I always enjoy going to quilting retreat (except for that one disastrous day where I was trying to make my first triangle block), but this time I felt like I really needed retreat. Work stress, family stress, political stress, health stress, financial stress, you-name-it stress, I-had-it stress. Knowing how great retreat is for relaxation, I took an extra day off work, so I could be with my tribe for three glorious days of quilting.

Usually I try to cut out the pieces for a few blocks at home before I leave for retreat, but this time I was so stressed out that I just browsed through old retreat pictures instead:

This is my favorite retreat photo of all time. I’m actually in this picture, but you can only see my left arm and the top of my head. That’s just how I like to be – present and involved, but behind the scenes (or in this case, behind the display easel). There are so many beautiful quilts-in-progress on display in this photo, everyone is happily busy working on their projects, and my friend Becca is clapping with joy at something off to the side. This photo embodies the spirit of retreat for me.

Since I’d goofed off and wasted all my packing time, I just tossed everything I could possibly need in my bag (forgetting a couple of things, of course, but nothing insurmountable), and headed East on Saturday morning. I could feel my blood pressure dropping as I got closer to the Cascade foothills. That fresh mountain air, the soothing whoosh of Wallace Falls … it was just what I needed.

I eased into my zen quilting zone with a small repair project. While preparing for The Look Back blog article, I realized I’d never restitched the seams of my Victorian Camo block. You may remember that I sewed this block together, then trimmed it to size, not even thinking about how I was cutting off the knots at the end of all my stitched seams. So, I warmed up by restitching all 16 of them. You can see the restitched seams on the back of the block (pictured top left at the beginning of this article).

For my first new block of retreat, I cut out and pieced a star block (pictured top right at the beginning of this article). The cutting was the most difficult part of this block, because of the weird shape of those cut-off star points. I kind of wonder if Jane made this block too big in the original quilt, and then cut off the star points in order to squeeze the block into the allotted space.

I thought it was fitting to work on this block on Saturday, when the retreat was a little bit overbooked and I was squeezed into a tiny workspace. Luckily, hand piecing doesn’t take up a lot of space. The only really squished part was the walkabout we do on Saturdays, where everyone from the other buildings comes by to see what everyone else is working on. My chair stuck out into the walkway a little bit, so I kept scooting it in closer and closer to the table to let people through.

I didn’t know about the walkabout the first time I came to retreat, and felt a little unprepared for it. Now, I’m used to it. Everyone wants to see the rare person who sews by hand. My friend Patsy made her usual appearance and announced to everyone that I was insane for doing all this hand piecing … but she means it in the nicest possible way, so I don’t take offense. And frankly, it is a little insane; some days I wonder what I was thinking.

Towards the end of Saturday, I started on the eight-pointed star (pictured bottom right at the beginning of this article). I got the two halves of the star done that evening, but felt too tired to tackle putting them together. I got a good night’s sleep and finished it up when I was fresh on Sunday morning. The star went together surprisingly easy, but I ended up with a small hole in the center of the block where the diamond points didn’t quite line up:

I took some cream thread and stitched from each star point across the hole to the opposite star point on the back of the block, in an effort to cinch up that hole so it was not as noticeable. I think the finished product is not too bad.

One of the cool features of retreat is the garage sale table, and I scored some great stuff on Sunday. One of my fellow guild members has the exact same taste in fabric as I do (small-scale tone-on-tone prints in dark, warm colors). I got these two grab bags for $5, and you may notice that the bottom right fabric is one of my missing fabrics from Paulette’s original design:

I’ve already made a block with the replacement fabric for this one, and I don’t plan to redo the block with the “right” fabric … but I’m definitely going to make a different block with this no-longer-missing fabric. Some of the green fabrics look like they would work for this project too.

Since I’d been moved to a more spacious workspace, the rest of Sunday was spent machine-sewing the final border on another quilt project, which was started in 2006 and has been languishing, 95% done, since 2010:

Finishing the border was one of my 2018 quilting goals, along with my Dear Jane block goals (5 more left to complete this year!). It’s nice to have the blue quilt done and ready for quilting, but boy, I couldn’t wait to get back to my hand piecing again. Maybe I am insane.

On Monday, I started my third Dear Jane block (pictured bottom left at the beginning of this article), but the final day of retreat is a half-day and I only got the block about half done before it was time to go home. I tried to keep the retreat vibe going at home, but real life intruded and it took me a whole week to wrap up the second half of this block. Also, those wretched appliqué diamonds were so small and difficult that I spent a fair amount of the week procrastinating about working on them.

I had the same problem here as on the eight-pointed star block, with the small hole in the center where the pinwheel points met up (or didn’t, as the case may be). It seemed a more critical problem on this block, where any white batting peeking through the hole would be very visible against the dark red and green fabrics. I used the same technique of stitching from point to point across the back to cinch it up.

Staying at retreat an extra day this year, I got an unprecedented 2.5 Dear Jane blocks done, plus the border on my other project. But the productivity isn’t even the most important part – it’s spending time with my quilting friends. That’s really what it’s all about. People who get what I’m doing, and who will offer support, advice, the loan of tools, and even a coveted wall outlet to plug in my electronics.

These twice-yearly retreats with my tribe mean the world to me. I can’t wait for the next one!