Retreat Time!

I spent the best time at a 4-day quilting retreat in the Gold Country of Northern California last weekend with 20 other quilters! No teachers, nothing scheduled, just bring your own projects and sew for 3 1/2 days! It's the first time I've attended this retreat and I went by myself not knowing any of the other quilters when I arrived. But, like all quilting retreats, by the time I left, I'd made delightful new friends!

I brought several projects including a Christmas table-topper pattern, a top to pin and quilt, a paper-pieced NY beauty-type quilt with many tiny components, fabric for blocks I need to make for a community service project in May and this, a BOM from last year called "Rotogravure". I finished these blocks each month right on schedule and LOVE them! Each block has an intricate, 6" block INSIDE the pumpkins and the checkerboard finished at 1" squares so precise piecing was essential! The quilt was designed by Joe Wood, owner of Thimble Creek Quilt Shop in Concord, CA the shop who put on this fabulous retreat. I highly recommend their delightful "Thimble Creek Gazette" blog posted every Tuesday morning. You can sign up to receive it here.

In subsequent Design Wall Mondays, I'll show you the progress of the other projects I brought on this wonderful retreat. Thanks for the opportunity, Judy!