Kieve - quilt - Fabric

A group of 15 ladies from Backroad Quilters went on an annual retreat Saturday and Sunday to Camp Kieve. We stayed in the very beautiful and modern Learning Center that accommodates 20+ people with sleeping, dining room. This picture (taken from their website) is a view from the lower bedrooms of the lake. The second level is where we sew with windows the whole length. The scene has changed; the snow is gone, the lake is starting to open up, the mud is everywhere and lots of potholes on the road coming in off the main road.

We each brought our own projects. I decided to do this quilt called 'Fool Around Fun'. It is a scrappy quilt. I used two charm packs from Moda. 'Rites of Springs' and 'Peace on Earth'. I usually work from a design wall so found it hard to put together without a visual. The striped material was something I had bought for a friend but she decided to use something else and it proved to be the one that made it 'pop' as we say in the quilting world. There are several of us doing this quilt and they will probably be displayed in the state quilt show in July.

One of the highlights is our visit to the area quilt shops. We always go to Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro at some point of our trip. I am doing 'Under Cover' quilt at a workshop in a couple of weeks and so I put together fabrics I will be using. The off-white will be the main focus and instead of doing fusible snowman I found a wonderful design with snowmen that I will use.

Another shop we visited is Alewives Fabrics in Damariscotta and they have wonderful bright cheery fabrics. Below is fabric I am using for a bag to carry all my big rulers etc. It is called the 'Duffy bag' designed by our President and copyrighted. I found some quilted fabric and added others to make the outside pockets. We all came home happy that we had accomplished a lot and we had more fabric for our stash.

Kieve Quilt Retreat

Early Saturday morning 20+ gals headed to Camp Kieve in Nobleboro for our annual Fall retreat. This is the lady that greeted us at 'The Learning Center' looking very studious with a dove perched on her shoulder. A dove represents peace and it was such a peaceful place shut away from everything to do the thing we enjoy. SEW!!I have always taken my big Janome 6500 to weekend retreats. But decided it was just too heavy and purchased this Janome 760 with table. It was wonderful...It has a great feature stop/sew on it and you do not use the foot peddle. It was great for the straight sewing I was doing.

I made strippy quilts. A design by Mary Johnson.These are quick and great for kids to toss around. Now to get them on my quilter before Christmas.

The other project I had was a panel 'Rob Pete' from Quiltsmart. We learned to do this in a workshop and I chose to do a runner with fall colors. Quiltsmart is a pre-printed pattern that you sew and turn and iron on your fabric. I will finish it off by appliquing by hand. You can also do a buttonhole stitch by hand or machine.

We have a wonderful design wall at Kieve that we all use to lay out what we are doing in different stages and the following 2 are the same pattern only different use of color. It is called "Winner's Bouquet'. This is Donna's done in black, white and red.

Ann's is done in Navy, red and light patterns. Amazing how different they look. Ann is pictured in the next quilt.

Ann did 2 quilts. This one is called BQ2. I really like this and will purchase. They are big pieces but it is very striking.

The next quilts are 'stack 'n whack' that several gals had started at a workshop. First one is Anne T.

This second 'stack 'n whack' is Joanne's.
Beth's is a smaller version using the left over pieces from her bigger stack 'n whack.

Elizabeth was doing this tree that will have her genealogy on it. She changed the pattern some and it was very nice and I am sure will be cherished.
This is Deni and Sherry working at their stations. Lots of laughter this weekend.

This is the main room with a fire place at the end. I sat in a chair after lunch, with my legs hanging over the side of the arm, just to enjoy the coziness and warmth and fell asleep. Could not believe it with all the noise. (smile)

This is a quilt done by Christa using the X-box ruler. It was very different and vibrant.

For the life of me I do not know who did this. Maybe one of the gals will let me know so I can give credit. Sorry..

Here we are leaving a wonderful weekend. I took more pics but some were dark and some were in the morning when we were in our jammie's, hair not done...you know how it is...not our best... Carolyn is pictured here...she worked on a picture quilt with musical note fabric around them. It was very nice but I did not get a picture. I am sure I have missed many but this is a sampling.