Remainder of Retreat

We all arrived at Kerry’s for a nine o’clock start last Saturday.  It was to be a big day of stitching.  This is the little pile that greeted me.  Doesn’t it look lovely and neat and how much time did Kerry save me by already cutting the blocks!

There is a lovely corner in the studio with all the necessary tea things and can you spy some rather lovely little butterfly cakes with home made lemon curd.  Oh, how we roughed it. 

Kerry came around and got us all started on our projects.  Here she is discussing Sandy’s quilt with her, while Sue is already busy stitching.

Before long, Sue had made her first ever Dresden plate and was thrilled at how easy it was to achieve.

Meanwhile Jenny was busy sewing away.

Not everyone was quite as industrious, but you have to be warm before you can be productive, don’t you Lea.

Chooky had quite a challenge working out fabric placements on her pretty pink quilt.  She and Kerry were designing it on the fly.  You can read more about it here.  It really turned out well.

Meanwhile, I was trashing the joint.  It never takes me long.  I just seemed to create a pile of pinned blocks.  I never did take a photo of them when they were all nicely pieced blocks.

Before we knew it we were being called to lunch in Kerry’s garden.  What a lovely spot to sit and enjoy homemade chowder and cheesy bread.

Once we were all fed and rested it was back into it.  We had lots more sewing to do.  That was why were were here, wasn’t it?  Progress was now being made.  Sandy was starting to get her blocks up on the design wall.

Jenny had the fun task of working out the colour placements on her lovely quilt, with some guidance from Kerry.

Chooky was being quite industrious.

Trish, had to be hard at it as she didn’t choose a simple quilt pattern.  Oh, no, she had to pick a design that required her to sew blocks together, then have Kerry cut them up, sew them together again and have Kerry cut them up another time before she sewed them together again into their final design.  She wasn’t silly.  Imagine how long this would take without Kerry doing the cutting.

There are several versions of how the block could be placed together.  It was quite fun playing with the placement.  This is not how it finally looked.  A very lucky bride is going to be the recipient of this quilt.

Meanwhile, the quiet achiever, Miss Jules, was making great progress on her project.  You can see Lea’s pretty floral drunkard’s path being pinned on top of the shop sample quilt.  The colours really are lovely.

As can be expected, things started to get a little silly as the afternoon progressed.  No Chooky, you cannot add your blocks to Sandy’s quilt.

While Miss Jules was still sewing away on her lovely quilt.

Lea went for a wander out into the paddock.  The light was just lovely in the afternoon.  Yes, she did do lots of stitching, I just missed taking any photos of her.

We finally downed tools at about five o’clock. I think we were all ready to have a break from our machines by then. It really was a big day, but we all had such a lot to show for our efforts.

Back at the cabins there was a little show and tell.  This is the quilt that Trish made at last year’s retreat.  She really doesn’t select the simple, quick patterns.  The colours are so lovely and rich.

After dinner the furniture was pushed back and Chooky and I had a play with my blocks.  The quilt is really BIG!  96 inches!  We had fun crawling around putting the blocks this way and that, getting lots of input from all the ladies and finally settling on this layout. We then did it all again with Lea’s quilt.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo.  However, her layout is different and the colours she chose gives hers a totally different feel. 

Working out the designs like this was so good.  When we returned to Kerry’s on Sunday morning we just had to piece the big blocks together.  That process took longer than I expected, as I was being very careful not to muddle them up.  I was able to finish mine just on lunch time. Here it is, all together, in the sunshine.

Back inside, Miss Jules was making great progress with hers.

Sandy was up to the borders, Lea had her drunkard’s path put together and the others were also making fine progress.

After lunch I packed up my stuff and said my goodbyes, as I had a six hour drive ahead of me and didn’t want to get home too late. 

It had been a wonderful experience being a part of this lovely group of ladies.  We talked about all sorts of things while we sewed and ate.  We didn’t mention politics or any other deep and meaningful topic, but we laughed and laughed.  Remember, what was said on retreat stays on retreat.  I think everyone returned to their homes scattered far and wide feeling much refreshed and ready to face the world.  Kerry, you certainly spoilt us.

I’ll leave you with this photo to finish off.  Just to cap things off, the biggest full moon of the year was on show on Sunday night as we all drove home.  It was stunning.