Friday, October 5, 2012

Retreat Pics & Some Quilting Tips

As promised, I'm back with pictures from our guild retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago.  Last time, I shared pictures from the Utah State Quilt Show; you can see them here.  OK here we go:

My quilting buddies:

Christa (machine quilter extraordinaire)

Georgi (generally known for trouble-making & causing laughter somewhere)



Here we're working on getting my Sunflower Rail Fence quilt basted.  It goes SO much faster when your friends jump in and help out.  There wasn't room in the retreat, so I found some tables out in the hallway.  Yes, that's duct tape holding my backing down.  My husband was supposed to pick up some masking tape for me, but forgot.  So, duct tape to the rescue. 







I am a traditional quilter at heart, but I just love this one.  On the back is the prettiest blue and green print by Denise Schmidt.  Sorry, I didn't get the quilter's name; she was new at the retreat.




Ah, red and white, such a classic.  It's on my list of must-do's.  Colleen has been working on this for the last few retreats and it's coming together beautifully.  Maybe next year a picture of the finished quilt?  Hopefully.




This black & white quilt is what Georgi was working on the whole time.  I hear it's at the quilter's now (with the 3 remaining borders added), and is a gift for her granddaughter (lucky girl). Next, is a hand-piecing project that Christa brought; this one's on the 10+ year plan.  She did get the quilting finished on a baby quilt during the weekend, and lot of quilting done on another one (pic at top of page). 





Here's Yvonne (aka the Retreat Reg. Chairman) with her string quilt.  Another one on my must-do list.  Love it.




I mostly worked on my Dresden Plate blocks.  I decided to machine-applique around the outside edges, and hand-applique around the inside edges.  I tried to machine-applique the inside, but it didn't turn out too well.  I've been looking for a nice hand-sewing project, so now I've got one.





The uber-talented, longarmer Cory Allender from St. George, Utah was our speaker on Saturday night.   She hung around until Sunday and let us ask questions.  Here's a tip about quilt batting she shared with us - use 80/20 (cotton/poly) or wool batting for quilt tops with some fullness, and use Warm 'n' Natural or Quilter's Dream for tops which lie flat.  She also doubles her batting in some quilts to give them more "drape".  She recommends blocking your quilts (for quilt shows) while wet on foam boards.  She's an expert, her quilts are FLAT.   Sorry, I only have this blurry picture of her, and this (not so good) one of her quilt.  I shared a picture in this post of her stunning "Daisy" at the Utah State Quilt Show.





Can't wait 'till next year!