Thursday, December 10, 2009

Treat & Retreat


This weekend was my second quilt retreat.  My first was about thirteen or so years ago.  When I started quilting, I was in a bee called the Night Owls in Bryan/College Station.  One of the ladies hosted a retreat at her lake house, and it was wonderful.  No phone, serene atmosphere, great friends, and time to sew.  Divine.

My retreat this weekend was nice also.  It was way out in the country near Salado (north of Austin) at Summer's Mill.  There were fifteen or sixteen women.  Rooms had two queen beds and a bathroom for two people.  Meals were down in the main house, but we quilted in the cabin where our bedrooms were.  There were tables and irons already set up, so all we had to do was arrive and start sewing.  We didn't even have to bring food or anything.  I'm already antsy about my next retreat.  Now I have to find one.


My friend Midge was driving through Salado and happened to stop in at the quilt shop where she saw there was a retreat in December.  She called me and told me that she had signed us up.  That's a friend, y'all!  Had it not been for her, I'd be doing the same thing at home-- only without someone to fix my meals, with laundry and dust bunnies glaring at me, with a darling child begging me to play pirates or knights every twenty minutes, and with a list of errands waiting to be checked off.  Yeah, not the same at all. Also, when I look out my window, I see the neighbor's house, not rolling hills and pastures.  I need to do this quarterly.

One of the quilt tops I finished was "perfect ten." I bought this pattern to help me find something to do with my antique hankies that I've been carrying around for years; however, I had a stack of pretties that I wanted to use that very moment.  And I did.  And I love the quilt.  When I selected the fabrics, I was thinking about Kaffe Fassett (but unfortunately, I was in the dollar bin at a shop in Newton, KS ).  I love that his fabrics do NOT go together.  Oh, but they do.  So, I was trying to create my own stack of fabrics that weren't made to go together but still looked right.  I think I did.  Well, what do you think?  The last gazillion quilts I've made have all been so matchy matchy that I just had to make sure I was still capable of selecting fabrics by myself.


I wish I had taken pics at the retreat, but guys, I was sewing like the wind!  On another note, my long arm was shipped yesterday!  I will have to tell you all about my lighting solutions (hopefully my idea will work) and table I found to put in the studio.  It's fab.  It's Ikea:-)

*Added note: yes, that's my DH in the first photo.  He visits the sewing room when he starts to miss me.  Also, he'd die if he knew I posted this, but I'm sure he isn't reading the blog, so what he doesn't know won't hurt him (or affect my Christmas gift).

No comments:

Post a Comment