My guild is hosting a quilting retreat at Paris Landing this weekend, and I’m super excited! I’m taking Friday off work, and we’ll have all that afternoon and night, all day Saturday, and one last half day on Sunday to sew like crazy. We’re staying in cabins so it will be just like camp… for adults!

I’ve been making lists (of course!) of what I’d like to work on, and over the weekend I got everything organized. I tried to stick to what I already have on hand, and with a trip to JoAnn’s (with a coupon of course!), I’m all ready for the trip ahead. I tried to get most of the cutting done so everything is ready for sewing, and each project is in a separate baggie to keep everything organized. I printed out patterns but I also have tutorials saved on my mini ipad (as pdfs to view in Adobe Reader since I’m not sure if wifi will be available) so I’m ready to go! I have a feeling my luggage will be 90% sewing supplies and 10% clothes!

My plans are probably (OK, almost certainly) too ambitious for a weekend getaway, but here are the projects I’m bringing with me:

I have a few friends who are expecting their first babies this year, and I want to stock up on some modern, gender-neutral baby quilt tops so I’ll have a few ready to quilt and bind later.

I’m bringing supplies for these patterns, but I’ll probably just pick one to work on:

This pattern is actually a mini quilt, but it’s jelly roll friendly so I’m doubling the measurements to make an oversized one-block quilt. I also cut enough to make the mini quilt size too – either as a coordinating pillow or lovey… or another mini quilt for me 🙂

I’ve been hoarding some Briar Rose fat quarters that the lovely Jayne of Twiggy and Opal cut for my last year, and I think this vintage-inspired quilt pattern will be the perfect vehicle to showcase the fabric. It’s another oversized one-block quilt that should go together quickly. I love these fabrics so much, it was hard to cut into them, but I can’t wait to see them in a finished quilt.

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I don’t have a great system for storing my scraps, but I’ve admitted to myself that I’ll probably never cut everything up into nice and neat sizes per Lori Holt’s method. I like storing them in color order, so I’m going to make some One Hour Baskets (in coordinating colors of course) to store my ROY G BIV (+ low volume) scraps. I’m excited to give this pattern a go – I’ve never used interfacing before, and I’ve been meaning to try it out for a while.

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A guild member mentioned she’s making some of Lori Holt’s design boards, and offered a demo if anyone else was interested… sign me up! This has been on my list to make for a few years, so I added the supplies to my JoAnn’s list and now it’s on the list!

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Everything I planned are relatively easy projects (except maybe paper piecing… can you tell I’m super intimidated?) and great for chain piecing, which I figure is a good thing in a room full of chatter and late nights of sewing.

 I’ll report back next week to let you know what I got done. Even if it’s just a few half-finished projects and a whole lot of laughing/chatting/snacking time, that’s good enough for me!