A Great Retreat

I'm just getting organized after spending 3 days hosting my Pet Portrait Retreat at our lakehouse in the Poconos.  It was 24/7 of sewing, eating, talking and laughing.  Everyone made great progress and I felt they left with the tools needed to finish the quilt.

We used every square inch of the house.

 Can you see my Accuquilt Studio cutter behind Roz?

 When your quilt is made up of 1,296 squares, their 2" die cutter is a beautiful thing. 

 It cuts 60 squares at a time.

 When I arrived at the lake to prep for my guests, my son and DIL were there.  Loren had gone to the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival with her Mom.  It was a convenient place for them to stay.
I was thrilled when she offered to stay and help me with the cooking for the retreat.  I took it as an opportunity to further entice her with quilting, because the pet quilt I was planning on creating was a portrait of their dog, Cooper. It was supposed to be a surprise.  Instead I taught her the techniques and she just ran with it.

I ended up being her assistant! I did the grunt work of sewing the pieces together.  We got pretty far working as a team.

To make my map, I printed the photo of Cooper and placed a clear grid over it.

 The pattern starts to take shape using 2" squares of fabric following the grid.

 

Here's a close-up of the ear.

I chain pieced the top in sections.  See how much it shrinks?

 The top half is done!
Here are the start of more pet portraits:

Roz and Reggie

Wisps of Reggie's fur

 

Teresa and   Rosie (www.TeresasQuiltStudio.com)

Rosie's nose

 Grace and her owner, Cheryl

 

Grace's eye

 Luna

 Luna and Rose

A Luna close-up

You can see from the close-ups that these quilts are not pixilated.  The grids are used to piece the details.  This makes the quilts look realistic. I'm looking forward to seeing them quilted and bound.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from one of the quilters, after she arrived home that said:

"I want to thank you for a relaxing creative weekend, I feel recharged!"

I have tentatively schedule another Pet Mosaic Retreat in June.  June 12-14 th of 2015, also at the lake house.  If you're interested, shoot me an e-mail.

Wednesday's Wanderings #48 My New Toy & #49 WHEW!

Today I am posting 2 WWs since I am behind one.  This will bring me up to date with 5 more to go.  I chose to make 54 blocks, even though I committed to weekly or 52, but 52 isn't divisible by much.  So I chose to make 54, so I can make my 2012 wall hanging with a configuration of 9 across and 6 down. It's hard to believe that I have made 49 blocks already. Time does fly.

The block this week is about MY NEW TOY!!

It's hard to tell from the block, but it is supposed depict a bunch of 2 1/12" strips. 

And the significance?

A couple of weeks ago I went to my friend Betty's house.  I actually invited myself. I wanted to try one of the Accuquilt cutters.  She has the Studio model, which is the Papa bear of the trio.  If you follow my blog, you know that I am a  blue and white fabric lover.  I have so much of it that I keep the smaller pieces in a clear garbage bag. 

I brought this bag to Betty's house.  In 2 hours, including us talking, all of that fabric was cut up!

Most of it into 2 1/2" strips

A bit of it into half square triangles

and another bit of it into pieces that when sewn together makes a 5" block.

In less than 2 hours!!

My husband wants to know how many quilts it will make.  I don't know!

But I will pack it all to bring to Key West with me.  I think it will keep me busy for a while. 

 There are a lot of quilts that can be made with 2 1/2" strips :)

 I had a very busy  and productive year and worked very hard, so I decided to treat myself to my own Studio Cutter.  I gave up my desk, that is really only home to piles of papers.

I have not registered it yet, because they want you to name it.

Any ideas?

So I made my WW with scrap strips. 

I ironed a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric to stabilize it.

 I wrote on it with these markers.  The marker didn't bleed at all, but check out the label - washable. 

To keep the strips in place, I put a piece of white tuille on top of everything and quilted a grid.

My second block was based on my visit to court a few weeks ago.

I really wasn't arrested.  I went to court because of a traffic accident that I was involved in.

I was very nervous that I would have to talk to the judge.

It turns out all I had to do was say "yes".

But my DH and I joked about how I would look in an orange jumpsuit.

I asked him to bring me a coconut cake without a file.

It turns out everything was fine and I am off the hook.