If you had told me 6 months ago that my sewing machine and I would be flying to Wisconsin to sew with (mostly) strangers for a week, I never would have believed it, but life has a funny way of working out and, in fact, I DID just returned from a delightful week-long quilt retreat in Altoona, Wisconsin with a group of some of the most kind, creative, funny, and genuine women I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with!
Standing L to R: Me, Meg, Angie, Josie, Nicole, Cheryl, Brianne, Kristen, Shelly, Abby
Kneeling L to R: Jess, Abby, Sarah, Emily, Anna
The group in various iterations has been retreating together twice a year for the past 10 years and I was so excited (and flattered) to be invited to join them this time when they happened to have a vacancy. Flying across the country to sew might seem a little bit nutso, but I AM a little bit nutso! It came at a really ideal time and I'm fortunate that my husband's job is very flexible and our parents live close by and were able to help with childcare. At 7, 5, and 3, my kids are still very young, so I was so grateful for my village that stepped in to allow me to do this!
The retreat center in Altoona was originally built by Ann of Stitch Supply Co. and adjoined her shop. She has since moved her shop to a different location in town and the building has new ownership, but remains a retreat space.
The space couldn't have been better! At full capacity the center sleeps 16, with 4 twin beds in each of the 4 bedrooms. We had a total of 15 quilters at this retreat and I never felt cramped in the slightest. I got to share a room with Emily of Quilty Love, Shelly of Ma Tante Quilting, and Jess of Longarm League, who are all quilty business women I've seriously looked up to and admired for a long time. It was such a joy to get to know them better.
It's a great set-up to be able to sleep right on-site and roll out of bed and right into the workroom in the mornings. In addition to the bedrooms, there is a full kitchen and dining area (plus a kitchenette in the workroom), sitting area, and a yoga room.
The workroom is equipped with generously sized adjustable height tables for each person and we had 4 community full sized ironing boards in use. There are multiple design walls for laying out blocks and a large cutting island.
At this retreat, there was no agenda or classes. Everyone brought their own projects and sewed for a week straight! Most people arrived on Monday and left on Sunday morning.
While I was there I made a sample of my next pattern, called Fish On, with Ruby Star Society Speckled prints. This one should be available sometime in November. It's always a relief when the first sample of a new pattern is sewn and the math maths! The pattern is a special tribute to my dad, who is in the late stages of frontotemporal dementia. He served for years as the vice president of the Great Western Fly Club and loved the time he spent fishing on the lakes and rivers all over the western United States and Canada.
After all the thinking that not mixing up my fishies required, I needed a palette cleanser, so I sewed up an easy pickleball themed quilt with samples from a Paintbrush Studio line called Pickleball Playtime that Lindsey from Pear Tree Market had given to me awhile back. She knows how much I love pickleball and it was so kind of her to pass these cute prints on to me! The fabric samples were kind of a weird size, so I didn't follow a pattern, I just cut them down to 5"x2.5" pieces and did a checkerboard with some coordinating solids. There were 16 prints, total, so I had planned on making a 4x4 block quilt. However, I neglected to do any quilt math, and as the blocks came together, I laughed until tears were streaming down my cheeks because it became very apparent that a 4x4 layout was going to be a ridiculously small quilt. Luckily, Stitch Supply is very easily accessible from the retreat center, so I placed an order and made more blocks with some coordinating Ruby Star Society Starry colors. Shelly saved the day, when I was still a block short at the end, and had a perfect Ruby Star print so I was able to finish up the top. This one might be a Christmas gift for my friend, who I play pickleball with once a week.
Before I left home, I had Jaree from Girl Gone Quilting longarm some bag panels with soft and stable so I could get a jump on teacher gifts. I made 4 All the Things Totes by Kaitlyn of Knot and Thread. I love this bag and have made it many times. I hope my kids' teachers love them!
Anna from Noodle Head got us all hooked on a little zipper pouch from an Instagram reel. Watch it HERE. It's so quick and easy and you end up with 3 pockets inside! The dimensions are in centimeters in the reel, so here's what we did in inches: (2) 10” wide, 14.5” tall exterior fabric, (2) 10” wide, 14.5” tall for lining fabric. 10” zipper, or 12” zipper tape, zipper end tabs (2) 2”x 4”. Interface the pieces if you want a more structured pouch. I used canvas on the exterior of mine and quilting cotton on the inside with no interfacing and it was fine, though. I made 3 and my kids all quickly claimed them when I got home, so I'll need to make some more for myself!
The final project I worked on is an ongoing WIP. Laura from The Gathering Quilt hosted a low volume square swap earlier this year with 3.5" squares. I'm turning them into 2-at-a-time HSTs paired with some solid scraps. They'll finish at 2.5" HSTs and I'm sewing them into units of 4 color blocked groups. I think it's going to be such a fun quilt! It's going to be huge because I have A LOT of squares cut--I'm wondering how my husband would feel about this being our bed quilt if it ends up being king sized. I didn't get this one as far along as I had hoped, so you'll have to stay tuned for the final reveal!
So overall, not bad as far as productivity goes! It was so much fun to see what everyone else worked on. We'd ring a bell as we finished a project so everyone could look up and ooh and ahh.
Honestly, a 10/10 week. The sewing was great, but the people were the best part. I adore every single one of these incredible women and will treasure the memories that were made this week. Hopefully the stars align again and I can come back someday! The good news is, the quilty world is a small one and I have no doubt these goodbyes were all just "see ya laters!"