My first quilt retreat......

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend my first ever quilt retreat.  It was a wonderful retreat organised and run by Elita Sharpe of Busy Needle Quilting.  I stumbled upon Elita's website by chance looking for a supplier of Aurifil thread in Switzerland and immediately had to investigate the 'Alpine Retreat' section!!  When I discovered that the retreats were held only an hour and a half away from where I live, how could I resist!!

The location for the retreat was Morzine in the French Alps.  I had never visited Morzine before but, was familiar with the name as my three children went there every year for 10 years on school ski trips!! It was a beautiful location and the chalet we stayed in was lovely too.  Warm and welcoming, as were Elita, Gina and all the other ladies at the retreat.

Our first project of the weekend was a mystery project which turned out to be based on a 'disappearing pinwheel'.  There were lots of options to choose from based on this block.  As I had taken only two fabrics to make the quilt I opted for an option that would work best using just two colours.

So far I have just pieced one complete block but, I did piece lots of half square triangles ready to piece enough blocks to make a lap size quilt.

In between working on the projects provided by Elita and Gina, we also worked on our own projects and I was able to finish off a special project which I have made as a Memory Quilt for my Father-in-Law.

When we visited England a few weeks ago for his 90th birthday celebration, I took with me lots of little fabric leaves. I got each of the guests attending to sign a leaf and I have now made them into a 'Family Tree' quilt as a keepsake of the occasion.  I used a pattern called 'Memories' designed by Kellie Wulfsohn of Don't Look Now!

All the participants at the retreat had been assigned a 'Secret Sister' for the weekend.  The idea being that you left your 'Sister' little gifts and notes to encourage them throughout their stay.  It seemed like each time you left your sewing machine a new little gift item appeared with an encouraging word to lift your spirits.  I received some fabulous gifts from my 'Sister', Juliet.

We had the most delicious food and played some games, including fat quarter dice swap which was a lot of fun!!

The next project of the weekend was trying out a block called the 'feathered star'.  This is a block which I would not have attempted on my own but, with Gina's invaluable help, I managed to complete.  I am thrilled with the result and I will be using my block as the centre of a medallion quilt.

We did have a little excitement on Saturday afternoon when the power went out for 6 hours and we had to have dinner by candlelight.  Of course, when the power came back on at 10 pm we were all itching to sew and I don't think many of us got to bed very early!

I also managed to finish matting up my latest embroidery finish which I stitched using a pre-printed panel designed by Anne Brook of H-anne-Made.  When I returned home I was able to pop it straight into it's frame.

It was a most wonderful weekend and as well as everything that I have described above, we also had a little 'stash attack' project which we made within an hour using scraps and there was, of course, chance to buy a few little bits and pieces of essential shopping!!

Thanks to Elita, Gina and all the lovely ladies at the retreat as well as the owners of the Chalet where we stayed who made us all so welcome.