Blogs I Love

Alycia's No Soldier Forgotten Project

If it's inspiration you're looking for, look no further than Vicki Welsh's fantastic Field Trips In Fiber blog. That girl's got some serious creatvity going on!

The Amazing Melody Johnson's Fibermania Blog

If you don't read The Pioneer Woman you should. She's  hilarious

Suzanne Earley is always up to something fun

Online Lists I Belong To

click for more information

Magazine Links

click logo for more information

Show Links

click logos for more info

Cool Websites to Visit

DigitechPatterns.com

IntelligentQuilting.com

Powered By Ringsurf

Quilter Blogs & Store Search

Retreat! Retreat!

I just love going on quilting retreats. The benefits of retreating are many and varied, but my personal favorite is that when I’m on a retreat, nobody is calling me ‘Mom’ and demanding that I make them a sandwich. My other favorite benefit is that retreats are not held in campgrounds, because I absolutely adore not camping.

There are several quilting groups that I belong to, and each group holds their own getaways. My favorite group has twice-yearly retreats, held at a hotel close enough to not be a major road trip, but just far enough out of town that anyone’s husband who might be considering making a call to say that the meatloaf is burning and won’t you please come home and do something about it would think twice before picking up the phone.

We all show up on Friday, loaded down with sewing machines, pillows, pants that have elastic waistbands, and 18 or 19 half-finished projects, because a person just never knows when they’re going to get bored with their current project and need something new to mess up. And, of course, there’s the all-important food. Quilters must have food, and, since we’re going to be there for a whole 48 hours, we naturally bring enough to feed a large Amish family for two weeks. It’s pretty good food, too. We know how crucial proper nutrition is, so we try to cover every major food group, especially the cake group. The candy group is pretty well taken care of too, now that I think about it. Anyway, like the Boy Scouts, we come prepared.

Now, lest you think we’re retreating in the hinterlands, let me assure you that this hotel has all of the amenities. There’s a game room where I spend all of my quarters (the shiny ones, not the fat ones), free breakfast, and excellent cell phone service. Needless to say, we all cheerfully lie ourselves blue in the face to our families and claim that our cell phones don’t work at the hotel, so nobody can call us to tell us that their brother has just microwaved the neighbor girl’s new Bratz doll and now her face is all runny and weird looking. Anyway, that good cell service is crucial, because we need it to order the pizzas on Friday night. We need pizza so we don’t eat too much of the cake too soon and run out of it before Sunday breakfast, which would be tragic. The nice lady at the front desk knows all of us, and seems used to us plugging in way too many irons all at once and blowing out the circuit board. And, even though she never acts cross with us, I suspect that we may have blown out the lights once too often, because last time we showed up, they had a whole portable circuit board thing and some big heavy-duty extension cords set up just for us. It was a nice gesture, but I have to admit that it took some of the fun out of the whole weekend. There’s nothing like that element of danger to spice up your piecing, you know.

Now, there is one drawback to attending this retreat; we do like our tradition of cocktails on Saturday night. Not manly cocktails; ladylike ones, the kinds that are pretty colors and have darling little umbrellas in them. We drink those, start giggling, do a bunch of piecing, and then decide that it’s probably time for bed. And on Sunday morning we all act astonished that none of our seam allowances match up. It’s at this point that someone will usually announce that you don’t have to fix those blocks, you can just go ahead and sew those blocks together just the way they are, because “the quilter can quilt that out.” and I try really hard not to faint.

I'll be at a retreat in less than two weeks. Yay! I'm going to piece a quilt for my son, who will be graduating in May. It's going to be lime green (his favorite color) and black and white and I'll use the Strip Twist pattern from Bonnie Hunter's wonderful Quiltville site. (if you've never been there, go there. you'll be so glad you did!)  Here are the fabrics I'll be using. Don't they look like f-u-n?!?!

Comments

• 5. Mag in La (17 March 2009 at 5:53 p.m.)

  I have tears in my eyes from laughing...thank you - I needed that. Actually I will be going on my 1st quilter's retreat next week and can hardly wait. I know it will be fun and I am relishing being surrounded by women with the same passion I have for quilting. Can't wait to see your Strip Twist quilt hear about your retreat.

• 4. Shana in AK (16 March 2009 at 7:13 p.m.)

  Hope you had fun at the retreat! So when do we get to see a photo of the finished green and black/white quilt?

• 3. Linda S (20 February 2009 at 9:54 p.m.)

  I went on a wonderful retreat to the coast (left) February 6-9. Just 13 women in a huge house right on the beach. We sewed, cooked, ate, laughed, ate some more, walked on the beach, watched the sunsets. Ahhhhhh! Next year we're going for a week!!

• 2. LisaT (10 February 2009 at 8:44 p.m.)

  Ohhhh! This is the one you're making for me, right? Remember we talked at MQX when you promised to make it for me??? Remember??? Meeeeeeee!!!

• 1. Suzanne (10 February 2009 at 8:05 p.m.)

  Oh, that lime green and B&W is going to look so yummy! Don't have too much fun!

Post a Comment

Your Name:
Comments:
Security code: