Quilt retreat: A wonderful place to start a pumpkin quilt

 

This past weekend I attended an informal quilt retreat with long-time friends. We meet twice a year in the spring and fall to sew or scrapbook, eat, talk, laugh and enjoy each other’s company. I’ve been gathering with these lovely ladies for more than a decade, and it is truly a blessing. I’ve written about our Koronis Quilt Retreat before, if you’d like to read that post.  Today I wanted to pop in and show you some of the blocks I made at retreat!

 

You all know I am a big fan of Corey Yoder’s fabric collections for Moda.  Well, I am also a fan of her patterns. This summer I ordered several fun patterns from Corey, including her Apple Creek pattern. Recently Corey suggested on social media that Apple Creek could easily take on an autumn feel if the apples were orange . . . as in pumpkins!  Boy, was she right. Aren’t these some darling blocks?
Here I am with my good friend Sylvia after a full day of sewing.  I must admit, by 8:00 pm each evening I am all wore out. All that sewing and chatting is tiring. By the way, take a look at the itsy-bitsy hexie handwork Sylvia is doing. Phenomenal talent right there!
My mom also attends quilt retreat, although her focus is scrapbooking.  She is working on a memory book for my niece, Madison, who will graduate from high school next year. In my estimation, quilting is MUCH easier than scrapbooking. Mom, Sylvia and I took a quick break by the lake to share a photo with you. I am so lucky to have these women in my life. All of them!
For my Apple Creek (aka Pumpkin Creek) blocks, I dug into my stash of Fig Tree & Company fabrics to sew my pumpkins and stars.  If you look closely, you can see fabrics from six different Fig Tree collections: Farmhouse, Strawberry Fields Revisited, Aloha Girl, Chestnut Street, Ella & Ollie, and their upcoming Farmhouse 2 line.
I probably won’t have this quilt completed until next autumn rolls around, but that’s okay. I look forward to displaying it in my home near my “Next Up” charm pack quilt featuring Farmhouse 2.  I think they will look lovely together. While one has a dark background and the other is light, they have a similar style and the black prints in both will tie them together. Oh, the joy of quilting with beautiful fabrics!

 

By the way, Fig Tree’s Farmhouse 2 collection is scheduled to release this month!  As soon as I have my charm packs in store, I will be offering “Next Up” kits with that lovely black Moda Cross Weave background.  I hope you’ll keep an eye out for that.
I did finish one small quilt at retreat, but I can’t show you a picture just yet.  All I can show you is the fabric that I used, and tell you that I will have kits available for this project in the near future too. I’m really excited to share this Christmas project with you!
And since I’m enthusiastically all over the board with my topics today, I better mention the pretty background fabric you see in the picture above. It is the marvelous text print from Lella Boutique’s Farmer’s Daughter collection.  I used it to recover my ironing board. It’s nice to read uplifting messages while pressing. (FYI: A few years ago I wrote a post about how I recovered my ironing board. You can find that post here.)
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. I hope you all get carried away quilting real soon!
~Taunja

 

23 thoughts on “Quilt retreat: A wonderful place to start a pumpkin quilt

  1. Love your blocks and how you exchanged the apple centre for pumpkins. Beautiful ironing board cover – and what a great idea to cover it with these uplifting phrases. (Now I need one too) :)! Sylvia's project is so tiny and sweet, and must take a lot of patience. I too enjoy scrap booking – and definitely need to catch up in that area. Your quilt retreat sounded really fun – and productive.

  2. Hi Taunja- I love this! I looked in your Etsy shop for the pattern but I don't see it. Will you be posting one?As always, love your designs and fabrics 🙂

  3. Looks like you had a wonderful weekend and even accomplished getting a lot done��. I love your pumpkin blocks done in all those pretty Fig Tree fabrics��

  4. Winter Flurries – I love YOUR fabric selection for this Mystery Quilt ! Myself I hope to make it a little bigger. So guess I'd better check my stash. Blessings,Linda

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