2013 Gimli Quilt Retreat

First off we missed having my sister Sylvia attend, many asked for her and sent many wishes for shaking off the flu bug sooner than later!  So it was Pat and I who went and joined up with the crew at the Lakeview Resort for what we hoped another wonderful quilt retreat.  As usual the weather was not cooperating and not sure if I had a touch of the flu or what the scoop, but my stomach was kinda upset most of the retreat so I did not even venture outside in the "cold".  I heard from several that they were "pedal to the metal" and some even said it was UFO finishing time year.  There were many managerial staff changes at the resort so the retreat did not flow so well but hopefully they will look at this year and be more prepared for next year?  We hope so!  I especially love the resort for this quilt retreat.

I started the weekend finishing off the free form fabric butterflies for a co-worker's granddaughter's bedroom ensemble she was sewing.  Then supposedly to stitch up four sets of potholders - well not doable as I did not have enough of the special batting (not sure what it's called) and also just ran out of time period.  I did manage to finish off two sets, BUT still not making a sizable dent in my stash of selvedges I brought for this purpose.  The first set I had square corners but the second set I rounded the corners and think I'll redo the first set.  They have the heat resistent silver fabric on the other side and I tried the "pocket" type and think this is the best for a sure grip carrying hot items.  Will see when it's put to the test.  I had many come over and check it out and some even brought me their selvedges!

Pat was going to attempt a batik 1600 inch quilt but wanted to make it bigger for her Murphy bed in the guest room.  So I suggested she cut her strips in half (FQ length for a faster change over than WOF) and alternating the first piece length to stitch up strips the width she wanted.  This was going well when I left for my class.  When I returned I found she'd gotten help from Sharon who figured out the number and width for batik "spacers" in between sets of five 2" strips - looks wonderful and very unique!  Now she'll get Sylvia's help to square it off and hopefully use up her Carellan "quilting certificate" she had won at last year's quilt retreat.  Sure will be interesting to work on a commercial frame etc.

Also this year I took the Saturday class of Heather Lair's - Panoramic Landscape - and thoroughly enjoyed to the point that I stayed up till 2:00 am and "finished" the top.  After many attempts of auditioning for the borders of the fabrics I had brought anticipating this turn or events I finally decided on this ensemble but left the borders wide as per Heather's images but now I'm not sure.  (It is on my display board for a while at home to see if it speaks to me.)  I'm definitely going to try her suggestion of cutting 5 or 6 muslins and while you have your batiks and other fabrics out for this type of project you do many at one time.  That way if one fabric does not work on this piece maybe it will on the other or the other etc etc.  She had mentioned that the pieces one does not like to cut up into smaller landscapes that do work and sandwich them into bigger pieces - examples are on her website portfolio.

Then Pat showed me this beautiful panel of sewing room items at Jocelyn's and I just had to have it and Sunday morning after show and tell (very slim pickings this year - guess some projects just didn't get finished this year) I added borders to it while Pat stitched up a couple of coasters from some patterns Sylvia passed onto me last year.  It was a bit of a "Hmmmmm how does this work" but with my help she did get the technique and stitched them up.  Just they are too small so probably will widen the strips for the next set!