I'm Back from Retreat!

This weekend's weather was perfect. The retreat is in the woods and all the leaves were colorful and everything felt like a perfect fall day!

I accomplished my biggest goal this weekend, to finish my large bed quilt top, back and bring it home basted. It was a miracle that came true!

I arrived with the top and the two side boarders to finish, so I got to work on Friday:


Once those two borders were finished and sewn on I realized that I had a big gap at the bottom and had to extend the bottom border so that it would be even.


I finished the top just before dinner on Saturday and me and two of my friends took it outside to photograph it from the back stair case. It measures about 105 x 110 inches! A monster! Here it is hanging side ways:


Can you see some of the lovely setting we had to work in?

So, after dinner is when the "real" quilters get busy. It is our last night and everyone wanted to sew on their projects. Myself included. I got busy with the back and managed to keep working on it until 1 am. I am such a pansy! Many of the other ladies were still going strong when I walked around to say good night. My roomie worked until 4:30 am!

Well, I woke up this morning around 5:30 and realized I might have a chance to finish that back in time to baste the quilt before we had to leave at noon. So I got busy again. Just about everyone had stayed up late and were fast asleep when I crept out to my work space. I got the back finished just before breakfast! I had enough time to spread it out across 6 tables put together before I ate. I don't want to miss the meals because that is when I get a chance to chat with everyone and we do fun things through out the meal.


Miracle, Miracle!
Several ladies volunteered to help me baste after breakfast and I worked on it steadily through the morning and just around noon I finished basting it. But, I couldn't have gotten it done with out so many wonderful friends to help me.

Here is what the back side looks like:


We basted a few wrinkles at the edges, but the center is together and that is where I will start quilting. So I will just adjust the errant basting later on. I've figured out the quilting for the long vertical sections, but not yet for the two center regions.


Well, I'm beat. I've already napped this after noon and I have to go back to my day job tomorrow so, probably no more quilting until next weekend.