Round Robins

I just got back from tonight's guild meeting, where the round robins were unveiled. Everyone was so excited to see their own, as none of them had ever done this before. What a wonderful group of quilt tops! Each one turned out beautifully, and every single owner was thrilled with their creation. I don't think I've ever seen a round robin unveiling when there wasn't at least one or two "duds" in the group. Everyone really enjoyed doing this, and each felt that they'd been forced out of their comfort zone at least once or twice and learned a lot. My co-chair for the Northwest Medical Teams quilt did appliqué on many of the rounds she did, and she has hardly ever appliquéd before. She was especially vocal about how much she'd learned. All the members who didn't participate kept "oohing" and "ahhhing" and wishing they'd decided to participate also. They are eager to try this again, but tonight the board decided we'd do something different this next year and then do a round robin the year after. Next year we are going to do a UFO challenge that should be a lot of fun. I will certainly participate in that! I'll post more details later once the chairperson passes out the guidelines at the December meeting.

Tomorrow is our Quilt Camp. It is only about 45 minutes from here at a church camp on the Lewis River. It's a perfect weekend for retreating as it's been raining buckets all day and is expected to continue all weekend. This camp is completely catered, so all we'll have to do is sew. And eat. I'll be sure to take pictures so I can share. I think there are 22 of us going. Last year many of them stayed up most of the night sewing. It's been many years since I could do that. I'll probably cave about midnight, and will probably sleep in as late as the noise will allow. Wish I could function on 2-3 hours sleep each night for a weekend, but I never could do that even when I WAS and "young thing". I didn't get appliqué prepped so I'm taking hand quilting to do. We are crowded so when I registered I said I'd do handwork instead of bringing a machine. Sure makes packing easier! I've been hand quilting this quilt for at least 5 years now - I've not worked on it for over a year I think. It's a Fourth of July quilt for our dining room table so maybe I could finish it in time for the holiday next year.

I'm not even started on packing, and I have to work until about 1:00 tomorrow afternoon, so I'd better "sign off" and get busy. I'll be back on Sunday - hopefully with lots of great pictures.

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Gratitudes:

1. Good health for all of us
2. Orange halloween cocoa from Crate and Barrel
3. Happy round robin participants
4. A gift in the mail from a special quilty friend on the east coast
5. Creative quilt camp planners

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