Retreat Report, Part 1

I headed out Thursday morning to go to a retreat in Ohio preceeded by a day and a half of meeting blogging/yahoo group friends and shop hopping. It was a fantastic time! There are so many things to share that I almost don't know where to start (although I recognize that probably 80% of the people who are reading this were there!).

On Thursday, we shop hopped at 3 stores in the Cincinnati area and one just a bit north in Waynesville. I found a couple cute patterns, a smattering of FQs and fabric for a purse and a couple quilt backs. I am afraid I will have to point you to someone else's blog when they post pictures as I don't have any of the shops or our great lunch (w/peanut butter pie) in Waynesville.

We stayed up way too late at Jill's and spent the time getting to know each other, and it was great fun. On Friday morning, we got up and packed the cars to head to retreat. Jill was one of the retreat coordinators and she was the recipient of all the prizes for door prizes and raffles, so she had a lot in her condo that needed to go with us. We just about filled my van, Jen's truck, and Jill's car. Here are two of the three...

Side view of the van

Back end of the van

Jen's truck full to the brim

We arrived at the retreat center in Palestine, OH mid-afternoon, unloaded and got our machines set up. From there, it was 48 hours of sewing, laughing, eating, and a little sleeping. I got so much done with dedicated sewing time!


On Friday night, I finished this top, made from a jelly roll, a layer cake, and three yards of fabric. The binding is also ready to go.

Saturday morning was spent making blocks and cutting strips for Nick's QOV. He is due home in a week, and the quilt won't be anywhere near ready then, but at least it is a start. Some of my bee mates will also be making blocks for this quilt.

Saturday afternoon through Sunday were pretty much dedicated to work on my king size batik quilt, Five Easy Pieces. Although I don't have a picture of current state, but I laid out all 61 blocks, completed 24, and partially completed the remainder. Another hour of piecing and pressing should be the end of the blocks.


In the midst of this, I made a Lazy Girl Runaround bag...(with many thanks to Moneik for the instruction and Jen for the zipper).

And a block rollup...

We also took time out on Sat night to play an absolutely ridiculous game of fabric bingo, then took our group down to the lounge and played three rounds of a fat quarter game called left, right, center. Becca won two out of the three games and wound up with about 60 fat quarters. Here she is basking in her winnings.

In the midst of all this, several of the group members shared gifts, and I won some amazing door prizes...I'll follow up with all those details in Part 2.