Retreat Wrap-up and a Little More

I’m back from retreat, and boy, what a fantastic 4 days that was!  It may have been my first “real” retreat, but I certainly hope that it will not be my last!  (While I was at retreat, I checked with the shop owner on future retreats … alas the November retreat is sold out and the February retreat is scheduled for the weekend of T#1’s 13th birthday.)

Retreat was held at a bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere, in corn country here in Illinois … about 2 1/2 hours from my house.  Literally, we were surrounded by corn fields and wooded hills … talk about secluded.  It was perfect!  The main building is a totally rehabbed old 1860’s farmhouse.
   
I was one of the earlier arrivals and promptly set up my work station.


It wasn’t long before I started piecing log cabin blocks.  If I recall correctly, I have 24 blocks completed and 18 blocks needing the last round of light fabric.
(Forgive the crease … this was taken yesterday when I was unpacking, before I re-pressed the blocks … I wasn’t able to get the colors just right while at retreat).

The main sewing room was large, with plenty of room for all 13 of us.
And 13 was a nice sized group … just small enough that we got to know each other pretty well.

I wasn’t able to complete my quilt top (??) but many others did have completed projects (some of which were started prior to retreat).
This is Anita’s quilt … she had a pattern but chose a different alternating block (the star blocks were part of the original pattern).

This is Ann’s quilt … her granddaughter’s kindergarten class drew pictures of their favorite Bible stories using permanent markers, which Ann then made into a quilt that will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for their school.

Here is Jeanne’s four patch posey … it took her 4 retreats to complete it (she worked on it only during retreats).

This is Debbie’s quilt for a friend … she’s a beginner quilter, but she really nailed matching up the strips.

This is Pam’s quilt … it’s a work in progress.


Here are a couple of quilts that Anita finished up … I love the thick and thin log cabin!

There were plenty of other quilts that I wish I’d thought to take pictures of … like Ann’s tessellating chickens, Linda’s baby quilts (for her grand who’s due in September), Linda’s T-shirt quilt (another Linda), Mona’s four patch posey … and others.

And as if that weren’t enough, they fed us … and fed us WELL.  All I can say is that if I ate like that every day, I’d weigh double what I do now!    Need proof?  Look at what we had for dessert Tuesday evening.  Homemade coconut cream pie!


The only downside to the retreat was my broken heart Tuesday evening at missing the Ts’ final meet.  When I signed up to attend, the first thing I checked was that there would be no meets during retreat.  Who knew that they would reschedule one of the rained-out meets for that week?  DH made sure that they knew that Nana was sad that she wasn’t able to be there … but my heart certainly was heavy Tuesday evening!  (And if we’d been closer than 2 1/2 hours away, I would have definitely spent Tuesday evening watching them swim!)
Two of my favorite guys … prior to the start of the meet.

One thing I learned while at retreat was just how much time I waste online.    I was up and sewing by 7:00AM and ended my day at 9:00-10:00PM.  Other than checking in with my dad, DD, and DH via email, I really didn’t spend any time online.  It made me realize how much I could get done at home if I just spent less time online and more time with needle and thread … while I don’t intend to totally eliminate my time online (particularly blogging!!), I certainly plan to cut back considerably. 

I had to admit that my plan was to get home, unpack and relax.  But I changed my mind and tackled the backing for DD’s chevron quilt.  And as has been par for the course for that quilt, I had to do a fair amount of frog stitching … I cut and stitched the extra length to the wrong side … so the backing was extra long and still not wide enough.  <sigh>  I unstitched and lengthened the extra backing and stitched it to the correct side … and got it all pinned!  Today I’ll start the quilting!! 
This was taken prior to pinning.

The gorgeous late-spring weather we’ve been enjoying is drawing to a close … it’ll be back into the 90’s by the first of next week. 

Now to get caught up (a little) online … and then time to get out my hoop and start quilting!!

Have a fabulous Friday!
Kathy