A COVID Quilt Retreat

 When someone hears "Quilt Retreat," they may think of a very old-fashioned group of people, usually women, sitting around a frame, working as a team on a single quilt.  While that can still happen, and I've even participated in a marathon version of that as a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Support, my experience with the modern version of a Quilt Retreat is typically a location that is away from home, and not usually the traditional place a quilting guild or other quilting group will meet, but a special location, where people gather to work on projects, share inspiration, have a lot of fun, and strengthen the fellowship that is part of the quilting community.

The guild I belong to typically does a weekend retreat, where we go to a hall we've rented, with meals prepared for us - simple fare, but filling, and when you don't have to cook it or clean it up, it tastes even more delicious!  We each bring projects of our own to work on and we share tips and fun together.  You may arrive as a relative stranger, but you leave feeling you've just gained a whole group of friends.

This past weekend, I helped organize our guild retreat, but with COVID-19, we made it a virtual retreat.  Several people were hesitant to join in, but we made the most of it and ended up having a wonderful time.  We're finding small blessings in a global pandemic.  We normally have to restrict our retreats to 24 people, given the size of the hall we have access to.  With Zoom, we were able to have over 30 people join in.   We used the break-out room function of Zoom to allow small groups to chat and get to know each other, while we had mini-demos and workshops that people could join in on.  Throw in a quick game, some door prizes, and a fun show and tell, and you had the closest thing to a retreat as we could ask for.

What small blessings do you find in these times of COVID?  This is in no way to minimize the hardship and suffering many have endured, but to focus on the silver lining for a moment, instead of the ominous black cloud.  I hope you find a silver lining too.

UFO Focus for February

 I'm leveraging the Elm Street Quilts UFO monthly challenge to help me finish more quilts than I start in 2021.  I completed the ruler quilt last month, so this month I will be focusing on completing the quilt I call "Reconciliation through Healing Waters".  It is a guild mystery quilt that I pieced, sandwiched, but have to quilt and bind it to complete it.

I actually had no intentions of doing this mystery, as I have many, many UFO's that I should be focused on first.   Then, at a guild retreat, we went to visit the local quilt shop and I spotted this fabric.  The yellow fabric is a line called "Healing Waters" and was designed by a Canadian Indigenous artist by the name of Mark Anthony Jacobson, who resides in British Columbia.  Here is another fabric in this collection that will give you a better appreciation of this amazing fabric collection:

If you want to see the full fabric collection, please feel free to check this link out:  Northcott - Healing Waters

Looking forward to finishing this quilt as it is the first lap size quilt I've made for myself!  Everything beforehand has been gifted to others.

First Finish of 2021

 What a great way to end January, with my first finished project of the year.  One UFO is a UFO no longer.  I've called it "Skeewiff Learning with Style (Westalee Continuum)".

This is far from a perfect quilt and I've talked earlier of the challenges this quilt represented with my old sewing machine.  It was the catalyst that made me invest in a new sewing machine.  Never fear though - my old faithful machine still sits beside me too.  Maybe it is just me, but I believe as a quilter, you have a special trusting relationship with your sewing machine.  This was my first time working with free motion quilting using quilt rulers.  I look forward to the opportunity to do more.

Second guessing a mystery

Do you ever second guess the work you do on a quilt - to the point where you are willing to take a few steps backwards and rip out the work completed thus far to fix it?

I suspect if you've worked on several quilt projects, you have encountered this challenge.

I'm starting on the final step of assembling the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt pattern - "Grassy Creek".  The challenge with a mystery is even if you follow the directions given, you may want to change some things when you see them finally coming together.  In my case, I have a sort-of scrappy quilt.  I'm using multiple fabrics for each colour selection, but not a truly scrappy quilt.

Case in point - here is the assembled first block:

The dark teal-green fabrics are in the same colour family, and I wasn't really happy with the result.  I took a second block, used more of the teal-green fabric and laid it down on those four corners and took another picture:

Suddenly, the star popped for me, and as much as I didn't want to rip two assembled blocks apart, I knew it was better now than never.

I think that would be two pieces of advice that I have received that I would share with you:

1.  Assemble a corner of your quilt top when doing a mystery, or hang your blocks on a design wall, so you can see if anything is going to distract you and eventually bother you.  If you squint your eyes and can't see it - leave it.  If you squint your eyes and it still bothers you, fix it now.

2.  Never underestimate the power of a photo to give you some perspective.

Have you ever had to rework a quilt?  What tips would you share?

"Grassy Creek" - Getting Grassier!

 As you may recall, I challenged myself with the Bonnie Hunter mystery "Grassy Creek" to alter the colours.  It is not that I disliked Bonnie's picks - in fact, I loved them - but I was using 2020 as the year I stretched my boundaries with colour design.

As I started seeing the final pieces of the mystery coming together, I grew more and more unsure of my choices.  I decide to put a corner of the quilt together, just to see how badly I had messed things up.  I was already starting to plan on downsizing this from the full size to a lap quilt.  Keep putting that corner together, I would tell myself.  Maybe I would just donate it and hope no one noticed I "forgot" to put my name on it.  Don't give up yet, just a little further and then you can decide, I would hear between my ears.

I have not even finished putting it together, but was far enough along that I started to see what was coming as I laid these partially assembled pieces on the floor.  Perspective is EVERYTHING.  I have not even finished assembling this corner, and my feelings about this quilt have already changed.  It is not what I expected, nor what I envisioned with this project, but the result is shaping up to be something wonderful.

What do you think?

"Grassy Creek" - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Coming Together

Friday was the day Bonnie revealed to her fans, this year's completed mystery quilt - Grassy Creek.

Today was the day I revealed that I had finished the 5th of 7 clues - progress!  Bonnie's quilts are challenging and complex, but she provides detailed instructions and with patience and persistence, it is possible to replicate her design.

Having completed part five, I started with one of the grey string piece blocks of part six and moved to part seven to try assembling the main blocks.  Have you ever struggled with colours?  I'm trying a technique a friend once shared with me - use your phone/camera and take a black and white picture - you will clearly see the light to medium to dark tones of your fabric.  Here is an example of taking scraps of my fabric, laying them out in the order I could possibly piece them, then taking their picture.

 

As of writing this, I have two blocks assembled, and I'm so proud of myself.  This is the first time I altered Bonnie's colour selections, and this was to challenge myself with the creative use of colour.  I think when this quilt is complete, it will definitely have some fantastic patterns emerging.

My thanks to Ms. Hunter for her time and energy in creating these projects.  This is my third Bonnie Hunter Mystery and I think they are amazing!

Elm Street Quilts - UFO Challenge - January 2021

One of my goals this year is to get serious about finishing some of my many UFO's.  To help motivate me and hopefully keep me accountable, I have joined up with Elm Street Quilts and their monthly UFO challenge.

How does it work, you might ask?

You pick a UFO you commit to completing, and at the start of the month when the site is opened up, you submit a link to where you have posted your UFO.  At the end of the month, you return and post your wonderful and hopefully completed result.  While there are prizes as an incentive to participate, I'm mostly in it for the combination of bragging rights and getting quilts done!

If you want to learn more for yourself, why not check out the blog at:  Elm Street Quilts - One Monthly Goal

January's UFO for me is my Westalee Ruler Class Quilt project - Continuum (or as mine will be called "Skeewiff Learning with Style"!

How are you approaching completing UFO's this year?  You'll see an updated UFO list for 2021!  We'll need to revisit it at the end of the year to see the progress that will be made.  I guess I better get at it!