Lake Tahoe Retreat Has Come and Gone

The Sunshine weekend I’ve been waiting for since January has finally come, and then it has gone. Sunshine is an online guild, a Yahoo group; we make quilts for two organizations: Wrap a Smile(WAS) and Quilts Beyond Borders(QBB).

The setting was the SewReady Retreat center, and it is lovely.

Look at those cushy chairs! Terry of WAS is planning; Penny is stitching away. Everyone else must be taking a break.

Together we finished 77 tops on the spot. However, the online community was also engaged. Not only did they contribute blocks and pieces for us to work on, they sewed along and increased the total.

Here is one table full of supplies; there were two others. There is a bit of everything here: yardage, blocks, pieces, sorted by color, ready to be made into blocks. And beyond the supplies is the luxurious kitchen where Jeannie and Gail are making lunch.

These are the tops I made from “the block” (second from the top left). Three were finished there and the last two at home. Heidi is holding my orange quilt. I designed from pieces that were cut or from completed blocks. We had all approaches to design. Some worked with piles of similar blocks, some did random scrappy, and others worked from fabric to create their own designs.

Besides “the block,” members sent in orphan blocks; these got sashing or alternating blocks and lots of color play. [ETA link to Giraffe Dreams’ Blog where there are photos of more of the arrangements of “the block” plus stars and the square-in-a-square block arrangements.]  I did work on one set of orphan blocks. There were 8 blocks with 16 half square triangles (HSTs) and a 9th with 12.  I made the needed four HSTs and put some sashing between blocks so I didn’t have to deal with matching seams.

I’m glad someone else had made the HSTs.

Here is the view from the patio where we ate most meals.

Officially we did not have lake view–this is “only” a bay. There were bluejays that came to beg along with bees who helped themselves to bits of egg. I didn’t know that was in their diet, though I have shared ham with them on other occasions.

And now I am working on getting back into some sort of routine.

Linking with Oh Scrap! (Button in sidebar) –there were lots of scraps as well as stash involved in these blocks.

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