One more weekend away from home. I guess it’s the season. This time around it was a quilt retreat put on by the local shop, right here in my town. Well, almost - just down the road in Long Beach. I stayed at a friend’s house over on the bay, along with four other women. It was absolutely perfect.
this was the view I woke up to. Complete with the sun rising over the mountains and streaming across the bay to my window. My friend’s house was a beautiful setting for a get together. We drove into town to sew during the day, went to eat, back to the hotel to sew some more. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
This retreat had only a couple dozen women, which made it a different experience than the ones I’ve been to before, with about 60 women all in a gym sewing. Since it was at a hotel in Long Beach, we had the conference room, along with a view of the beach. There were silly games – with prizes, no less. An obscene amount of snack food, and only moments of quiet throughout the weekend.
Because there’s been a lot going on around here I wasn’t sure as to what my weekend project would be much before I left. I put together a big bag of random cotton prints from my stash, along with my pretty box of duppioni silks. Friday was spent cutting strips of muslin, fabric, and fusing interfacing onto the silks to stabilize them. By the end of day one, I got one quarter of one block finished. Yikes. Never fear, on Saturday, I got another eleven, giving me three complete blocks. On Sunday I finished another couple. The walls were pretty full of other people’s projects, so I got a picture of just four of my blocks ( as yet still un-sewn together). 
The friends I was with got a heck of a lot done. Here’s Michelle with a partially completed bag from one of her patterns (caught in a brief moment of not singing tv theme songs) 
Along with that she finished binding an adorable baby quilt, and made a top for another one. Her mom got all the blocks done for a quilt from the same pattern – Victory Garden- and I fell in love with the chartreuse and lilac color combo: 
I really want to make that pattern now. Our host for the weekend, Peggy, nearly finished a quilt top that had a ton of sewing in it 
in one of my all time favorite fabrics “Aviary II” in a whole new colorway of greys and yellows. 
Love. The fifth person in our group, Gail, made two quilt tops (my pic was too blurry) nearly completing her goal of making quilts for each of her nine brothers this year.
There were silly games: fabric bingo; something called Left-Right-Center; and door prizes. Our little group of five also traded gifts. Every time I turned around, I had more fabric. (And no, I’m not in any way implying that that’s a bad thing.) Ans notions. And candy. I left home with one ton of stuff, and came home with two. 
In addition, I gained five pounds.
I’ve been trying all week to again get caught up on the work here – lots of alterations, along with more items for the coffee shop. Tomorrow I go to Seattle to wish my mom a happy birthday.
I want to learn how to quilt…perhaps something small to start for my boy…I have been wondering about all the notions stuff at joannes and how you use it.