Retreat Recap

I have become a very unreliable blogger.  Oh dear.  The original purpose for my blogging was to celebrate my accomplishments and gain some clarity on my life/creativity journey.  So this post has twin foci:  documenting my January retreat and showing what ended up occupying my time at May's retreat.


January's retreat with the Something to Crow About gang was awesome!  I have finally learned that, for this season of my life,

going to retreat is less about how much I get done/accomplished, and more about connecting with dear friends and new sewing enthusiasts.  

I smiled to myself on the final show & tell of that weekend, when so many people talked about how much (or little) they had gotten sewn together.  If I am traveling all the way to Oregon (from California), it's about the people more than the sewing.

Patting myself on the back here for this realization.  I feel wise... and now I'm gonna brag a bit about the sewing part.


1.  Challenge Block  (January)

The challenge this time was "white background", which really leaves the field wide open for designing a 12" block.  In typical fashion, I got super-excited about designing a block, tweaking an idea from one of the pattern booklets received as a gift at retreat.  Oy.  Made a paper-piecing pattern for this *cute* carrot block; it used up some seersucker from ancient stash.


2.  "C is for Chicken" book  (January)

Made good progress on this.  My favorite finish was turning a Courthouse Steps block into a chicken, and then making that chicken into a pocket.  Children's book = lots of interactive opportunities!

3.  Quick Curve Ruler sampler  (January AND May)


January- goal of 4 blocks, 1 completed.
May- 6 more blocks completed!
That leaves only 5 blocks to go--and these are big, 16" blocks.

Stashbuster: tote for cutting mat/rulers

4.  Ruler/mat tote bag  (May)

Missed taking the class for this tote, but I had the pattern (plus, the instructor was at retreat with me ;-)   Also, several others at retreat had been in the class, so I polled them about what sort of pockets they chose.

The pattern is very open-ended when it comes to pockets.  And, in my world, the usefulness of any tote is heavily dependent on the pockets.

I went to town customizing this, and got it almost done: only needed to finish the binding, put on straps, and clip all the threads I left everywhere.




5.  Another Hawaiian-shirt-into-apron

Birthday gift completed.  How did I not get any photos of this before it got sent off?




 
6.  Retreat project

A plethora of red & blue strips and scraps were available for making string blocks.  I think almost everyone made a block (or a few).  Can't actually pick out which ones I made, but I did use a bit of my stash in the mix.



Yay, belated post about retreat: check!
My next scheduled retreat is coming up in October.  Haven't even started panicking about what I'll work on then...