me too!

Patti at Quilting is my Passion should be here in an hour or so and we will be off on a retreat adventure. No, I am really not quite ready, but I am packed-pretty much. I had to work late at the office and then of course a few errands before getting home. Zoe needed her walk and her supper and I needed to eat as well. When you start at 8 pm there are not many hours left in the evening!
My mission was to gather together those projects and related fabrics to take-plus all my quilt related gear. I spent considerable time in the fabric room tidying up. I have been shopping and stashing pinks for quite a while-then I wanted to pull out the special flannel I have been wanting to make myself something from...half of it was in need of washing..forget that! That much time I did not have. I had forgotten just how much flannel I still have to use up too! So I sorted and I folded and I organized. Amazing results. Almost all the fabric fit on the shelves :-)
I gathered together what I needed and threw in one more just in case project too.
So now, it's all packed and I am able to relax and enjoy my last cup of coffee before heading out the door. Lots of photos when I get back on Tuesday!

retreat photos etc

I was uploading photos this morning and managed to drop my camera with the lens extended,please-cross your fingers/toes that they can repair my clumsyness. Let's back up to Friday arriving at retreat. I was of course the first one there- so I helped do some setting up and then dived into my own sewing. I had about three sections of my jigsaw top to stitch-cut and add the two borders and got that done by supper time. I did stop and have a run into town for a latte and found the quilt shop on the way-discount for retreaters and I was a happy shopper. I plan on going back as they had fabulous fabrics-lots of brights and just a whole lot of my kind of fabrics-whereas the old favorite shop closer to home seems to have less and less fabric each time I visit. So- after supper I was pressing the Amish roman stripe using not my own iron and it spit black stuff on the top...ack!!! I washed and rinsed and hung it up to dry overnight-on to the next project. I had cut out muslin squares and brought two large ziplock bags filled with strings-my birthday wish was for each retreater to make a block if they were so inclined. I ended up with about 22 blocks-though I took a photo prior to all of them being put up-I hear a few more will be showing up at guild night. These will go to Heartstrings
once I have them all turned in-the link takes you to a photo I already uploaded of them.
The next day I pressed and sandwiched and quilted the roman stripe quilt- this is the one and only quilt my boss ever made-about 20 years ago-she had it put away up in her attic and now, it's quilted, binding to be put on sometime this week. black on black...ugh. I then pulled out 3 fat quarter packs of lovely Asian fabrics I bought many years ago at some quilt show. Always petted them, never knew what to do with them-I cut them into one and a half inch strips and created a wall hanging-had I brought the right color thread, I would have quilted it during retreat- I did stop on the way home and buy the perfect color threads for it-so that project will get finished this week too. And last but not least I pulled out a project from the only class I took last year-Billie Lauder's beyond the rail fence- my rainbow rails around the world. As you can see-six rows got stitched - the gal next to me had brought hers too-and she was able to get her top together I believe-she had done a different design. So....a ton of fun hanging out with like minded quilters-lots of great eating, talking, and laughing...many, many terrific projects completed by everyone-and a grand time for me