A Lovely Crazy Quilt Retreat!
I've been blessed to attend two different crazy quilt retreats this year! The first was the Windsor, CT retreat in April. The most recent one was the O'Fallon Crazy Quilt Retreat (though it is actually held in the neighboring town of Fairview Heights, IL).
I did a video for my YouTube channel on packing my bag for a retreat. I had everything I needed ~ and then some! There wasn't anything that I missed having with me, which is always a plus!
I also put a short video up recapping the retreat which you can view here: https://youtu.be/CBFM9F9JSRU
As is so often the case, I came home with more than I left with! I drove from Colorado through Kansas, stopping at Quilt Cottage in Hays, Kansas. They always have a nice selection of fabrics and keep the shelves stocked with fat quarters for every fabric on the shelf. Perfect for a crazy quilter who only uses small bits of fabric!
The next quilt shop was Quilter's Haven in Olathe, Kansas. I discovered several years ago, that they have a fabulous selection of Japanese Taupe Fabrics. I love their muted tones and so I've been collecting a few more, every time I visit there. They also have a nice selection of Batik fabrics and a great selection of quilting books. I found some really cute fabric for a baby quilt for my grand-baby due in October!
I usually like to stop at Quilter's Station in Lees Summit, Missouri, but due to time, I missed it both coming and going. It's a huge quilt shop with the biggest fabric selection I've ever seen. They also carry a fair amount of wool and primitive quilt supplies, such as my favorite Valdani pearl cotton threads.
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| Photo courtesy of Lauretta Allen |
Unlike a lot of retreats, there weren't a lot of planned activities. The first person down in the morning had the hotel unlock the room and the last one to leave at night had them lock up. People came and went at their leisure, and truly, most of our time was spent stitching and enjoying time with one another!
There were three informal classes; two on beading taught by Jean Erickson, (her Flickr site here) and one on needle tatting taught by Lisa Caryl. Lisa is working on a Hexagon 2020 project that is extraordinary!
At this retreat, I actually managed to get some stitching done! I started off working on my "Black Pearl" project. The photo above shows the way it looked at the retreat I attended in April. At that retreat, about all I managed to do was to stitch down a portion of the hexagon portion of the border and to plan out the button placement.
At this retreat, I not only finished stitching the border, I got all the crazy quilt embroidery completed and stitched down the buttons! Next, I'll be adding some hand quilting in the hexagons and then adding a backing and binding.
I also was able to get a couple of Pocket Prayers completed and made progress on three others. I love these little projects!
The last project I worked on were two of the blocks from the Hearts Round Robin I participated in a few years ago. One of the blocks needed additional embellishment to help it match the others, and then there was one block for me to embellish. I finished the first one, and got a good start on my block. Next I'll need to piece and then stitch/embellish more blocks in order to complete the project I hope to create with these blocks!
Show and Tell is always one of my favorite parts of a crazy quilt retreat and this one was no exception! There were so many beautiful projects shared! Watch the You Tube video linked above for a better look at some of the work!
And last, but certainly not least, it's always a joy to get to see in person, a beautiful antique crazy quilt. Mona Berning brought a gorgeous one to share, that was gifted to her by Mary Chalmers. The video also takes a better look at this lovely quilt! 
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