Of Quilted Throws and Leather Chairs

Two weeks ago I was able to attend a retreat with gals from one of my favorite quilting groups, lovingly called (by me!) DayQuilters.  It's a short couple of days but we have fun and get a lot of sewing done.  I worked on one of my UFOs made from the Habitat pattern by Fourth & Sixth Designs.  It was already pieced and basted so it was exciting to be able to quilt it and put the binding on it.  As I was working on it I kept telling everyone how great it was going to look on the "olive green leather chair in my husband's office."  Oh boy was it ever going to look good on that "olive green leather chair!"  Well........here is a picture of it on said chair.  Uh, huh, I know..........I have already taken some teasing about it.  (It still looks good though.......)
I'm not entirely crazy though.  We really do have an olive green leather chair.  It just isn't in my husband's office.  It's in the great room and it already has a quilt on it! 

I want to introduce you to some of my DayQuilters friends.  Ree is our bag lady.  She makes the cutest purses and bags for friends and relatives.  These are two that she completed at our retreat. 

Then we have Barb who loves to cut strips from her stash and organize them into drawers and have them all ready to go whenever she wants to use them.  This retreat she put together an entire throw sized quilt for a neighbor and got a good start on a king sized quilt as well.  Both were Yellow Brick Road quilts from these gorgeous blues and greens!


Jan, who I am sad to say now only has one UFO to her name, (don't hate her) completed this 4-Patch Stacked Posie.......


........and Joan used up some of her collection of dotted fabrics on this quilt that was really out of her comfort zone.  It sure is cute.













Katy made a really fun quilt from OSU fabric for her grandson for Christmas and machine quilted it.

Darlene, who didn't want her picture taken, put together this gorgeous Topsy Turvey Nine-Patch.

And Rita, who REALLY didn't want her picture taken (Can you tell??) made this custom baby quilt for her newest grand-daughter.  It's based on a Harley Davidson design, and was a special request from her daughter. It still has the blue quilting marks on it, but I couldn't wait for it to be washed.  I really had to share it with you now.  

We have some really talented ladies in our group. We had a good show and tell this past week at my house (and those silly women forgot that they had already teased me about the olive green leather chair!)

Sisters

Sorry, quilters, I am not referring to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show which is held annually in Sisters, Oregon, and which I would dearly love to attend one of these years (Ahem, are you listening, Dear Husband of Mine?) but rather to my dearest and darling sisters, referred to in an earlier blog entry, and otherwise known as The Wagener Girls.  My sisters and I have been trying to go on an annual sisters getaway weekend every fall since 2004, and so far we have been to some very interesting and exotic locations.  Like, Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri in 2004........

Paducah, Kentucky in 2005........

Memphis, Tennessee in 2006........

......and Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 2008.

But this year topped all of them when we headed to the Fall Festival in Jamesport, MO.  When we got there on Friday afternoon we checked into our cute little "rustic cabin" at the Arbor House Country Inn and set out, on foot, to see the town.  We were very excited to see what this Fall Festival would be all about.  We stopped at a fun little ice cream parlor and, while sipping our malts, got directions to some of the popular locales.  We thought it was curious that directions to everything sounded like "a few blocks east (or west or north or south) of the 4-way-stop", but folks meant exactly what they said!

Everything in town was pretty much closed by 6:00 that evening so we enjoyed some snacks and games in our cabin.  I can happily say that when I am with my sisters we enjoy ourselves so much and end up laughing so hard that we just about wear ourselves out.  But, we were ready on Saturday morning for some fun!

Well.............I'm not sure how to describe the festival, but here are some photos:

                         

On Saturday night we had a blast while the Krazy Kats performed on the main street in town.  This group has been together for 53 years and they really know how to play the Oldies.  I don't think the townsfolk enjoyed it nearly as much as we did, though.  Most of them did clap, and a few of them did dance, but nobody seemed to have as much fun as the Wagener girls.  We even stayed past dark!

The rest of the weekend was uneventful.  We did have a great time, as always, and we did come home with some souvenirs and photos and lots of memories.  And I have to tell you a little secret. I really love my sisters!