Quilting Friends, Amish Wash, and Homemade Root Beer!

Things are busy in Roxbury, Pennsylvania!

An evening, a day, another evening, a day, another evening, and a morning – the entirety of our Quilt Odyssey retreat is giving the quilters concentrated time at really getting their Daybreak quilts from my String Frenzy book to come alive, each quilt reflecting its own personality of each maker.

And though it is the sewing that brings us together – being here also brings so much more to the table!

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Meet the Fabric Floozies!

Their small group was also retreating here, and while we were just getting going, they were packing up and leaving!  It was so fun to meet up with them in the parking lot and gather for a quick meet and greet and a photo before they left –half the group to Connecticut, and the other half to South Carolina.  They meet here in Pennsylvania in the middle!

The relationships we make through quilting are often the strongest (and must fun!) of our lives.  So nice meeting you ladies – I hope you are home safe as I type this up this morning.

My Quilt Odyssey Quilters working hard!

Except – where has everyone from this table gone?

Wait – several are missing from this photo too!

AHA!!  The infamous Esh’s!

How idyllic!  And I see Amish Wash on the line!

(Yes, I have a thing for Amish wash sightings – really.)

Oh my word.  This could take a while!

I caught two of my missing quilters red-handed!

Or quilt-handed as the case may be!

The quilts were absolutely beautiful, and I love seeing the hand quilting….so many hours into each one.  And of COURSE it is okay to play hooky from class – this is a retreat and your time is your own.  And I enjoyed my break away too!

Homemade potato chips – bought for my journey home.

I wasn’t quite brave enough to try the root beer.

Amish buggy in the Dollar General parking lot.

I loved this!

And the quilters eventually DID get back to quilting!

When it’s a retreat – you just keep going until bedtime!

Beautiful blocks – I love the stripes in the triangles in this one.

Oh, yay!

Great job!

All up on the Quilt Rack! LOL!

1930’s with solid red? YES PLEASE!

Tag team pressing!

Last night after dinner I asked if folks were ready to switch gears to something that was a little more free-form, less exacting, no matching of points required.  The overwhelming YES resounded through the room and I gave a quick tutorial on the string pieced sashings and turned them loose to cover foundation paper pages with random strings -

I went to bed with the happy hum of machines still stitching and laughter ringing.  What a great day.

And today we do it all again.

The weather here in Southwestern Pennsylvania has been gorgeous – the only downer is that ragweed season comes earlier up here than it does in Southwestern Virginia, hence the buggy photo from Dollar General.  Nip it in the bud, even if it puts me in a Benadryl educed coma.  Welcome fall!

As it’s our last day, today the quilters just get to work at their own pace on whichever they decide – to make more four-patches?  To put them on point and trim them down?  

Assemble the blocks with setting and corner triangles cut with the Essential Triangle Tool? 

Or continue to make the string sashings and borders?  It’s a “pick your option” day – whatever makes them happy.

And I intend to soak up every minute – just being with the quilters.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Vintage silk pineapple quilt from last year's visit to the American Museum in Bath, UK.

Your heart knows more than you give it credit for!

In other words, when your gut instinct tells you to take time out and visit the Amish store - GO!

Time for me to head to breakfast -

Have a terrific Saturday, everyone!