Shipshewana - Dear Jane Retreat

Well, I made it to the DJ retreat...but I might have been the last person to arrive...

We are not in Kansas anymore... (we're in Indiana)

The drive between the western 'burbs of Chicago and Indiana is a pretty one -
once you get past Gary.

Beautiful sunset tonight.

Lolly's treated our group to a catered dinner, then we hit the shops.
I picked up some notions and a Jennifer Chiaverini novel.

This is the "sewing room" at the conference center. It's a huge
room set up for 100 people. Two quilters split an 8' table.
Shared cutting and ironing stations... and a ginormous snack table.

We had a nice presentation by a quilt historian on women/quilts of the civil war.

This basket quilt was awesome. It was in such great shape it was kind of strange.
It was like someone had just made it yesterday and washed it once in warm water.

closeup of basket quilt.

More antique civil-war era eye candy.

Appomattox Courthouse update

layout of the quilt minus the borders...
Used various shirtings as setting triangles instead
of the same fabric throughout.

the 15 finished squared and trimmed blocks.
I ended up keeping the blocks as-is even though I thought they were too red to
go with the sashing strips and border fabrics. I think it will all work together though.

squaring blocks up... not sure what repercussions this will have on the layout - but I didn't care.
I just went ahead and cut em all down anyway.

My work table. Dedicated a five hour chunk to get this puppy on to the next level...
I work slowly - still a beginner...