Posted By drsao on October 6, 2008
Oh my, my sides are about worn out from all of the giggles and fun that the Country Piecemakers Quilt Guild had on retreat the past four days! Who knew that quilters were THIS MUCH FUN.
Thursday I packed up and headed out to meet Merci and Margaret. Oh my, I almost fainted when I loaded my car. I couldn’t believe that I had filled my trunk! (I didn’t want to run out of things to do!) I also had to take both my Singer Featherweight and my Hello Kitty sewing machines, in case one stopped working!
sao's Trunk Full of Retreat STUFF
…and that was just my trunk – my back seat was not empty either! Did I use everything? Yes and no. LOL
sao's Back Seat
We managed to get three of us in Margaret’s big van and off we went! We had lots of fun on the WAY to the retreat……we stopped along the way at quilt shops…..loved Cottonwood….and Bea found some INTERESTING fruit lady fabric inside!
Cottonwood was our first stop
Did Bea buy this fruit lady fabric?
I also LOVED Rachel’s – and I was enamored with the cobblestone street in front of Rachel’s Fabric Shop and the Depot Grille where we stopped for lunch. At Rachel’s, not only did we find lots of wonderful fabric, but we also were greeted by a very cute and vocal kitty.
Rachel's Fabric Shop
Merci and Margaret at lunch
Merci and Margaret had fun at lunch too!
Before long we were at Patchwork Plus – another quilt shop. Not to be outdone by Rachel’s kitty mascot, Patchwork Plus left their own little animal mascot in the restroom. I must admit that the alligator on the changing table in the restroom gave me a little START for an instant! LOL
Patchwork Plus
The Patchwork Plus Alligator
When we arrived at the retreat Merci gave us all wonderful goodie bags – and included inside were fans!
Merci Gave us Fans
Here is Merci with the famous Srappy Sisters, Sara and Nancy. I even got a prize for noticing Sara’s empty pizza box that she used to carry her quilt project in!
Colleen and LEEEEnda
I may have made a bad impression at the retreat because I had trouble pronouncing Linda’s name….
..and worse yet, I had a great deal of trouble remembering which one was Wanda and which one was Kay!
Wanda and Kay
Hopefully I made up for it by providing a few moments of entertainment. My roomie, Heidi, and I sang to the group MORE THAN ONCE…..here is my roomie Heidi in her PJs. We LOVED to sew in our PJS!
Heidi in her PJS
And speaking of PJs I think Sara won a FASHION STATEMENT AWARD for her spectacular entrance wearing her nightgown and the absolutely WONDERFUL BAGS that Betty, Nancy and OH DEAR – someone else….someone else whose name escapes me…made for EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. That was just absolutely unbelievable to me. I LOVED MY Black, Red and White bag!
Sara's Nightgown and Purse
It seemed like every few minutes we were getting prizes for something. I got a prize for being the first to sew with an empty bobbin – and Carmen got a prize for being the first to use her seam ripper. (Thanks to Catherine for making us wonderful prizes from spice bottles!)
Carmen was the first to use her ripper!
We had demos, massages, and made a lot of beautiful things! Before we left the walls were full of our SHOW AND TELLS. I just HAVE to mention some of the highlights of the unusual activities.
We made apple blocks and then drew out a name for the person who would WIN ALL of the apple blocks. We had several winners! One of the winners even BOBBED for her apple blocks….can you guess who?
Sandie and Sara Won Apple Blocks
Michelle made more than one beautiful bag!
One of Michelle’s Bags
Barbara made a bag too – and Merci thought it looked pretty good as a hat!
Barbara made the Hat Bag
Merci and Barbara's Bag
Oh did we ever laugh. We ate OFTEN too …and we had a WONDERFUL WALK to our dining commons….and on a couple of occasions we had VERY TOO WONDERFUL BROWNIES and I felt compelled to do a power walk back up the hill after dinner! Who could turn down chocolate!
Meal Time Parade
We not only had fun quilting, but we also collectively took HUNDREDS of pictures!
Margaret found a second use for her formal dinner gloves – she found that they came in quite handy for keeping the fabric under control while quilting!
Margaret
OK – so I was also seen DUMPSTER DIVING – but I have a very good reason – I was gathering materials for a HOW TO MAKE A RAG RUG FROM SCRAPS demo in November!
sao Dumpster Diving for Fabric Strings
I was worried that we might have to miss the VP debates that were televised last Thursday night – but NO – we had our own IT GUY come and set up a private showing of the great debate! You can’t tell from this posterior view but this guy had a beard that was longer than Santa Clause’s. Someone marveled that he was brave enough to come into a room with 20 women all armed with scissors. LOL
Our Own IT GUY
VP DEBATE
As entertaining as the VP Debate was I think we almost enjoyed reading Pat’s t-shirts as much – she had a different one each day!
Pat had a TSHIRT for EVERY DAY
And we enjoyed hearing the ghost stories that Donna told us each morning. It appeared that there were ghosts rattling her bedroom door the first night – and other strange bumps in the night continued to haunt her and interrupt her sleep. And then it happened! The last night two GHOSTS were actually captured in her room – Donna has a good story to tell about that discovery process. If ONLY we would have had a police officer with us – we could have conducted an investigation to determine just HOW those GHOSTS got INTO DONNA’S LOCKED ROOM!
Donna Captured Two GHOSTS in her Room
Just think about it – can you imagine running to your room to use the restroom (because we were so BUSY sewing we often waited until the last moment to pause for necessities) only to find that a ghost was HANGING AROUND IN THERE!
Speaking of Colleen, Linda and Sandie – – I think Sandie should have won the most productive award. Every time that I looked up she was completing yet another project. Bonnie K. Hunter herself would have been so proud to see how Sandie used her scraps! I loved this pillow that she made to MATCH her log cabin quilt.
Sandie's Scrappy Pillow
And I think Merci should get the CREATIVITY AWARD. She made a crown and septor – and made up a beautiful poem to acknowledge the great job that Sandie did making our reservations for the retreat. Sandie was awarded the QUEEN OF RESERVATIONS title by Merci!
Sandie - Queen of Reservations
Now it is time to get to the romantic part of the retreat! Yes, there was a romantic part. You see this guy rode up on a motorcycle….and Kay seemed to be pretty happy to see him!
Kay and the Mysterious Man on a Motorcycle
We decided that since there appeared to be a BLING BLING on Kay’s finger (I understand that this is still in the secret UNANNOUNCED stage) and this guy on the motorcycle seemed PRETTY FRIENDLY with Kay – so we decided it was safe to commission him to take our group picture on the porch. SO….here we all are with our pretties – looking very happy!
All of Us with our Masterpieces!
I really had a great time getting to know everyone – I loved the retreat location, the food, the new friends, my roomie PRINCESS HEIDI, Mollie my featherweight Singer Sewing machine was a DREAM – and I LOVED THE FACT that I got most of the center of my brother, Fred’s Star Quilt completed! The block that I am pointing to was made from my brother’s son’s undershorts. Joey is 16! I hope he doesn’t look at my blog because I would like the quilt (and the undershorts block) to be a surprise for Christmas!
sao and Fred's Boxy Stars Quilt
I don’t know about everyone else – but I thought the retreat was FANTABULOUS!
Category: Country Piecemakers, Fred's BOXY STARS, Massanetta 08, Quilt Retreat |
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