RETREAT!!

This weekend, I was finally able to cash in my birthday present (received last spring) by going to my first-ever quilt retreat!  I signed up several months ago and had been mentally preparing for it.  A week before, I had a Pirate retreat at my house where friends came over to work on their respective projects.  In attendance were Sharon, Linda, Michele, Jean, KayLee, and Lauri.  Retreat is a loosely used description; I'm not sure if we're actually retreating if we still have children underfoot.  Miss O arrived with Sharon, and Mr. L. arrived with Lauri.  Of course, the kids ran upstairs with my kids and we didn't see hide nor hair of them...except at mealtimes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures...again!  We all worked on our various projects.  I was happy to have been left with three quilts to work on from Lauri, Sharon, Michele and on Monday, got a quilt from Donna.  I've got a couple more quilts in line that I have to finish so get caught up!

I spent most of the Pirates weekend and then the following week prior to the retreat chopping up scraps and fabric remnants into squares for a scrappy 1930s project called 'Merry Go Round' from the February issue of the American Patchwork & Quilting magazine (the one on the cover).

Friday after hubby got home, I loaded up the car and headed out.  What I thought was going to be 30 minutes up the hill turned into an hour, but I finally arrived at retreat center.  I quickly settled into the room, grabbing the bed behind the door.  By "settling in", I mean I just tossed all my stuff on the bed and left for the main hall.  I hoped my roommate, Mary (a woman I never met before), didn't mind.  [This photo was taken the next day, after both beds had been slept in.]

Arriving at the main hall, there were 36 tables set out in groups of six.  Not knowing very many people, I figured I'd just choose one at random, in the middle of the room [my seat is just beyond the garbage can in the middle, there].  I unloaded the sewing machine & all my supplies on the table, plugged in, and introduced myself to the two ladies nearest me.  I ended up sitting across from an author, Terry Martin (who is hilarious!) who asked if I was immune to raucous laughter and borderline humor.  I told her that I was the daughter of a Navy man and she'd have to try really hard to offend me.  She warmly welcomed me to the group and I set up my gear.  I started sewing all those half-square triangles together...

Aaaaaaaaaaalll those half-square triangles.

So hours and hours and hours later, I finished sewing 60 pairs of 5" squares and 60 pairs of 3" squares...then it was time to square them up.  I cut them 1/8" larger because no matter how hard I try, they end up lopsided and, far too often, too small.  SO...I squared up all those half-square triangles.

Aaaaaaaaaaaalll those half-square triangles.

By then, it was Saturday evening.  I spent all Friday night and all day Saturday making these things.  120 half-square triangles.  That's a lotta triangles.

In between sewing and squaring, there was fantastic food:  salmon & wild rice for Friday's dinner; scrambled eggs, waffles & sausages (and probably the worst-tasting vegan meat substitute patties ever...a cross between grass and cardboard) for Saturday's breakfast; homemade bread sandwiches for lunch; spaghetti with three kinds of sauce and fresh rolls on Saturday evening; fresh baked cookies; ice cream with all the fixings, and many other lovely things!

There was a block raffle underway--each person makes one block called Road to the White House in red, white and blue fabrics (appropriate for an election year).  When you finish your block, you put your name in a baggie and the name pulled out of the sack wins the pot!  The drawing was scheduled for Monday, and I wasn't able to stay that long, so I'm not sure who won.  My block is the brighter colors, on the right.

Saturday at dinner, we arrived to find a new book at each place setting from Martingale (donated from an employee at the company who was attending) and some other little gifties.  I got one called "Another Bite of Schnibbles" along with a pen, a pencil and pocket notebook.  Then after dinner, there was a raffle of all retreat attendees--everyone got a number and they were pulled out of a baggie and more than 40 gifts were given out...I only got one, a packet of fat quarters (from at employee at Clothworks Textiles), but most of the ladies got two prizes.  Ah well.  My number was being elusive.

After dinner, I was able to start sewing all the large half-square triangles into pinwheels!  Each one measures about 8", and there were 36 of them in total.  Or at least there was when I sewed another 12 into half-square triangles...I had used the directions from the magazine rather than my modified numbers.  Just about everything I do ends up King size, and the directions in the magazine were for a queen.  Luckily I still had lots of 5" squares left over to make up the difference, and I still had lots more after that.

The pack of fat quarters that I won was from Clothworks' highly-popular Paisley Denim series--it was released in September and sold out in two months.  I hope they do a re-print, since I *love* it!  The paisleys have some periwinkle in it, and the colors just make me so darn happy!  I'd like to make a quilt for my bed with it someday.  I chopped up the fabric into some 4" squares and made a laptop satchel.  OK, I have a bunch of work left to do on it, but I have the liner cut out which needs to be quilted and the pockets need to be added inside it for cables, mouse, papers, pens, or any other bits that I need.

I got to bed by 1 a.m., but I didn't sleep as well.  The bed was very firm and, as you can imagine, I was uneasy sleeping with an almost complete stranger in the room.  Turns out my roommate was sewing in a different room than I was (along with three or four other ladies, even though there was plenty of room in the main hall), so we never really got to know each other except in passing in the morning and evening.

On Sunday morning, we woke to SNOW!  Most people across the Midwest would say, "Yeah?  It's February.  What did you expect?  Yogurt?"  But no, it's unusual that we wake up to snow out here...then I realized that we might be a bit further up the mountains than we usually are at the coast.  Looking up the elevations, it says that where we were had an elevation of 420 ft.  My home town is about 350.  Doesn't make sense, does it?  Maybe it's just because it's further inland.  No idea.

I toddled off to breakfast a little after 8:00 only to realize that I had missed the breakfast service--which must have been at 7:00 or 7:30.  I never did see a time posted anywhere that told us when meals were served--I just followed the crowd at chow time.  Of course, I wasn't following anyone at 7 a.m...just dreaming about Lady Gaga...can't explain that one.  I got a cuppa tea and ate a breakfast cookie I brought with me.  Thankfully, they had fresh coffee on all the time, and a hot water spigot so you could get hot drinks round the clock, which I totally took advantage of!  I brought a box of my favorite tea and refilled my mug several times over the weekend.

By noon Sunday, I knew that I was going to have to wrap it up and head home eventually, but I wanted to get all the blocks sewn with the outer strips and small half-square triangles before I left.  As it turned out, it was a good goal--by 4:00, I had finished all 36 blocks!  I had wanted to add the sashing strips and cornerstones over the weekend, but I forgot to bring the extra white fabric with me, and I didn't have enough time anyway.

I arrived home to real life...and by that, I mean a dirty dishes, heaps of laundry, and no dinner plans.  I picked up steaks on the way home and they were magnificent...and it was wonderful to be home.