Winter Retreat With Pam Buda

Each January Village Dry Goods, a great quilt shop in Brigham City, UT, brings in a nationally known teacher for two or three days of workshops and a catered dinner/trunk show. Last year I was able to get in to one day of Lisa Bongean's workshops and had my first, but not my last, experience with wool applique. It was so much fun that by February I was signed up for this year's full retreat with Pam Buda (Heartspun Quilts blog), of Prairie Women's Sewing Circle fame.

I think I was doing my Statue of Liberty impression here!

Via email, Pam and I had arranged to meet up at the home of one of the shop owners to have a pie making session. This took place on Wednesday. Pam is as good a student as she is a teacher and we had a great time while she created her pie--and then we ate!

Fran & Kim

It was a day to remember. Thanks again to Fran for giving up her kitchen, to my friend Kim, who drove me through the  snowy canyon to get there, and to Pam, for letting it happen in the first place. What a generous woman. It was such a treat to spend the afternoon getting to know her! You can read her account of this experience HERE.

Friday was my first day as Pam's student. We were making the quilt from her Book of Quilting Hints, Tips, Secrets & How-Tos, called "Practice What I Preach." We learned all kinds of hints and methods while making the units for this quilt. She introduced us to many new tools, too.

It was a full house--a beehive of activity!

Me, Gayle, Jami, Jean, Pam, Fran, Kim

Cindy (in the purple on the left), fed us with delicious lunches each day. There we had time to relax, visit, and get to know each other better.



We were able to make great progress on our quilt, finishing the center block and getting most of the units made to be able to finish the rest of the quilt easily. This was the display of finished centers.

I so enjoyed meeting Pam, and meeting up again with friends Kim (no blog), and Gayle (The Middle Sister blog). Gayle posted about many fun things from the retreat HERE. So fun to share these experiences with good friends!

Saturday's class was focused on Pam's new design "Settler's Puzzle". We got to see and touch this quilt that was so beautifully quilted by Linda (Quilted Pineapple blog).

 We were able to create a 4 block unit from this design. Many were opting to leave the 4 blocks unassembled so that they could sew their quilts together by rows. Yes, mine is the block with the red triangles amid all of the blue and gold. I just don't know how to make a two-color quilt. Those red triangles will come together to make the square-in-a-square blocks that you see in the quilt above.

On Saturday I had the chance to sit by Donna, who is the sister of Sandra (Textile Time Travels  blog)--both very nice women. Donna shared with us a couple of the antique quilts she had in her trunk.

I really loved this one, and had to have a photo of me fondling it.

It was such a fun time--my first overnight quilty get-away. Hopefully not my last!

Next time I will post about the overabundance of gifts involved in this retreat, and the wonderful trunk show of Pam's creations!

Until then,

Janet O.