This weekend I attended my guild’s annual quilting retreat. It was an out-of town adventure that was just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again and recharge my energies for the upcoming holiday sewing and gift-giving season.

The theme was “Girlfriends” and it was all about hanging out with your sewing buds and appreciating their friendship.

Here’s a picture of me and my BQF (best-quilting-friend) Stacy. We’ve been going to the retreat together for years and it’s the most time we get to spend together all year!

What friendship retreat would be complete without a Tea Party to top it off? During our Saturday lunch, the ladies all got dressed up in their sunday best complete with hats and flowers to go with the theme. Each table was decorated with a hand made tea-cozy quilt. These quilts were raffled off to guild members (along with other prizes) during the weekend. We love to win stuff!!

Tea Party

Stacy and I taught a class on machine applique while we were there. We used a pattern from the book Patches and Posies (available for sale on my website).

Teri Christopherson, the author, let us borrow her quilt as a sample for our class.  It’s a great pattern for either hand or machine applique, using the button-hole stitch or traditional methods. I showed the class how to machine applique with fusible web and a decorative machine stitch.

Stacy's Posy Quilt

Stacy walked around the class helping and encouraging the students as we went along. We felt like it was a successful class when one of the students who had previously decided to hand stitch hers decided to put her machine to use after trying my method.

It was a fabulous weekend and I can’t wait to do it again next year!