Quilt Retreat, November 13-15

November was a busy month for me and it was so easy to get behind in my blogging! The weekend of the 13 was the annual quilting retreat held by the local guild which I joined this past summer. Although I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, I did sign up to attend. However, I didn't sign up for any classes. I had a Friday afternoon conflict (attended a 'pinning ceremony' at DS's Pharmacy school) so couldn't take any classes that first day, so I figured I would just enjoy the free-sew time with others rather than take classes. Well, this is the room for 'free-sew'...as you can see, it is rather small! I loved being around all the other quilters and enjoyed the comraderie of it all, but I am used to ALOT more space when I sew!


This is the classroom...you can see it is open and airie...next time I will sign up for classes!









Prior to retreat, the guild chooses and distributes a piece of fabric to be used to make a 'challenge' block which is presneted at retreat. These are displayed on a wall and attendees vote for their favorite. Obviously, not everyone participates in this! Here are the blocks...they were divided into 2 lots and won by 2 of the participants. Mine is the one on the far-right (middle) with the flying geese around a nine-patch. It wasn't a winner, but it wasn't MY first choice, either, after seeing all the others!

Meals were served in a lovely dining room full of round tables.

This was breakfast on Sunday morning.

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There was a window in the back where the food was served...drinks were self-serve.
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Quilts donated by the guild hang on the walls throught the retreat center.

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Below, you can see the doorway into the dining room and the stairs beyond.

Some cool stuff was made in the various classes! I don't have pictures of everything, of course, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show and tell!

This was the Happy Villages class, taught by Jeanie Velarde (back row, 2nd from rt).

This was the Dahlia class, taught by Marge Nickels, far right.

This was from the Strip Tease class...not sure who was the teacher. There were many other classes, too.

Here are the challenge blocks in the hands of their maker.




All in all it was a fun weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed the speaker, Janet Jones Worley, who made me laugh until I cried! She brought lots of fabulous quilts to show us and also taught two classes. I don't have pictures of her, though...I sat on the front row and hesitated to hit her in the face with a flash!

This is the sum total of my weekend sewing! I did one tiny quilt top. It is not even 'layered' with the batting and backing yet...but I was happy to have done this much. Others pieced entire quilts...some even quilted them! I was working on a tiny (toy) machine, though, not my good one (which I don't travel with) so my sewing speed was limited. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.