Exciting news today! I’d like to invite you to the Stash Bandit Mountain Quilt Retreat in Buena Vista, Colorado from March 14 to 17, 2019. We’ll be at The Lodge at Buena Vista, where the views are amazing and the food is spectacular!
I’ve come up with what I think will be the best of both worlds:
Last week I co-hosted a quilt retreat with Wagner’s Quilts & Conversation in Arapahoe, Nebraska. Eighteen quilters joined us for three days of fun. The food was great and the company was amiable!
The owners of Wagner’s Quilts are Ruth and Gretchen, a mother-daughter team. They’re good at making an event feel special.
We worked on Petit Patchwork, shown above, a small quilt I designed just for this event with the idea of teaching several new skills as we progressed. We covered partial seaming, mitering, Dresden Plate, stitch-and-flip, Flying Geese, raw-edge fusible applique, and increasing your accuracy for small piecing projects. I also showed them how to create scalloped borders for this quilt or any future projects. It was a lot to cover, and I know that sometimes they felt as if they were drinking from a fire hose.
On the first afternoon, we made some 5-1/2″ Dresden Plates. The color choices for the kits were 1930s, brights and Civil War reproductions. We also spent time tweaking our seam allowances so the patchwork would come out to the correct size.
We spent a considerable amount of time on the little 4″ x 6″ bird blocks. They’re not really difficult but there are a lot of pieces to manage, and you must sew accurately so the parts all fit together nicely.
This is a block that gets easier with practice. Some of the quilters will probably make their birds again, and I’m sure it will go more smoothly the second time around.
This 4″ Spinwheel block turned out really cute! There’s something about small patchwork projects that is just so appealing.
We made a lot of progress over the course of three days. There were messes everywhere—always a good sign.
Some of the blocks had dark fabrics for the backgrounds, which gives the quilt dimension and keeps it from being too predictable.
The meals were catered locally, and they were delicious. Breakfast and lunch was included, and then we found dinner in the evenings on our own. It worked out really well. Wagner’s Quilts provided gift bags for everyone and a nice coupon to use at the shop, about three blocks from the community center where we sewed.
Everyone had plenty of space and the lighting was good. We didn’t trip a single breaker.
I enjoyed getting to know them better. More than half were returnees from last year’s retreat in the same community.
They put on a stellar show-and-tell on Friday afternoon. I’ll show you those quilts in the next post. I hope you can join me for a quilting retreat some time! Soon I’ll have details for the Stash Bandit Mountain Retreat in Colorado in March of 2019. Maybe you can come?!
I’d love for you to join me for a skill-building extravaganza during three days of quilting, laughter, great food, fun and relaxation! Here’s the little quilt we’ll be using to beef up our toolbox of quilting tricks.
Petit Patchwork, designed and made by Diane Harris
It’s about 36″ x 40″. The blocks are from 2″ to 8″. The techniques we’ll be learning include Dresden Plate, fusible applique, stitch-and-flip with accuracy, options for making HSTs, mitering, paper foundation piecing (optional), how to create scalloped borders for any size quilt, serpentine stitch quilting and binding curves and scallops. Doesn’t that sound like fun?!
It will be a busy three days. Wagner’s is planning delicious food in abundance, and you can treat yourself to a massage on site if you wish.
New quilting friends and uninterrupted sewing time at one of the most beautiful times of the year! We’ll take short walk-breaks, weather permitting. Arapahoe is a lovely little town, a perfect example of life in rural America.
Get ideas for improving your machine quilting. Learn my easy mock-hand binding by machine. Gather gusto for labeling your quilts with a finishing flourish! All included in the retreat price of $200, which includes meals, three days of instruction and a kit for the quilt in your choice of three color stories: primary (shown), 1930s and Civil War. Lodging is available separately, and you’ll be given details when you call Wagner’s to register at 308-962-8458.
See how friendly and fun they are? From the left are Sarah, Gretchen and Ruth. We’ll all make certain you have a wonderful time. Please join us! Call Wagner’s to register: 308-962-8458.
Fourteen hardy quilters joined me for a retreat in Arapahoe, Nebraska last week. Ruth Haarberg and Gretchen Kubik of Wagner’s Quilts & Conversation hosted the retreat at Hunt Nebraska Lodge, and I was the guide.
Hunt Nebraska Lodge in Arapahoe, Nebraska
We explored string piecing, an improvisational technique using strips or “strings,” so named long ago to describe the narrowest of leftovers.
I’m getting things ready for a String Piecing Quilt Retreat next week in Arapahoe, Nebraska. I decided to make a few more samples because you can never have too much inspiration.
String piecing is generally done on a foundation. The “string” name came about when people used their narrowest strips of leftovers—so narrow they could be thought of as strings. The charm in these quilts comes from using many, many different fabrics. Variety is what counts. A relaxed, easy attitude is essential!
A blog is a funny thing. When it’s really quiet, as in no posts for a while, I suppose people think that nothing is happening. That’s what I would think.
quietness on this blog means that I’m sewing like a mad woman. Here’s what I’ve been working on.
I’m excited about my latest venture. The good folks at Wagner’s Quilts and Conversation in Arapahoe, Nebraska and I are partnering up to present a
You’re invited to join us for two and a half days of fun and relaxation at the beautiful lodge owned and operated by Hunt Nebraska in Arapahoe, Nebraska, Sept. 24 to 27, 2017. It’s a lovely space—clean and comfortable, and you can just relax and sew to your heart’s content. We’ll cook and clean up while you create!
Arrive on Sunday evening at 7 pm for wine and cheese and an introduction to string piecing. Settle into your room and your quilting space, and meet your new friends. Then start sewing, or retire early to be well rested for Monday’s activities.
Spend Monday and Tuesday learning about string piecing and all its possibilities. Sew, sew, sew! We’ll take stretch breaks as needed and step outside to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather, maybe even go for a short walk.
What can you do with string piecing?
This is one very simple, very easy block you can make. Your own fabrics will make your blocks unique. We’ll trade fabrics with each other but the best part? I’m bringing a huge assortment of scraps and leftovers for you to use, too! You get to sew from my stash of saved-up treasures!
This Ohio Star was spiced up with string piecing. Every patch is “fabric” that was created with strips of leftovers. It’s more interesting than it would be if the patches were just prints.
This is 16 little string blocks put together into a small quilt. My fabric recipe was blues, greens and black-and-white prints. Pretty fun!
Here’s something more complex. This is Honeycomb by Karen Griska of the Selvage Blog. The 60º triangles that make up the hexagons are first string pieced. Believe it or not, this is easy sewing, and if you want to make this quilt, I will show you how.
You’ll have many more options for what to make. And if you just want to play around, you can do that too. I’ll be there to help you the whole time.
A few more details:
Here’s a brochure. If you have questions, call Ruth and Gretchen (lovely ladies!!) at Wagner’s Quilts, 308-962-8458. I hope to see you there!
My local quilt guild had a retreat in January and the coolest thing happened. It started me thinking about the ways quilters can connect when we have nothing in common but our passion for patchwork.
My view at quilt retreat, January 2017
The retreat was in a large conference room at a small hotel. One evening as she walked through the lobby, an out-of-state hotel guest heard our instructor’s voice. She recognized the language of quilting, so the next morning she dropped in on us.
It was so much fun! Here’s a quilter from Minnesota, on the way to her granddaughter’s gymnastics event in Arizona, and she stumbles across our quilt group on retreat. And even though we’d never met, we had plenty to talk about.
A lovely quilter from Minnesota and me
She showed us her road trip project of embroidered snowmen and we oohed and ahhed. We showed her what we were doing and she did the same.
We will probably never see her again, but in those brief moments, we had a new friend because we all spoke the language of quilting. I that thought was so cool.