Survived our retreat! Finished the majority of two queen/king sized tops -- a Garden Twist and a Snowball-9 Patch. They need borders which I will add later this week (I HOPE!!). I also have 9 of 12 little kitty blocks nearly finished (they are fused in 30's fabrics on white-on-white and I'm doing hand blanket stitch.) I'll need to assemble that top -- but it will be quick and easy! Then I'll ship them off to Minnesota to my long-arm quilter!
I spent 6 hours redoing 66 snowball blocks. Somehow when I was cutting them -- I cut them at 2 1/2" square instead of 2 1/4". I had them all sewed on, flipped and the backs cut away -- when I realized that 2 1/2" didn't work and there was no way to repair the blocks. Fortunately, I had enough fabric to redo them all... but by 6:00 Friday night... I was where I
**thought** I was when I went to bed Thursday night! (Friday wasn't all sewing... a little shopping was interspersed!)Lolly's now has a basement -- where all the fabric on bolts is only $5 a yard. Some of it is "older" lines... but all good quality fabric. One of my guild-mates bought over 40 yards down there! Lolly's moved the "fat quarter boat" across the hall -- and if you buy 12 or more -- the Fat Quarters are only $1 each! I did buy about a dozen of those!
I did do a little (well.... more than little) damage to my credit card! For those that know Shipshe... I hit Lolly's and Yoder's hard! We left you a little! I bought 3 kits for wall hangings (smaller than 40 x 60"), 2 jelly rolls (one in brights -- and I can't remember the other right now... DUH), some fabric from the Sock Monkey line, and 24 1/2 yard cuts of a rainbow of batiks (Yoder's had them cut for kits for pattern -- but they hadn't received the pattern yet -- didn't matter... I fell in love with the stack of batiks!)
We did dinner one night at the Blue gate... did Pizza in one night (from East of Chicago Pizza) and on Saturday night we went to a local Mennonite church where they were hosting a haystack dinner. And, of course, a pretzel (or two) from Jo-Jo's. (if you love handmade, warm pretzels... these are ABSOLUTELY to die for!)
At the retreat, I won Eleanor Burns book Egg Money Quilts. And I brought home 4 jars of the Oh So Delicious peanut butter spread! On my way home I stopped at the grocery and bought a package of the frozen bread (loaf) dough -- so tonight we're eating fresh baked bread with Amish peanut butter spread.
All in all.... a good weekend. I will need a few days to catch up on sleep (I'm one of the ones who closes the room!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It would be so much fun if we could some how get at least 20-30 people from RCTQ to all converge here for a long weekend (like Thursday - Sunday). If you've never spent time in a MAJOR Amish community, you will fall in love with the horses and buggies, the cute little ones in their traditional dresses and bonnets. The quilts shops are WONDERFUL... antique shops abound. Restaurants are unbelievable. It is just a totally awesome experience. And you may even get a little quilt making done!
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Okay -- I still haven't unpacked a thing. My DS#3 carried everything upstairs and set it outside my sewing room. Tomorrow I need to do laundry and catch up on household chores. On Tuesday, I'm taking my DM to Frankenmuth to Bronners