Quilt retreat/Retreat Quilt

I have just returned from another wonderful quilting retreat in Dwellingup with the Perth Modern Quilting ladies.  It was somewhat warmer this time around, which meant there was more sitting around outside in the evenings, having a wine and a natter and soaking up the beautiful atmosphere and scenery.

I was too busy drinking and nattering so thank you Danielle for taking this gorgeous picture of us "hard at work"!

It wasn't always like this though.  There was a lot of sewing going on.  More of the hand variety than by machine on the first full day though as we lost power mid morning!  Fortunately it was restored during the afternoon so the sewing machines were humming once again.

Like many others I took many projects down with me but as with dessert, my eyes are always larger than my capacity and while I made good progress on some of them, others remained completely untouched.  Of course there were unanticipated completions too such as these foundation pieced blocks for one of the other ladies, who is making a "LOVE" quilt to donate to charity.

Not a great photo but you get the idea and hey, it was my very first attempt at foundation paper piecing!  I see more of this in my future for the odd project or bee...

I spent most of my time on two projects however, a small, naive style stitched quilting project (more on that when it is finished) and my piece de resistance - this quilt:

This is my first bee block. (It was a weekend of firsts!) As queen bee I had chosen a woven block design and requested it be done in yellows, greys and purples.  I received 10 blocks and made another 10 myself to make a decent sized lap quilt.  I made 8 of those blocks the first afternoon of the retreat.  When the power was on on Saturday I pieced the top and on Sunday I made the backing (that rich violet material with a slash of gold material which isn't visible), sandwiched the quilt, quilted it and bound it!  Phew.

During the process I liked it, fell in love with it, fell out of love with it, never wanted to see it again and then fell in love once more.  To such an extent it is going to be very hard to part with as I have promised it as a fundraiser for charity...

Anyway for now I am enjoying the fruit of my labour and will show it off to a few more people before I send it on its way.