Mount Alford Retreat - Challenge Projects

2015 - Scrap Bucket

2016 - Magnetic Pin Holder

2017 - Foot Pedal Mat

2018 - Phone Pillow

2019 - Triangular Thread Holder

2020 - Snappy Pouch

2021 - No retreat - 😞😷 - COVID - no challenge

2022 - Scissor Case

2023 - Coaster

Retreat Day 5

Always a bit sad to get to the last day . . . . but all good things must come to an end.

😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞

Late last night I finished a baby quilt top.

Alison has made great progress on a DV Charity quilt - a wonderful I Spy.

 

Wendy - our hostess - suggested that we could put all our offcuts into a pillow case, that can then be made into a bed for an animal refuge.   

We got to about 2/3 rds full....its a 25kg tub - hopefully the next group will fill it.

Finally - the To Do board.....Plenty of Done projects, quite a few still to be done, , , , 

Bye Mount Alford Lodge - it has been wonderful as always.

FNWF and Retreat Day 1

FNWF

Happily joining Cheryll and cyber friends, as well as physical friends for a Friday Night Sewing.  As you can see - I am on a retreat!!!
Four days of sewing, fun, friendship, good food, maybe a drop or two of wine . . .

For FNWF, which started about 3:00PM I worked on some red black & white string blocks.   I made 11 - which, with the ones I made previously - should be enough for a 6 x 7 block quilt for charity.

Retreat

This retreat started as part of my Loose Threads group - so we still call it the Loose Threads retreat.  "Back in the day", the numbers could be flexible, so we had Loose Threads people and a couple of extras....Over the years, things have changed and we now must pay for 12 people - so we have a number of extras....We did call ourselves MARS - Mount Alford Retreat Sisters in 2021 when we couldn't go (due to COVID), but it didn't stick!

Mostly, we arrived at about 10.30, unpacked and organised ourselves.
Then off to the infamous Mount Alford Hotel for lunch.

Back to the sewing room:

My plans for the retreat are:
1. 2 blocks of My Kinda Town

2. As many black, red and white string blocks as I can make..I think 11 is enough!
3. Meg's Baby Quilt 

4. Any number of crumb blocks (depending on available fabrics)

5. 2023 Challenge Project

As you can see from above, I started on the string blocks.
These are very quick and I got through 11.

And ONE crumb block - they take forever . . .especially if you make one at a time.

We have a To Do Board.
Each year I hand out a small Post It type of pad to everyone.  They write the name of each project they plan to work on on a separate piece of paper and we put them on the left-hand side of the board.  As each person finishes one project - they do a Show & tell and move the piece of paper to the right.
(The board is now magnetic, so I bought little magnets to use - so much easier than sticky tape!)

By late night Friday, we had this:

FNSI - August - and SS Retreat

Lucky to be on a real retreat for FNSI - August with some of the "Sunday Stitchers" ladies.

I started sewing mid afternoon - and quilted these pieces - ready to be made into placemats.
My employer gives us two Volunteer Leave days a year - so I used one of them to sew for charity and saved a day of Annual Leave.

Great to share my progress with Wendy and fellow FNSI'ers.

A lot of my fellow sewers were finishing off charity quilts and I think a bit of my Saturday morning was spent discussing them as well as a bit more quilting and starting on making the placemats.

After lunch - it was Mystery Project time.   Helen and I had been selected to think up a project for the retreat and as we have been quite focused on charity projects lately . . .and we had been able to secure some unusual fabric (ie not suitable for quilts, but still useable), we decided that the project could be placemats to give to Meals on Wheels.
A few weeks ago we had cut the tops, wadding and backings - everyone had been asked to bring a walking foot if possible and green & burgundy thread.

We handed out 2 to each sewing person and by Saturday night we had a stack of 14 finished mats.

After that, I was able to finish off my set of 7 (odd number I know - there will be more)

Then I moved onto a "Secret Project"

Overall, it was a great fun weekend - we were in a new venue - the lighting wasn't excellent, but I had taken a light (fortunately).

Most of the crew sewed charity things all weekend - I forgot to do a tally - but at least 4 jelly roll race tops were finished, one quilt top of squares and many tops had borders added.

There was time set aside for Morning & Afternoon teas and lunch - dinner was a bit of "eat whenever you want to".

Two retreats in a month??? - easy in some ways as I really only had to pack & organise once - but also a bit too close to each other.   Nevermind, rather have too many than none.