Retreat at Dayspring

 For the last 10 years, our Guild has spent a weekend at Dayspring in Ellenton as a quilt retreat.

The property belongs to the Episcopal diocese and has a small chapel with Florida roof.

 We have a large well-lit room to sew in, and meals are provded.

The retreat committee this year put on a lovely tea party for us on Saturday night with delicious cakes and fruit.

In the middle of the property there is a lake facing the dining room where you can see the fish jump.

I did quite a lot of piecing on a new quilt, and took my Featherweight to do it on.  I wanted to get more familiar with this old machine and knew there were others present who could help me if I ran into problems - and of course I did !  Nevertheless, the Featherweight is a real pleasure to sew on, makes a lovely straight stitch and is small enough that you can still talk to the people sitting opposite !  Every year I think I will get so much done, and take far too many projects.  It's fun being able to choose what you want to work on !  And also this year I did quite a lot of shopping - one of the shops nearby had a sale, and I was able to buy some more of the Winterthur museum's John Hewson prints.  

PQ Mystery 2012

Yesterday was the annual mystery quilt day for our Guild, the PQs.  The team planning this did a great job and picked a very good pattern.  When you are choosing your fabrics for a mystery, it's harder than usual because you really don't know what the quilt will look like, and in this case there was no cutting ahead of time, so we didn't even know how small the fabric pieces were going to be !

I chose some FQs in blues and browns from my reproduction fabrics, and I am very pleased how this is coming out.  Anyway, here are a few pics of the day.  I have to say the red and white was absolutely stunning, and my favorite, because I love two color quilts.  Thanks go to Cathy, Lynda, Lynn and Pauline, who organized the day and finished all their fabulous quilts to show us !
Sorry about picture quality, think it's time for a new camera :-)

PQ Block of the Month

I have been working on the next round of the BOM we are offering our quilt guild.  I am just using scraps and the center is an old applique block I had.  I am quite enjoying the process but think I need some remedial piecing help !!!

I am so excited about the exchange in Pierrefeu.  Lou sent us her photo album yesterday and I can tell you the show was fabulous, lots of boutis and all different kinds of projects.  I have made a promise to myself to go one time (maybe even next year !).  You can really see that everyone thoroughly enjoys what they are doing and I am glad that the art is continuing.  I do not know yet which purse Janet and I are receiving in the exchange, I will wait for Lou to send us pictures.  There will be some links in coming days for pictures, I will post them as soon as I get them.

PQs BOM 2012

For our Guild, the Procrastinating Quilters, Janet Roni and I are planning the BOM for 2012.  We decided on a medallion style quilt with an applique center, but wanted to offer options for others who prefer to piece.  The first photo shows the center cut from a very large poppy print, the second one is the center made from an "orphan" applique block I had.  I am still working on the applique block planned for the quilt, it is on a black background.  Janet is making the pieced blocks picked for the center.  I am hoping that a lot of people will participate since there are so many options to use favorite techniques.  We are splitting it up into 6 parts, and offering the patterns every second month.  At the end, the quilt will be about 58" square.  What do you think so far ?