Friday night sewing and lots of laughter!

Back to last Friday night..................Collette and I enjoy doing little things that make our friends smile, giggle, laugh out loud, just plain have a good time. So just before everyone finished eating, she went upstairs to the rooms and placed the goodie baskets on each guests bed. We had let them know that there would be a little surprise in their rooms after dinner so by the time I finished up in the dining room and got upstairs, everyone had peeked at the goodies in their basket and loved it. I've already told you what was in the baskets and today I sent off the extra basket to Suzette. I've said it before but we love planning and preparing the little surprises for our friends and they seem to enjoy it so we keep planning more fun stuff and retreats!

With the goodie baskets out of the way, we were all ready to sew. Everyone brings their own projects although I usual share some small project. I had included the little Halloween pattern for those that might want to get creative plus I had permission from Nanette at FredasHive to share her cottage block tutorial and from Ayumi at PinkPenquin to share her basket tutorial. If anybody ran out of projects these would be easy to do. That wasn't likely as we all brought more fabric and more projects than anyone could do in one weekend!!

In this picture everyone is gathered around as Collette show's some cross stitch she was working on. She does a little bit of quilting but she does more cross stitch and does it really well, tiny stuff that some of us older ones can hardly see anymore!! Gretchen is in the background tying a quilt she had brought. She had this cool portable quilt frame that I should have taken a photo of so that you could see just how neat it really is!!

I mentioned laughter and Kate has a great laugh and kept us all in stitches!! Hee hee!

This was the first time that Joan joined us for a retreat but you can see by her smile that she is having fun. She's kind of shy, sometimes quiet but she's a very good quilter.

At about 9:30, I announced there would be a newsbreak and the news was that there would be no news, no political announcements or any other interruptions from the outside world. Boy, don't we wish that could happen more often in the real world!!! And then it was time for some doorprizes........

Gretchen was first to win and got this copy of Folk Art Felt by Sandy Belt. I think the book is out-of-print now (it's from 1996) but it is one of my favorites. If you like wool and woolfelt, look for it on E-bay or Amazon. And then Jane, who has the prettiest smile, won a yard of this cute little Halloween print that I found.

With the news break over, it was back to sewing and more visiting and more laughter............
and then ........ I actually put the finishing touches on something. I have so many "projects in progress" and this was one of them. I made the table runner last Mother's Day, a treat for myself and hand-quilted it in August. I trimmed it with this scroll like edging and you can't see it in the picture but there are burgundy tassels at each end. It will look nice on my old treadle sewing machine that belonged to my Aunt Bell. If anybody can identify the fabric line (it was a charm pack), please let me know. I bought it at a shop in Winnebago, MN but tossed the card before writing it down. I called the shop but trying to describe it over the phone didn't work and going on line didn't provide an answer either.

Everyone kept sewing and some of our conversation turned to sayings like "goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" and other things about going off to bed. One by one the gals began to do just that. Pretty soon, it was just Kate, Collette and me left to sew. It was well after midnight and then Kate decided she would go to bed. She hadn't been gone long when I decided to go down to our room (Collette and I shared a room) and get something (can't recall what). When I walked into the room there was something sitting on my bed. It looked like a box of cars and trucks from a distance ......... and then ............ here is what I saw!

That's right ............... BEDBUGS!!! I started laughing and I ran back to the library to show them to Collette. Since after 10:00 is quiet time I had to be careful not to laugh too loudly. We wondered who had left the bedbugs. Kate was the last one to go to her room and since she hadn't been in bed long, I figured she wouldn't be asleep. So, I knocked on her door and uh, oh, she had been asleep. I quietly asked her if she had put the bedbugs on my bed - assuming it was her, I figured she'd know what I was talking about. She didn't and she cried out "bedbugs" which woke Arlis and then Carol woke up and cried out "bedbugs"! And before this goes any further, folks, these are just gummy bedbugs. There are no real bedbugs at the Villa. So, now I've awakened all three of them and I have no idea who put the bedbugs on my bed. If it wasn't Kate, then I figured that it had to be somebody who reads my blog because sometimes I close with the "bedbug" line. I saw that the light was shining under the door of Sue and Jane's room and could hear them talking. So, I knocked and they got a good laugh but they hadn't put them on my bed. That left Carol, Gretchen, Barb, and Joan as culprits and they were sleeping. I had to go to bed with a mystery on my mind. But oh, what a funny mystery it was. That's the end of this chapter of our retreat. I'll be back later Saturday afternoon to share more of our fun and whether the bedbug prowler was discovered. And so, of course, "sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite"!! Oh, and hope you had a great Hallow's Eve!!!

Sandi