Quilt Camp {rewind}

I was lucky enough to attend Quilt Camp last weekend in Pleasant Lake, MI at the Hankard Inn B&B - and I must say, it was better than I imagined!  The accommodations were warm and cozy, the food was delicious, and new quilty friends were everywhere!

 My four table-mates were awesome:  Kara, Angela, Faith, and Amanda

We may have spent slightly more time talking than sewing, but that's ok!  We all got a good amount of projects finished too!

 Jeni was one of the teachers at Camp and assisted us all in making a fun little drawstring bag! Mine is going to hold crochet projects - love it!

Our finishes!  See - productivity did abound for most of us!

Faith taught paper piecing and I must say - learning first hand is MUCH easier than reading about it online or seeing it on YouTube. 

 

 I started out with a stack of templates (not the original project I was going to make with these templates, but no worries!) coordinating fabric scraps, and a neutral linen solid.

 

 Bing. Bang. Boom.

And you end up with:

 This cute little 2.5" block!  I'm making a few Christmas gifts, mug rugs, to be exact that my mom wants to give to friends.  I'm a big fan of paper piecing now, but this particular block has VERY heavy seams to press open, 12 layers actually.  Other than that - I'm in love!

I also spent a portion of my time working on a Christmas Table Runner for my Kitchen!  Just a bunch of HSTs arranged according to this block pattern by Don't Call me Betsy.  It was super fun and easy to make!  I'm not a fan of actual Christmas fabric so I just used a bunch of red and green prints from my stash.  Looks Christmas-y to me!

 Once again, I let the practical side get the best of me and I did the backing in all green so it can be used during other times of the year too!  Green is one of the colors in my kitchen - shocking, I know! 

 There was one other project I worked on at Quilt Camp but I cannot divulge that information - sorry - Its almost Christmas gifting time!

So over all I had a blast sewing and creating for a solid 3 days and didn't wipe one toddler bottom, answer to "Mommy!" or do one load of dishes.  It was heavenly....  Pure bliss.

I hear Brenda and the girls are planning another Quilt Camp for this coming May - I cannot go but I highly encourage you to look into attending if you live anywhere within driving distance of Michigan - if you're looking to learn new techniques and socialize with other quilty gals.