And a Good Time Was Had By All

You know, I have been quilting for years but until a couple of years ago I did it by myself.  Even my first retreat was by myself.  

BUT now I have the best stitchin buddies AND I've been on my first ever REAL retreat.  It was AWESOME.

With a view like this how could it not be.

And three meals a day that I didn't have to cook!?!

We carried our purses in and placed them on which ever bed we chose and they unloaded the rest of the stuff out of the cars. And loaded it back up when it was time to come home.

I took 5 projects with me and completed 4 of them.  YAY ME!!

First up when we got there was the Quilt Police.  I purchase this in Paducah in 2022.

If anyone said "can't do", "need to do", "should do", "have to", it was thrown at them.  Funny story, one of the girls was talking about how she stitches the border fabric on and then cuts it off and, in unison, 4 of us hollered "NOOO!!".  And we forgot to toss the police.

I told her "let me rephrase, if you do that you will end up with wavy borders."

Next I completed this Stack n Whack assembly except for top and bottom borders and trimming.  This will go to Project Linus.

 

Then, the leader ender was assembled.  This is completely scraps and I pulled them, randomly, out of bags because I know it drives Susan crazy.

There are a couple of errors but that seems to be standard for me. Oh well.

And the last completion for me was the antique store find I posted about here.

I really love how this turned out.

And the others (I didn't get them all) projects.....

Betsy, our beginner quilter, was on her first retreat also.  She added borders to these.

Machine quilted place mats that she found at an estate sale half done..

She made 30 of these cute pocket quilts for her mother to give to her friends.  I showed her how to sew the crosses on with the machine.  

And she made her Hawaiian block for our guild quilt along (her first applique).

She tried lots of new things and accomplished a lot.

And Betsy also won the fun blocks that we all participated in.  Do they look like fish?

Some of the others.  Mary

Melinda..

Gwynn is up next.

She also put together a quilt of valor that I failed to get a picture of.

Susan....

Lura

Pam..

And Julie.

I know there were more.  I didn't get pictures of any of Edwina's.  I know Julie Mary, Susan, Gwynn and Melinda had others.  

And I didn't get pictures of any of M.E.s.  She is the BEST retreat planner EVER!!!!!  We had goodie bags, games, fish blocks, and prizes, of which I won 2.

I'm already planning to go on the next one in February and I'm planning to help M.E. with the next fall retreat.  And I'm pretty sure Betsy will attend again.

DH said it was money well spent.  Especially after he had to listen to how much fun we had.

Wishing you more stitchin time than I will have.

Rose