Ready for Retreat

It's that time again -- time for Retreat!  I am really excited about seeing some of my internet quilting friends this week at a retreat here in St. Louis.  Thirty of my closest friends are meeting at The Mercy Center in Frontenac for five days of sewing, quilting, laughing and catching up with each other.   I have known many of these ladies for more than 10 years.  We met online and communicate mostly online, but get together every June for our retreat.  A small group of us manages to get together more than once a year by having "meet-ups" in Paducah, KY for shopping and lunch, and for the AQS Quilt Show in April. 


I have my projects prepped and ready to pack:  five 22" quilts basted and ready to quilt for the Neo-Natal ICU at St. Johns Mercy Medical Center.... 

....two baby quilts cut out and ready to put together....

....and pieces cut out for a scrappy Pineapple Blossom quilt.

If I get all that completed and run out of things to do, the retreat center is less than a mile from one of my favorite quilt shops - The Quilted Fox. 

Faye is usually my roommate, but her daughter forgot to check on the dates of our retreat before setting the date for her wedding (can you imagine!?!?)  It won't be the same without her, but I'll do my best to have a good time.  

It's Not Like I Haven't Been Busy

I guess I was so busy I managed to let an entire month go by without blogging.  Or maybe it's that whole February hibernating thing I have going on.   Oh, let's just go with the "Busy" thing.  Here's what I've been up to.  

My February finish!!  A baby quilt for a little girl being born any day now. 

I worked from my stash for this one after I found this cute pink print in my novelty fabrics. 

Then I made 26 of these scrappy pineapple blocks for a block swap with some online friends......

......and 5 of these blocks for another swap.

I found some scrappy blue strips in my sewing room so I started putting them together for a quilt for our great-nephew due in May.

After that, I started on a Star Wars quilt at the request of our grandson, Aidan.  There isn't any Star Wars fabric currently available, but I found some Darth Vader fabric on eBay for the backing and borders and also this panel by Lucas Films Ltd.

I cut up the panel......














......then made some filler blocks (still trying to use up that stash!) 

  

All I have to do is finish filling it in with black and it will be ready to quilt. 


And, needless to say, I will have one happy Jedi grandson!   


I also made some pillowcases for the Million Pillowcase Challenge and I got a LOT of work done on the UFO I told you about in this post.

So I guess I haven't been hibernating at all.  Just not talking about what I've been up to as much as I should be!