Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Mystery Quilt Revealed...

Megan, me & Jean

Yesterday was the long anticipated Mystery Quilt retreat.  Megan and I left at 8AM to secure the "good tables" (i.e. close to the ironing boards) while the rest of the group (Jean, Nancy, Sue and Kathy) came later in a different car.  Here was the scene later in the day once everyone was set up.  Keep in mind this is only part of the room.  There were 80 quilters at the event.
View of the quilters from our "good tables"

We set up our equipment, grabbed a quick breakfast, and started in with Step #1.  This year went really well for me since my presser foot was pretty accurate and I didn't make too many mistakes.  By lunch I had quite a bit done, but was falling behind the speedy sewers.  

Jean and Nancy pressing up the baby quilts they were working on.
Our crew enjoys lunch.

People who had finished their Mystery Quilts from last year's retreat hung them on the walls to be voted on for prizes.  Here are the contenders:

The bird one was really cool.
 I voted for this red one that had Asian fabrics in in the squares.
 Here are more to choose from.
 First place went to the bird quilt!.

I worked away and made some progress. Then, finally the Mystery Quilt committee revealed what this year's quilt is supposed to look like when they displayed their samples:





I completed a lot of the smaller blocks to join together to make the bigger blocks, but this is about as far as I got in terms of completing a block:

Hopefully I'll be speedier getting this quilt done than the two years it took me to complete my last mystery quilt.  I'd really like to have it completed and on Tom Thumb's bed by summer.  So with some luck, you can report back to this blog on June 21st and you'll see this quilt done! 

At around 3 o'clock, "The Crimson Cutters" pulled out to attend the U of M vs. Indiana U basketball game in Ann Arbor.  Can you tell who they're rooting for?

I'm already looking forward to next year!

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