2019 Lutherdale Gala Quilt Assembly Weekend

Every spring for the last few years, I've met with several friends at Lutherdale and we've assembled the 'Gala Quilt'.  The blocks are sewing by attendees of the spring luncheon and they mail them back to camp for us to assemble them.  The quilt will be auctioned off in August.  We had a fantastic weekend 2 weeks ago.  The weather was quite nice and we accomplished a lot-- Many hands make light work!

This year's quilt is based on a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  (there are a few adjustments made to it).  The brights are all scrap donations and the grey/white/black-ish was purchased fabric.  It turned out great!

Once it is time to add borders to the quilts, not everyone can sew, so I bring 'bonus' projects.  This is the 'January Quilters' Quilt' for 2019. I have been coordinating a group quilt with my fellow January retreaters for a few years now and we took advantage of this weekend to finish up the center.  It will possibly have a few more borders (grey + black).  I love the sparkle that all the variety of colors bring to it!

At the last minute, while pack to go to camp, I perused a few simple patterns I owned and grabbed a bunch of stash that I thought would work.  Of course I brought a ton of stuff for the wekend, but there is nothing worse than regretting you didn't have something you needed.  We were able to throw this child sized quilt together in next to no time.  I *LOVE* working with helpers on quilts like this.  One person was cutting, one sewing, one pressing and before you know it-- BOOM!  A top!  Some of these pinks have been in my stash for quite a while and I'm happy to give them a purpose (and to make room for new, fresh fabric!)

Prior to going to Lutherdale, I did a super quick trip to my parent's for a bit of longarming.  The main goal was to quilt my mountain quilt (separate post on that later....).  I did squeak out quilting up a small panel that I bordered over the winter.  I will donate this to Lutherdale's auction and I'm calling it 'Seaside Friends'.  The quilting is 'doodly' and whimsical and hopefully will make some child very happy!

xoxo,

Kristin

Linking up with: Oh Scrap! and Let's Bee Sewcial

2018 Lutherdale Gala Quilt

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend at Lutherdale assembling our 'Gala Quilt'.  This is a quilt to donate to their annual quilt auction in August and it is made from blocks sewn by all the people who donate quilts to the auction.  There is a "Thank You" Gala Luncheon in the spring where we hand out fabric and instructions and then people mail back the blocks to camp.

This year, we decided to buy fabric (in year's past, we asked for donations and made many scrappy quilts).  Our quilt was inspired from something on pinterest-- it's all solid half square triangles.  I was a tiny bit nervous about how we would translate these blocks into a quilt, but it turned out AMAZING! 

Here is the group photo with all of the people that helped assemble it.  Many hands make light work.  We had this done by midnight on the first night!!!!  What?  I know!  That left us with lots of time to make additional quilts!

I brought fabric to make this cute patriotic wall hanging.  That went together crazy fast, too!

We had quite a bit of unused fabric from the first quilt, and it was only Saturday morning, so back to pinterest for inspiration!  We came up with this design and assembled the entire top on Saturday.  Two quilts--> two days!!  Totally amazing!!

We were able to take a few hours on Saturday afternoon and enjoy the lake!  I made a donation to the new archery program and that qualified us to take a boat ride on the Lauderdale Lakes.  It was nice! They packed us a picnic lunch and we felt pampered.  After the ride, I tried my hand at archery for the first time since I was a camp kid myself.  I LOVED IT!

Here is a view of the camp from the lake.

Sunday, we all puttered around on our own projects.  Even though our projects were independent, most of them are destined for donation.  I put this goofy little thing together.  It's leftover cuts from someone's quilt several years ago.  The scraps were going to be thrown out and I couldn't let that happen.  I sewed the hunks into squares and trimmed them up.  Add a little sashing and cornerstones and voila! A baby quilt! This will be perfect for Project Linus.

This weekend was so much fun!  I can't wait for next year!

xoxo,

Kristin

Lutherdale 2017 Gala Quilt

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time at Lutherdale with the goal of assembling quilt blocks into a top to be auctioned off in August.  The weather was perfect, the food was great and the company was lovely!

I asked the new camp director if we could be given a tour of the gardens, chickens and beehives.  The beehives are scattered around the grounds, but we did get to meet the chickens that provide us with the eggs used in our meals.  They have one handsome rooster, too.

 

In March, I spoke to the folks that attended the Gala Luncheon and explained this year's block.  Then we gave them kits of pre-cut houses and sky.  It's always a challenge to find a pattern that is forgiving for a group to sew and will still be stunning to motivate people to bid high!

On Friday, we were certain we would have this top assembled before going to bed.  Well-- we did assemble most of it pretty quickly, but then things slowed down.  We had all the rows together before bed and held off to put the borders on in the morning.  It was a good thing, too!  Looking at it with fresh eyes, we decided the proportions were a bit off and we needed to add another row to make it longer.  Some of our houses were...ahem... a little short.  We grouped the short houses together into the same rows, so they could get along.  But-- with multiple shorter rows, the length was sacrificed a bit.  No worries!  We zipped out another 14 houses like nobody's business.

Here is our quilt, pre-borders (the borders are simple yellow that matches the background):

And here are some of the people that worked on assembling the top:

L-R: Jim, Janine, Me, Kitty, Yvonne, Heather

I had a inkling that would would be able to finish that top up pretty quickly, so I brought a few other projects with me.  This is the project I started with the other January Quilters.  I want to assemble this into a random, non-traditional layout.  Janine did this arrangement and I started to sash some of the smaller stars together this weekend, but that's all the further it went.  Hopefully I can finish this up in time for the auction?!?

Insted of getting the stars assembled, we focused on getting this string block top together! I started these blocks several years ago. I had a lot of blue and green scraps and thought this would be a good scrap buster.  I don't know about that?!?  Every time I would work on it, the volume of scraps seemed to increase!  For quite some time now, I had the scraps I wanted to use for this in a small bin.  But it was overflowing, so I had to keep it on the closet floor and was starting to be a bother to me.  Now I'm thrilled to report that it is a top!  Of course there are still some scraps left over-- oh well.  Time to find another scrap project to mix them into.  I had about 2/3rds of the blocks done prior to this weekend and several people helped cut, press, and sew. Janet and I sewed the blocks and rows together. I might add a skinny white border and maybe some blue?  Not sure yet...

 xoxo,
Kristin

ps
Happy to have Judy Hansen  at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts take over the Design Wall Monday Reigns from Judy LaQuidara.  Thank you to both Judies!! =)

2016 - Year in review

Another year has passed and it seems to have gone faster than ever.  How is that?!?!  I always have ambitous goals, whether it is chores on a Saturday, things to do on a vacation or quilts to make in a year.  Looking back on 2016, I might think that I wasn't very prolific in finishes, but I had a lot of wonderful experiences.

I quilted my longest UFO (my bed quilt) and completed the binding in less than a week! (2006-2016).

I entered a quilt at Quilt Expo for the first time! And-- my Aunt Nancy happened to be visiting from Seattle at the same time as Expo and was able to spend a few hours there with me (so much fun!!).  

I sent my second quilt ever home with Nancy to give to my cousin who is expecting her first child! This quilt was waiting patiently for a special home.

I added another vintage machine to my collection.

I had a fantastic weekend in Eau Claire making bags and meeting new people.

I participated in the Lutherdale gala quilt again and feel honored to help with such a fantastic cause.

I've started what I think is my most stunning quilt ever!

I'm settling into my new sewing room at my new home and feel very blessed.

All in all, it was an amazing year!!  And I can't wait to see what 2017 brings.  The way things are looking, this might be the year of the baby quilt.  I have plans to make quite a few. 

xoxo

Kristin

Lutherdale Gala Quilt

Big, big news!! A quilt I contributed to was auctioned off for big money last weekend!

Let me start at the very beginning...

For many years now (I can't quite recall how many...7?), I've attended a retreat at Lutherdale Camp in January.  It's been loads of fun and is something I look forward to immensely.  It really breaks up the long cold winters.

One of the biggest fundraisers for the camp is a quilt auction held in August.  Many, many people donate quilts (hundreds!!) to be auctioned off to benefit the camp.  During the spring, they have a 'Gala Event' to thank the donors for their support. It involves a luncheon, a speaker and instructions on a block to make and send in to be assembled into a 'Gala Quilt'.

In spring of 2014, I was invited to participate in assembling the the Gala Quilt.  It was loads of fun!  The block donated from the group was a simple half square triangle with a light/dark contrast.  We trimmed them down and assembled it into a stunning arrangement.  Each block reminded me of a Fresnell lens used in lighthouses.  I don't know the real name of the pattern.

Last December, as I was prepping for the annual retreat, my friend Janet (who has coordinated the Gala Quilt for many years) asked me for ideas on this year's quilt.  I brainstormed with her and another friend and came up with a pattern that I recently saw in a magazine.  It's a faux postage stamp called "Mosaic Flood".  We asked all of the January retreaters to bring strips to camp that measure 12" x 1 1/2".  We got tons!

Then, at the Gala Luncheon in April, I was tasked with speaking in front of the group (150+ people!!).   We brought the strips and asked each person to select a variety of colors and values and make a strip set of 12.  I was told that when I described the project, it sounded kind of "ho-hum", but then when I brought out a sample of the quilt that my friend was working on (specifically to show the group), people ooohed and ahhhed!  They said the back lighting made it glow!

We asked the group to sew their sets in the next few weeks and mail them back to camp.  Six of us gathered at the end of May and spent the weekend assembling the quilt.

This was a kind of crazy quilt to work on.  We didn't have a lot of variety with the sewing or cutting, so we entertained ourselves with conversation and stories.  The pattern is to cross cut the strip sets, sew the sub-units end to end into rows and then start sewing the rows into pairs, pairs into fours, etc, etc.  The seams are offset and don't match, so its very forgiving!  Hence the "faux" portion of the postage stamp style.

By Saturday night, we finished the top!  It's a MONSTER!! 101" X 103" And we all started to say, "I'm going to bid on this at the auction!"  The variety of fabrics and the tiny sized pieces were mesmerizing!

L to R: Me, Heather, Janine, Lynn, Chris, Janet

Casey from Lutherdale quilted it at The Quilting Connection and Heather did the binding.  I was able to help out a tiny bit with the binding. =)

And now for the big finale-- this has been a long story!  The auction was last weekend and Janine was in a bidding war and eventually lost to a person that bid $1200!!! AND there was a matching grant that brought in another $1200!!  TWENTY FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

I'm thrilled that we raised so much money for such a wonderful place! This journey has been fun, exciting, rewarding and...now we need to start over at square one and start thinking about a pattern for next year!  If you have an idea-- let me know! (seriously!)

xoxo