February Goal for ALYoF

My February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to make twelve pillowcases.  Part of the retreat I attend every June is making something for a charity.  For many years we made 22" quilts, aka Love Covers, for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children's Hospital.  One year we made a quilt for every retired nun at The Mercy Center.  For several years now we have been making pillowcases for the patients at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.  

We started out a little slow in 2011.

We made quite a few more in 2012.

In 2013 we really outdid ourselves. 

This year every person who attends the retreat is being challenged to make twelve pillowcases, that's only one a month so should be very doable.  I pulled fabric this week for pillowcases so that will be my goal for February - to make my twelve pillowcases for retreat.

I think it's a nice variety of fabrics.  Something for everyone from toddler to teen.

I'm linking up with the Goal Setting Party at Fiber of All Sorts for A Lovely Year of Finishes 

2013 Retreat Report

Our Clara's Quilting Cottage Retreat was in June and this year the theme was a 1950's sock hop.  

Retreat with these ladies is something I look forward to all year long and this year was no disappointment. 

One night we played a version of "Name that Tune".  We had to listen to a snippet of a 50's, 60's or 70's song and see who could name the song and the recording artist before someone else.  I'm not any good at games like that because, well, the memory isn't at all what it used to be, but I do listen to 60's music all the time in my car so I finally identified a Herman and the Hermits' song.  Yay, me!!   The surprise of the night was Jan.  She was naming off songs and artists right and left, and she was rewarded with a pair of fuzzy dice.

She told me that the secret to her success is all the ukelele music she has been playing since she learned how to play down in The Villages this past winter!

Our challenge this year was "Neutrals with a Kick."  My two favorites were Mary's ...

 ... and Jan's.

Jan's was already pin basted and ready to quilt.  She has this crazy idea that one it supposed to completely finish one quilt before starting another one.  And she calls herself a quilter!  Sheesh!!

Some of the gals had a lot of fun dressing up .

We had a hula hoop contest, bubble gum blowing contest, drank root beer floats, and really enjoyed the "yearbooks" Gayle made for us using the photos we had sent to her from our high school years.

One of my favorite quilts was Rita's version of the popular "Eat. Play. Sleep. Repeat." Baby Quilt you may have seen on Pinterest recently.  Of course, Rita always has to put her own spin on things......

A major highlight for me was the huge pile of pillowcases we made for Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis.  We had 172 pillowcases turned in this year.  

I know how much these pillowcases mean to the young patients there.  A huge thank you to everyone who participated!!