Thursday, June 22, 2017

Nebraska and After

My cousin, B., and I organized a retreat for our on-line guild, Sunshine Quilt Guild. This was our 2nd-ever retreat. First one was at Lake Tahoe in 2015. This one took place at the Carol Joy Holling Retreat Center in Ashland, Nebraska, halfway between Omaha and Lincoln. Seventeen of us gathered from eight different states and had a blast making quilt tops for kids.

For the last year we all have been making blocks to prepare for the retreat. We had huge piles of them at the beginning of the weekend!
examples of what we called "Omaha Blocks"

As soon as all 17 of us were together, we started sewing up a storm. Two years ago we made 78 tops, so this year, with a few more people, we set a goal of making 100 tops.
By lunch time on our first full day we had reached 100 tops! So we knew we were about to blow our goal out of the water.
The first six of those photos are quilt tops I made, with a few examples from others. (Hey, it's my blog!)

By the end of the weekend we had completed.... drum roll.... 184 tops!

We ourselves could hardly believe it! The quilts will be quilted by various members of Sunshine. We don't have a deadline, so these quilts will be surfacing at the two programs we support for some time to come.

Before and after the retreat we did a bit of sight-seeing: the International Quilt Study and Museum in Lincoln, the Holy Family Shrine which sits high above the freeway, making everyone wonder what it is, an ice cream parlor at the UNL campus, a great quilt shop and a couple of wonderful restaurants. (Farmhouse in Omaha and Parker's Smokehouse in Ashland - I recommend both.) I don't have pictures of all of these places.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset on our first night in Nebraska.

After returning home I have
(a) taken many naps
(b) put bindings on these two completed quilts - both will be donated


6 comments:

BrendaLou said...

I had so much fun. After a few more naps I'll think about going again. My machine had to be cleaned of dust bunnies.

BrendaLou said...

I had so much fun. After a few more naps I'll think about going again. My machine had to be cleaned of dust bunnies.

Anonymous said...

A great summary of a great time!

Quilter Kathy said...

That is an amazing accomplishment! I can't even imagine the scale of organization to manage all these blocks and people and quilts! Way to go!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Wow!!!!!!!

Linda said...

What an amazing total of quilts! They all look great, well done on organising all ththe blocks ahead of your retreat and well done to everyone for turning them into lovely quilts.