Harrison Hot Springs Retreat 2013

Friday morning I drove through the fog to Harrison Hot Springs Hotel for our annual guild retreat. It is an hour and an half drive from my home, but things were complicated by fog on the way out for almost half the drive.  Once I got to the resort you can see beautiful blue skies.

 This second photo also taken from our room was as the sun was going down, now that Autumn has arrived the sun is setting earlier in the day.  I was so busy sewing I didn't take any photos that first day.

 The next morning I put up the quilt top I finished the night before.  This was a class I took with Bonnie Hwang, one of our guild members.  I had the half blocks done by the end of the class but not gone any further.  Last year I sewed the blocks together and realized I had mismatched some.  So after some reverse sewing I matched the leaves again.  It is supposed to make two wall hanging of 5 leaves each, with reverse colour themes.  I decided to make one quilt.  Each leaf had a coloured background and then either a black or grey frame.  I couldn't find a combo for my last leaf so I decided to go with black on one side and grey on the other, thus the turquoise leaf in the centre.

 You were then to use the second colour for the next frame so the black would be framed in the grey and the grey in the black.  I decided to have all the black framed leaves at the bottom and have fun with adding black into the grey frames.  I'm very pleased with the asymmetry of the final piece.

Beckie was making a table topper for her mother's very long narrow table.  I didn't get a picture of the final piece but she added a narrow gold to the outside of the green and then did an envelop rather than separate binding for the piece.  She is going to quilt it at home.  I think mom should be delighted.

 This top was made for a grandson that loves cowboys and horses.

 Carmie took a Cat in the hat panel and made the tumbling blocks with Marcy Bakers technique.

 She backed it with Minkie and machine quilt it to give away to a friends new baby.

Sandi B. and Kendra bought Bali pop roll sets and made the racer quilts sided by side.

 Cher made another Christmas tree that several gals made last year at the retreat.  She made her own tree design.

 The spots on the green are actually heat set crystals.  Her machine quilting is amazing.  She then pounded out holes to insert lights on the tree.

 Donna Mae made this lovely colour wash twister top.  Very out of the box for her usual quilts.

Val has an amazing design aesthetic and was playing with different circles.  Can't wait to see what this one will finally look like.

 Beckie made a split nine patch and figured out how to have all the animals facing the same way.

 Beckie on the left is helping Cher display the quilt she made for her daughter.  Last year she was piecing the background for this quilt.  The turtles are great, I couldn't get the bottom of the quilt that has some lighter sand tones in the centre.

 Susan made a Grim Ripper, the pattern is available free on the web. Here is where you can find the pattern.

 In 2010 I wasn't able to attend the retreat because I broke a bone in my left foot three days before the retreat. I had planned on making some owls for an on line swap with Mary Lou Weidman's yahoo group.  I managed to make my owls and get them sent off on time.  Here are some of the owls I got back.  Mary Lou sent us a pattern to work from the size and colours were up to us.  I believe they were black on black backgrounds with fall colours for the owls.  The two owls without eyes have bags with buttons pinned on the back to be added after quilting.  I got these ones done after lunch on Saturday.

 Marion made this lovely racer quilt.

 Love those Bali fabrics.

 Beckie was working on her layout for her hollow cube quilt from Marcy Baker's class.

 She decided to move the red closer to the green as the brown blocks seemed to blend in too much.

 Sunday evening I had another three owls added to the parliament.  Don't know why that gal used blue and yellow instead of black on black.  The little guy on the left had his ears cut off, I'll add some afterwards so he can hear again.

Monday morning I realized I hadn't gone outside except for a brief walk after dinner on Sunday so I decided to take some photos of the lake.  The fog that has been hanging around was lifting and you can see some fresh snow on the mountains.

 See the fog raising from the lake.

 Fall leaves amongst the rocks.

 Dew on the edge of the leaves.

 Sunshine and fog on the trees.

 Blue skies behind the fog.

 Beckie had almost all her blocks sewn together.

 Cathy made a smaller hollow block wall hanging with the blocks moving to the left.

 Irene was working on this rainbow monkey wrench block.

 This is a smaller version of the above quilt, it is about 14" square.

 When my bobbin ran out I decided it was time to pack up.  I've got my last 5 owls planed for placement and have to make a lot more filler blocks before they are ready to be attached.  I'm liking how they are all coming together.  Not sure what I'll do for borders.

Harrison Hot Springs Retreat 2013 came to an end, but a very productive one.  This year 22 of us stayed for an additional night and 11 left on Sunday morning.  I'm glad we had another day.