This year was the last of 15 yearly Quilt Retreats hosted by Amy McClellan and Under the Garden Moon.  It’s the end of an era I’m mighty glad I was here for.  I’ve attended these retreats every year (except when we’ve been on our missions), and they have always been wonderful.  We are all sad to see them come to an end.

Times change.  Prices go up.  Management at the resort has changed.  And I can imagine Amy is getting tired of taking care of all the details that go into making this the best retreat Ever.

So this year the retreat theme was “Trip Down Memory Lane.”  We revisited 15 years of give-away quilts and mystery exchange quilts.  It really was fun.  I’ve made so many of these with so many good memories attached.  Our first evening we got to see all of these quilts, brought back into one place:

Amy talked to us about her history as a quilter and shop owner.  I well remember the beginnings of the Amy Era, when she purchased American Quilting, just off State Street in Orem sometime around 2006.  It was 4.5 minutes from my home.  I slipped away to that shop often.  Then she moved the shop to 800 North in Orem, a bigger nicer space that became a gathering place for quilters.

This evening we remembered all the good times with Amy, as she started this quilt show with this quilt, one of the first she made many years ago.

Here is a block made by one of Amy’s grandma’s.  It became Amy’s first published pattern.

The next many pics are of quilts made from the kits that were given to each of us the next 15 years at the retreats:

Then they unveiled the give-away quilt for this year– we were each given 2 Jelly Rolls of fabric to make this Scrappy Trips or the Trip Around the World Quilt.

The next part of the evening, Amy showed the quilts we’ve all made from the “Mystery Exchanges.”  Everyone got a fabric assignment to cut and prepare, then we swapped pieces and came away with enough fabric to make a quilt.  These are the 15 years of exchange quilts:

What fun memories!  What good friends!  I’m sad to see this coming to an end.

We were at the Zermatt Resort Monday to Thursday, sewing our hearts out.  Here are a few pics of friends and their projects.  Just being in the room makes your creative juices flow!

Every single night this week, I was the Last Man Standing, rather Sewing.  I stay up late and have a hard time turning my machine off to go to bed.

This is my sewing space.  This week I sewed all 18 of the blocks for 2 Windy Days quilts by Tilda.  You can see some of my blocks on the back wall.

The blonde one is my Josie Girl!

This is Amy (back left) with her sisters, daughters and nieces.  They are our heros!

Late night #2:

Got to meet a Swiss friend John knew as a young missionary!

On our last morning, Amy and Roma revealed the Mystery Exchange quilt.  You could choose to do it in Civil War fabrics or brights.

The last day, finishing up my quilts:

Our wonderful gift this year, made by Amy’s husband, Kerry:

The last to leave.  It’s hard to go home after having so much fun!!

I’m hoping someone will step up and help a retreat like this live on in the years to come.  I’m pretty sure everyone would love to come back.  I know I would!