i've retreated and returned with progress

this past weekend was our first ever retreat for the sacramento modern quilt guild.

it was a short, but very eventful weekend that was well worth it, and a well needed escape.
friday morning, i packed everything up (don't be surprised i waited that long...) and then grabbed lunch and a quick stop at wal mart before beginning my voyage.
i picked up one of my guild members that lives just down the road from me, and after a quick stop at the shop to get ironing boards and wool mats, we were on our way.  our ETA started off at 3pm, but the change in weather quickly pushed that back past 4pm.
driving in snow for the first time can be checked off my list.  that's also why i borrowed my dad's car instead of mine.  thank you, all wheel drive.

once we finally made it, we checked in and got our machines unloaded before locating our cabin.

we did a lap around the area, thanks to the confusing map, and then we found our home...
are you ready for this??

see that TINY little window up at the top? that's where i stayed with three other guild members.

that is our room inside (my bed was the back right one) and even while we had the hike up the stairs... and more stairs... we were thankful we at least had a bathroom on our floor!  after putting our stuff in the room and gathering what we needed, it was back to the parking lot, and then the hike down the next set of stairs before settling in to get going for the evening.

as you can see, we each had our own little island for sewing, and remained masked up unless we were on our island.  after a few welcome notes, an ice breaker game and dinner, we were sewing away for the rest of the night.  well, i was trimming, trying to get all my current HSTs ready to go for the morning.  and i got almost all of them done.
we left around midnight the first night, and then had to hike up the INSANE stairs.
the four of us realized quickly how out of shape we were, and probably spent at least 5 minutes trying to regain our regular breathing once we got back inside our cabin.
oh... and i'm not just talking about the cabin stairs...i'm also talking about THESE stairs!

we went down them each day, and that first night was easily the worst, since they still had remnants of snow and ice on them.  SUPER fun.

saturday was all day sewing!

a few games thrown in here and there, like a fat quarter swap/steal and the kona/aurifil challenge.

i'm please to say i got the most right out of each set.

all the konas that i've had to pull in the last few weeks has really paid off in more ways than one.  ha!

what can i say?
i might get a little competitive when prizes are involved...
and i did feel a little guilty for constantly winning thing.  oh well!

we got a cool collection of swag from olfa, omnigrids, the mqg and cali quilt co, including a cuddle scarf a few guild members sewed that night.  i ALMOST sewed mine as well, just to say i've sewed minky, but i was too in the zone with making my star blocks.  we also battled technology and got the saturday night facebook live show up on the big screen to watch and see what they decided to sell while tayva was out of town.

saturday night i stayed until about 11:45 and was part of the last three to go.  i lucked out and was able to hitch a ride back to the cabin instead of taking those stairs in the dark all by myself.  at that point, i had managed to get 31 of my 120 blocks done, which was perfectly okay with me, since it meant i had less than 100 to go.

sunday morning we had to pack up, and get everything out and clean before check out.  we had to be out of the cabins by 11 and out of the main hall by 12.  i pretty much threw everything in my suitcase haphazardly, since it was only going to come out when i got home.  i managed to sew and get a total of 36 blocks done (4 color sets of 9) which was fabulous in my book.

loaded up the car, and after cleaning we were out of there and hit the road around 1130.

stopped by the shop to drop off the boards, and then dropped off my fellow guildmate before heading to take my dad back his car.

all in all it was a great little escape to have some solid sew time in a nice, scenic environment.

i'm totally looking forward to next year, in hopes we get one more day at the site, and our fingers are crossed we will be able to stay in the dorms.  the cabins were cute and nice, but man would having everything in one place AND get fed be amazing!

i ended up working yesterday to make up for some of the time off, and catch up on some of my impending work projects as well.  some great kits are coming together for shows, and my sewjo is still holding up strong.  be prepared... block party is looking like it is going to be pretty awesome tomorrow!  

madeline's hat - guild mini quilt challenge

in an old house in paris that was covered in vines
lives 12 little girls in two straight lines...
the smallest one was madeline.
back in the beginning of the year, which seems like 10 years ago at this rate, we were given our next mini quilt challenge for sacMQG, and it was one that i was determined to participate in.  i knew instantly which book i wanted to do, and a general idea of what aspect of the book i wanted to include.
madeline is a series that takes me back to elementary school, to my favorite teacher and her halloween costumes. each year mrs. blake would dress up in the same costume.  she would be a nun, specifically, miss clavel, and carry around a large madeline doll.  well, you can see for yourself here:)
most recent photo there on the right was from 2017, which was the last time a bunch of us got together in person.  she moved to the east coast after retirement to be with her granddaughters, but is now back on the west coast and not too far away!  because of her, and the amazing four years i had with her as my teacher, madeline has always held a special place in my heart.
after a pinterest search for minimalist madeline designs, i came across bookroo and a line of minimalist posters they had representing books.  the one for madeline was perfect, but i couldn't find a designer to reach out to.  i emailed the company and after a few back and forth responses, i was granted permission by the designer to create a personal mini quilt for this challenge using their design.  here's the link to the madeline poster that started this all.
and if you're a lover of children's books, you have got to check out all the posters here
and then life got in the way.  and covid-19.  and all the things.  so last wednesday night... yep.  DAYS before the meeting, i got down to work and made this happen!
i knew i wanted the background blue instead of red to represent the coats the girls wear, so it was perfect that i still had a chunk of this blue grunge from the hidden agenda quilt. and then after deciding on fabric in my stash for a baby quilt, this rejected yellow became exactly what i needed for madeline's hat.  of course, the bit of black grunge was just what was needed to finish off the bows ad the strings hanging down.
i appliqued the pieces on to the blue one layer at a time, and just did a basic stitch around the edge to keep things in place.  at first, i was going to attempt another new skill and use my free motion foot to quilt a squiggle pattern in the background, but i quickly learned (after practicing on a scrap) that i didn't want to dive in to that just yet without the complete proper set up... if ever.  i find that maneuvering on the long arm is much more my style instead of maneuvering the fabric.
so instead, i quilted the background with my walking foot.  in my original plans, i wanted to quilt an eiffel tower outline on one side, but nerves and time crunch got the best of me.  i opted for a design similar to the ninja turtle quilt but as time went on, i started getting more choppy and overlapping lines to make it more dense.  i also stitched around the hat detail to make it "pop" a little more, and left that unquilted.  since it is intended to be a wall hanging, it shall just hang.
also...
the backing is perfect.
i bought this fabric when i was making my 100 blocks quilt, and had just the right size for the backing.
i still have a little bit more, which will very likely be used with the quilt i intend to make for mrs. blake this year.  she loves to travel, so i have a perfect fat quarter bundle i purchased just to represent that.  it wouldn't be complete without a little madeline with it as well!
pattern information: madeline bookroo poster designed by jane tanner
quilt count: 131

thoughts on quiltcon 2020

so i went to quiltcon.
no, this wasn't my first convention going "rodeo" so to speak, but it was the first one that was hobby based versus work based (aka when i went to wppi in vegas in 2011 & 2012)
so what did i think?
i had a BLAST.
i failed at a few things, but lucked in to a lot at the same time.
my first fail came to hotels.
i totally bombed at booking a room earlier, but as luck would have it, our guild president kathy's husband ended up not coming, so she had a pull out couch bed available.  shoot, i would have slept on the floor even.  but still, i was able to get a room at a (generally) affordable rate... i mean, we're talking downtown austin, so thats relative anyways... BUT the hotel was literally a block away from the convention center.  out the door, cross the crosswalk in two directions and BOOM.  i was there there.  which comes in GREAT when i like to hit my snooze button.  730am texas time = 530 california time... which was not a fun compromise.
one of our vp of events (hey, rhonda!) was on the same flight as me wednesday morning, and also conveniently at the same hotel site, so we flew together (generally speaking... my 2nd fail was checking in to my flight asap.  loading group C.  yuck) lyfted together and then once we were settled in, walked to lunch with her friend mickey and her guild vp jeff.
wednesday night after checking in and getting my badge (2nd fail = not quick enough when i registered to get the swag bag) i went to the awards ceremony and then an instagram meet up.  i met a gal from hull, Massachusetts who was also in my age bracket (yay 30s!) and was happy to see i was at the quiet end of the tables and had a seat available.  we chatted a bit, and i learned she had a quilt that was accepted in to the show.
allison @thetiniestsquid my next fail was not photographing the tags to all the quilts in the show.  with the charity quilts, i was able to get a general sense by checking the hashtags on instagram to figure out which guild made which quilt, but i am hoping that there will be a way to check in to the other quilts.  our guild member abby (the same one who designed our charity quilt) also had a quilt in the show herself.
with that said, here is a chunk of some of my favorite charity quilts, starting with ours :)
the charity quilts always have a theme and specific color scheme parameters which make it extra interesting to see how each guild interprets it.  the theme this year was text with a specific color scheme of blacks, grays and whites.  it was interesting to see what direction people went, whether inspirational quote, location specific (such as hello world, by the silicon valley mqg) or some other surprise direction.  i seem to only have a video of it, but here's the emoji quilt by the tulsa mqg, as translated by mary fons.

slide by riane.elise because, well... parks and rec. speaking of mary fons, the lectures were awesome.
since it was my first quiltcon, i decided to just do the lecture pass instead of sorting through to figure out which lectures i wanted to attend.  this way, i also felt like i could skip out on something and go walk around the showroom floor and not feel like i wasn't getting my moneys worth.  the lectures i did go to (which was most of them, to be honest) were fantastic.  i also got to know some "big names" in the modern quilting industry that i didn't know of before and now that i have been home for two weeks have still continued to dive in and watch more of their web based posts.  two of the main ones are mary fons and victoria findlay wolfe.   both were very fabulous presenters on their topics, very engaging and lively about their topics.  victoria findlay wolfe was also the featured artist this year, and her quilts were insane to look at.  and i loved hearing about how she quilted with her grandma.
like... what? yeah, that is really quilted on there. we had a sacmqg "meeting" friday night where a few members showed what they did in their classes they signed up for.  i might consider talking a class next time... especially if i can get in to a long arm class.  crossing fingers and toes starting now.
so basically, i had a great time.
well, that's a super vague way to say i left pumped and energized and ready to get back to creating.  when leaving wppi, i had that same pumped and energized feeling, but there were a lot more steps to implement than just create and make work happen.  with this, quiltcon wasn't as much of a hyped event on steriods and we were all there to come together, network and learn instead of  finding the newest and latest xyz to make the best of the best.  granted, there was some of that on the show room floor... but it was nowhere near as gigantic as the vegas tradeshow.
two weeks later, and i'm still feeling that hype, and it is a hype that is attainable.  like, i feel like i could totally create something worth entering in a show (and i already have ideas... so stay tuned as i check entry dates for the california state fair this year) and i have a support system far and wide that are all in this same boat with me.  (yay sacmqg and lisa, who i may have convinced to come in 2022)
and yes, i tried to fight it as much as i could, but i gave in and totally impulse bought some fabric.  more on that later, because i feel like it deserves a post of its own it is so adorable.
and now with this rambled recap, i'll leave you with the remainder of photos :)

side note: the 2nd from the left is abby's quilt from our guild, and the 3rd one is titled "bob" and won people's choice

crazy right? that's a MASSIVE quilt by shrutinow

that one on the right was from the youth category.  THE YOUTH.  like 18 and under...  why wasn't i that creative as a kid??? and also, the chiropractor said i brought down the demographic at quiltcon "by a lot"... can you hand me my eyes please? i think i rolled them a little too hard.
i *might* already be planning for quiltcon 2021 in savannah, georgia, especially if i can be more on top of booking hotels and such this time around.  granted, that means more plane time and longer travel days... but at least i know better now of what to expect each day as far as when things are really happening.