The Quilter's Beach Party

I love the Quilter's Beach Party! Lordie, it was a great weekend, weather withstanding. The Party kicked into gear Thursday night with a pizza party at the fab Boat House in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. Here's the link to view this gorgeous place http://reservations.emeraldislerealty.com/properties/Boat-House/
The Boat House overlooks Bogue Sound so we must stitch while looking out over the water...sigh.

A dozen quilters from North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania gathered to learn handwork quilt techniques. On Friday we made a little foundation-pieced Silhouette House in the morning (Patti lined and finished the blocks) and a traditional Album block in the afternoon.

That evening we moved to the back room of Patti's shop The Quilted Butterfly, shared a delicious dinner and heard a talk about oriental flower arranging principles from Sandra, the owner of The English Rose flower shop in Morehead City, NC. Got to admit though--the highpoint was plundering Patti's shop inventory at the year's only 25% off sale--yippee!

Hand sewers Carol Moore (a prof at ECU) and Sandy Gordon (who drives big rigs when not quilting-) learned how to make work more comfortable by using cushions.


Saturday we learned back-basting applique doing a little Teacup block as Robin Finch shows here and in the afternoon got down and dirty learning to stencil on fabric. We also got massages. It was hard getting the partiers to come back up and stitch after that!

Sunday's morning class saw Robin Khoeler come in to teach us basic beading techniques. Robin also makes prize-winning quilts such as this mermaid with a beaded tail.

It was a great group and the Midwest contingent introduced the others to midnight Yahtzee games. Somehow all the ice cream got eaten and the leftover cheesecake and tiramisu disappeared...

If you think you'd like to come to next year's Quilter's Beach Party, email Patti at contact@albfabrics.com and say 'Beach Party 2010' in the subject line.

Wahoo! We're approaching the 2000 mark in readers! As we head toward 2500, I'll run some sort of contest and giveaway...