Quilt Retreats

Little Miss Muffet, Made Her Own Tuffet

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Feature photo: one of the chalkboard wall art decorations in my room at the Over the Rainbow Retreat Lodge.

TUFFETS!

You remember that nursery rhyme:

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey…

I never really knew what the “tuffet” was in the nursery rhyme other than something to sit upon. That was until the recent tuffet making craze that seems to have taken the crafting world by storm (at least in the Pacific NW).

While attending a four-day quilt retreat at the beginning of August, I sat in the same room as a Tuffet Making Class by the very talented professional long-arm quilter and teacher, Krista the Kwilt Queen.

Several of my quilting friends (both old and new) were taking this class and I wanted to share some photos of their completed tuffets!

Here is Krista, the teacher, with nearly all the tuffets made in class:

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Here are the various beautiful tuffets made by the students. They used a variety of fabrics – from Kaffe Fasset and Hoffman Batik pre-cuts to RECYCLED DENIM JEANS!

One quilter, my friend Joan, made a tuffet from her husband’s old jeans as a gift to her husband for their RV!

It was very fun watching them assemble the tuffets (sewing the tuffets onto the the special template looked very tedious) and seeing their joy with the final project. Krista was a wonderful teacher and I wished I was taking the class (except how would I gotten the tuffet home on the plane ride?!?!)

OTHER PROJECTS

Several of us attending the retreat did not take the Tuffet Class, instead we worked on our own projects. You saw my project from the retreat in my post What’s on the Design Wall (Need Your Help). Here is a sampling of the other projects “retreaters” worked on during the retreat:

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Intuitive log cabin square-in-a-square art quilt by Dana
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Sasquatch themed flannel quilt by Judy – very Pacific NW!
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Tiny paper pieced block by Diana – it was amazing!

THE RETREAT

The retreat itself was held at Over the Rainbow Lodge Retreat in Camano Island, Washington. I first heard about this retreat during our annual May, Jelly Rollers Quilt Group Retreat. I was not going to attend as I would have to fly to the retreat and I was watching my budget.

However, as I mentioned in my post Distracted, I was feeling a little out of sorts with all the sad stuff going on in the world and needed something fun to lighten my mood. I discovered I had enough airline miles to purchase a discounted Alaska Airlines ticket (Alaska Airlines lets you combine miles and money to buy tickets if you do not have enough miles).

In addition to sewing, I made time to go on twice daily walks on the beautiful property and neighborhood where the retreat is located (it is a former private home in a private neighborhood). Sometimes I went on a solitary walks listening to an audiobook and other walks were spent with my fellow retreat attendees – both old and new friends. It is so fun to go on a long walk with a new or old friend during a retreat and “discuss life”.

Here are photos of the retreat center, the view of the water from the lounge area of the retreat and the road I walked on.

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Photo credit: Over the Rainbow Lodge
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Beautiful views of the water from the porch/deck of the retreat center
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Exquisite walks

The beds at the lodge were premium/high quality and I had great delicious sleep in the cool Pacific NW nights. I struggle occasionally with not sleeping well at quilt retreats due to uncomfortable beds and unfamiliar sounds. I sleep really well in a nice double bed to myself and had a great roommate Dana!

The Over the Rainbow Retreat Lodge is filled with art with inspirational messages. One of them is shown as the feature photo for this post.

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I will close this post with one of the inspirational messages stenciled onto the stair risers leading connecting the downstairs sewing area and the upstairs lounge and dining areas at the retreat.

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

26 thoughts on “Little Miss Muffet, Made Her Own Tuffet”

  1. Tierney – This retreat looks like a dream come true for any crafter! Tuffets are the rage here in Ohio as well and I’ve seen some really cute ones. I can see why living in the Pacific Northwest is inspiring…I think it might be heaven on Earth!

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    1. It is pretty cool out here – the weather does vary from temperate rainforest like (the Seattle area) to high desert in Central Oregon where I live – in the wet part of the Pacific NW they have to come up with lots of fun things to do in order to distract themselves from all that rain – ha! I am starting to really appreciate tuffets!

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      1. They really did. Does that interest you at all? I like to make furniture but I don’t like to cut wood. The sharp power tools scare me, but I like drills and hammers and paint and stain and measuring and stuff. My husband or mom does the cutting.

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    2. Oh I forgot to respond – making furniture is sort of interesting to me but only in concept. with the tuffets you buy a kit and then you buy the legs which screw into the base. So it is mainly sewing the tuffet top together using a pre printed template and that part is fairly tedious. Then for assembling you need a staple gun, hammer and special doll needle to sew down the huge button you create. They are darling but not sure if I can fit one in my little house.

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  3. Thanks for the inspirational messages. I could use a little uplift. The tuffets are cute but it’s just really not the kind of thing I can imagine making. Now, if someone made one FOR me… 🙂

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    1. At the retreat Melanie they were saying how making tuffets could be a good income generator and people are paying all kinds of crazy money for custom made tuffets. I would have to make 1 tuffet first and get through it before I considered it as a side gig, ha!

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  5. Tierney please let me know when you hear of another retreat at that lodge. I would love to escape to a quilt retreat with you. Even though I do live in “Heaven on Earth!”

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  9. I’m so glad you had a great time at the retreat! It’s awesome to get away and have the chance to unwind and regain your footing. The tuffet craze is alive and kicking here as well. One of the ladies in our local Modern Quilt Guild is a teacher. She has been very busy traveling around sharing her passion.

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    1. Thanks – if I were to win the lottery, after giving money away to worthy causes, I would just get an RV and drive with the dogs and Terry the Quilting husband from quilt retreat to quilt retreat!

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