Retreat

I just got back from a retreat weekend.  As usual (I go twice a year) it was a fabulous time, filled with laughter and friends, new projects and challenges, and lots of quilting.  When I arrived Thursday afternoon, my plan was to check into my room, do some stitching on a binding, and try to find some other attendees to join me for dinner. But the hotel is so wonderful, they allowed us to setup and start quilting right away, even though the retreat didn't officially start until Friday morning. So when I arrived, I joined some other early birds and we got right to work :)

The fun didn't stop all weekend, but I managed to stay committed and finished 3 of my own projects plus a challenge project that was presented on Saturday night.  Here are 2 of my complete projects.  First my least favourite.  Lots of people seemed to like this one, but it is much busier than I had expected.  I think if the grey was lighter it might be better.  I am going to try to find a plain border for it, in the hopes that might calm it down.

And this one is my favourite of the ones I made at retreat.  It worked out just like I hoped. The green border was a late addition, and it could perhaps have a multi-coloured border rather than the plain one.  But overall I really like this quilt. The other option for next time is to replace the half-slashes with just empty space and float the quilt with a single plain border.

And while at retreat I was reminded once again that quilters are such generous and helpful people. For every tool I managed to forget (and there were plenty) someone was always willing to lend one.  And people lent me aids and had lots of suggestions for dealing with my sore back.  The most useful one - stop quilting for a while! was the hardest advice to take :)  Hopefully next time I can be more organized, and less grumpy about my back.