July 2020 2nd Annual Retreat

Well, our retreat was postponed from March to July and we were fortunate to be able to go on retreat with the easing of public health measures and the opening of the Atlantic Bubble where the four Maritime provinces were able to move freely without having to self-isolate upon arrival.

Fifteen keen quilters were gung-ho to go on retreat from late Thursday afternoon until Sunday after lunch...

Here is the view from the room with physical distancing in place!

 We were fortunate to have a Canadian company, Soak Wash provide Flatter for all and Soak for the folks on retreat.  Such a great product and can be found on-line or in a local store. Thank You Soak Wash for sponsoring our 2nd Annual PEIMQG Retreat!!

Linda, who won the viewer's choice ribbon for her block, put together all the blocks from the President's Challenge using the Pantone and Kona colours of 2019 using the theme Summer.  Look at that arrangement!  Definitely reminiscent of summer here on the island.

Lucinda was Santa and led the group with the door prizes - Christmas in July.  Here is the group, showing off their goodies!

Of course, we had to respect the fact we had a number of lefties in our group.  So here is the iron station set up for the right handed and left handed quilters.

Day Two: 

In the morning retreaters were surprised to find swag bags filled with fabric and other goodies, provided by Blueberry Cove LongArm Quilting Studio in partnership with Trendtex.  

Lynn was showing off her shirt, striking a pose!

Physical distancing is the new norm, so even our dining experience was different and just awesome!

Lots of projects in the works:

Nancy's Checkered Lattice

Jean's Kaffe Fassett quilt of her own design

and some pot holders

Anna's Sweet Grass quilt ready for binding

Heather's binding her BOM (April), yet to be named, quilt.

and she shared her Giant Spider quilt

Janice's "You're in my place" wall hanging with her" Flower Power" peaking from below.

Dawn's Penguin Party

Cathy and Anna were working on Ombre Lattice quilts....Here's Cathy pressing her blocks..

and Anna's sewing hers..

 Linda's Batik blocks (formerly a Block Lotto)

Lucinda spent some of her time hand piecing some "Farmer's Wife" blocks.

with so many blocks and small pieces she is staying organized!!

Dianne was busy playing with scraps and making pineapple blocks.

Janet was cutting out her fabrics for the "City Slicker pattern

Shelly was making masks and baby towels, but she was so quick we missed a photo, oops. We did manage to capture some of her Batik Log cabin blocks.

Susan was binding a Red, Black and White quilt.

and assembling her "High Rise" quilt.

We even had visitors for short periods of time.  Here's Roberta who has a summer place not far from the retreat centre.

Liz and Lisa (from NS's Maritime Modern Quilt Guild), made arrangements to do their CQA swap while visiting us!  Here they are opening their mini quilts!

In the evening we decided to postpone the games in favor of the gorgeous view of the sunset and to sew until dark.

 Nancy had her "Checkered Lattice Quilt" layed out and it looks fantastic!!! There is just so much movement in this design.

 Maritza's "Shattered Frames" quilt designed by Angela Walters came together really quickly. The end result is stunning!!

Dawn made excellent progress on her "Penguin Party" a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. Their faces are just so cute!!! and I can't wait to see all the fun sweaters they get to wear.

Jean's Gnomes and Toadstools potholders are just so chic!!!

and her Kaffe Fasset quilt is really taking shape

Lynn was able to get 2 baby quilt tops assembled from panels...

Day 3

Some of us took advantage of the extended retreat by going to Sew Blessed Quilters in nearby Kensington. More than a few pennies were exchanged for some fabric lovelies!!!

We also had a blast in the afternoon, when Jean hosted a workshop on making rope bowls.

The bowls were varied and beautiful and more than one was made by several members...

I think most of us tried the baskets on as hats, but Cathy was the only one silly enough to pose for a photo, LOL.

Lynn is making a beautiful " St Tropez" tote with this beautiful Hoffman panel.

She was also working on her CQA Row by Row challenge

After supper the guild focused on making Quilts of Valour Blocks as part of our charitable block drive.

Here's Susan holding up an oopsie..... oh well maybe it's time for a break....

In the evening we played 2 rounds of Left, Right, Centre. A game played with 5" squares where winner takes all!!!

Susan won the first round and a gift from our last sponsor Riley Blake Designs. We were very fortunate to have such generous sponsors this year!!!

Jean won our second round and came home with a few more squares to add to the stash!!

Day 4

On our final morning of retreat, most of us were working on finishing up last minute details on the projects we had brought....

Nancy was cutting up strips for her next project a "Spiral Log Cabin"

Here are Janice's wall hangings.... "Flower Power"

Lollypop...

 and "You're in my Place"..... WOW!!

Dianne completed a few pineapple blocks

and Janet started assembly on her "City Slickers" quilt

Mother and Daughter, Anna and Cathy were able to assemble one block before packing things up. all the remaining blocks are ready to go, so hopefully completed quilt tops will be revealed soon!

Linda got an excellent start at laying out her Batik blocks. (Although she wants to try several layouts before deciding on the final one).

She also shared this stunning "52 blocks in 52 weeks" quilt in black, white and grey with Kona Wasabi as the background.

The only thing that remained was to take a photo off the balcony, so we could maintain social distancing and still get a group shot.

On Behalf of the PEIMQG, We would like to express our thanks and gratitude to out Amazing hosts, Earla, Martin, Darlene, and Kent. We truly appreciate all the extra work that was involved hosting a group our sized during this pandemic. We look forward to coming back next year!!!

We would also like to thank our generous sponsors: Soak, TrendTex with Blueberry Cove Quilting Studio and Riley Blake Designs. Each of us felt special and pampered with the flatter spray, swag bags and prize draws!!!

Reminders:

July Virtual Meeting (Zoom) - July 23, 2020 (7 PM)
August Virtual Sew-In (Facebook) - August 8, 2020 (9 AM - 4 PM) FB Room (lunch break 12 PM)
August Virtual Meeting (Zoom) - August 27, 2020 (7 PM)