Another Round Robin Quilt

This quilt belongs to Pat from Flat Rock. It is another one of the Thunder Bay Round Robin Quilts. Pat did some machine embroidererd flowers for her center block. I did the first round on her center block. Her quilt has lots of lace and even some battenberg lace. And of course, blue is my favorite color. Pat told me she will be hand quilting her quilt. It is beautiful and I am anxious to see her finished quilt top. I will be showing more of the Round Robin quilts here on the blog.

Fall Quilter's Retreats

Here is a picture of a couple of the big guys at Thunder Bay Resort. In another week or so they will begin their bugling (a mating ritual). These guys, their buddies and their girlfriends would love to see you. We have 3 retreats scheduled for October. Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts will be teaching an Applique Medley class during the Oct. 9 - 12 retreat. Pam Hiveley will be teaching a Folded Fabric Sampler during the Oct. 16 - 19 retreat. Amy Davidson from Humble Bee Quilt Works will be teaching Mad for Plaid during the Oct. 23 - 26 retreat. Fall is a beautiful time of year here in northern Michigan. We also have room at the Sept. 4 - 7 retreat with Gyleen Fitzgerald from Colourful Stitches. She will be teaching her Spider Hexagon quilt. We would love to have you join us for a fun filled 4 day weekend on sewing, eating, laughing, eating, show and tells, eating, making new friends, eating. Thanks to retreater Lora K. from Deford, MI for sharing her picture of the elk.

Round Robin Quilt

Five former Thunder Bay Retreaters and myself were involved in a Round Robin. We adopted rules from an article in Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home magazine. In January we all were instructed to make a block. We sent our blocks on to the next person on the mailing list. Each person made a round on our original blocks. Last week during our Lipinski retreat we had a Reveal Party, complete with food, margaritas and even Mark (that handsome devil). This is a picture of my Round Robin. I LOVE IT!! I LOVE IT!! I LOVE IT!! I do plan to hand quilt this quilt. Many, many thanks to my fellow Thunder Bay Round Robins Joy, Raylene, Sharon, Jackie and Pat. I am looking forward to seeing all of the quilts as they are finished.

THREE DAYS WITH MARK LIPINSKI

I am exhausted!! What a great time we had here at Thunder Bay Resort's Quilter's Retreat with Mark Lipinski, the retreaters and the vendors. Mark's class, Simple Simon was a very fun class. He provided basic instructions for the blocks, then showed how the blocks could be set or cut and rearranged into many, many different patterns. It was fun to see all of the different fabric combinations and settings. During the Sunday morning Show and Tell we saw a lot of the quilt tops put together. As you can imagine there was never a dull moment when Mark was around. And, GREAT NEWS!! We have Mark coming back to Thunder Bay Resort in August of 2009. He will be teaching "Throw Me A Curve" during the August 17 - 20, 2009 Quilter's Retreat. Watch our website, www.quilterretreat.com, as full details will be posted very soon.

MARK LIPINSKI IS HERE!!!

Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilter's Home magazine is the guest instructor at Thunder Bay Resort's Quilter's Retreat this weekend. He is teaching his Simple Simon quilt. The ladies are loving him. We have had a brief discussion about him returning next summer. Watch our website - www.quilterretreat.com for details.

Getting ready for the Retreaters

We are busy here at Thunder Bay Resort getting ready for our Quilter's Retreat that begins tomorrow. As you can see the tables and lights have been set up in the Pine Cone Quarters a.k.a. The Quilt Barn. Every quilter gets their own 6 foot table, chair, individual light and waste basket. By tomorrow at this time the building will be buzzing with sewing machines and excited quilters. Our instructor, Mark Lipinski is flying into the airport in Alpena and I will be there to meet the plane. I am excited to see Mark again. We will also welcome back 17 repeat retreaters and meet 32 new quilting friends. I love my job here as Quilter's Retreat Coordinator!!

Another Blue Ribbon at the County Fair

This quilt, When He Makes Dinner was made last October when Jennifer Chiaverini attended our Quilter's Retreat here at Thunder Bay Resort. Jennifer read from her newest book, answered questions from devoted readers, posed for lots of pictures and gave autographs. My assistants and I taught the quilt class. It was a great retreat. Today I am busy putting the finishing touches on the retreat to be held later this week. Mark Lipinski will be our instructor and will be teaching his Simple Simon class. Mark, forty nine quilters and three vendors will begin arriving here on Thursday morning. The weather forecasters are forcasting great weather. So it should be a great weekend. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been involved in a Round Robin with five former retreaters. Thursday evening we will get together and reveal our quilts. I am really excited to see mine and all of the other quilts. Last night I finally finished round #6 on Sharon's quilt.

Blue Ribbon at the County Fair

Well, I checked out my entries at the County Fair. I received several ribbons, blue ones, red ones and white ones. This is a picture of my Snails Trail Quilt. It is hand pieced and hand quilted. This quilt is one that I show during my Trunk Show at the Thunder Bay Quilter's Retreats. Yesterday my Quilt Guild held a charity sew and a mini Quilt Show at the Fair. Members made 20 tote bags for walkers, sandwiched several baby quilts and I machine quilted 3 quilts for preemie babies. In the evening I worked at the Motocross races. This is the third year I have worked the races and my job is to be the head lap counter. It is a very chaotic job and also a lot of fun. Our seven year old grandson, Cameryn raced for the first time and it was very exciting. He is very, very proud of the trophy and the medal that he won.

Computer Fun!!

All of this blog stuff has been a real learning experience for me and it has been fun. My friend Mary has been such a big help in getting this blog set up. Today I added my first picture and I am very proud of myself. I usually say that I am much better with my sewing machine than I am with my computer. Also I must confess that I am not a moring person but this morning I was up and at my sewing machine by 6:00 a.m. I have a project that has to be done by next Thursday. Feel free to visit our website - www.quilterretreat.com when you are doing some web surfing.

County Fair

Our County Fair is this week. I have entered some quilts and the judging is today. This usually makes me a bit uncomfortable as I make my quilts because I enjoy the total process. And sometimes my quality isn't always as I would like it to be. Tomorrow I will go to the Fair and see how things went with the judging. Our Guild will be doing some charity sewing there on Thursday and I always look forward to a day of sewing with my Guild buddies. Visit our Quilters Retreat website at http://www.quilterretreat.com/ for all of the Quilter's Retreat activities scheduled at Thunder Bay Resort.

Our First E-Bay Purchase

Monday, August 8, 2008
My husband Steve and I made our first E-Bay purchase over the weekend. We bought a 1952 Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine. I am so excited and I can't wait for it to get here. I have never sewn on a Featherweight but I love the way they look. I have 2 Vikings and a Janome. The bidding on E-Bay was fun. I was bidding on a Featherweight last week and shall I say I got "caught up in the moment". It was quite addicting to hit the bid button. When I came to my senses I quit bidding. Steve followed a Featherweight on E-Bay for part of the day on Saturday. He was a bit braver than I and registered a maximum bid. Saturday evening we were notified that we were the successful bidders. Now we will just anxiously wait for the UPS man!

Quilt Guild

August 8, 2008
Do you belong to a Quilt Guild? If not I highly recommend that you find a Quilt Guild in your area and check it out. I attended our Guild’s monthly business meeting yesterday. I really enjoy seeing all of my quilting buddies. Show and Tell is always my favorite part of the meeting and yesterday was no exception. Our quilters have been busy and we saw lots of beautiful quilts and wall hangings. There is always lots of inspiration during the show and tell portion of the meeting. Our Guild also does a lot of charity work. Next week at our County 4-H Fair we will be making small bags to attach to walkers. They will be donated to a couple of local homes for the elderly. I know several quilters that belong to more than one Guild and some day I hope to join another Guild or two. If you are not a member of a Guild I recommend that you check with your local Quilt Shop to see when and where Guild meetings are held. **Pam**

Summer Newsletter

Our summer e-mail newsletter went out yesterday. Karen, our editor once again did a great job. She wrote a very interesting and creative article comparing quilting and golf. She has some interesting comparisons of irons, birdies, eagles, bogeys and golf outfits. I invite you to check it out. She also gave details on our upcoming retreats. We have several openings for our September and October retreats. We would love to have you join us for the beautiful colors here in northern Michigan.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Welcome
Welcome to our Thunder Bay Resort Quilter’s Retreat BLOG. We decided to create a blog to share the news of activities here at Thunder Bay Resort. We also hope to hear from the many quilting friends that we have made during the three years of Quilter’s Retreats.We are excited that Mark Lipinski will be joining us here at Thunder Bay Resort. Mark is editor of Mark Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home magazine. He will be teaching his Simple Simon pattern during the retreat. Full details can be found on our website. We still have room if you would like to join us. Please call our Reservationists at 1-800-729-9375 to make your reservation. Mark’s website is www.marklipinski.com.Golf is in full swing here at Thunder Bay Resort. How about a little get away with your spouse? You can join us for a Quilter’s Retreat while your husband enjoys golf here at Thunder Bay Resort. We have a meal package for non-quilting spouses. You may also choose to take a break from sewing and get in a round of golf. Our fall retreat dates are September 4 – 7, October 9 – 12, October 16 – 19 and October 23 – 26.Please check back often, as we will be posting blogs when we have news to share.On a personal note, our son was married last Saturday. We had a beautiful weekend with family and friends. And, I actually finished their quilt a week before the festivities. Five former retreaters decided to do a Round Robin quilt and I invited myself to join in. We have been working on this Round Robin since January. The five retreaters will be back to Thunder Bay Resort in August and we will reveal our quilts to our Round Robin group and to the retreaters. It has been fun, but also very challenging.I am looking forward to hearing from you. I would love to know what you have been doing. Take care, **Pam Achatz, Quilter’s Retreat Coordinator