Retreat

This weekend our small quilting group at church had a retreat at Camp Fitch, a YMCA camp in Pennsylvania. The 7 of us arrived Friday around dinner time. After we brought  in all our quilting stuff we had a potluck supper and spent a short time visiting and then we got busy. Everyone brought their own projects to work  on and some of us accomplished A LOT, others (me) not so much. I couldn't decide what I wanted to bring after finding that my quilt top that I wanted to layer up and machine quilt was too big for the backing I had pieced. I will work something out but it was not something I wanted to deal with this week end. I ended up bringing my Q Snap frame and my BIG UFO to hand quilt, along with some smaller projects to work on.

This is the corner where I was working. Through the windows behind my quilt frame you can see the lodge where we slept. We had very nice accommodations but spent very little  time there except to sleep. The room where we sewed and spent most of our time was right across the hall from the dining hall. We were served 3 meals on Saturday and Sunday breakfast. We shared meal times with the  father and son Indian Guides from various YMCAs. The food was plain, wholesome and served family style or buffet and one person from each table picked up family style serving dishes for their own table and everyone cleaned up their own table afterward. It was all done very efficiently. It was great not to have to cook or worry about what or where we were going to eat.

Our  sewing area was spacious with good lighting and great scenery. This photo was taken from about the center of the room lengthwise. We could have as many tables as we needed and they were large and sturdy.



Debbie Was working on a Ribbon Star quilt, a variation of the Friendship star. she got all of her HSTs done and finished some of the blocks.

Here is Debbie standing on the table in order to be far enough away to get a good  shot of Kim's quilt which is on the floor below.  

Above is Kim working on the border and the sleeve of another quilt that she was finishing up. She was very industrious, putting the finishing touches on 2 large quilts, started and finished 2 table toppers, embellished a sweatshirt and started a HST quilt from 2 charm packs.





Diane is a new quilter and was given a lovely little Featherweight in wonderful almost like brand new condition by a cousin. 

Darlene pieced a back for a signature wedding quilt and it was a very big project. By the end of our retreat she had the quilt layered up and pin basted.

Betty machine quilted this Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt and she got the quilting finished and the binding on by the end of the day.Betty had a slight disaster mishap she put a 3 - 4 inch gash in her border through all 3 layers. Wonder Under came to the rescue and she is going to put a label over it on the back and an applique something on the front. It will be a design decision.

Dorine finished quiting 2 baby quilts and here she is looking over her Jellyroll strips and Eleanor Burns' Whirligig pattern. She finished all the components and had 2 finished blocks  by the time she was ready to pack everything up and head for home. 

You can see pictures of our 2010 retreat here with some shots of the lake. I took a picture of the lake this year but it was overcast and gray and the sky and lake blended in a mass of gray.
It was a fun weekend and we are going to do it again in March and then again in September 2012.