Last evening and last morning

Show and tell in thecountry

Show and Tell elephants

Show and Tell session

Show and tell wool project

In the evening we had an enjoyable show and Tell session with other group of sewing and quilting ladies staying at the same time. In the morning I pieced my inner DNP top and Mags had completed a section of her quilt.

Mags's underway

My DNP before adding a border

Continued

As I'm teaching two more DNP workshops I'm making a version in just three colours and strip piecing to speed up constructing the nine patches.

Meanwhile other projects were taking shape.

Marigold's arrangement showed off the cute
panels very effectively

Another baby quilt from Maggie using her
Fair Trade fabrics.

Mags set out her HST's in a complex arrangement ready to sew. Sh won the pack of Oakshott
in our group's tombola.

Detail

Milva's circles pinned and ready to go

Stephaie's hexagons started in a class with Gyleen fitzgerald.

Tracy's "Halo" quilt, one she made earlier

Detail

Judy'sapplique and setting locks. Just charming.

And a couple more

Detail

Belinda's WIP from a Sarah Fielke workshop

Detail

And a charity baby quilt from Maggie: lucky baby!

Keeping going

Having a think

Stehanie's Tula100 Pink blocks made in 100 days

And Stephanie quilted this one here: Zen Chic pattern and fabric

Brigitte's David Butler fabric and pattern slightly amended - 

turned out for the better!

Maggie is makin lots of baby quilts at her daughter's request. A charity project.

Retreaters' progress

What did you buy?

My "interrupted log cabin" blocks from
Mandy Munroe's wokshop..

Most people went shopping in the morning (Tuesday). As the day wore on projects started to take shape. I made more interrupted log cabin blocks from Mandy Munroe's workshop for Oast last year. I used a low impact print instead of white. Imrov was much more fidddly and time consuming than traditional. Others covered more ground. I'll do something quicker and easier tomorrow.

Carrie's UFO to border

Tracy's super uncorns for her daughter: Elizabeth Hartman pattern.

Carrie's very large top in soft colours

Retreat full house

The rest of the group arrived after lunch on Monday and got to work. I discarded the tree strip I made last night and went for a simpler approach to the TQG Into the Woods theme. Once quilted this 24" piece will be for the group's current suitcase collection I wish I had brought Helen Howes' Trees workshop notes with me but I did the best I could from memory. In the evening I got to work on my batik strip sets stint for Bonnies, having gone to the shop to buy extra colour choices.

Rejected strip

Finished top

Detail

Strip sets

Stephanie meanwhile quilted her internet blocks project, marked on the back in a clamshell pattern with a table tennis bat as template. Carrie's quilt at 90" + is bigger than the design wall. Brigitte brought her elongated hexagon quilt which uses border fabric bought from the shop. She fussy cut elements from it in every block.

Carrie's

Detail

Stephanie's: so pretty

Brigiite's: wonderful use of fabric

Detail

Retreating once more

. This was started in a Jean Ball workshop using dressmaking
fabrics bought at a village fete. Hand quilted.

Got back from the Conference on Monday and on Sunday back at the retreat for five days of sewing. I have brought mostly UFO's to progress them further but not to finish as they're quite complex. And at Conference I was asked to make a "trees" quilt for the TQG  Into The Woods suitcase collection as they need more and I haven't really had enough time to sort it out. Carrie and I are here a day early and Carrie's quilt top is pinned up awaiting a pieced backing and she's attached the binding to a large quilt Mandy Parks has quilted for her. The main party arrives tomorrow.

Holding up Carrie's quilt

Laid out on the table tennis table

Conference Last Day

I did some stewarding on the last day but as well as a short Linus session managed to fit in a talk by local contemporary quilter, Chris Dixon. Her first piece, however, was a lovely hand quilted wholecloth made with the guidance of Lilian Hedley.

Detail of hand quilting and squarediamonds: don't let Lilian Hedley hear you talk about cross hatching!

The whole weekend was a happy and convivial time and at the end the local organising team lined up to receive our thanks and congratulations.

Displays

The Quilters' Guild has within it specialist groups. I'm in the TQG, traditional, and MQG, modern, I used to be in the longest established BQSG, the British Quilt Study Group for interest in our quilting heritage. Each group has a stand at conference and here are a couple of photographs.

Here is Helen Howes manning the modern stand and next is the BQSG with a wholecloth quilt as backdrop.

And here is the contemporary stand, probably the largest and most active of the groups.

Baltic Jaunt

The Millennium footbridge framing the solid bulk of the Baltic

.
On Sunday we went along the quayside and crossed the Millennium Bridge to the Baltic Flour Mills, now  modern art gallery spaces. I resolved to find something related to my quilt making on each floor. Apologies to the artists but I find installation art quite hard to appreciate. Sofia Stevi's show did comprise paintings, and I liked the colour combinations. I have lots of photos of paintings taken with the intention of using the colours as a springboard for fabric choices but never followed through. 

By Sofia Stevi painted onto cotton fabric!

Patchwork curtains in one of the rooms of  Jasmina  Cibics's "This machine builds nations" installations.

Tumbling blocks on one of Serena Korda's "Missing Time"
installation ceramics. The dish relates to those dishes
designed to catch far off sound whether of approaching
enemy aircraft or  the music of the spheres.

The view looking down from the Baltic