Heading Out

I'm getting ready to head out to a quilt retreat after work tomorrow. This is with a group of friends that I met on the Internet. We were all on Pat Sloan's yahoo groups list, and decided to get together for a retreat. We've been doing it twice a year ever since the first one. We all bonded immediately. There are a few of us who've made it to every one so far, and others who've made it to most of them. A few joined us last year, and we have a brand new person coming that we've never met before. We come from all corners of Washington - up by Seattle, over in the wheatfields of the Paloose, and here in SW Washington. Some come from up and down western Oregon, and one is from the farmlands of central Idaho. We call ourselves the PINS - Phenominal Internet Northwest Stitchers. This will be our sixth get together. Every spring we meet in Longview Washington, and spend four days in the basement of a wonderful quilt shop called Momma Made It. That is a very dangerous place to spend 4 days, let me tell you! Some of us will meet tomorrow at the Red Lobster for dinner, then the rest will arrive on Thursday. I have the car all packed with sewing stuff - no matter how much I take I'm always afraid I'm going to run out LOL! I'm taking appliqué, my string blocks, 2 1/2 inch strips for Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello, 1 1/2 inch strips for nine patches, and the quilt I've been hand quilting for several years now. I'm sure that's enough - I'm also sure I'll throw in at least two more projects before I go - just in case LOL! Spending four whole days stitching with quilt buddies - what could be better? And when we get tired of stitching we can go upstairs to shop! I'll take pictures to share when I get back. In the meantime I've interspersedd official "group portraits" from past retreats throughout this post.