For the past year I have been the VP of Events for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. My absolute favorite part of belonging to the guild are our weekend retreats at Wimberley Quilt Ranch. Three weekends a year we book a long weekend at the ranch to quilt, socialize, and drink some wine. Anyone and everyone is welcome, with up to 12 spots available. The past couple retreats were pretty big (for us) at 10-11 folks a piece, but this past weekend we had a smaller crowd of 7, which meant more space for each of us! Here is a pic I snapped from my messy workspace.

I felt like the weekend flew by and can’t wait until our next one in August. I did accomplish a few things that I’ll share! First up, finally finished quilting Water/Waves. I’m thinking of making another one in oranges and reds, and then matchstick quilting it in different thread colors. Now I just have to bind this sucker for it to be done!

Next up is a variation of the baby quilt I shared a week or two ago. This was the original quilt idea, but I thought it was too big for a baby quilt. I’ll be expanding on the story behind this quilt in a later post, along with a tutorial for the block and different ways to arrange the block.

I recently bought a fat quarter set of Joel Dewberry’s Boutanique, and I really want to try to get out of my comfort zone and quilt with a neutral other than white. I pieced one of Camille Rosekelly’s Fireworks blocks with some natural Essex Linen, but I’m not thrilled with the way it is looking. I haven’t decided what to do about it yet, so it will sit on my shelf for a while.

I quilted a bajillion baby quilts I’ll share later this week once they are hopefully bound. Everyone I know is having babies, I think I need to just start keeping some on hand to give out as needed!

One of my favorite patterns is again by Camille Rosekelly. I have been wanting to piece an On A Whim quilt, but wanted to wait for the perfect fabric. I’ve had some of Josephine Kimberling’s Hope Chest fabric on my shelf for a while and I decided to try it out with the pattern. Again, not totally loving it. This is six of the eight fabrics in the collection I bought, and the quilt would be made up of two of each print. Someone on Instagram suggested I try a dark grey in the middle instead of the lighter grey, I might give that a go.

Finally, we had the quilt stand to take photos of finished quilts and I finally got a pic of my Cape Anne quilt, the second quilt I ever started! I used the Charming Stars pattern from Moda Bake Shop.