Retreat Results and Blog Hop Announcement

I'm back in the shop today and thought I'd share my progress from the retreat I went to last week. Annually there is a gathering of 'Quilters without Borders' (we're from Canada and the U.S.) at Lutherhaven Camp on Lake Coeur 'dAlene.

We had a bit of a rainy/muddy year and we were displaced due to a fire in our normal room prior to our arrival, but they were very accommodating and we knew what to expect before arrival.

Especially good 'seat mates' this year and the chef's attention to my food sensitivities made it a really productive and enjoyable time.

I took many projects, but got two finished and significant progress on a third.

This one was started last fall and just needed a border. Using the 'bunting' as the feature in the border meant I needed to design how the piecing would go together to make it work. Most of that 'hard' work I did before leaving so was ready to just cut and sew when I got there. This can be kitted for the most part from my shop and is loosely interpreted from Tricia Cribb's Turning Twenty Again design for the center blocks. I'll write up the border instructions if you'd like them as well. The line is from Quilting Treasures and features the letter "B" --including the Beatitudes-- which I think is very cool. Her artistry has included them in a subtle and fun way.

The next project was started several years ago as a class sample, but I worked too closely with each student to complete it myself. I had the designs worked out for each block, but needed to assemble the blocks and work on how I wanted to add the curved stripe border (not part of the pattern).

I never put the original block ideas on a design wall, just grouped them and took a photo so I had a rough idea, so not sure  this is exactly what I intended, but I'm happy with it now. From the original pattern I trimmed the outer border down so there was just the ability to leave the point of the accent triangle that goes out into the border and then added the curved stripe. The accent fabric is a peppered cotton and the border fabric, although not symmetrical, I mitered it so that it closely came together and just allows your eye to continue around at the corner.

The third project, Rondure -Electric City has really been in the works for a long time. I originally started it after moving to the Grand Coulee area. There is another small town here named Electric City and the colorations of this one are inspired by the arcs of electricity that might be seen on electrical wires --we don't see it around here generally, but when I think of 'high voltage' situations and since we have a lot of those around here (we're here to generate a lot of the west coast power needs through the Grand Coulee Dam hydropower plants) you might see some major arcs.

I got the 2nd round blocks sewn onto the center and made 3 (and appropriate multiples) of the 4 blocks in Round 3. Most of the 4th got done, but had one sub assembly piece left (32 of them) before the block could be assembled.

This is my own design, the pattern is available at www.kissedquilts.com and if you'd like a color rendering of your own coloration ideas prior to purchasing fabric from me, please don't hesitate to ask!

 

Today also kicks off a Blog of Island Batik Ambassador Alumni using up some of their batiks. I'll be posting on Friday. Click over to Lemon Tree Snippets for the first post and the entire schedule.