For this year’s Thread House Retreat we thought it would be fun to make a quilt using all the workshops and techniques we would be doing over the weekend and offer it as an exclusive pattern to all our Retreaters. And here is the finished result – the Thread House Retreat Medallion Quilt!
This year’s Thread House Retreat was organised by myself, Jo Avery and Karen Lewis and also starred Kerry Green. It was the second TTH retreat and was held at Folly Farm near Bristol over the last weekend in January. You can read a retreat report post here.
I taught my Improv Flower Workshop so the panel from this class became the centre of the Medallion. Karen taught ‘Techniques and Tips’ and her Y-seam samples became the first patchwork border alongside Porthole corners which act as a frame around motifs printed in Karen’s two printing classes, Screen and Lino.
The Flying Geese and HSTs were also from Karen’s Techniques and Tips class and form the next patchwork border, along with Kerry’s four different ‘Small Piecing’ blocks as cornerstones. This left a last wide border for me to cover with leafs using my Tendril technique (which was of course another class).
We used Karen’s new Blueberry Park 3 Fabric throughout (available in stores from May, including myBearpaw!) and it was a real treat to have this to play with before everyone else, and the colours work so well together!
This is only the second quilt that I have finished on my new Janome 9400 sewing machine and I think I really got to grips with it this time.
I think I took a big leap forward in my FMQ with this quilt and I am delighted with the finished result! I actually think I like the back as much as the front! As always I used Aurifil 50wt for quilting, this time in the variegated green that’s included in my Sherbert Dip thread collection.
We did plan on having the quilt and pattern ready in time for the retreat but unfortunately life got in the way a bit for both Karen and I (Kerry was her usually efficient self!), and so I only finished the quilting a couple of weeks ago and we finally finished the pattern yesterday!
At present the pattern is only available to this year’s attendees but that may change in the future.
Meanwhile I am happy to announce the date of next year’s retreat!
Check out The Thread House website for details of past events, to view and buy our patterns, and to sign up for our newsletter so that you are the first to hear when the next Retreat tickets go one sale!
We started things off on Friday afternoon with a fabulous goody bag (thank you to all 
The evening was spent swapping fabric (left) and storage pots, and enjoying the delicious food provided at the venue.
What a talented bunch of Quilters!
I love the pouch that 
