A Narragansett Blues Day in Shipshewana!

What a day to play with the Quilters in Shipshe!

It was a no-empty-chairs kind of full up day at Gay Bomer’s Sentimental Stitches retreat at the Blue Gate Garden Inn in Shipshewana, Indiana.

A Double Duty Day with a Narragansett Blues all day workshop, followed by a completely packed house for a lecture, followed by retreater show & share, and then - topped off with an ice-cream social – oh yum!  There wasn’t a spare moment when we weren’t cutting, sewing, pressing, oohing and ahhing over quilts, and stuffing our faces with yummy food.

Isn’t that what retreat is all about?

We’d like seating for 40, please?

No problem!

Connie diving into making eleventy-bazillion four-patches.

Don’t count!  Just sew! LOL!

Matching pairs of strip sets -

All right sides together BEFORE cutting into matched pairs!

What a huge time saver!

Chain, chain chain, baby!

we all fed the four-patch pairs through our machines with DARK SQUARE LEADING -  so seams would all spin the same direction on the back – consistency is the key!

Atta girl, Rita!  I love your happy smile!

Quilty friends having the best of times!

Four-patch units, into four-patch bricks!

Bricks become columns!

This quilt comes together so quickly!

Before we knew it – patterns were appearing!

I know it is easy to think of starting at the far left column, and working one column at a time from left to right – the same way we read.  But I start this quilt with the CENTER column first.  The two columns on either side of the center are identical.  So make 2 of each column after the center one….make them in pairs using each one as the leader/ender for the other, and it is HALF the thinking than doing one row at a time.  This quilt is best when built from the center out.

And if you can sew your Naragansett Blues on a beautiful blue featherweight -

All the better!

Getting cranky making columns on a little 99 handcrank!

Click to Play:

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Nov 8, 2019 at 10:04am PST

ALL of this happened..and more!

We know these columns laid out together don’t make the barn raising design that the quilts will eventually have – but we covered much of the carpet space outside of our classroom with our day’s efforts.  I loved all the varied colors and the little personal touches that each quilter brought into their own projects.

And yes there were door prizes for the many pieces of Y2K Millennium fabric that folks were including for kicks and giggles.  SEW MUCH FUN! Click to Play:

Thanks so much for a great day, everyone!

So much scrappy happy!

Naragansett Blues is from my book MORE Adventures with Leaders & Enders and is on sale in the Quiltville Store for the low price of $19.99  I’m happy to sign and send you a copy as soon as I return home from Indiana!

Yesterday’s drive about -

Amish wash on the line.  LOVE!

So happy to spend some time with these lovely ladies from near, not so near, and some from very far! Cathy came down from near Chicago – a 2 hour drive or so.  Irene came from Louisville, Kentucky – 5 hours drive and friends Linda Collins and Mary came all the way from Australia!  So happy to see you ladies and get a chance to spend some time with you.

Today is a Sandcastles day!

More four-patches and string blocks coming up – hooray!

And behind it all, we’ve still got our IronEZ Gift-Away happening on Wednesday’s post.  Did you catch it?  I’ll be drawing for 3 winners when I get home.  Enter to win ON THAT POST. Open to USA residents only, please.

And you can still order your own IronEZ and save 15% by using code BH15off at MyIronEZ.com!

Good luck everyone!

Quiltville Quote of the Day-

The energy you put forth is what comes back to you in return.

Make sure your ripples are positive ones!

Happy Saturday!