Quilt Retreat!

At long last here are some pictures from the Sisters Quilt Retreat. I was going to call it the First Annual Sisters Quilt Retreat, but who knows where we'll all be next year, so it might not be annual. We'll definitely do it again, though. As they say, a fun time was had by all. There was much talking, amazing amounts of laughing, some tender moments, quite a bit of quilting fun, and even a brush with the law.

My project was the first one we did. It was a landscape quilt of three mountain peaks in the Canadian Rockies called the Three Sisters. Could there be a more appropriate quilting project for three sisters? I think not. Plus, it was an easy project, all fusible applique, and even though none of us got our quilts quilted, all of us got them finished and ready for quilting. As an added bonus, we also got to travel in person to see the Three Sisters in the Canadian Rockies near Canmore and take a picture of the three sisters with the Three Sisters. My absolute favorite quilt shop is in Canmore, Sugar Pine Quilts, and, well, let's just say it was a hit with all of us. We loved the fact that there were so many patterns, most of them with the option to buy a kit, in such a small store. Here are pictures of the three sisters with the Three Sisters and my landscape quilt (nine sisters in all in these photos).





Lori's project was the next one we did. She had brought prodigious amounts of fabric from both her stash and my mom's stash so that we could have lots and lots of choices while we made fabric postcards. I loved making fabric postcards. You can use up lots of cute fabric scraps. They go pretty quickly. You can embellish them within an inch of their lives, and, according to the lady at the post office where we went to mail some, you can mail them with no problem. Hopefully Vanessa and Emily get theirs soon. Here is a picture of the one I made for Jenny, my daughter's roommate. I also made one for my mom but did not take a picture of it before I gave it to her. Sorry!



Gayle had brought a fun book, Mosaic Picture Quilts, by Pat Durbin. We were hoping to get a chance to try making a landscape quilt out of a picture of Mom and Dad's house, but we ran out of time. I was very intrigued by this method of landscape quilting and I plan to try it sometime. Here's a picture of the book.



Lastly, my niece, Tresa, sent a project with her mom that became the hit of the quilt retreat because it was so portable and easy to take with us on road trips and do in front of the TV in the evenings. She gave each of us a Clover yo-yo maker and enough fabric squares to make a yo-yo American flag. I've only got about 20 of my yo-yos made, but here's a picture of the Clover yo-yo maker and five of my very cute yo-yos. I liked doing it so much that when I was in Utah the next week I bought the small Clover heart yo-yo maker and the small flower yo-yo maker. I highly recommend all three. Thanks, Tresa!



So that's the Sisters Quilt Retreat. I wish we could do it all again next month. I envy those of you with sisters at close proximity. I have to enjoy mine through email or phone calls or short but sweet in-person visits. Love you both!