What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

You may have noticed that I was missing in action last weekend...no blog post!  Christine and I were away for the weekend at Camp Kintail.  The camp hosts two crafter's retreats every year and we try to attend both.  We both made great progress on the projects we brought with us and the meals and accommodations were fabulous!  The camp was decorated for Christmas, inside and out. The other retreaters were sewing, knitting, crocheting, doing paper crafts, making cards, making blankets, etc.  It was fun to see what everyone was up to and to visit with friends, old ...

 Hello Everyone,

Many of you have been sending me emails wondering where I've been.  Well....I've been sick.  So sick I missed the last day of my retreat and my sister, Gail had to step in and finish the last day for me.  I have a backlog of pictures to show you from the retreat.  Again, this group of women were an absolute delight!  We were all so lucky to be able to spend so much quality, quilting time together.

Let's start off with a mini quilt show today.  First up are mother/daughter quilts made by ...

 I have been working on some secret Christmas sewing all week.  It is a hand stitching project and I just love how it is turning out!  Unfortunately, I can't show any pictures until after December 25th. 

This weekend, Christine and I are going on a retreat with the Oxford Quilter's Guild.  I spent a couple of hours Wednesday evening gathering projects to take with me.  I like to bring a variety of things with me so I have a choice. Of course, I have a couple of projects to work on by hand, including this cute sheep ornament ...

I quilted these two back in July.  One for Christmas. 

This belongs to a friend of mine, for winter.

 Hello Everyone,

Girls just want to have fun at the Sew'n Wild Oaks retreat kick-off dinner at my cabin.

Some started in sewing right away before heading off to dinner.

 Good heavens.......I've not been posting so quite some time. Here's a bit of what I've been doing in not certain order.

I made a couple of pear & raspberry galettes to thank the ladies who gifted me with the fruit.

Coco trying to coerce a treat (?) out of one of the trainers at doggy daycare.

What I did to her AFTER daycare.

The last day of any retreat is bittersweet. While we are excited to go home, it's time to leave, and no one wants to go home. This retreat house is several hours away, so I had plans to leave at 1 PM, and it was exactly 1 PM when I drove out of the driveway. 

However, I managed to get a lot accomplished before I left. All in all, this was probably one of the most productive retreats EVER! I've no idea how that happened. 

This was my last day to take a walk to the lake, so ...

 Well this is the last retreat of 2022. I will say that there were a few of them this year, and I've enjoyed every one of them. Yes -- I am spoiled and I truly appreciate all my friends who have made the retreats possible. I would NOT be renting a house just for me! 

There are retreats booked for next year and I believe all of the spots are full! That's how much we love our retreats! We are at Seams Appropriate near Huntsville in case you are wondering! 

In the past, we have always gone to the ...

 Hello Everyone,

Here is just part of the show and tell from the retreat last night which was inspiring and amazing at the same time.

This is my 'Spoken For' pattern.

This quilt is my 'Party in the Garden' pattern.

Jeannie painted the panels in her quilt.

The mini quilt show was brought to you by these amazingly talented, funny, compassionate, strong, and beautiful women.

This is a picture of the 'Dutch Mafia', 

The girls modeled their little Dutch slippers.

Here are the ...

 

Some of us ate our breakfast out on the deck.

It was a glorious day!

We had appetizers and wine on the deck before dinner ...

 Hello Everyone,

My fabulous set-up crew and I had an excellent start to my Sew'n Wild Oaks retreat yesterday while we lunched on the deck at Snowflake Lodge in Arnold, Ca.

Lots of great tips on the rash -- thanks to everyone for that, and YES -- I agree about the blow dryer, although I didn't resort to that. But the cool air blowing on my arm in spin class was very soothing. I'm happy to report that while it's still itchy and I'm keeping my hands off of it, it's calmed down. That Tea Tree Oil did the trick! Now to prevent anything from touching it, which reminds me it's there, and I want to scratch it! 

This weather is crazy! One day we're in ...

 OK -- a much better sleep last night. I HATE those sleepless nights - like what a waste of time!

I spent most of yesterday attempting to unpack the bags I took to the retreat. I wanted to ensure that I actioned what needed to be done and not just put it back, where it would be useless for the next retreat or to finish it. Slow and steady -- that's my motto. 

Well, I never found a picture of the car when Dede and I were packed, but I found one I took after I packed my HALF of the vehicle ...

 HA -- I love the comments - I LOVE them all referring to the Jen Kingwell quilts. Yes, indeed - I LOVE them all, and very hard to pick the one I like the least. They are all so worthy in their own right, and I'm just so darn proud of everyone who finished, and there will be more finished quilts. Those will get posted and added to the appropriate slot to keep them all in the same place. You'll know when that happens. 

It's that bittersweet day at any retreat, as we're going home today. But as usual ...

This is why we asked Will for more tables!

 Is anybody surprised that a week after getting home, not only am I just feeling normal again but my
studio is not unpacked?  Gosh!!  There it all sits in the middle of the room just waiting to get back to its proper place.  It really was a great class....exhausting...but great.  After spending 2 years isolating it was so odd to be around people for most of the day!

Back in the early 90s, Marc Adams had the vision to start a woodworking school in the middle of a cornfield ...

 Guess what?? Yep -- we're back at a quilting retreat. YES --- I know that I'm fortunate to be able to go as often as I do. When we first started going to quilt retreats, we used to rent the same house for every retreat, and it was the same group of people, and things were easy! 

When that first house closed down, we moved to another one that was a bit closer, and that was fun. Then that one closed down, but we found another one even closer. This time, we're at a different one -- we first came ...