2013 Quilting at the Monastery of the Ascension

This quilt blog is about quilting at the Monastery of the Ascension in April of each year.  I am going every April.  It seems a good time of year to get out of town and meet up with some lovely creative souls. I have made new friends and learned so much.  It is a time of relaxing away from the everyday business of life and getting to play at what I love.  All I have to do is show up for the meals! And what meals!  I am gluten intolerant and do not have to worry.  I am at peace. 
It is difficult to have to pack up on the last day and say good-bye.  I am heading back to my regular busy routine.  But I travel with a friend and have good conversation. 
This year Art and Michelle arrived at our time of packing up.  What cheery faces!  They came to assist Julia who had to leave earlier than usual due to an appointment.  Art is the most helpful person.  He was assisting everyone!  Do you know how much stuff each quilter brings to these retreats?  I know my Blazer is perfect for Ruth, myself, and all our quilting accouterments, but one more passenger and their stuff would have to ride on the roof!  Our sweet sister act comes from afar in a Suburban, carrying four quilters and all their stuff.  Art arrived on the scene in the nick of time.  He was lifting and organizing. What a guy!  Meanwhile, Michelle was probably inside wondering where he got to.


Art helps Rose and Company pack the Suburban for the trip home

Ruth's Large Print Quilt Top: STUNNING!

Wow! Check out Ruth's completed quilt top.  Her combination of large prints, hip design, and all that green really produced a smashingly sweet bird quilt.  Just a dash of lavender, for added interest, really pulls it all together! 

Rita's Christmas Quilt!

This is Rita peeking over her quilt top.  She got it all finished at the retreat, even though she ran into a snag or two.  How cute is this?  Makes us non-holiday-quilt quilters have a second thought or two!  Her tree blocks have background fabric that is black with white dots, so it looks like snow.  The black makes all the other colors really pop!

Mary Ann's Monthly Sheep Decoration

My photo does not do justice to the little sheep on the table, that is sporting the snowpeople blanket.  There are twelve different panels, one for each month of the year. They were all hand stitched, and many parts hand-dyed, by none other than Mary Ann Bryce.  She is the one in the blue sweater with the big smile!

Jackie got her labor of love completed!

Jackie got her "Ta-da" on Thursday, and what a ta-da!  It is truly three dimensional! It is lovely to look at and of ample size.  When it is quilted, it will be snuggle party time!  Very nice, indeed.

Twisting Turning Twenty

My 'Ta-da" was finally on Wednesday evening, after my battle with the pieced border. I thought about adding another border to it, but decided against it.  This is my first Twisting Turning Twenty design, so I have learned a couple things from it.  Don't use too many different colors and look at it less closely to see the lights and the darks. On my next one, there will be no question about whether a fabric is light or dark, or it won't go into the quilt.  I believe then the distinction between the two will be less blurred and the quilt more vibrant.  I am always learning.

Ginny's First Quilt Top: Completed!

Shark Quilt!

Glenda is making the most amazing shark quilt.  The sharks are a silver blue. I am not certain that my photo has done them justice. She is a meticulous piecer, as you can see by her perfect sashing.  Her sashing has a wavy flying geese pattern on it, but when cut the width that Glenda has done, they look like shark's teeth!  She has a few more columns to go before she finishes, but it is going to be one fine shark quilt!

Janell's lovely evergreen tree quilt top

Janell's evergreen quilt top

I met some most talented and persevering quilters at the retreat.  Janell is a quilting maniac of the highest quality.  I love these color combinations and those sharp triangles. But then I am a tree lover at heart, so no wonder I love this one.  I have a hang-up about using white as a background color.  I almost never do.  Yet quilters everywhere use white and it is stunning.  What's my problem?  I only use white on snowmen!
Actually, I do not know the actual name of this quilt top. If anyone does, please, e-mail me and let me know.

What is on the design walls today?

Ruth's beautiful bird quilt

I did not get photos of everybody's but here are a few:  
Ruth had a large print fabric that this pattern really worked well with (above). She used the dark green to make it pop out, with a dash of purple for interest.   I apologize for not remembering the name of the designer of this pattern.


Janelle's thread spool quilt

Janell is a piecing maniac.  I do declare she must have completed a dozen quilt tops in three days!  I think she had most of these thread spool blocks started before she came to the retreat, so I will cut her some slack for not being a slacker.  What a cute thread spool pattern, done with striped fabrics.  I love it, but I must resist making one and not swerve from my already-lined-up projects! 

Carol's Twisting Turning 20 quilt

Carol's takes up the entire design wall and part of the floor. Meanwhile, after she got the top row sewed together there was an avalanche, so they were mostly on the floor.  She got her starter fabrics on her road trip from Tucson, AZ to Waynesville, MO in August 2012.  There are fabrics in here from the Calico Cow, Roswell, NM, Bittersweet Quilts, Joplin, MO, and The Thread Peddler in Buckthorn, MO.  She also used some of her stash. Imagine that!

Road Trip to Quilting at the Monastery

Ruth and I packed our sewing things, quilting things, bags of stuff, and our mad money, into my 1997 Chevy Blazer, and headed out at 10:30 a.m.  I drove and she knitted slipper socks. We chatted all the way to Twin Falls, where we stopped for lunch at Five Guys and had burgers and fries. Burgers wrapped in lettuce to be exact; a perfect gluten free lunch.  We proceeded eastward toward Rupert, where we hoped to indulge ourselves with a visit to an exceptional quilting establishment.  About 30 miles from Twin Falls great big snowflakes began to squash up on the windshield. This is April 22nd! What is with the snowflakes?  We got off at the Rupert exit and headed north about 4 miles and turned right onto 6th Street and found ourselves in a mobile home park.  Ruth reread the address, "524 6th St. (on the square) Rupert, ID".  We kept going and found our way to the old downtown part of Rupert and found "the square".  Eureka! We found The Gathering Place.

As it turns out, Ruth and I both, appreciate old buildings.  What a delightful setting!  I know why they call it The Gathering Place.  I gathered a nice stack of fabric and had to make myself not look anymore. Yet, there were more places to look!  They have a ton of fabulous fabric.  As it turns out, we were not the only ones heading to the retreat, that were visiting Rupert on the way.  We saw two other quilters there, that were getting their fabric fix prior to the event.  While Ruth was having her fabric cut, I put mine in the Blazer, then got my camera and took some photos of the wonderful old buildings.  I drove us around the block to head out, and discovered we had come in on a one-way street!  I had briefly wondered why the angled parking was angled in the wrong direction!  Well, we drove back to the Twin Falls exit, where the sun was shining and on to the monastery.  We got the vehicle unpacked, our machines hooked up, and said some hello's to people we had not seen since last year.  Julia, our fearless leader, helped me to square-up a quilt top, that night, after the main room thinned out a bit.  I went to bed feeling as thought I had accomplished something. Smile.