OUT WEST!

 I recently enjoyed a trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains for Lynn Wilder's Retreat. She does retreats 3-4 times a year for about 35 women. I was happy to be invited to join them this year as we wrapped up Laurel Ridge, Lynn's Block of the Month design for The Quilt Show. You can still get the patterns FREE as a Star Member: Laurel Ridge Block of the Month 2025

Here are just some of the the highlights in photos:

My accommodation for the week was a lovely cabin a few doors down from Lynn's cabin. Her friend offered to host us--we had the cabin to ourselves all week.

View off  the deck of our cabin

Lynn Wilder and Pati Violick, Director of Marketing Marcus Fabrics, my roommate for the week

My room

The kitchen

A welcome card, homemade chocolate chip cookies, champagne

View from the Loft above

View from  the Loft

The next day 5 of us made the 2.5 hour drive to Yosemite. It was a glorious Fall day and we enjoyed the trip, my first to a western National Park:

To prove I was there

Candace, Pati, Gwyneth, and Lynn

El Capitan

The next day Retreat began, with setting up the large room and Lynn's "pop-up shop". Many hands made light work. Attendees came about noon and the sewing and chatting began:

My Laurel Ridge was finished there

Lynn's Laurel Ridge on display

The door prizes donated by Marcus Fabrics

The first dinner was Appetizers, Desserts and Wine, brought by the attendees. The food all week was good, this was really great:

Lynn's sister, Gail, even remembered from my blog that I like Moscato--she kept my glass ready each night. Thanks, Gail!

Each evening there was Show and Tell. This is a very accomplished group of quilters. Here is just a glimpse:

Angi is knocking this one out of the park

Linda made this in a class with Jean Impey

Lori makes art quilts mostly--this is made by burning in the black lines

Gay L brought her Color My World--I believe it's the most well-made of any I have seen. Completely flat. She is now inspired to finish it.

Melinda worked on this much of the week

For MORE PHOTOS from RETREAT, check out Lynn's Blog: Sew'n Wild Oaks blog There is so much to see there.

I worked on two ongoing projects:

Border blocks for TEXAS STAR and Old Italian blocks for MY NEXT LIFETIME QUILT

Read more about those here:

TEXAS STAR

SUMMER SEW A LONG

Monday morning we got to watch Alex Anderson live as she revealed the 2026 Block of the Month quilt, Game On!, designed by Becky Goldsmith exclusively for The Quilt Show. Here I am watching:

Now I could pull out my Solid Kit and start working on Game On! I had printed the patterns and instructions at home so I was ready to begin:

For more information on this FUN quilt, see:  Game On!

One evening I gave my presentation TIME MANAGEMENT FOR QUILTERS. It is always well received and I enjoy giving it. Many watched:

The next night Pati gave a presentation about how fabrics are designed and made--it was very informative. Prices will continue to rise and manufacturing quilting fabric in this country will not happen again. 

All week I watched these women  making quilts, friends and memories. It was so good to be with them. Many return at least once a year, 10 of us were first-timers. There was a mother daughter daughter team who kept SO BUSY it was hard to get their photo:

The only problem for me was I didn't get a power walk all week--no cell service outside Wi-Fi in our cabin and the Lodge, meant I could get hopelessly lost and it is BEAR country and MOUNTAIN LION country. Windy roads that all look the same, no sidewalks, steep drop-offs to driveways or woods. No, I just had to stay in and sew after walking with Pati to the Lodge most mornings.  

And the food just kept coming. Each day the snack table grew--I called it the OH NO! table. Homemade goodies and some of my favorite store-bought goodies added to the challenge. Thankfully, I only came home up 3 pounds and they were gone quickly:

A well-run retreat is a super experience, a chance to get away from the duties at home and make new friends. There were gifts, laughs, and so much more. I am happy I was there to enjoy it.

My flights there and back were mostly uneventful. Returning the first day of the "slow down" of flights was worrisome but the 2 hour delay leaving Sacramento was due to equipment, not cancelations. The 3 hour layover I expected in Atlanta became a one hour layover and I arrived in Huntsville at 11 pm, as expected. 

And now I am home for a few months so it is time to get something done!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

WHILE I TRAVEL

 When this posts I will have just returned from a week out West, to Yosemite and Arnold CA, for Lynn Wilder’s retreat. There will be a big post about that soon. 

We walked

We snacked

We sewed

And we laughed and learned:

I gave my presentation “TIME MANAGEMENT for QUILTERS”. It was very well received. Here is just a taste of it for you, my top 3 Tips for Time Management:

Top Tips for Time Management. Click this link to read that post.

Enjoy and I’ll be back soon!

Let’s quilt.

Barbara

UPDATE--LOCAL CLASS and RETREAT INFO

I have updated my Local Classes for Winter 2020--you can find all the info here:

Winter 2020 Local Classes

Added were photos of Afternoon Delight:

And Circa 2016:

And Patriotic Pineapples:

Only a few spots remain for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler--sign up now if you want to be in that great class--lecture/demo--no sewing in class--just come and learn.

And DON'T FORGET the first Joyful Journey Retreat Event: Only ONE SPOT remains for one more lucky participant. Find all the info here:

UPDATE--THE RETREAT IS FULL! It's going to be a great time for all.

Joyful Journey Retreat 

then email me for the Registration Form. We want you to join us--it will be so much fun and you'll learn a lot too.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Quilt-In was Fun!

Yesterday my guild held it's first Quilt-In, a twelve hour retreat, including breakfast and dinner, 4 optional classes, open sewing time, an onsite  quilt shop vendor who brought fabric to sell and lots of time for socializing with old and new guild members.  Twenty-nine smart people took advantage of this opportunity and by lunchtime the talk was "What are you going to teach next year?" and "We HAVE to do this again next year".  So, yes, it was very successful.

I taught a class on hand piecing, the Antique Rose Star.  The template comes from Material Obsession in Australia and the quilt is featured in the book, Material Obsession 2

Here is my sample: 

Class was fun, some of the 16 students had never hand-pieced before, some said they did not like templates but were willing to give them a chance, and all of them had a good time and several said they learned more than they expected to.  That is always my goal--I try to incorporate as many tips as I can throughout my classes.  Because I had used both hand and machine piecing in this quilt, I demonstrated how to machine piece the units at the end of class.  It was a fast-paced 3 hours--next time I teach this it will be a four-hour class, students will get at least one major unit done in 4 hours.

Here are some scenes from our classroom:

Sixteen surprise gifts I  brought--fun to share my excess notions

Cutting and marking the small kite pieces

Everyone kept hard at work

Using the template to cut those pieces

Part of their kit included 3 colorful Ziploc bags to stay organized--the bags were a hit

Biggest pencil case I've ever seen

My demo pieces

First block laid out

Making those small stitches

After lunch, which we ordered in, I had free time to sew.  I was thrilled to get 4 of my 9 sets for the "baby" Color in Black and White quilt finished.  The big quilt has blocks 28" x 24"--the baby has blocks 14" x 12":

I wrote about the big one here and here.  This week I will add the border I decided on for the large quilt, stay tuned for photos of it. 

The day was fun and productive and the food was excellent--our 2 chefs did a great job.  It was hard to stay mindful of my healthy eating plan and I did cave on the Key Lime pie, but it was worth it.  Back to the straight and narrow today.  I've lost 20 pounds since the end of tax season so I'm headed in the right direction.

Everyone should get a chance to sew with friends and learn new things.  Let's Quilt!

Barbara