re traveling with others. I drove alone this time, so space wasn’t too much of a concern.
I take more projects than necessary, because once I ran out of things to sew, and now I’m paranoid about it. I worked on six different projects in all. Today I have photos of several of them.
These hexagons are from a pattern in the October 2008 issue of McCall’s Quilting, a sister publication to Quiltmaker. The issue is available for purchase here. The quilt pattern is called Merry-Go-Round. I love how this is shaping up. One hint: a design wall is essential for keeping track of the rows of half-hexagons as you sew them together.
I also worked on these spiderweb blocks.
One gal pieced her very first quilt:
It will be a gift for a new grandbaby yet to be born.
Two close friends worked on a Trip Around the World “buddy quilt.” The pattern is written so that two people work together and each one ends up with a quilt:
They stayed up very late to finish. The next morning, we found this scene:
The words below read like this:
Date: Oct. 4, 2009
Time of Death: 2:30 am
Laurie Lopez
Didn’t survive first quilt retreat
Call Diane
Notice they placed the weapon of choice in the hand of the blue outline:
We laughed ’til we cried!
If you’ve never been on a quilt retreat, I would highly recommend it. There’s nature all around, depending on your location:
The experience is filled with friends and fun and food. It’s one of the most soul-satisfying things you’ll ever do.
Women of like mind, all set up to create whatever their hearts desire, interrupted only by the call of “dinner’s ready” or an occasional walk outdoors to relax tired shoulders–it just doesn’t get any better than this.
Next post, I’ll share a few more pictures of things I worked on.
While I’m jealous of the retreat, what really, really depresses me is being in southern California while the aspens are turning in Colorado. Being a teacher, I NEVER get to see that. The last time was in 1966. Really. I was a child. So when I retire, that’s our first trip. Aspens in September in Colorado.
My BIG DREAM goal for this year was to take a retreat each month in 2009!! It is a great incentive to keep me on track with my full time happiness job of longarm quilting for others. I’m glad to report that I’m right on target. I run two large retreats for our guild in the Spring and Fall. The other retreats are small and I’m often a “fill-in” for someone that cancels at the last minute. October will find me at the Houston Int’l Quilt Festival. My retreat bags are packed for November for a retreat at Create-AwayCottage in Collinsville, TX. December will find me back at the Bunkhouse Retreat in Quitman, Texas. Find a way to make it happen . . . I did.