Blockade Runner, Wrightsville Beach NC, November 11-13, 2011
While I have attended many quilt workshops and once the NC Quilt Symposium, it had been years and years since attending any kind of retreat let alone a quilt retreat. With a year of house selling behind us and waiting for realtors to call I had decided the moment this retreat was announced that I would be there; after months of heavy house sorting this was to be MY time to have fun. Fun in this case defined as a super-sewing weekend to catch up on much of the work that has been stored and stuffed in various hiding places.
Off to Wrightsville Beach I went - my first time in Wilmington or for than matter the first time in ten years that I had been east of I-95!
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| Harbor side sunset view |
The first evening the sunset was magnificent - looking west from a harbor side view on the fifth floor, the nearly empty marina and calm waters fronted the last glow of the day. Somehow the place seemed quite comfortable to me, reminenscient of local harbors during our time in New Jersey. Only this was warm, mid-seventies during the day and a week into November already. After getting setup Friday afternoon I was able to sew until nearly nine o'clock that evening, and had the sore back to prove it.
The Robert E. Lee Ballroom was the ground-zero for more than a dozen quilters who brought machines, cutting mats, fabric bundles, cutting equipment and loads of ideas. For a brief lunch time walk I headed towards the sandy beach - getting a beautiful sunny day to and a bit of an ocean breeze.
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| Boardwalk to the Atlantic |
Noticing as I do (don't all quilters?), any pattern that could become patchwork, this mosaic across the lower half of the outdoor pool bar (accessible but closed for the season). The gridded C-wave pattern makes a perfect border, I scaled it to a 1" grid but the patch size could easily be enlarged to any desired size. See the Google docs for: Google doc for WAVE patch pattern
There was no set agenda for the retreat, everyone just worked on whatever project they brought with but I had offered a couple of ideas as my work has recently been focused on used-dryer sheets. As previously worked out two patterns, one for a tweaky four-point star and the other for the diagonal-string pieced diamonds used for table runners and placemats. Click on: Google doc for TMQG Retreat Star & Diamonds
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| Wave border pattern |
Getting all the work done I wanted to accomplish was impossible but I did finish some critical work on the blue-orange-TG table runner as reported yesterday. Work will continue on other projects over the holiday season as time allows and as we are taking the house off the market until the new year begins.
So, for the next 40-50 days, I sew and sew and sew!
bbf
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