Winter Sewing Retreat

Winter is a great time to catch up on your sewing projects.  Every January I go on a Quilt Retreat with some ladies from my quilt group.  This year we had 17 women who attended.  Here is a photo of me finishing up a table runner that I made for the kitchen island.

After I put away all of the Christmas decorations this year, I thought that the house looked bare.  I wanted to make a new table runner for the kitchen in some blues, greens and grays.  

I cut up some of my "Next" fabrics into 2 1/2" squares and put this together while I was on my retreat.  I think it looks pretty good in the kitchen.

I would have used a dark teal or blue for the borders but I didn't bring a lot of fabrics with me on the retreat.  I had some dark gray and I ended up using this.  

I like the look of it; it's a little darker than what I would normally make, but it works.  

Here is a closer look at the fabrics.  I fussy cut some birds and their nests to give it some interest.  I still have a bit of the Nest fabric left, but I'm sad to say that it is almost all used up.  

I roomed with  my friend, Linda, and we usually spend some time outdoors over the weekend.  The retreat center is near the Vermont hills and it's very nice there.

But this year it was too cold and windy to go out.  It snowed on Sunday, but we left a little early to beat the snow.

Here is Linda making some cute fabric baskets as gifts.  She was using some Christmas fabrics and catching up on things she didn't finish before Christmas.

I'm so grateful for our friendship and how she puts up with my silly shenanigans.  We had so much fun.  

Another project that I finished was this maple leaf wall hanging.  I had started it a couple of years ago but wondered why I didn't add any fall colors to it beside orange.  At the retreat I added the brown border, a green border and another neutral border.  I think this added some color and interest to the wall hanging.  I quilted straight lines in the leaf and small free-motion stippling in the neutral area.

I am happy that I didn't throw it away, because I actually like how it turned out.  I added a brown border to finish it.

I think I will add some fall colored buttons to it to give it more color and add some interest.  Although I didn't get a lot accomplished at the retreat, I had a wonderful weekend with my quilting guild friends.  :)