Martha finished her Asterisk quilt. This pattern was from a guild workshop. The quilting design is Mod Squares, the thread is Blue & batting is Quilters Dream. She chose a black circles print for her border & backing.

This is Kathy’s Dragonfly quilt. The quilting design is Dragonfly Wings ( by Apricot Moon), gold thread, and Hobbs 80/20 batting. I like the 4 patch added to the strips. Cute!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ….. at least in my quilting studio.  I’m finishing up a couple Christmas themed quilts. Now normally I don’t want to see this holiday showing up in the retail shops before Halloween but quilting wise, I’m happy to get a jump on a few of these early. Here’s a peek at a couple of seasonal quilts.

The quilting design on Marlene’s Santa wall quilt is Ebb & Flow (by Hermione Agee), Hobbs 80/20 batting & a cream/gold thread.

The quilting design on Kathy’s Christmas quilt is Simple Snowflakes (by Karen Thompson) with white thread & Hobbs 80/20 batting.

This is Sheila’s Hanging Gardens quilt. The quilt design is Maple Dance by Karen Thompson. The thread is golden cream color and Hobbs 80/20 batting. What a pretty use of color.

This T-shirt quilt is for Olivia. She chose the quilting design, Swirl Flourish by Carla Barrett. The thread is silver, and the batting is Warm & Natural. Her mother put a lot of work into the pieced sashing. Nice!

This quilt was taught in a recent workshop hosted by the Great Lakes Heritage Guild.  It’s called Asterisk and was pieced by Rosanne. The quilting design is called Cool Beans, the thread is lavender & batting is Hobbs 80/20.

I’ve spent the past week at the Lake Huron Retreat Center with some of the guild members. It is a lovely facility on the shores of Lake Huron in Burtchville, MI.  This is a really nice facility, they had great food, it was updated & clean.  The only restriction is no alcohol, which for many was a little bit disappointing in the evenings. There were other  options we could take advantage of just down the road & in the nearby town though.

There were 20 at the retreat & we were split into two work rooms, both with views of the big lake. We sewed and watched the freighters pass by. We could open the windows & get a nice breeze on the cooler days & used the A/C on the hot ones.

If your not familiar with Michigan, Lake Huron is known for being on the Sunrise side of the state. This was the sun coming up on our last day there.

Meals were in the building next door, just a short walk. The staff made a lot of dishes individually like omelets, stir fry & pasta bowls. We could choose what items we wanted and watch their culinary skills as they made it right on the spot.

I worked on a few projects that have been in my containers for a few years. It worked out nicely because they had ample room to lay out projects & other quilters around to help give ideas on layout & borders.

Here are the projects I worked on. The first is a mystery quilt from 2010. The blocks were finished but I needed to finish up the sashing & borders.  The Carpenters star was from 2007, a simple quilt that has fabric that was made specifically for the West Michigan Quilt Guild for their 30th anniversary. Its a really pretty batik. I still need to put on the borders.

The West Michigan Guild has a quilt show coming up October 7-9 called Quilts on the Grand. Its at the Delta Plex in Grand Rapids. This is a very nice guild show & they always have a nice variety of venders at this show as well. Who doesn’t like a little shopping?

I finished some more of my Asterisk quilt. This was from a guild workshop I took earlier in the year. Its pretty bright for me, I’ll need to tone it down a bit.  The fabric was a Pat Sloan “One for you, One for me” FQ pack.  Lastly, I made a little Lazy Girl Sweat Pea Pod.

This retreat ran from Monday thru Thursday. Its a little cheaper than the weekends but limited the number of members that could come.

At night we could see the moon on the water &  twinkling lights across in Sarnia Ontario.. The lights were really wind turbines in the water but flash little red in the distance. It was beautiful weather & a lot of fun with the guild.

This is Martha’s pretty Asian Quilt. The quilting design is Swirling Waters by Munnich Design. The thread is taupe/gold, the batting is Quilters Dream 70/30.

This is the quilt back, with Geisha panels worked in.

This is Kathy’s quilt. She used some Laurel Burch ocean prints in with fish & sea horses.  The quilt design is called Ebb & Flow by Hermione Agee. The thread is golden yellow & her batting is Pellon.  I like the texture it gives to her quilt.

This is Deb’s Peppermint Easy Quilt. The pattern is by Carolyn Vagt’s, Quilters World Magazine, Winter 2014. A simple meander was quilted allover her quilt with a copper color thread & Hobbs 80/20 batting.