Pieceful Retreating

After several weeks of long days and weekends working, I made a last-minute decision to attend the Pieceful Gatherings' Spring Retreat in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Around 60 quilters gathered at the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn for a weekend of stitching that included a workshop with Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oats.  The retreat room was very spacious and the lighting was surprisingly good for a hotel ballroom.   

We worked on Lynn's new "Calico Cottages" pattern which includes tiny paper-pieced cabins at the center of log cabin blocks.  The cabin centers are 3" finished. 


I didn't work on the class pattern exclusively, but did manage to get two blocks finished while there.


The highlight of the weekend was show & tell - the quilts that were shared were amazing!  This is an antique, dated back to the early 19th century, shared by Pieceful Gatherings' shop owner Carrie:

This pattern was designed by Lynn and was featured in a class taught at Pieceful Gatherings.  This version was made by the person that taught the workshop:

I have always wanted to do a Lucy Boston quilt and have bought numerous tools (paper pieces, stamps, etc.) over the years. Pieceful Gatherings has been running a Lucy Boston club for a number of years and one of the participants recently finished her version:

And yes, I am now a club member and have started my first block!  I am finding fussy cutting a bit challenging - it's hard to position the paper pieces in exactly the same place every time.

I also worked on my Blue Baskets at the retreat.  I need to finish up the rails and hand stitch several basket handles but overall have been keeping up with this one fairly well.


I am continuing to stitch my tree for my temperature quilt, really hoping to have it finished by the end of the month. I'm also madly working to starch fabrics to get a start on Edyta Sitar's Stars Upon Stars quilt when the sew-along begins next week.  I have wanted to do this one for a while and collected BOM kits for it several years ago, so I figure I may as well jump in on it now.  

So that's three new UFOs added to my list this month. 🤣