A Happy Day ! - Final retreat photos!

It was a happy day for my grandson with more painting on his masterpiece (we will not get these finished this visit so posting will come later), computer games, time spent playing with the neighbor girl, and ending the evening at their house roasting hot dogs, marshmallows and making s'mores. Beautiful night here with just a hint of the fall weather that will soon be here. It was such a busy day that I am guessing he may sleep a little later in the morning. Let me rephrase that - I hope he sleeps a little later in the morning! I am not the spry young thing that I was when I was raising my kids!!
I tried to do some cleaning in my sewing room today and it did not work. It can wait til after Jacob goes home. There's always tomorrow! But right now, I am here to take you back a week to the final day of our retreat. If you have never gone on a retreat, I really urge you to try it. And if you can't find one happening in your area, then gather a few willing friends, find a suitable location, and create your own retreat. It really is easy and so enjoyable!! I've taught at area retreats and held my own so if you have any questions, I'd be glad to offer any help that I can.

One of the best things about a retreat is that usually someone else is doing the cooking. I cannot recall ever eating bad food at a retreat. And as most quilter's do, we also bring along our favorite chocolates and other snack items. Food is never an issue. We are smiling in this picture because we are so relaxed and have had such a good weekend. It flew by so fast, though! By now, you know who we are. This was early Sunday morning and Bonny fixed us some oatmeal that had raisins in it and yum, it was good!

We had time for some more sewing and a little show 'n tell. Laura started working on this runner the night before. This is what she got completed and now she must do the machine quilting and then add the petals and other pieces that will make it three-dimensional. I think she's thinking "this was so much more putsy than I thought it would be!" And the next thought is - "but it will be worth it!"

Another great meal - brunch and the "eggstrada with ham" that Bonny made was so good. More fresh fruit, muffins and whole grain bread. And dessert was our choice of the left-overs from Saturday. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Here's Stephanie with another top that she finished. This one if from a class by Jane Hall. The blocks were sewn before she got to the retreat and she just had to sew them together. I love it!

And ta da!!!! I finished my third and final quilt top just before brunch. The two on the wall are identical and the one I am holding has one block that is different. Here's a challenge that just occurred to me - to the first one who posts what the difference is in the quilts, I will send the patterns for the twelve blocks I made. Post a comment here or send me an e-mail at stitchinglegacy@gmail.com. I designed the blocks for a group at my church called Hearthside Quilters and plan to offer it as a BOM starting on my blog this November.

Sharon is holding her "Dick and Jane" quilt that she made last year. Sara Peterson machine quilted it and Sharon liked Laura's striped bias binding so much she decided she wanted to do that on her quilt. Then she realized she didn't have quite enough fabric, but then Bonny came to the rescue. She went into her closet of fabrics and patterns and came out with a bag full of Dick and Jane fabrics and there was just the piece that Sharon needed. Perfect ending!

We hated to pack up and leave but as with all good things, they must come to an end. And this is the end of my post for tonight but I have saved a good thing for last! This is the pincushion I started late last Saturday night. I had glued the stuffed pincushion part and needed to let it dry overnight. But right after breakfast on Sunday morning, I was anxious to add the finishing touches. All the lace trims came out of the super box of trims from the thrift shop and the little pink flowers were a clearance find at JoAnn's. I just love it and it looks so pretty in my pink bedroom. Kind of looks like a fancy little cake. The pretty doily that it is sitting on was made by my mother many, many years ago. Both things just make me smile!!!

P.S. A little smile package came in the mail today. It was the tiny felt cupcake that I won from Mr. Monkeysuit's blog. The day got too busy and I didn't get a picture loaded but I will share on tomorrow. It is so sweet. I had a happy day, too!

A little update: Gretchen and Sue H. (please e-mail me with your address, Sue, and I will send the patterns your way) both identified the "Churn Dash" or "Hole in the Barn Door" blocks (middle blocks in the bottom row of each quilt top) as the different blocks so I will send them both a set of the pattern pages. Those blocks ended up different because I cut them wrong! I decided to "make do" with the blocks in two of the tops. Then I corrected it in the one I will keep so that it matches the instruction sheets that I did and can be shown as a sample if I am doing a trunk show. One of those things that was an "oops" but it turned out all right in the end. :-)