VCQ Celebration

VCQ Celebration

This past several days we vended at the Virginia Consortium of Quilters’ (VCQ) Celebration 2022(retreat). The retreat was at the 4H Center on Smith Mountain Lake. Who could ask for a prettier place for a retreat?

      

VCQ is a statewide quilting guild. Anyone can join – any age, any type of quilter, any level of sewing. They have their Celebration every two years and meet quarterly. The meetings move around the state, so everyone has a short drive at some point. The next meeting is in June in Culpepper. The October meeting will be in Harrisonburg or Va. Beach. If there is a home football game at JMU and hotel rooms aren’t available, then the Va. Beach venue will be the backup. Quarterly meetings have classes, a sit and sew, and their business meeting at lunch. The classes are always different and vary by topic and skill level. VCQ has also been doing online Zoom classes for the past two years. For more information about the group, to join, or info about the up-coming meeting and classes, go to: https://vcq.org/

So the Celebration was fun, fun, fun. The teachers this year were Barbara Black, Patty Murphy, Gyleen Fitzgerald, Marisela Rumburg, Heather Kojan, Brimfield Awakening, Suzi Parron, and Geraldine Wilkins. The classes were piecing, quilting – with rulers and free motion, barn quilts, improv sewing, and English Paper Piecing. Check out the teacher’s websites learn more about them and to see what they each teach.

Every evening there was a lecture and some other games and give-aways. Suzi Parron talked about the short history of painted barn quilts one evening. Patty Murphy took us through her quilting journey on another evening. They gave away money to spend with vendors, strip sets, 10” squares, and many Celebration block sets (enough for a quilt). The Celebration block changes every Celebration. Everyone received lots of goodies over the course of the retreat.

Below is a short journey of our weekend.

Friday class - Over and Under Rainbow with Gyleen Fitzgerald

      

  

Saturday Carnival Quilt with Heather Kojan

            

  

 Show of what we all had finished by the end of the retreat!

      

      

      

        

      

If you haven’t attended a retreat, they are worth it just for the brain trust they bring together. Not all retreats have classes, many are just sewing with other like-minded people. Some are overnight settings, many are just multi-day get-togethers locally. Many are sponsored by guilds for guild members, some are offered by local quilt shops. Think about finding one to attend.