Wow and wow again!  What a fun time we had at our Quilt Escape last weekend.  There were 46 of us, and it was four days filled with sewing, fun, eating, fun and inspiration.  I’m truly amazed at how much everyone accomplishes, and their work inspires me.  Part of the fun is Show-and-Tell.  Here’s the start of what we saw.

Several people brought back quilts they worked on at the last retreat, like this one from Robin.  It was part of my A Quilt Block A Day from Facebook.  All it needs now are cornerstones and two more borders, and it’s finished!  There’s a tutorial here on my blog for the blocks.  Click HERE for a tutorial on regular Bow Tie blocks and click HERE for a tutorial on making three dimensional.

Robin did blocks like the ones below for her Secret Sister one time, and made a set for herself, too.  I love how she used the two different colors for her setting squares.

And she made this quilt with blocks she received from her Secret Sister.

Robin also made this Bargello quilt.  The squares finish at 1″!  She’s going to do a demo on how to make it at our next retreat.

This vintage Double Wedding Ring belongs to a family member of R obin’s.  It still needs to be quilted.  Don’t you love how the addition of one more piece of fabric on the four-patches forms a blue border on the top and bottom and a yellow border on the sides of this quilt?

Julie made this Patriotic Log Cabin.

This gorgeous quilt was done by Pat P.  We only had three Pats this time, and only two were Pat P!

Pat P #1 also made this quilt.  This color combination in batiks is my favorite!

Here’s Phyllis holding up several table runners that Barbara made.  The first is from my Center Piece Table Runner kit.

She liked it so well, she did it in Christmas fabrics!

This one is perfect for fall.

I know what she’ll have on her Easter table!

This is a very sweet Valentine runner.

Phyllis made this beautiful cover for either an iPad or Kindle, I can’t remember which!

She also made these two amazing miniatures.

Make that three amazing miniatures!

We had two token scrapbookers at retreat.  Karen R shows us her Christmas album with yearly photos of her son and Santa.  Although now that he’s nearly 16, he says he’s through with Santa pictures!

This is my sister Sally, who also came to scrapbook.  But, she had a quilt to show-and-tell—a gift from HER sister!

She also shared an album that covered multiple trips to Hawaii.

Sarah had a pretty, spring table runner to show…

…as well as this incredible Many Trips quilt.

A few retreats ago, I demonstrated the Hunter’s Star ruler from Studio 180.  Many of the ladies started quilts.  Here’s Sarah’s finished one!

In fact, here she is at the retreat a year ago, just getting started!

Sarah also made this wonderful wildlife quilt for a raffle.

Stacey brought the first quilt she ever made, I mean started!  She’s hand quilting it, and hasn’t given up yet!

She also brought this completed quilt that she started in a mystery class I taught a few years ago.

This was Dante’s first quilt.  I think it’s amazing!  She said it nearly drove her crazy.

After making the Flying Geese quilt, she kept on quilting, and this is her quilt, too.

Carol made this wonderful sampler quilt.

Susan did a Twelve Step Program from my Bundles of Fun book.  It uses just 12 fat quarters!

I shared two quilts from my Dolly Dear fabric collection. This is made from a pre-printed panel.

This one is called Let’s Play Paper Dolls, and the pockets hold the dolly dresses!  There are kits for it on my website.

That’s a start!  I’ll share more in a day or two.

 

 

 

When I wrote my first book, Bundles of Fun, I designed each quilt to be made from twelve fat quarters.  So, all the quilts have names like Midnight Cowboy, A Dozen Roses and Twelve Step Program.

As it turns out, Twelve Step Program has been the most popular quilt in the book.  I did two versions for the book, this one out of batiks…

…this one…

…made with William Morris fabrics.  It’s much more bended looking because there isn’t as much contrast in the fabrics.

You can sure see the difference in this one, which has lots of contrast.  I just stumbled across this top I started from a class demo.  I wonder if I have the borders somewhere???

As you can see, this pattern lends itself to any fabrics!  Teri at Boardwalk Quilts made this one, and instead of steps, did a chevron!

Last Saturday, she offered a class on this quilt.  I stopped in just after lunch to see how everyone was doing.  It’s so much fun to see what fabrics everyone picked!

After sewing strips together…

…you sew one more seam to make a tube!

Then you do some more cutting and end up with lots of loops.

See what I mean about this working with lots of different fabrics!

I’m partial to the brights.

But the florals are strikingly pretty.

It’s hard to beat black and white with a touch of red!

One you cut have the loops, you start staggering the design.

Magically, you have stair steps!

Then it’s just a matter of sewing it all together.

This quilt goes together very quickly.  I took this picture at the class on Saturday…

…and when I saw Dianne on Monday, she had it all together!  I hope the ladies in the class will all send photos of their finished quilts.  When they do, I’ll be sure to post photos of them.

The following photo is from one of my retreats.  Here, the loops are pinned to a design wall.

Once the loops are cut in the proper places, it’s ready to sew.

Here are a couple more that friends brought to retreats for show-and-tell.  Another beautiful batik version.

Yummy colors here, and look at the fabulous border treatment.

Good, strong contrast in these blocks.

And I love the vintage-y feel to this one.  Notice the little ad I’m doing in the corner!  Shameless!

If you have photos of quilts you’ve made from any of my books, I’d love it if you’d share them with me.

And here they are……..On Friday, Margaret stopped by.  This is the quilt she did in class.  It turned out to be amazing!

She added a tiny flange between the quilt center and the first border.  If you don’t know what a flange is, it’s a 1/2″ strip of fabric, folded and sewn in, so it’s three dimensional.

And after Kathi saw this post, she stopped by on Saturday, during my open house, to show me three quilts that she had made with this pattern!

You can really see what I mean when I say this pattern looks good with any fabric combination!

 

This is a quilt I designed called Summer Fun.

The name came more from the fabric than the design.  I had this cute baseball fabric that I used in it.

The quilt uses nine fat quarters and a background.

This pattern is in my second book, Fat Quarter Fun.

In the book I also sho it in a little sample with just two colors and not much contrast.  Very sweet!  I just love to see how different the same pattern can look in different fabrics.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe they even are the same pattern.

At our last Quilt Retreat, Sue made one with purple and lavender.  Isn’t is stunning!?!  And don’t you love the blatant advertising, with her holding up the book!  She is a former Anna Lena’s employee, after all.

She stopped by today to use my long arm to quilt it.

I think the Daisy Pano is looking great on it.

If you’ve made quilts from my books or patterns, I’d love it if you’d send me photos.

I’m just back from the Anna Lena fall retreat.  Boy, was it fun!   We were at the Falls Creek Retreat Center, and we did our sewing in the gymnasium.  There was plenty of room for all 63 of us!

One of the best things about retreat is the inspiration you get from seeing what others have been doing.  I’ve posted pictures of the show-and-tell we did to flickr.

Evelyn brought the Twelve Step Program quilt that she’d made from my book, Bundles of Fun.

And during the weekend, Terry made the same quilt!  It’s amazing how different they look!

It was fun to see other quilts made from my books.  Ginny made this quilt for her daughter.

It’s the cover quilt from Big Print Quilts, but, boy, does it look different with the fabrics she chose!

Here’s another one from Big Print Quilts.  See me subtley waving the book above the quilt?!?  This one is Pat’s and it’s called Whopper.

This quilt, called Summer Fun, is from Fat Quarter Fun.  Janet made this one.

I love the way Twelve Drummer Drumming, from Bundles of Fun, looks with Mary’s fabric choices.

Also from Bundles of Fun is this basket quilt.  Sue made it and is donating it to a breast cancer fundraiser.

Renee was making these adorable dress blocks from a box of scraps from her grandma’s attic!

Teresa, who teaches first grade, was making book bags for all of her students!

Barbara had a kit to make a table runner–and she didn’t even know the fabric was from my Santa Claus Lane group!  And the pattern was designed by my friend, Karen Montgomery!

And, speaking of Santa Claus Lane, Robin made a Santa Claus Lane Jumper for her granddaughter.  I just had to use the last of the Santa Claus fabric to make kits for this.

You have to have some fun at retreat, too.  Here I am wearing my Christmas tree skirt!

We had an ugly fabric exchange and made bags–most of which weren’t ugly at all!

Bob even came by on Friday to do maintenance on people’s Featherweights!  He was the only boy allowed–and after lunch we sent him on his way.

It was a great time, in a great location.  I even walked to the falls–but more on that later!

In the meantime, you can see other posts about the retreat from the following atendees:

Monica – The Happy Zombie

Sarah – Anyone Can Quilt

Robin – Crafty Musings

Evelyn – Use The Loot