Another Sweet Retreat!

What a weekend! I woke up Monday morning with a muscle ache from laughing so hard! If I had one wish for all my readers (and for all quilters everywhere), it would be to have a group of women who “click” as well as the seven of us.

On Thursday afternoon, I dropped my mountainous pile of “projects” at the retreat house and headed to Cyndi’s (Busy Thimble) to meet up with Sue Watters and her friend on their visit from England. I met Sue at Cyndi’s a little over a year ago and it was great to see her again. Cyndi and I followed her blog (I Sew Quilts) for many years. We had such a wonderful visit, we all forgot to take photos!

Fortunately, Busy Thimble is only 5 minutes from the retreat house. I came back to find everyone ready for a swim. Although it did cut into our quilting time, it was very refreshing! For the good of all viewers, no photos are available of this event – wink!

Needless to say, we all brought enough to keep us busy for a month, but I will show you a bit of our actual progress. Fotini was only able to stay on Thursday night as she had to fly out to Colorado for Yia Yia (Greek for grandmother) duties. But, she was able to finish the binding on this adorable baby quilt.

Karen M. quilted this adorable little quilt for our annual auction. This year’s recipient will be Maine Cancer Foundation.

She also finished piecing this gem. Doesn’t this block showcase those fabulous fabrics beautifully?

Karen B. was working on these beauties for her grandson. There are some wonderful sea creatures on some of these blue fabrics. I love how these seemingly simple blocks make such an interesting overall pattern.

Kathy was whipping up a number of different blocks. I love these!!

And for some reason she ended up with a Y-seam error. Seems to me that happened in a past retreat. It couldn’t have been the wine, it must have been the stimulating conversation!

And stay tuned for the quilt she puts together with these wild fabrics - wow!

Charlotte is usually the speed demon and she did not disappoint this year. She made 3 tops and a skirt (we allow clothing manufacturing for those who are obvious overachievers). Somehow I missed one of the tops and the skirt but here are the other two.

And, I think she had some of the same wine that Kathy was drinking as she sewed this one into a tube!

Christina was diligently working on a quilt for her bed, but I cannot show you here as she does not have permission from the designer of the blocks. I can show you just one of the special things she made for all of us. My lovely placemat that I will be using in my sewing room!

And she took time to put out this spread for breakfast one morning. Traditional German fare of bread, cheese, lingonberry jam and delicious homemade muesli. YUM!

I worked on bindings with these little 1 ½” squares from Cyndi as my feeder project.

I finished bindings on 110 of these 3 ½” potholder 9-patch blocks. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

So as not to be outdone by Charlotte, I finished two quilt tops as well. Of course, mine are only 7” x 9”, but who’s counting?

There was lots of interest in my leftover strips of binding fabric. Take them away!

We all took turns with meals so that even for those of us who hate to cook, it seemed effortless, not to mention delicious!!! Here's Kathy summoning us to breakfast one morning.

 And we all brought fuel for the afternoon slump! 

A great time was had by all!