Northern Retreat

I just got back from my annual Fabric of Friendship retreat in Northern Michigan. Every fall thousands of people head north for a "color tour" to see the changing leaves. I missed the best color by a couple of weeks, but I wanted to show you a few pictures of the beautiful state of Michigan. I wouldn't live anywhere else.

The water is impossibly blue with the sunlight on it.

Okay, now back to sewing. I arrived late Friday night, and this is what I brought for a day and a half. It's less than usual. :)




So, you've probably been wondering what I've been working on while I've been blogging about quilt shows and symposiums and such. I've joined the girls over at Glorious Applique. It's a blog about people working on Kim McLean patterns, and after much resisting, I started the Roseville Album quilt. You can order the patterns, and the Kaffe Fassett fabrics Kim uses, at Glorious Color. The Kaffe fabrics are gorgeous, and I may use them in a future quilt, but for now, I'm a repro gal. I got the pattern last weekend, and got right to work. I got a banana box and put any fabrics I thought might work in it.

Then I traced the pattern onto a piece of red dot Pellon for an overlay. Someone on a quilt board suggested using it instead of vinyl, so I thought I'd try it out. I put a piece of white paper under it so you could see the pattern I traced.

Here's my first block laid out, minus the berries, which I'll pick out later. I've been slaving away at it this weekend, so engrossed I totally missed the Market Place we have at the retreat, even though it was in the other end of the room! I'm still not sure how I didn't hear anything going on.

Every time I ran across the Regency Dandy fabrics, I had to shield my eyes. They are so bright they are almost radioactive. After I started this quilt, I knew they would be PERFECT! Funny how a new project makes you see fabrics in a totally different light.






All for now.....Have a great week.