A great time was had by all!

I got back from my quilting retreat about 12:30 yesterday afternoon. It took me the rest of the day to unpack, do laundry, put everything away, etc. It would be faster if I didn't always take half my sewing room LOL!

Our weather was perfect, our little retreat house was perfect, the fellowship was perfect, the food was perfect, the shopping was perfect, and we got a lot of stitching done. What more could one ask for? I forgot to take any pictures of the house so check it out on this link: http://www.coosbayhouse.com. Be sure to enlarge the picture of the view from the dining area - incredible! The rate for renting this house is VERY reasonable, especially when you consider what the "absent hostess" does for guests. A basket of goodies, several bottles of chilled sparkling cider, pretty wine glasses and a nice note greeted us upon arrival. Everything one could want for comfort was supplied - even several different shower gels to choose from. The well equipped kitchen had a full spice and herb cupboard, condiments of every kind in the refrigerator and microwave popcorn and other goodies in the cupboard. Lovely fluffy towels in the bathrooms, comfy beds and a sewing room with great lighting. The only drawback is that the sewing area isn't really large enough for the 10 quilters the house will sleep - but we had only 6 so we did just fine. Unfortunately two had to drop out at the last minute, and four others of our regulars had schedule conflicts. If all 13 members of our online group had been able to come we would have been in trouble.

Wednesday night I finished my appliqué block for the mystery quilt so I'm all caught up on my BOM's. Thursday I worked on my pre-1830's medallion and by the end of the day it was completed and ready for show and tell at class on Thursday. I plan to get each month's round finished on time from now until the last class next January. I started the handstitching on the Quilt Pink binding that evening and it was all done on Saturday by the time we got back from our shopping excursion - I'd taken it to stitch on in the car.

I didn't work on my String blocks - instead I made postage stamp blocks from my leader ender squares. I'd sewed so many squares together while piecing the flying geese border on my medallion that I wanted to keep working on it. I originally planned on making them 10x10 squares, which would have been a 15" block, but I miscounted while making the very first one. I was making them from four-patches and it would have been really complicated to take a row off - so I made them 12x12 instead. That's a finished 18" block - which means it will take fewer blocks to make a quilt top. There is a bit of everything in these blocks - just like the Broken Dishes quilt. There is a story about why I have so many 2" squares to use up - I can tell the story later if anyone is interested.

Pictures from the top down - my medallion, my postage stamp leader-ender project, Jo's mini that she started in a class with Sally Collins and finished at retreat, and Ardis' mini in a slightly larger scales than Jo's that she brought for show and tell.

I was really good while shopping, even though I stopped at 3 quilt shops on the way there and two more on Saturday. Other than fabric I bought for Sophie Marie's baby quilt, plus two sets of penny squares for a redwork baby quilt for each grandchild, I bought a pattern, an inexpensive book and a little bottle of glue. This was a milestone event for me everyone - I've never spent so little when shopping on a retreat. I'm so proud of myself! This brings retirement just that much closer!

I'm currently home right now because we almost had an electrical fire while I was gone. The PUD electrician is here replacing the thermostats and figuring out what happened. Apparently on Thursday when my husband came home the living room was way too hot, which means the thermostat is bad. When he removed it he found all the wires inside burned and scorched. God was certainly watching out for us! Thank goodness the house didn't burn!

I have lots and lots of blog reading to do - over 100 posts - so it will take me awhile to catch up with what everyone is doing. I have dozens of emails also. I'm eager to see what everyone has been up to!

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Gratitudes:

1. A perfect retreat
2. I lost weight during the retreat!
3. A house fire that didn't happen
4. Coming home to my hubby and dog
5. Quilty friends
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