That title sounds a little like a double entendre, or double negative- or something. Anyway I HAD to share the best long weekend I just experienced. I only hope I can capture the greatness of it with words!!!
Quilting of Flutterby...whooot
First I finally celebrated the return of my machine from the fix-it place. YES.
Second, I had so much fun that leaving was almost painful. Okay I will get to the highlights in a minute. Not to mention the highlights that are now in my hair. See at Retreat you can get a haircut, massage, mani-pedi, or a facial. And if you are really lucky the sweet hairdresser, who cuts 8 inches of your hair off, will offer to do highlights the next day so- you can sport foil wrappers in your hair while you sew. (which incidentally prevents alien signals from infiltrating the quilting plans in your head)
I have a new do complete with highlights. (apparently I now look younger...bonus)
Edited to add: the pic below is my sister Cindy (so sorry to confuse) anyone!),
what she is doing I will explain tomorrow!
(Disclaimer:I have several group pics but out of respect for those who are squimish about on-line photos I will leave those out. )
Okay, Back to the beginning...I have never been to retreat before. My sister (above) has been working at retreats for 11 years. . In January the fabulous Susan Brown, creator of the SIMPLI-EZ Bias Ruler and The Binding Tool, invited me to go. My sister did as well and as it turned out my other sister joined us. So awesome.
Even better the Retreat had its own shop right there open all day and night! Jan of Firefly brought half the store. My pizzeria sister and Jan worked from sun-up to sun-down. Not to mention entertaining and demo's.
On to the highlights (not the ones in my hair):
The wonderful talent you get to meet.....
Madeleine above- from here and Ellen can be found here (pic below) were so much fun. They both are embarking on a joint venture over at The Printed Bolt. These girls oooze talent and were a blast to sew with. Both have a keen eye for color and I found myself re-evaluating my stubborn long held beliefs about combining color. They made fabrics come together in this crisp fresh way. Both girls are graduate (Ellen almost) students in textiles.
(sorrry Ellen I loved your shoes and my only other photo of you is with your quilt and I didn't want to post it w/o your permission:)
The girls sported the table directly behind me.
I was so lucky to sit by a women named Linda from Nebraska- we hit it off imediatly. We sat three or four at a table. Linda's sister Carol and her friend Heidi also shared our long table and made me laugh so much that my muscles still hurt. Plus my sister Tami sat right across from me and she is awesom. I have the best sisters.
There are three rooms of quilters/sewists at Retreat and I believe that they had 60-70 women register. Oh and one man- Joe. Who hysterically requested that while he didn't mind if the women used the men's bathroom he would appreciate it if they would put the seat up! Ha
Every detail was attended to by Susan. Including chocolate on our pillows at night.
At every meal there was a gift and everyone was given a prize. Yes- we were so spoiled!
I won:
This beautiful group of fabric sporting these lovely girls. Amazingly- this fabric grouping was right up my alley! LOVE IT.
Above are some of the gifts we received: small quilt pattern with a fat quarter, notepad, rubber duck, felt pincushion kit and the french paper pad. Our table also won the Word challenge and recived a beautiful tea towel. The theme of the weekend was slumber party which meant that we spent three lovely days in jammies!
The Retreat was held at Lake Okoboji in Iowa and it was so lovely. The campus is located on the lake in a beautiful setting. We slept (a little) in cabins or dorms that were quite comfortable. Except for the tiny coffin showers where if I ate anymore one would need the jaws of life to get me out. I amy talk about this for a few days- I still have to show off what I purchased and what I created. Bare with me.
Okay I have to unpack my goods!
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