Retreat 2010

I didn't think to take photos until Saturday night, so I missed the gorgeous blocks Amy was working on, but here are the rest of us who gathered at the Loretto Center recently. Here's Gini, with some of her great silks:
Janis did work on a quilt begun at another workshop. The center is going to be re-drafted:
Mary Beth is relaxing with a lot of "teeny 'tinis." Imagine stems for martini glasses below each row:
Dorothy worked on multiple borders for a beautiful broderie perse applique project:
Kathy worked on a modification of a quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Passionate Patchwork:
Louise shows a quilt she developed at the 2009 retreat:
Penny shows a quilt she made about a year ago:
Sharon shows solids!
And here are the blocks we brought/made for the Habitat for Humanity quilt that Dorothy will put together:
A great time was had by all!

Details--finishing the edge

I keep thinking about Bill's retreat presentation on the importance of all the little details as I have worked through a decision about what kind of binding/finishing to use on my small "Stonescape" quilts. I tried out a regular (but very narrow) binding, a hand-done satin-stitch edge, and a pillowcase binding. None seemed quite right. Then I came up with another solution--turning the front edge over to the back, resulting in an 1/8" "binding" on the back side only. The photo above is a comparison of a pillowcase finish (top) and the front-to-back finish below. I think this works, but would appreciate your thoughts also! For a sense of scale: ach of the individual squares are 1-5/8 x 2"; this method would only be appropriate for a small quilt, one that wasn't going to be handled very much. Back side below.

About the quilting: Top one is hand-quilted, bottom is machine quilted with invisible thread on the front. I've decided instead to do hand-tying at the corners.

Stones

Since the retreat, I've been working mostly on compositions with rectangles from my hand-painted fabric. Here's a version of the composition I did on the Friday morning of the retreat, putting something together in time for Bill's critique. See more versions and comments over on my StudioNotes blog. One thing I asked Bill about was the size of the composition. I was inclined to add lots more rows and columns, but Bill suggested keeping it the size it was. You'll see that he was correct!

waves in the water

I'm starting a new quilt that involves two streams coming together to form a river, ending in a small waterfall, with a pool / lake in the foreground. I am trying to decide whether to piece the streams and river or to make bias strips and applique them. I liked Penny's inset gentle curves, particularly the ones where she made small sections and then recut them into other larger pieces. However, I would like to make my river into a series of even more-curvy ripples. Any suggestions? gini

Dressing up my kitchen table

I have made cloth napkins for everyday meals for many years, but I've never used high-quality fabric for myself. On a recent trip to Pieceful Heart, armed with a generous gift certificate, I splurged on good fabric to replenish my currently tattered napkin supply. When I got home, I thought, "And those fat quarters I bought at the retreat from FunQuilts' 'Wild Bunch' line--they'd make great napkins too!" I didn't have a quilt in mind when I bought the fabric--just couldn't resist. And now I can see it on my kitchen table regularly.

Even though I love the look of the wide hem and mitered corner that Gini demo'd at the retreat, I don't think I can wean myself from the quick-and-dirty hemming on these napkins. I just eyeball a 1/4" turn under (turning under once and then again), and then I topstitch all around. Some corners are neater than others, but I never notice them once they're done. I don't bother ironing these either--just smoothe them out when they come out of the dryer. Here's a couple of good corners:
Size: I usually cut these 17-1/2" square, so I get two out of a half-yard. My sister, a regular recipient, likes hers larger, so I cut hers 21".

Hi this is Kathy. This is an old UFO. Nice to have it finished. If you click on the image, you may see more detail.

Pictures of Habitat for Humanities Quilt

These are the pictures of the Habitat for Humanities quilt that Dorothy collected blocks for at our last retreat.