Monday, April 10, 2023

April Retreat at Ritter Ranch

Fun! Productive! Social!
Designing, coaching and learning!
What more is there to say?!!!

Ritter Ranch is a retreat location in southeastern AZ, run by Sheila and Bill Ritter. It's up at about 4000 feet elevation so it's generally cooler there than in Phoenix. It's a beautiful setting and an excellent facility. All inclusive, and gourmet all the way. 

The sewing room is spacious and well lit.




Everyone accomplished something, whether starting from scratch or making progress on an existing project. Linda finished the final border on her Jacquelyn De Jonge top. WOW! And completed her hexie project. 


Deb made this beautiful top in Kaffe blues from start to finish. 

Paula worked on her Kool Kaleidoscope. So cool!  It's ready for Wedgies and Butts. 

Unfortunately I didn't get photos of everyone's projects. Janet worked on a pretty churn dash which she was designing on the fly, so she had to figure out the on point setting she wanted. After a bit of frustration, she ended up with a lovely top. 

Robin worked on a quilt in watery blues and greens for her brother, a waterman on the Chesapeake bay. She used my Scrappy Nine Patch Stars tutorial, and made lots of HSTs and nine patches. When she had enough of them made to start putting them on the design wall, it looked fantastic. She used an off-white Grunge with pale green in it for all her light patches and a teal print for the star points. I love it! Of course, I forgot to take a photo; I hope to have one when it's done. 

I worked on Flying Geese blocks and got them laid out on the design wall. Looking at the photo, I see a few tweaks that are needed. I'll put these blocks back up on the wall at home and move a couple around for better color and value distribution. 

I took along a UFO from fall 2020 that got put into time out when we were getting ready to move. It's a self round robin that started with an orphan block, and it needed the last few borders constructed and added. Now it's a finished flimsy. Whoo-hoo!

I also took along my laptop with EQ8 and was able to solve a design problem for Sheila, who needed alternate blocks for a wool applique project she's working on. And I used it to calculate the side and corner triangles for Janet's on-point project. I almost didn't bring the laptop along, but I'm glad I did.

Meals at Ritter are wonderful. Sheila and her husband Bill do all the cooking, and Bill is known for his made from scratch soups. 

Lunch this day was stromboli with tomato basil soup. Yum! 

We all enjoyed time together sewing and just hanging out. I'm on the list to go again in July, and to next year's April retreat. Already looking forward to it!


4 comments:

  1. The food and atmosphere sounds amazing! And what beautiful projects that you did photograph. Hooray for all the projects!

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  2. Looks like lots of fun and productive, as well!

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  3. I'm blown away by the gorgeous projects from the retreat. Wow!! Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Wow, some fantastic finishes! Looks like a fun and productive retreat.

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