Guest Blogger, LeeAnn

My intention was to have a completely improvisational experience at the retreat. 

 I wanted to just show up and react to what was there--the city, the fabrics, the people,

whatever might inspire me.  I had asked everyone to bring a small bag of scraps I could 

play with, as I was flying from the West Coast and trying to bring only one carry-on bag. 

 The first inspiration was this wonderful bunch of scraps!  Victoria had several bins waiting

for us, and everyone contributed to the luscious pile.  Here's Kim and Jessica reacting with 

the joy we all felt.  Like kids in a candy shop, and we could have it all!  

I chose fabrics from the pile based on what I liked--vintage, ugly, colors I don't normally
use (like brown), lights, darks, novelty prints, and a few solids.  

The second inspiration was Victoria's Accu Quilter Go!  I had never seen one of these, 

and thought I'd like to try something new.  I ended up spending all of Friday morning cutting

out triangles.  I love that gadget, and am thinking about saving up to purchase one myself.  

My next task was to pair the triangles to get various levels of contrast and sew, sew, sew!  

I chain pieced all the triangles into squares (half-square triangles or HST's.)

By Friday night I had enough HST's to lay them on the floor and see what I could do with them. 

 I'd been wanting to make a quilt with zigzag design, so I tried it.  I realized that this design was 

really a bunch of flying geese, half  light "geese," and half dark.  

Then to sew the HST's into pairs.  This took all of Saturday.  I still wasn't sure if 

this wacky combination of colors and patterns would all work together.  

Early Sunday morning, I got up before everyone else and quietly started arranging rows 

of geese on Victoria's design wall.  I laid them there exactly as they came off the pile. 

No rearranging or thinking about what looked nice.  

The design started taking shape.  It was working!  I was so excited, I was hopping around

in my jammies, but quietly so no one would wake up.  At last, Jackie appeared.  I motioned 

for her to come and look.  Then Kim, then Victoria, then the other gals arrived and I invited 

them to take a look.  Everyone was great at sharing in my excitement.  The rest of Sunday 

was spent sewing the blocks together and saying good-byes to these wonderful new friends 

as they left for home.  Victoria was very sweet to let me keep sewing until 10:30 p.m.  At 

last, it was done!   I folded it up, put it in my suitcase, and flew back to Seattle early Monday 

morning.

All weekend, Victoria cooked us the most wonderful gourmet meals and made sure our every 

need was met.  Plus, she made a beautiful, original quilt!  She is amazing, truly--warm, 

gracious, generous and kind.  She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.  

Thank you, thank you, Victoria!!! 

THANK YOU LeeAnn!

http://niftyquilts.blogspot.com/

Next up for guest blogger is Andrea from the little collection.

Have a great day!

-Victoria