Thursday, October 11, 2012

A Joyful Week

I have spent the past five days with a very nice group of about 30 women who get together each year at Asilomar for our own retreat.  We arrived on Sunday to beautiful weather, got settled in and started sewing.

I did not want to work on any original art as I find it too distracting in a room with a lot of people.  So I sewed pastel squares together to make a quilt for my niece's two year old daughter who never got a baby quilt from me.  She is also expecting another baby so I need to get a baby quilt made for that one too.  But I did finish Emi's quilt top and it won't take long to sandwich it and quilt it and send it on its way.

Monday was again absolutely beautiful and we took a short road trip into Pacific Grove to Back Porch Fabrics to load up on fabric we didn't need.  But I found some of the Sagritto line fabric and decided that I would do something with it.  So bought a bunch and away I went for the next twelve hours and got that top made by Tuesday morning.  Another beautiful day! 

Another field trip to another fabric store to see what else we didn't need.  Found some fun fabrics for a baby quilt and who knows what else but it sure was pretty.  Came back and finished up a simple top using a bunch of Kaffee Fassett fabrics that I had made a small quilt top with last year (and just quilted a week ago!) but this is very different and is in the "Modern Quilt" vein....ie., lots of white and a very simple design.  Then decided it was time to start working on some studies for my class with Elizabeth Barton.

Instead of doing collages in paper, I started doing a series of small quiltlets that are 6 x 6 inches on have either a black, white, or gray background and use only one circle and triangles of different shades of black to white (which just includes three shades of grey).  Did a bunch and then stopped to listen to Gail from Back Porch Fabrics as she came to show us some new stuff, including a scarf made from sari silk which needed to be ironing and then attached to a sticky water soluble sheet and then stitched.  Got mine done and rinsed out and even dried. I did the scarf today.  And then I started another one...this time using shot cotton which I tore into strips and will then lay out the same way at home.

Wednesday was another beautiful day and we spent some time wandering along the coast line in Pacific Grove which is just stunning.  Then back to sewing and working on various projects.

We got some rain and thunder and lightening on Thursday but it was still pretty nice.  The evenings have been cool but the days have been absolutely delicious!  The food is good and we get a brisk little  1/4 mile hike to get our food three times a day...it gets us off of our chairs.

Did some more of my triangle exercises and will post them after I get home and can take pictures and upload them.  I am having fun thinking about all the what ifs? and then trying them out.

Tomorrow morning we leave and return home.  After dropped off my three friends, I will need to do some fast laundry, pack up, find some food and load my husband, grandson Ashton and I in to the motorhome and then we take off for the weekend at Yosemite.  My daughter, her husband and our other grandson Jacob will be going also, just a little bit later.  What a wonderful time to be there.  They will be returning home on Sunday and who knows if we might stay an extra day or not.  I do feel the sewing machine calling me at home and tomorrow night I get another lesson from Elizabeth Barton so I won't be able to download it until we do get home.

Look for bunches of photos of what I have been doing early next week! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

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