Retreat Fun

I had the opportunity during Halloween week to spend a few days with some very dear quilty friends, ladies I have known a long time and have really missed since our move to Alabama six years ago.  I was used to meeting with them monthly before our move, and I have been on retreat with them only once since, so it was good to see them and catch up, laugh, gab, and oh, yeah -- sew!  We met at Spragues Kinderhook Lodge in Barry, Illinois for the best retreat ever!

Rita quilted a baby quilt she had prepped at home and then made three more baby quilt tops.

Darlene (Dar's Patchwork Garden) finished her Celtic Solstice top.  (A Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.)

Joan played with her beautiful batiks, as she usually does.

Pat found out she doesn't like making "made fabric" for her blocks.  

Ree taught a lesson on making aprons from men's dress shirts.

Lee Etta worked on three (THREE!) different scrappy quilts.

Colleen made "see through window" craft bags for a friend.

Katy worked with colors that "don't go together" and then found out when the blocks were made that they do.

Jeanne won all our batik fat quarters when we played Right-Left-Center .....

..... two nights in a row!

Since it was Halloween the Grim Ripper showed up .....

..... and led us in a few games of Halloween Bingo.

I even got into the spirit of things!

Wonderful food, comfortable accommodations, beautiful scenery, late nights talking with old friends, lots of laughing, and sewing all day.  What could be better than a quilt retreat?

Next time, I'll share some of the quilty projects I worked on at retreat!

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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!!

Retreat Report

There sure was a lot of sewing going on at the Retreat I went to this week. Some people (like me) ended up doing more ripping than sewing and went home with four quilt blocks made.

Other people (like Jan) sewed like a fiend and got an entire quilt made, quilted, and partially bound.

And then other people (like Dar) kept the smoothies flowing!  Some were really healthy with spinach, oranges, apple juice and bananas.  Others were just smooth, with chocolate and cream and other good stuff.

In all fairness, Dar did also get some sewing done, like these beautiful string blocks. 

Reba wowed us with one great baby quilt after another.  She worked on quilts and brought lots of Show and Tell.

Joan got a T-shirt quilt put together......

...Barb made several cat or dog quilt tops to be raffled off at a charity event for Heartland Humane Society of Missouri. 

...and Katy used strips she won at a guild meeting to put a cute top together. 

Ree finished a Thimbleberries quilt top. 

This shows just part of the gorgeous homespun log cabin type quilt Lee Etta worked on.

This is one of the baby quilts Rita worked on.

Jeanne worked on so many things I couldn't figure out what she was doing, but her sewing kit/organizer made for a good photo.

Just like every other retreat I've been to, it was way too short.  It was hard to say goodbye to these special ladies. 

I hope it isn't such a long time before I get to see them again.

Retreat Report - Part Three

Our retreat theme this year was A Garden Party complete with a white picket fence and our very own Mother Nature.  

Throughout the week we were encouraged to attach flowers to the fence with notes which would be used in Saturday night's entertainment.  Some of the notes were encouraging......

......and some were, well, not so much!

(At first glance you may think this is genuine praise, but a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say!)

Beautiful hats were the order of the day at the Garden Party.  Rebecca's was complete with a garden hose.

Debbie, JoAnne and Robin's were true works of art.

Angela wore her Garden Party pearls.

And leave it to Julie.  Not everyone can pull off a chicken for a hat!

If you think the hats were creative wait until you see some of the dresses!  Cat......

  








Mary.....

and Rilla came appropriately dressed for a Garden Party.  

Marcia thought it was a Gardening Party and she came dressed appropriately, too!

Mother Nature read our notes from the fence and her Helper Bee provided commentary.  

 

We do have a lot of fun at retreat.  We laugh a lot, we play a lot, we sew a little. And we enjoy being able to spend time with really good friends.