Quilting Retreat Report

Last weekend, I sewed for three days straight at the semi-annual Oxford Quilter's Guild retreat.  Early in the pandemic, I cut up many of my scraps into 2.5" squares and put them into piles by colour into a plastic shoebox.  I challenged myself to make quilts using these squares to use them up.  I have made several quilts with these squares but still had lots left.  I brought them and some gray and white print yardage with me to the retreat.  I had designed this quilt in my head and put all the nine patches together at the retreat. It measures 44.5 by 44.5"--a great size for a fun baby quilt.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I still have lots of squares left.  There will be more quilts made with these squares sometime in the future.  The colours are random and I like how it sparkles.  I have a quilting plan and hope to quilt this one soon.  The backing is in my stash so I am ready to go. 

As an outreach project, the Oxford Guild is making pillowcases for Indwell, a charity with provides supportive housing for homeless and people at risk of homelessness in our community.  Everyone in the guild was asked to make 3-4 pillowcases each and I made two at the retreat.  I have already made one and have the fabric ready to make a fourth one this week. 

Next, I pin basted two quilts--I hade the use of two tables at the retreat to do this --much easier on the back and knees than basting on the floor at home.  One quilt was quilted at the retreat with my walking foot.  I have picked out some green solid fabric for the binding and will be adding that soon. 

I have been admiring this Film in the Fridge free pattern for a while and decided to give it a try with a jelly roll that was given to me.  I added some solids from my stash to make this quilt top. The online pattern uses 3" strips for the blocks--so I scaled it down so I could use the jelly roll.  I did some Quilty math to maximize my use of the strips so each piece in the block is 3.5 by 2.5".  This top is now in the "to be quilted" pile. 

I purchased a kit from Gotham Quilts (based in NYC) to make a sewing bag at QuiltCon.  I read through the instructions, cut out the pieces, and applied iron on interfacing at the retreat.  I am now ready to sew it together.  I love the fun NYC prints!

This was posted on the door to the room where we were sewing at the retreat!

The food was delicious.  Lunch one day featured Italian Wedding Soup and gourmet sandwiches.  

When I got tired of machine sewing, I pulled out my counted cross stitch project.  I managed to finish this one this week and will have it framed soon. 

You may remember that I was not quite finished my sunflowers when I started the above winter stitching.  I am back to working on the sunflowers now.  Here is where I left off and where I am now. 

We went to pick up Finn earlier this week for his annual stay with us while our daughter is busy at work. I took a picture of my daughter's murder mystery cross stitch while we were there. 

People who go to the retreat donate door prizes and then everyone gets something to take home.  I won this fun puzzle. 

Spring is in the air at my house.  I bought these bunny tea towels in Raleigh. 

Like many other places, spring has come way too early to our area and my primroses are in bloom.  This is very concerning!

I will link up with Kathy in the morning for Slow Sunday Stitching and with the Rainbow Scrap challenge folks as well. The colour for March is purple.  There are lots of purple squares in my scrappy 9 patch quilt at the beginning of this post.