Liz and the Raising Kane Quilt Retreat

Every February I accompany nineteen quilters to a beautiful house near Zion National Park for a quilt retreat. I'm not a quilter. I go to write. And cook.

The house is a beautiful three story house with seven bedrooms, lots of bathrooms, and a wonderful, well-stocked kitchen. It also has a large room downstairs with tables available so that each of the ladies can set up her sewing machine, cutting apparatus, and pressing equipment. If you're interested in this particular rental, perhaps for a family reunion or a retreat, click here to see it. 

While there, I worked on chapter six of my new Spider Latham Novel, to be titled Death on the Red Rocks.  I was able to rescue Spider after he had been knocked out and tossed into Peekaboo Canyon during a rainstorm.

The ladies I accompanied were busy during that time, too. One of the things they did was to make a quilt top for me. Ilene Ott was in charge, and she had each lady bring some white and some printed fabric. She had each make a pinwheel block, and Alana Robinson put them together. What precision! All the points are perfect, and where they're joined, the block edges are precise. Pamela France made a binding that came with the top in a sweet little gift bag

There were three rows of double tables downstairs, and each quilter had not only her sewing machine, but cutting tools and a pressing board and iron set up.

 This is the middle row of quilters. Muriel is showing her star center she finished. I can't remember who's behind the airplane quilt below.

 Peggy was working with paper piecing making this clever cat block. On the right, Micky shows the Hunter's Star she put together.









Judy (left) and Alana (Right) are working on the same pattern. I can't remember the name, but again, the points are so precise!

Nannell makes exquisite quilts.  At left, she sits with some of the felt applique pieces she's assembling. At right is a 'farm quilt' she made. Below is a close up of the chicken block that's in this quilt.  

  Keela is making a graduation quilt for her diesel mechanic grandson. She pieced a strip quilt and will applique the felt trucks on them. On the right, Ilene is holding up a sampler quilt she made.

Here's a 'You've Got Mail' quilt made by Pamela.


You can see why I'd enjoy spending three days with these ladies. What a creative bunch! There were lots more quilts a-building and people that I didn't have a chance to highlight here. Next year I'll do a better job of chronicling all the quilts.