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There are rare times in my life I get to go away to magical places. Okay one time but it was amazing. I got an email from Pamela who coordinated the sewing retreat, Quilt Bliss. She wanted to trade out advertising for a ticket to the retreat. I said yes before asking anyone in my family. It was a bold move for me. I figured if I didn’t go it would still be worth it to get to know Pamela. In my heart I really wanted to make it work so I could fly out to Utah. It is the land of the creative or at least where a lot of sewists and creatives live. Flutfourrr image

My husband and Brother in Law made it work so that I could go. I booked my plane tickets for the wrong weekend. YEA! Huge blow to my budget but I made it work to get new tickets and go. I don’t leave by myself often, because I am a homebody, but I knew this would be a great reason to step outside of my comfort zone. Oh and a local friend was going to go with me and had to back out at the last minute. Someone named Melissa scooped up her ticket and would be my roomie. Like we were sharing a king size bed and had never met. So a true adventure it would be. fluttfour 2

So with some projects packed and no real plan for the retreat since I had never attended a retreat and didn’t know what to expect. I arrived to a beautiful and HUGE cabin in the snowy mountains of Utah. I met everyone and Melissa, aka @sewshabbyquilting, my new roomie, and I hit it off right away. I loved her soul from the minute we met. We set up our sewing machines in this huge room full of all of the other retreaters. WOW it was amazing. It was like my bliss for sure. We sat by Diane, aka @littlebirdquilting, and Emily, aka @emmaraejames, and Emily’s mom. We all got to know one another as we sat and sewed. It was truly magical.

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Once we made it home we all decided to make a round robin quilt. Actually it was Melissa’s idea. We all were in and decided to make the center blocks and then mail it off for the next person to add to and so on. We came up with some loose rules on each section. I think it was triangles, crosses and then open choice. So my center block was my idea of palms and palmettos of the south. I was blown away by what everyone added. I mean look at the amazing fabrics they choose to add. WOW!

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I backed it with a Michael Miller Minky from Sarah Jane Studios. It is the perfect minky because it isn’t stretchy at all. I even pieced several pieces and it didn’t stretch at all! I long arm my quilts so stretchy minky is no fun. I also didn’t put batting in this quilt because I live in the South and I like some quilts to be snuggly without being too warm. This is the perfect combination for that, just a quilt top with the minky backing. I lightly quilted it with straight lines and used Cotton and Steel’s Sulky 50 wt thread in hot pink. Since making this quilt I have started adding a plain white fabric in between the two layers to help it not be too see through without adding a lot of weight.

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If you want to check out the other quilts in this round robin just check out #flutfourrr. I most certainly will be in another round robin because this quilt challenged me to think outside my comfort zone. I really loved every single part of the process.

Have you ever participated in a Round Robin like this? Did you love it or not?

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