I went retreatin'!

One of the Yahoo Groups I belong to, and help run, is Backporch Friends. It's a group of wonderful ladies from all over the world that play in swaps and chat about anything and everything. The former list owner, Angela, organized a retreat several years ago. I think the first one was 2003 and I've gone to every one of them since. Even though it's a long way from CA to IN, I always have a great time. The pillow with a raggedy was made by Deb Smith for a pincushion exchange that was held at the retreat.

One of the other activities at the retreat was a mini quilt exchange. Look at all those cute baby quilts!!! That's me on the far right. I got that adorable pinwheel mini from Michelle. It is just adorable and I can't wait to hang it up. Michelle was one of the new girls to go this year and she was a sweetie. It's so nice when you can put a name with a face when you've been chatting a while. This is the big quilty room we were sewing in. This picture was taken at 2:45 a.m. when all the little quilters had gone to bed! It's a three hour difference for us CA girls and we had to force ourselves to go to bed at night. (We also had to force ourselves to get up in the morning or NO BREAKFAST!!!) lol
This building housed us all. They have dorm style rooms for youth camps but for us old fogies, we got hotel-type rooms. Two double beds, sitting area with a love seat and chair, mini fridge, etc. It's not a 4 star hotel but very nice accomodations. And since all you do is sleep and shower in that room, they were a-ok. :o)
This cute table cloth project was a bit of a nightmare to make. It is what I worked most of the stinkin' weekend. I had real issues with this project. (It was definitely "operator error"in the reading of the pattern!) Don't you hate when that happens? Well, maybe it only happens to me! I was auditioning border fabrics in this photo. I got some cherry fabric for it but I didn't like the way it looked. These two pieces were in my project bag. I used the fabric at the bottom of the photo. I took a census from some of the girls standing around (like Carolyn) and we thought the larger scale looked better. I got all four borders on but ran out of time and didn't get to sew the mitered corners.

So now, I'm trying to play catch up at work for four days and then off I go again with my hubby, SIL & BIL for a cruise to Alaska. Man, I'm already tired and vacation season hasn't even hit yet! lol

Birthday and Packing

Happy Birthday Kelley. Our first born child turned 29 today. How can she be 29?? Seems like only yesterday she was riding her big wheel or swimming in the doughboy until her hands were all shriveled up. She also loved to read and draw and though the big wheel isn't around anymore, colored pencils and books still are. She is an avid reader and is our artistic child. We got her a very expensive Gocco printing machine thingy for her birthday so she can print her own cards and t-shirts? Maybe now I'll get some of her artwork. :o) It's true what they say about their toys getting more expensive when they grow up but I thought that only pertained to guys! Guess not. And here's some fabric I had been collecting to make this Table Cloth Quilt. I bought the hanky and some of the fabrics at Road last year. I pulled the rest from my stash. I'm trying to get some kits together for my upcoming retreat in Indiana. I made a mess in my room! Hopefully, I can do some sorting and cutting so I don't have to pack up everything. Fabric weighs a lot and we're flying so I have to make sure I leave room in the suitcase for clothes! lol Wish me luck! Remember when paper clothes were popular in the 60's? Oh good grief, are you too young to remember? lol Yeah, me too but I remember hearing about them. hehe Here, read this. I might have to bring them back in style. They're lighter. I can throw them away when I'm done wearing them. And they don't take up much room which is important because you "know" there will shopping happening in Indiana!! LOL