Quilt retreat

With at least 21 quilters attending our 2 day retreat in the small town of Encampment Wy, I think I can speak for everyone in saying that it was a success. Held at the historic Opera House, the sewing machines kept buzzing until the power went off on Saturday for about 3 hours.
(It actually occurred to us that we may have put a strain on the power grid with our activity.)  Not so!  But with 2 paper piecing classes, two jelly roll classes on Friday and a "quilt as you go" class for all on Saturday we learned so very much.  Thanks to some dedicated people who supplied food for both days, including a local gentleman who

made a delicious fried chicken dish for our evening meal on Friday, we ate well and of course, there was wine and chocolate.

These pictures are examples of what these gals did with my paper pieced pattern, choosing to orient the 4 squares in different ways.  This was the first class in quilting that I have had the privilege to teach and I was pleased to see that most actually got their blocks finished.

There was much ribbing, giggling, teasing and my goal was to make this class relatively stress-free and to see that it was fun.  The Jelly Roll

class was held simultaneously with mine so I was unable to take it, but the girls were able to get far enough along to be able to finish on their own and they chose their own fabrics in advance so it will be fun to see the finished tops.

Rock Springs is the location of the quilt shop where our vendors call home and this is the second year that they have both held a class for us as well as bringing their store to us.  Like Christmas for quilters, bolts of fabric, precuts, tools etc were available for purchase and we did buy!!

Thanks to all for making this 2nd annual quilt retreat such a fun time and there will be more of the projects on the next post.