I know I was supposed to do this a lot sooner, but the internet at the retreat was very slow, then it was non-existent in the cabin we stayed in, in Gatlinburg for the rest of the week.  And then I got back and had a ton of catching up to do.  So here as they say is the rest of the story!

Day 2 – I took classes with Donna Cash and Penny Bruce.

 Donna’s first class of the morning was embellishments.

 

She had several examples that she shared with the group.

Love this one!

And this one!

And this panel is just incredible.

This is one she demonstrated and we got a chance to try making it.

After Donna’s class, Penny taught her English method of making panels.

Almost everything is hand sewn.

The herringbone stitch on the bottom hem.

In the afternoon I took Donna’s Square Bolster class.

 

She had some great examples.

This is the one she demonstrated.

Loved this one with the giant pom poms!

Penny’s afternoon class was Pleating to Pattern, which was one of the main reasons I came to the retreat.

She had 2 great examples of how one fabric could be pleated to pattern 2 different ways, depending on how you laid it out.

Example 1 has the flower in the spaces.

Example 2 has the flower in the pleat.  Neither way is right or wrong, it just depends on which you or the customer likes.  She then explained how to work it out with several examples and then gave us a fabric to figure it out ourselves.

I worked with a partner, and she worked her fabric one way and I worked it another.  We also tried a few different pleats.  We actually liked the 2 finger Euro Pleat the best.

Evening

In the evening each teacher held an answer and question session and you could go around to each one.

Susan’s evening session.

Kim’s evening session.

Day 3

Day 3 was a short morning session, where each instructor demonstrated a technique.

Kim demonstrated button tufting on a headboard.

Donna demonstrated how to make an embellished button, and then let us make one!

And Penny demonstrated pin tucking.

It was a great learning and connecting experience and I would recommend it to anyone.  There were several that had come to the retreat with little sewing experience, eager to learn.  I want to think Susan and Kim for putting the retreat together and doing such an excellent job.  I also want to think Donna and Penny for sharing their wealth of knowledge with us.

After the retreat Mark and I drove up to Gatlinburg, and spent a few days hiking the Smokie Mountains.  I will share that later!

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

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