Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Quilting Retreat

It's been so long since I have posted but part of that is because since having my last child things have gotten so busy and little things, like keeping up with a blog, fall to the side. Life flies by so quickly and I don't take the time to sit down and write about it. It's a shame. However, I am still a mom and I am still a quilter.

That being said, I just returned from an amazing weekend at the beach with my quilting friends. Each year this group that I have been quilting with since I moved here takes a few days off and heads down to the beach. We rent a beach house and quilt like crazy! We have been doing this for four years now and this is my second time. We always stay up too late, eat too much and laugh a lot. It's kind of like college! I managed to finish three quilt tops while I was there.

The first quilt I finished the very first night I was there (Thursday night). The squares were already cut for me and I cut the sashings (the white pieces), cornerstones (the little black squares) and borders (around the outside) before I went to the beach so all I had to do was sew them together. It was a really easy pattern so it zipped right up.
This quilt is a pattern called "yellow brick road". It makes a really cute baby quilt. I have used this pattern many times and it turns out different every time. This quilt will go to Chris's resident at work whose wife is having a baby girl in April. I made this quilt on Friday.
This quilt was the "mother" of all quilts at the beach. No other quilt there was this labor intensive. To be fair, I started making the "flying geese" blocks two years ago. I got the pattern from a quilting magazine and the pattern is called "rhubarb crisp". I fell in love with the pattern and immediately pulled out some fabrics from my stash. It has 480 "flying geese" blocks so it has taken me two years to want to get back to it. I was determined to finish it, however. I stayed up until 3:30 a.m. Monday finishing it. I wanted to go home with the top done. I must say, I love it and it is not leaving our home once it's finished.

For all you non-quilters, this little block is a flying geese block. Can you picture it? They flying geese, I mean. It measures 1 1/2"x3".
In other news, Chris was called to be in the bishopric the night before I left for the beach. The timing was impeccable.