Like Marion and I, Nancy D. and Joanne S. have been friends for a very long time too. They met at work, where they are both nurses (Nancy retired last year). Both of them are known for their meticulous craftsmanship. At our Berkshires retreat they took separate paths. Joanne worked on one project for the entire week while Nancy worked on several different projects.
Joanne spent her week working on this shop hop basket quilt kit that she bought in 2005 at the Button Box, which sadly closed this past weekend. Fellow Brown Bagger Lynne designed the basket block pattern provided the Button Box and designed the outer border of the quilt. Joanne came with three blocks made and made the rest of the blocks and assembled the outer border during our retreat. Isn't her quilt wonderful? It just needs to be layered and quilted now.
Nancy spent the beginning of the retreat week wrestling with the bag shown below. I learned several new choice curse words! Let's just say that I've made a similar pattern before and I certainly understand Nancy's frustration. The individual strips are stuffed with foam and woven together. I would call this more of a craft project than a quilting project. Nancy just needs to add handles and she can cross this off her list.
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| Lovely to look at but Nancy D. won't be mass producing this beauty any time soon! |
Nancy assembled her Kaffe Fassett birthday blocks quilt and added this fabulous border.
She also made this cute little Easter wall hanging.
Nancy was also experimenting with a couple of patterns for possible Christmas gifts. Both of these patterns are free
video tutorials on the Shabby Fabrics web site. Pictured below are the fabric storage bin, below left, and the origami triangle box, below right.
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| Nancy seemed to whip these up in no time at all. |
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| Nancy's mini sampler quilt in progress. The blocks are four inches! |
Nancy's sampler quilt was also a block of the month from the long defunct Heartbeat Quilts. The name of the pattern is
Miniature Magic by Winnie Fleming, distributed by Quakertown Quilts. Only a few more blocks to go! Thank you Nancy for bringing your giant design wall and letting all of us use it during the retreat!
Nancy and Joanne were very lucky and each of them won TWO of our Right, Left, Center games. Nancy won the much-coveted Kaffe Fassett fabrics as well as the $2 lottery tickets. Sadly the lottery tickets only yielded $6 in winnings, but the new fabrics should make up for her paltry lottery returns.
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| Here Cordula has decided to "style" Nancy for her photo. She has draped Nancy in her winnings, complete with a fat quarter hat. |
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| Sometimes gambling doesn't pay off, but fabric will last forever! |
Joanne won both the grey and yellow fat quarters as well as the batik fat quarters, for a total of 51 fat quarters, coincidentally on the same day. Looks like she and great niece Emma will have some new quilt projects to work on!
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| Here is Joanne scooping up her batik winnings. |
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| All smiles with her large bundle of grey and yellow fat quarters. |
Joanne's good luck continued all day and she also got to pick first from the lovely coasters that Caroline (Kim and Karen's Mom) had made for us.
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| Here is Joanne with her new coasters. Cheryl is busy taking a photo of all of them laid out on the table. |
What's your preferred strategy for a quilting retreat? One project at a time? One per day? Or break it up with several different projects?
Thanks for visiting!
Pugs and kisses,
Nancy
I have never retreated. So your fat quarters that you give away does everyone bring some to throw into the pot? They always have so many lovely finishes.
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