Another great retreat!

I got back home from Gwen Marston's "Beaver Island Quilt Retreat" (now held in Elk Rapids, MI) Sunday night. It was, as usual, just fabulous. Let me tell you now, that Gwen has put the R-E-T-R-E-A-T back into quilt retreat. I usually go in a few days early so I can knock around the area, then the retreat starts Tuesday night, and goes until Sunday. During that time, we quilt, we laugh, we shop, we swim, we eat, we talk a lot....any time and as much as we want. Each year there is a theme, and you can do something with that theme...or not. This year's theme was pieced and applique quilts.

On Sunday, I waited for my friend Wendy to arrive from California. Then we went grocery shopping, swimsuit shopping and unpacked. Monday we went to Charlevoix, and Petoskey. Of course, we had to hit the cute little Hearts to Holly quilt shop in Charlevoix. On Tuesday, we went back to Charlevoix, but this time, we followed the coast north and drove through the Tunnel of Trees (after going to the quilt shop again), and then found Kim Claire at her Flower Lady and Woolery farm. She had the most delightful sheep, llamas and angora rabbits. Of course, I had to come home with some of THAT fiber, doncha know?

The lower part of this unit is our "apartment" for the week. The window on the left is my bedroom, the one on the right near the door is the living room/dining area. Behind those two rooms are 2 more bedrooms and a bath and a half. We had most of our lunches and some of our snacks on this picnic table in the sun!

This the view out our window facing Elk Lake.

Elk Lake is spring fed and absolutely crystal clear! Wendy swam most every day, while I dipped my toes in the water or I was a "lifeguard" for when there was a potential for sharks. LOL!

Lifeguard duty was rough!

Here I am on Monday, dipping my toes into Lake Huron. The bridge behind me is to Mackinaw Island.

Here's Wendy at the Cherry Hut in Beulah where we just HAD to go to have the best ever cherry pie. Did you know that this area is the Cherry Capital of the World?

Wendy with her beautiful "new" featherweight from her sister Sue.

Applique and tea on the veranda, anyone?

Wendy with her Mail Order Stars and beginning serpentine vine, Gwen and me with my Oriental Anvils and serpentine vine and bubbles on our last night.

Look at all those bubbles! I had taken the blocks and then I figured out what I wanted to do with them after seeing some of Gwen's settings with pieced blocks and applique borders.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the things that were accomplished this past week. There's something for everyone!

And here's mine

Inmy haste to show you part of Gwen's retreat, I forgot to post my own!

I am not usually very productive in a group setting....I'm much more social and looking at whatever everyone else is doing. BUT, for the first time, I actually finished something! This will be for my son who doesn't want a traditional quilt. He will be 37 this October, so this will be his birthday present. I think I will call it "Straight Arrow?" It's about 72" long by 55" wide

And I'm away!

Tomorrow is the big day! I'm off to Elk Rapids, MI to spend a glorious week at the White Birch Lodge with Gwen Marston and the other BIQR (Beaver Island Quilt Retreat)second week campers! This is the 25th year for her retreats, and I've had the pleasure of sharing the last two of them, plus this year. This year's theme is working with solids. Since I am sort of a wild child and I love texture and bright colors, this is going to be a brain challenge for me. I'm not sure what I will come home with, but I will share whatever it is next week.

In the meantime, I DID finish the Fall Crawl sampler quilt. Here's a picture of it on my bed, and you can also see the triple border I used for it. The fabric line is 12 Days of Christmas by Nancy Halvorsen/Benartex. I really am happy to have a seasonal quilt for this time of the year! I hope it makes an exciting sale for the shop(s) while I am gone.


I've been very busy (in addition to moving) getting the last of the garden produce processed for the pantry. Here's just half of the green beans - the jars are three rows deep. Also on the shelf is canned chicken - our local grocery store was having a grand opening, and the skinless/boneless chicken breasts were only $1.87 per lb. How could I not can some of that while the canner was out? Low fat, low salt, and quite yummy, too.

There's a few jars of salsa on the shelf, too, but more has been made. Hubby is in charge of that, though. Here he is with the latest garden bounty after we stopped at all the neighbors and shared with them first. I think he has at least a couple more weeks of picking to do there...unless of course the house sells first.

We met one of our neighbors who walk by our house every morning. In passing, she offered some apples from her tree, and since then, I've canned 8 quarts of pie filling, 10 pints of applesauce and 9 pints of just plain apples. I told her NO MORE! I think we are ready for winter, said the ant to the grasshopper!

And last but not least, we had another birthday quilt day with the Amazing Quilt Babes. We all did paper piecing (the birthday girl's choice) which I am not fond of. But I AM fond of Ibby, our birthday girl, so I pieced along with the rest of them. Aren't the blocks beautiful?

FINALLY!

I know, I know, I know! It's been almost an entire week since I said I would tell more about the retreat. But, life somehow gets in the way, and I've been playing, ahem, working at the LQS all week. They are getting ready to be a first time vendor at a quilt show next weekend, and they needed all the extra hands that could be spared! I've been cutting fat quarters, fat quarters, fat quarters, and making travel size pillowcase kits, and some more fat quarters.

So, the retreat was fantastic, as usual! My friend, Carolyn and I arrived on Sunday afternoon, a full two days ahead of schedule. That allowed us to get the grocery shopping done, a little sight seeing, a little quilt shop hopping, and get all set up to sew before the rest of the gals arrived on Tuesday afternoon. A few more gals from out of state arrived Monday, so that was nice to get caught up with them too.

Gwen shared all her fabulous basket quilts, since that was this year's theme. Some of them were blocks, some were tops, some were antique quilts, some were contemporary, some were liberated. We also had a wonderful show and tell from other participants. I think there were a total of 35 quilters this year - so show and tell was great!!!

This is Carolyn and I on the second night, trying to figure out how this quilt of Gwen's will fit into one of our suitcases - and more importantly, would she miss it!


Isn't this just the cutest little reproduction basket quilt? And the handle sort of took a life of their own, I think. One of our class friends called this her pocket purse quilt since her kids couldn't ever figure out whether their gramma carried a purse or a handbag.


And, this is our crazy friend Kitty from Louisville, showing off how she matches her big purse quilt that she played with in the class. No, she wasn't wearing the water bottle, but I just couldn't get it out of the view! LOL!



There were oh, so many more really great quilts done this week, but once again, I am not able to post more of them. So many folks want to share their work on their own, and I need to respect that. But, believe me when I tell you that their creativity was so inspirational!

I worked on some small 8" baskets in 1800's reproductions, and finished up the center of a lap quilt, then started on some 12" blocks that I just love. I still need to add the borders, but that can always happen later.


Because Traverse City is the Cherry Capitol of the United States, one of the little shops there carries a lot of cherry fabrics. So, I went shopping! Imagine that! So my 12" baskets will be all of cherry fabrics. I used Gwen's handle technique where you just fold a bias strip (3 times as wide as you want)into thirds, baste it with the machine to hold it folded, then simply stitch along the edge as you lay it into the curve you want for the handle. These are much more my style because they are playful and happy. I decided to piece the handles with different stripes and to use ric-rac on most of them, too.

Hi! Ho! Silver! Away!

I worked today at the LQS, and managed to actually come home with only 9 spools of thread in colors I didn't have, and of course needed! Why in the world would I need 9 different colors of thread at this moment?

Welllllllllll...can you guess?

I'm going to Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Retreat (not on Beaver Island anymore) in Elk Rapids, MI!!!!

This is me last year, wading in Elk Lake which is at the edge of where our retreat building is. I couldn't believe the water was as clear OR as warm as it is!

Yep, it's the second week in September, so where else would I be? This year the theme is baskets, and I have all the backgrounds cut (45 different) and all of the basket fabrics chosen, and cut into smaller manageable (read that as packable) pieces.

What is so nice about her retreats, is that she really has put the R-E-T-R-E-A-T back into quilt retreat. She sets the theme, and most everyone plays along, but some bring other things to work on too. There is minimal structured events, and mostly comraderie between about 25-30 women. This year, I plan on sleeping in a bit, sitting by the lake, reading AND working on my baskets. At this moment, I'm all packed except the last minute stuff like my toothbrush, and my eyeliner:)

Here's Gwen and I (me, a few pounds heavier then) last year...and I think I've cropped out almost all of the threads that were on my shirt!


In honor of this trip, I bought a Tutto Machine on Wheels case. I so love my Pfaff that I don't want to sew on anything else. Especially HSTs that are 1/2" finished! So, we'll see how this works toting it on the plane.

I return next Sunday, the 16th. You all be good and get lots of sewing done!