Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Workshop in Progress - 3/9

I went on retreat a couple of weeks ago with seven of my closest friends.  And it was....amazing, awesome, productive, refreshing, renewing and so much more.  I grew up as a bit of a tomboy and as a result had always had very few women friends.  As a kid and young adult, I related to more traditionally male interests than female.  I don't care a lot about makeup, fashion, jewelry, things like that.  I love cars, power tools, sports.  But somehow, over the last few years (coinciding with my quilting interest....)I began to develop friendships with women.  Amazing women, caring women, funny (okay hilarious) women.  And it's a wonderful thing.  The four days I spent with these seven women were just what I needed.  I laughed until I was crying several times over the long weekend.  And I got a lot of sewing done.  A lot!  We stayed at a very cute little place we have gone to several times now.  It's called The 1890's House and it's very close to DFW, making it a perfect getaway.  Everything you might need is very close by, but yet you feel as if you are way out in the country.


I spent most of the weekend working on my Mariners Compass Quilt.  Its a Kaffe Fasset quilt from his book Museum Quilts.  The quilt went from this stage to this:
It's already huge and I still need to put one more border on it.  All in all, I think I got a lot done in four days.  I posted about this quilt a few weeks ago on the Workshop in Progress and was debating whether or not to try and quilt it myself.  Well, I'm about 99% sure that I am going to quilt it here on my Bernina.  I have put so much work into this, that I just want to see it through to the end and I want it to be all my work.  I have some ideas in my head about a pattern to quilt it with, but am very undecided on that aspect of it right now.  Thoughts?  It's pretty busy, so I think the quilting will be secondary and won't really need anything very elaborate.

7 comments:

  1. Wow, Michelle! It is unbelievably gorgeous! Well done! I love going on retreats, too! It's very therapeutic to spend time with women, I feel! Almost makes me appreciate home all the more, when I've had a chance to get away once in awhile! Speaking of wonderful women, I miss you something awful! When can we get together next?!?!?!?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your retreat sounds like heaven!

    Your quilt is beautiful. It has such a traditional feel. How about some outline quilting?

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are on the right track. Keep your quilting pretty simple. Harriet Hargrave has some traditional ideas for machine quilting. The outlining of shapes using a curve might work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was just asking for h-e-l-p myself with machine quilting so I'm not a good one for advice. Although I would definitely keep it simple, because I think anything elaborate will get lost. Your quilt is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful quilt!!!! Love the barn in the background, too. Whatever you do, it will be wonderful to have done it all yourself, and knowing your work, it will be amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The retreat sounds wonderful and the quilt is nothing short of amazing! I love the photos and the historic setting for some serious quilting. Were you channeling your ancestor quilters? :0)

    ReplyDelete
  7. The quilt is amazing!! I can't believe you did all that in four days with all the laughing, chatting and whatnot!!! Thanks for posting the photos of the retreat. I've heard so much about the place from you over the years, it's great to see what it actually looks like.

    ReplyDelete