PTA - 11th ANNUAL RETREAT

In no particular order and certainly not every project that was underway or finished... ..here's a quick look of the activity that swirled around the sewing room for this our 11th annual Professional Textile Artists retreat at Lake Logan Retreat Center in Canton, NC.

We use a large meeting room with beautiful views overlooking Lake Logan, a large community cutting table and two pressing stations.

A few fortunate attendees have their own portable design walls which are so handy.

Georgia Bonesteel teaches at a ranch in Montana every summer....this quilt is a gift she will present to the owners.  It is a larger version of the project the students will work on....see below. The scene is a Forest Station log cabin.

If that isn't enough to do....Georgia and Marene both were making a donation quilt for the Quilt of Valor project.  Isn't this just perfect?

 Kate is our speediest sewer.....she had this more than 50% finished by early afternoon of the first day.  As is typical.....I fell down on documenting the progress and finished pieces....big sigh.

 Leigh Anne came with the blocks mostly assembled and was quickly on her way to completely her top by adding sashing and setting triangles.

 Barbara created this stunning piece based on a Ruth McDowel design.

 Next she moved onto stitching up some wonky log cabin blocks.

 Lynne created this design on her computer and is well on the way to completion.

 Marene actually finished this wall piece.....but again I didn't get a photo....the borders really pull the design together.  She rarely works in bright colors and we all agreed....she should do that more often considering the success of this piece.

Quilt top #2 completed by Kate.  She has an Accucut machine which she attributes to quick assembly as all the pieces were pre-cut accurately at home.

 I was pitifully slow...despite arriving with my strips and foundation square already cut.  I had planned to add the red sashing as I created the blocks but decided early on I should wait till all were made in case I wanted to do some rearranging.  

Not an excuse.....but this is one reason I was so slow.  I had my own cramped assembly space set up because my approach to sewing string quilts is: sew, flip, and press each strip...ya I know....but that's just the way I work.

 By the end of day two I only had 4 of the 9 rows sewn.

So on day three I pinned the center stripe fabric to the remaining 40 blocks and stitched as many units as I could. I decided to square them when I got home where there was more space to work. There are still about 19 blocks to make.  This project is taking far longer than I expected, but it's being made with care and the hope that the person who receives it as part of the Carolina Hurricane Project will find joy in my gift.

Our accommodations for overnight is a big house which we all share......oh my...what fun.....next I need to decide whether some of our goofiness can be shared......stay tuned...maybe.