Retreat was awesome!

   Last weekend I had a wonderful 4 days of sewing with my friends from the Museum Quilt Guild on our annual retreat.  We stay at Camp Asbury on Silver Lake- a mere 20 minutes from home!

 I got there fairly early and got right to work on baby quilt number one, which I call "Snips and Snails".  It seemed like it took me forever to get the appliques ready to blanket stitch. 





I almost forgot to bring threads for that, so at the last minute I just grabbed the whole bin!

I love wandering down to Kathi's work station to see what she has pulled out of her stash to work on!










Mary Lee and I used all the space made available due to our table mate not being able to come until Friday.









By dinner time Friday I had the top finished!

So I got to work cutting pieces the second quilt I brought along.  I had thought it would be a nice quilt to hang over the changing table, but it's bigger than I realized.  (I really should pay more attention to the finished sizes in the patterns!)   He will have a big smiling frog mouth quilted on later.  I didn't plan it, but it was pointed out to me the cool way the pieced border has a 3-D look!

Along the way Saturday, I was helping Mary Lee with her "Old Italian" blocks.  She cut these wrong and was going to throw them out.  I asked if I could play with them- and promptly screwed them up worse.  She may use them on the back

This is how they are supposed to look..  It's going to be beautiful isn't it?

I popped by Kathi's spot to admire the free pieced blocks she made.  I have learned not to ask what she will do with them.  :-)

Julie brought the pattern for these birds and invited the rest of us to try one. Aren't they cute?

So now I have 2 baby quilt tops pieced and ready to be quilted- in only 4 days!

The staff at the retreat center provides all of our meals on real plates, which we return to the kitchen to be washed and used again.  They provide us with beverages all day, with real coffee cups and glasses!  The only garbage produced from meals was the paper napkins!  It reminded me of when I was in elementary school- where we did this every day.  Imagine the mountains of garbage that would not exist if this was still done in every institution.  Imagine....

I am grateful for:
Great times with very good friends!
My stomach is feeling much better. (knock wood)
The end of February!
Bad weather has given me some stories to share- and I made it where I was going!
Being completely silly and laughing until it hurts.