Bunny Love :-)

I have been "collecting" the Bunny Hill Basket blocks designed by Anne Sutton and finally, I have some progress to show. These blocks are for January and February. I cut the pieces for them more than a couple months ago but never put needle to fabric.......until two weeks ago when I needed to sit down and relax, so I stitched up the snowman. Then it was off to our retreat but when I got back, I was anxious to finish the little birdies and basket.

I'm using the same background wool blend on all the blocks. Each basket will be a different wool color or pattern.

If I don't have the right color then I can just paint some white wool. I'll be posting more about that later on this week. I was going to do some wool painting/dyeing last week but then my daughter called and asked if Jacob could come for a visit and I thought, hmmm, he would probably really enjoy playing with the colors. So, that's what we will do one of the days that he is here and then we'll post the photos. :-)

I had a very busy day crazy quilting on Thursday and took some pics but haven't uploaded them yet. Yesterday, it was back to the vet for Kaiser and he's on a stronger med to relieve the itchy and redness. Thank goodness it's working as he finally got some sleep last night (and so did I). Today was a busy day with home projects. Tomorrow will be a busy one and then Jacob arrives in the afternoon. Hope you have a lovely Sunday! I'll be back on Monday.

Sandi

Time out for Tea!

It's my day for my monthly tea so pop over here and see what kept me busy today. I was also doing some stitching and then I took a much needed nap. Kaiser, our beagle, is suffering from allergies and he's scratching and got watery eyes, the whole bit. The cortizone shot he got a week ago is not helping much and he only gets mild relief from eye drops and anti-itch spray. He's up all hours of the night and day, so he keeps me up, too. Good grief! Who would have thought that I'd get a cortizone shot for my back in July and I'd have to take the dog in for one in August? I think we need a nursemaid!! :-) Okay, so I'm no comedian.
Back to stitching chatter which I seem to do well at...............Night before last, I asked my husband if he had a long ruler, something longer than a yardstick. He said sure and produced the 72" charmer you see in the photo below.

I needed the ruler so I could even up the sides of this table runner and then mark it for some hand-quilting. I had no idea that ruler was in the basement but I can guarantee I'll use it again. Of course, you know the rule......."if you borrow one of my tools, put it back where you found it!"

The tablerunner is that Thimbleberries project that I worked on when I took a "front-porch break" these past summer days. I finished the basket stitching, then the leaves and yo-yo's. I just have to do the handquilting, then bind it and I'm done!

All for now. See you tomorrow!

Sandi

Pincushion Fun!!

As promised, I'm here to show you the pincushions that I started making at Bonny's Retreat. But first, I need to tell you what inspired these little cuties ..... I think they're cute - please correct me if I'm wrong :-) ........anyway, here's my story..........
A couple of months ago, Christin at National Nonwovens sent me a stack of their new Bamboo felt. You can see it pictured below with one of my bears who has noted "ooooooh, it's so soft!" and "Yum! what delicious colors, too!"

I placed the stack of felt where I could see it and wondered what I might make. I came up with an idea and only needed to give it a go. But then ....... my mother gave my daughter, Collette, a bag filled with crocheted jar lid covers that she had made. Collette wasn't sure she would use them so she passed them on to me. At first, I wasn't sure I could use them either as I didn't have any jars in need of lid covers. I put the bag aside.........not too far from the felt............and then, I looked at it and thought, "Hey, I think I could use those to make pincushions!" And the rest is, as they say.........history!

The bag was filled with about a dozen colorful jar lid covers. I put one on a jar of buttons, and then turned the rest into pincushions. I used the Bamboo felt from NNW to make stuffed balls that would pop into the center of the jar lid covers. There's a little more to it than that but if you're interested, I could do a little tutorial.

In my jar of buttons, I found these neat vintage buttons that are perfect on this trio of brights that look great in the white jar lid covers.

Some of the jar lid covers were really fancy and flouncy and I loved it. My favorite is the turgoise and white one.

I wasn't sure about these colors but Collette thought they looked good together and it did. I even had a ball of yarn that matched the coral color of the felt so it does look rather nice. I cut all my flowers from the felt but on this one and the pink flouncy one, I used some floral leaves from my scrap basket.

Now there is only one problem with these pincushions. I have used up the jar lid covers in the bag and I do not crochet or knit so I am going to have to get my daughter and mother to make me some if I want to make more of these! If you want to give it a try, there are jar lid cover patterns out there and all you have to do is google. :-)

That's it for tonight. Thanks for your kind comments and concerns regarding my back issues. I really appreciate it!

Sandi

Birthday Girl!

Today is my mother's birthday! Here she is with her china doll that was given to her when she was just a girl.
The doll was given to her by an elderly neighbor lady. Several years ago, my mother gave the doll to me. The dress the doll is wearing is one my mother made from scraps from a dress she made for me when I was a little girl. As she told me, it's not the right fabric for the doll's age but it's pretty. She made another dress for the doll that is a pale blue soft taffeta with embroidery so this sweet little miss can have a change of finery if needed. :-)

The dolls body is made from alphabet muslin so we took a picture so you could see it. At some time, adhesive tape was used to keep the little miss all in one piece. She could probably be repaired but we like her just as she is. :-)

The last couple of years, I've been with my mother on her birthday but this year it didn't work. I was hoping to get her up here for a visit about this time but think it will be later this fall. It's pretty at that time of year and not so hot, so it will probably work out better then. I found a lovely little gift for her, an antique pink depression glass candy dish but don't plan to mail it. It will wait til I see her. I trust the USPS with lots of packages but not this one! I sent her a card and gave her a call so she knows what is coming her way soon. :-)

Some of you have asked about my back problems so I'll give a quick update.......my back is still giving me some issues. I am trying to work around them and figuring out how I can do certain things and not cause myself further injury. The most inconvenient part is that it really bothers me to sit for prolonged periods of time and that is something one does when sewing or working at the computer. So, I'm totally readjusting how I do things. Do a little of this, a little of that.........which makes me a little crazy but I already kind of worked like that anyway. I am just refining my technique!

Now, tomorrow, I am going to post about those pincushions I made at Bonny's Retreat. Til then,........have a good afternoon!

Sandi

One more thing for today.........

Last Monday evening I was at the meeting of the Prior Lake Quilters and their 20th Anniversary party. I won a couple of prizes and I never got around to posting the picture of what I won so here it is............
I still can't believe I won three prizes that evening. And the nice thing is that you only put your name in the drawing for the items you want. My odds of winning were good on the purse kit with pattern (on the left) and the ziploc filled bag of scraps (on the right) as there weren't many names in the drawing bags for these items. However, there were lots of names in the bag for the Loon basket you see in the photo so I was very lucky to win that!! The Loon is the state bird of Minnesota so I thought the basket was really cool. I love Mary E. books and the candle that's in the basket smells so good!
I have some plans for the pile of scraps but right now that idea is still just "a thought". I also have plans for the Salsa fabric in the Loon basket. Again, it's just "a thought". I have plenty of projects in my "to do" pile and don't need to add any more. I am currently working on blocks in my Seasons BOM and tracing the Snowmen designs so I can do them in Redwork. Won't be long before cool weather comes to Minnesota so I'll have plenty of projects to keep me busy when the snow falls! No danger of that anytime soon, though. And thank goodness for that, as the Minnesota State Fair opens this Thursday for twelve days of fun in the sun!! Not sure if we will go or not. I'm still not quite "up to par" with my back pain issues so I am thinking we might not get there this year. There will be thousands who will be attending so we won't be missed. :-)
Later friends........
Sandi

"A Christmas Wish" BOM by Gail Pan

A few days ago, I shared a small photo of my blocks made from Gail Pan's designs (the series is titled "A Christmas Wish") and I promised a better photo would follow. Here it is...........

I loved the designs the minute I saw them and knew I wanted to make this to hang at Christmas this year. I printed them out but didn't stitch. Then a couple of weeks ago, I was at JoAnn Fabrics and I found this striped fabric that was perfect for the blocks. It has some rose color in it which allowed me to introduce that color in the blocks. I want to hang this in my favorite pink bedroom and it will look loverly in there! The fabric inspired me to "get stitching" and I really got going. I had a lot of "waiting" opportunities (translation - "waiting" equals "time spent waiting for husband to get home from work, finish his projects, etc. and come to dinner, plus time spent waiting for laundry and cooking!) so I really got busy stitching. My goal was to be done with all eight designs that she has posted so far and then I'll be ready to stitch the last one, number nine, as soon as it's posted. What a plan! The designs were so quick to stitch and if you want to do them, you will find them at Gail's blog. Just click here and you will find them! As I mentioned in my retreat posts, a discussion came up and we wondered what word will be on the final ninth block. "Comfort" was the word we think she might use and "Rejoice" was another choice. I'm thinking that if those aren't the words, I may make a few extra blocks of my own with those words and perhaps a couple others. I'm not sure yet if I will add the sashing or just how I will pull this all together. I have a space issue where I want to hang this so that will help me determine the size. Thanks go to Gail for sharing such a lovely, lovely design!!
Just a few more thoughts................I love BOM's. I know many of you do, too. Fellow blogger, Crispy, says she "collects" BOM's. I collect BOM's, too. :-) I also like to design my own BOM's and love to make the blocks. Sometimes my friends finish the actual project sooner than I do. :-) My friend, Laura, finished her quilt with the Seasons blocks long ago and mine are still waiting to be assembled. That was why I started the monthly Seasons BOM because I thought I might get it done if I had others making the blocks along with me. So what do I do? I add more block designs with my snowmen series and then I start more blocks in wool and woolfelt and now I have another project to sew together. Ah, I know I'm not alone in this situation! Laura and I are also working on a BOM called "Strolling the Block" (it was an HGTV project that is no longer available). She is way ahead of me! She has all her blocks fused and ready to do the embroidery and embellishment and I think her blocks are finished up through July. I'm just starting April. All my blocks are done for my own BOM but now I am doing them in wool and woolfelt so that's a whole other series to lay out pieces, cut and assemble and then have them ready for stitching. I tell you all this because I know many of you know this secret.........that if you have something ready to stitch, then time spent waiting isn't wasted anymore but is put to good use. Really calms the nerves, too. :-)
So, if I had a glass of wine (and I'm not a wine drinker so the odds of that are slim), I would toast to BOM's because they are such a fine bit of needlework that keep us happy! And we all know ..... if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Hope you are having a good Monday!
Sandi

It was only a week ago......

at just about this time (1:30 p.m.) that we were enjoying our last meal at Bonny's retreat. It was delicious as all the meals are at Bonny's.

And the table setting was so pretty it looked good enough to eat, too!! Once again, the food was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it. There was Eggs-strada (a bread, egg and ham dish that was soooo yummy), more fresh fruit, some Portuguese bread that was really good and the left-over salads from the day before. And for dessert, we could choose the chocolate mousse or the cobbler. We all agreed we shouldn't need to eat for a week but that didn't happen.
Now, for those of you that think Minnesota is the land of snow and cold, well, this picture shows the sunnyside of Minnesota weather...............

This is the garden at Bonny's and it is lovely. Maybe someday, I'll have one that looks half this good! We always take a group picture...................we have come to Bonny's for seven summers in a row. It's real treat!

There was still time for some more "show 'n tell" and Bonny took time to come and see what we accomplished and projects we brought that we'd done this past year.

Stephanie finished all her blocks for her blue and yellow quilt and placed them on the wall. I told you it was really cool! We said she should do the "Vanna" pose and she complied. :-)

Laura spent most of Saturday working on this awesome paper-pieced snowman wall-hanging. And if you like to paper-piece, then go to here and you can check out the work of Cindi Edgerton and her Very Special Collection Patterns.

Arlis brought her Featherweight to the retreat and worked on blocks for a sampler quilt. She had a number of these done before she arrived but put all of them that are completed up on the wall for us to see. Isn't this going to be a gorgeous quilt!

Sharon spent time working on a Redwork project but brought this sweet little quilt along to show Bonny. Sharon worked on it last summer so Bonny likes to see our progress. ;-)


And Bonny shared some quilt tops that she recently made. She's holding this colorful version and you can see one in Civil War prints on the table. The design is created by sewing charm squares together then cutting a certain way to get the pinwheel blocks. She did a demo for us and I forgot to ask where she got the pattern. I'll have to find out and let you all know.

Collette got so much done on her cross stitch piece that she realized she'll be able to get it finished by Christmas. Plus she got one block done for her 30's quilt that I'm helping her make. I started my blocks the first year I came to Bonny's and that's about the only time I work on 30's print projects. It's become sort of a "tradition". My main goal in coming to Bonny's is to relax and get refreshed and enjoy a weekend of friendship.

So, with that in mind, I got very little finished but I did work on "stages" of projects. I took a turn off the 30's fabrics and made a zippered pouch to go inside a bag that my friend Sue made for me three years ago. And then there are those pincushions in my hand and that's going to be a separate post one day this coming week. :-)

I hope you haven't minded that I chattered on and on about our retreat but blogging is about journaling so that's what this is ......a journal of my weekend retreat at Bonny's. I am so glad I met Bonny as time spent at her retreat has enriched my life in so many ways. We met when she was a student in a penny rug class that I was teaching and she leaned over and asked if I'd consider doing a program for her quilt guild. I said sure and so she invited me to speak and then to spend the night at her home (it was a bit of a drive and the guild held morning meetings). That was when I discovered her gift of hospitality. She had just opened her retreat and so we made our first visit that summer of 2003. We signed up for the same weekend every August for the next ten years! Many others have a similar favorite weekend that they visit Bonny's. She's found her niche for sure and we're all just glad that she did!!

So, that's it for Bonny's Retreat for this year. Had to leave you with one last look at that pretty purple flower. This one was taken after our brunch on Sunday. I am totally enamored with this flower and must have some in my garden when we start planting in the spring. There'll be plenty of time this winter to find it in one of the seed catalogs that come in the mail!

Hope you are enjoying a good Sunday afternoon!

Sandi

The Butler did it!

That's right..........the butler did it, served us dinner, that is!! Bonny does the cooking and Don does the serving (his "real" job is farming). They have created this awesome retreat atmosphere that makes one want to stay for a week ..... or more!!



Just before dinner, though, there was a little bit of "show 'n tell". Sharon found these vintage afghans at that shop we found after we left "Main Street Cotton Shop". Arlis was driving and mentioned that there was a thrift shop. We all agreed it would make a good stop. We all found lots of goodies and mine will show up in a later post.

Just before Don announced dinner was ready, Stephanie finished this pink and white quilt top. You're right, she was working on a blue and yellow quilt but she also brought this one so when she tired of blue and yellow, she worked on pink and green. :-)

While we stitched in the basement sewing area, Bonny was upstairs cooking and there is something wonderful about the smell of good food when someone else is cooking. We guessed beef, something with onions and then....................

Don read us the menu and we could hardly wait to get to the table. Dinner was pork with mushrooms and shallots, a delicious sliced potato concoction, corn on the cob and I forget what the salad was. I also forgot to take a picture of that divine meal. Don took this one of us as we toasted "Bonny's Retreat".

The meal was excellent and dessert was a real treat ........... a chocolate mousse with crushed malted milk balls on top and a fresh strawberry. Fabulous!

We wandered outside for a bit to walk off a calorie or two and to enjoy the fresh air and the sweet smell of the rain that had fallen earlier.

Then it was back to the basement for more sewing. My projects at Bonny's have all been related to three 30's fabric quilts that I've been working on for seven years. There is no rush to this. Part of this is therapy as far as I'm concerned. :-) Anyway, I was ready to pin one of the quilt tops to batting and backing and Arlis offered to help. I was bummed because I seemed to have bought a really thick batt and wasn't all that crazy about it. We were almost done pinning it when suddenly I caught my hand in the batting as I reach to pin, and it separated. I had not fully unfolded the batting. No wonder it was so thick!! Oh, duh, how could I???? We all got a really good laugh out of this and everyone pitched in to un-pin and then pin again til the quilt top was pinned right. With the quilt pinned, I can hand-quilt it while I watch TV (like Project Runway or Dancing with the Stars when it returns).

There was more show 'n tell and in this photo you can see all the little quilts that Laura made from the Halloween Sampler quilt I designed (go to my sidebar and click on it in my Tutorials). She's making one for each month and used some designs from my Seasons Block of the Month and others that she drew. They are "sew" cute that I want to make some, too!!! Oh, dear, another thing to add to my "to do" list!!

That's it for Saturday night at the retreat.

Only Sunday morning is left to share, but before I close this post, I'll share a picture of one of the flowers in Bonny's garden. It was dusk and the rain had just stopped and I wasn't sure the picture would turn out...............
but it did! I don't know what these flowers are but I think they are gorgeous. Wonder if they could be "captured" in a quilt block?? Hmmm, could be!

Have a good Saturday!!

Sandi

Back to Bonny's Retreat........

I have much more to share about our weekend at Bonny's Quilt Haven. It is just THE BEST retreat! The thing that makes it so unique is that there can only be a maximum of eight guests. There were six of us and I think that's the perfect number. Another thing that makes Bonny's retreat unique is that she does all the cooking and each meal is an event in itself. There are different dishes, napkins, centerpieces, etc. for every meal!

This is the start of our day on Saturday morning. That's Sharon, Arlis and Laura preparing to eat the delicious breakfast Bonny prepared. There was that huge bowl of mixed fruit and sausages and on our plates is a blueberry German pancake hotdish. Syrup was optional but it was so good who needed syrup!

After breakfast we got right back to our sewing. This is the design wall where we posted our projects as we got things done. There's Laura's Halloween wallhanging and below it is a wallhanging that Sharon is making. She spent all of Friday evening cutting out the intricate pieces for it. It is going to be so cute. The blue and white blocks are Stephanie's project and above it are some small sampler blocks that Arlis was working on. The 30's blocks are ones Collette did last fall but we wanted representation from all of us. :-) Many of you may recognise the purse panels that are Nanette's purse pattern. More on that later. And way up in the corner are my embroidered blocks from Gail Pan's Christmas BOM (they are so sweet and if you scroll down on my sidebar and click on her block, you will find all of them). I didn't do them at the retreat. I started them a little over a week ago and got one done each day. I loved the blocks so much that I had to bring them to share. A discussion came up and we wondered what word will be on the final ninth block. "Comfort" was the word we think she might use and "Rejoice" was another choice. I'll take a close-up photo and post tomorrow.

My daughter Collette was so happy to have time to cross stitch. She enjoys that more than quilting but also loves to crochet........and craft..........and cook.......we just love to have fun. :-)

Stephanie is working on more blocks for her blue and yellow quilt. Wait til you see how cool it looks.

Here I am getting ready to do add the batting and backing to the purse panels so I can machine quilt them. Unfortunately, my walking foot sounded like a robot walking across my machine and it just wasn't working right. Sooo, I had to put that project away. There's other stuff in this picture that kept me busy and I'll get to that later, too. :-)

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Look at this gorgeous centerpiece that was at our table.

And then there was this delicious meal! I don't mean to make you hungry but oh, was this good. That's fresh cucumbers and onions for salad and then tomatoes with fresh mozarella cheese and some German style potatoes. It was that Chicken Pocket on the plate that really had us all saying "Oh, this is soooooo good!" Bonny said that it's just Pillsbury Crescent rolls (two for each pocket) filled with a chicken filling (there was cream cheese in it) and then McCormick's "Crustins" sprinkled on top. It's grocery day for me so I'll be picking up all the fixings so I can make these!
And as if that wasn't enough, there was this blueberry/peach cobbler with ice cream that melted in your mouth. We all ate every bit of it!

After a meal like that, we decided to take a break and go "into town". After all, we were in Hutchinson, MN and it's home to Lynette Jensen's Thimbleberries Studio and shop. We had all received a gift on Friday evening from her shop - a fat quarter, a pattern, a "come-back" coupon and her latest catalog and we wanted to say "Thanks".

This is the front of her shop...."Main Street Cotton Shop"..........and
here's a view as we entered..........

and here's a view from the back of the shop. We wandered about, in and out of the fabrics and we all bought a little something . Then it was time to head back to Bonny's. Well, that was our intention but we found another little shop to stop at and that's where I'll begin tomorrow. :-)

Have a good day!

Sandi

Catching up on stuff.......

That's right, catching up on stuff is what I have been doing. That includes catching up on some sleep, too. :-) Going to a quilting retreat is as close as you can get at my age to the slumber parties we had when I was a kid. (I don't know why they were called "slumber parties" as almost nobody did any sleeping!) I had lots of stuff that I took to the retreat that needed to be put away and I'd do a little of that and then I would sit down and start working on some of the projects I took along. Imagine that?!! There was laundry that needed to be done and just a bit of cleaning so I got that out of the way and this afternoon I just sat and stitched. It was lovely listening to the rain on the roof. Rain is my favorite sound in nature. I just didn't realize that while I was enjoying the rain, only an hour away there were severe storms and a tornado blowing into the Twin Cities! Never would have imagined it as it never got really hot and humid like it usually does before storms. But the good thing in all of this, is that no one was hurt, although lots and lots of trees came down. Our son lives not too far from some of the streets that were hardest hit but no damage there. More thunder and rain rolled through tonite and once again I was in my sewing chair so I could listen to it patter on the roof. :-)
Instead of sharing retreat pictures right now, I'm going to interupt them with pics from the Prior Lake Quilter's Birthday Party that I went to on Monday evening.

It was good to see old friends and there was lots of Show 'n Tell, too. I only took a couple of pics of that and neither turned out well. We were all having too much fun "oohing and aahing" over stuff and so I wasn't paying attention to my camera settings. oops!

I got the rest of these right, though............That's Arlis, one of the original members of the group that was formed in 1987. She gathered together bits and pieces of info into a little "history of the Prior Lake Quilters". We all enjoyed it and leader, Wallace, said that Arlis did such a good job that he was going to nominate her for Historian. :-)

There was a huge birthday cake and punch and flowers at each table. They were the best smelling carnations! All those who had been leaders during the groups 20 years were given a vase of the carnations. That meant I got a vase of flowers and they still smell just as good now as they did that night!

Wallace is lighting the candles...........

and then those who had been leaders (there are more gals on the other side of the cake), were told to blow out the candles. Do you suppose we were wishing for fabric!! :-)
Things got really exciting when it came time to draw the winners of the "Birthday Bags". Member Pam brought this idea to the group. It works like this.............each month, any member can bring a bag or basket of fabrics, pattern, kit, whatever that can be given as a prize. Beside each prize item is placed a small empty gift bag. Members must buy a "ticket" for 25 cents each (no limit) and then place those tickets (with their name on them) in the bag next to the prize they want to win. The money raised is used to fund programs for the group. Clever, huh?

There were more than twenty great prizes that were given away and as you can see above, it brought smiles and laughter when winners were named. Some of us got really lucky. That includes me! I won three prizes and a couple other members did, too. I only bought $3.00 worth of tickets so felt I was really lucky! I realized I haven't taken a picture of what I won so can't show you the goodies. I'll get to that tomorrow. And it's back to the retreat tomorrow, too. More rain is expected here on Thursday. I'm going to work on my BOM blocks so instead of sitting to stitch, I'll be sorting through my wool to find just the right fabrics for my blocks. It's only going to be in the 60's here so that is just the right cool weather to get me in the mood to work with wool!

Have a great day!

Sandi

First night at Retreat!

Morning! I just looked through all my retreat photos and realized I can relive our 3-day retreat by stretching it out over the next several days. We had a great time and I hope you enjoy this peek at what has become an annual event for my friends Laura, Sharon, Stephanie, Arlis and this year, my daughter, Collette, joined us. Our first visit to Bonny's was in 2003 so this marked our seventh year to visit. A routine developed that very first year ..........we always meet at McCormick's Restaurant and enjoy a good meal, then arrive at Bonny's at 7:00 p.m.

Here is the room Collette (my daughter was in) and this is my room. I forgot to take pics of the other bedrooms. I was too anxious to get to the table, set up my machine and start playing in my fabric! Each room is so "comforting". There is no other way to describe it. Bonny has a special "touch" when it comes to decorating, right down to the chocolate on our pillows!! I think I would like chocolate on my pillow every night but I would have to put it there!! LOL!


Once the suitcases were stashed in our rooms, it was time to "get down to business"...........setting up the sewing machines and start having some sewing fun! We all bring our own projects and it's fun to see them "come alive" as the weekend goes along. One of the neat things about Bonny's retreat is that projects and our sewing machine are all we have to bring. She has a large cutting table with rotary cutters, rulers, mats and all you need for cutting fabric. There are two ironing "stations" and we each have a table where we can spread out our projects. There are books to browse through and quilts all around the room that keep us inspired. It's absolutely awesome!!

You can see Stephanie at the ironing board and there will pictures to come that show the beautiful quilt tops she finished up during the retreat. That's Collette with all the Halloween blocks in front of her. No, she didn't make them. I stitched them up a few months ago and gave them to her so she can make a wall quilt from them. I cut two sets of nine blocks each from Nanette's Cottage Block pattern so that we would each have a Halloween quilt. I still need to sew mine together. It's on my "to do" list. :-)

Arlis was at the ironing board pressing pieces for some awesome sampler blocks that you'll see soon. And Sharon was working on some Redwork. At this point we had only been at the retreat for about two hours and look how comfy we all are! Plus, we had enjoyed a scrumptious snack of chocolate drizzled chex mix along with fresh grapes, so who wouldn't be happy and comfy?!

By the end of the evening, Laura had finished stitching up this cute Halloween quilt top. Oh, and where I am and what was I working on? Well, I was taking pictures and flitting here and there to see all their projects. Then I started playing with a pincushion project that I brought along and well, I was just generally enjoying the fact that I did not have to worry about what to cook or when to clean, there was no phone to answer and no laundry to do or dog to walk. Doesn't get any better than that!!

That's all for tonight but I'll have more pictures tomorrow of the retreat and a few pictures from a birthday party I went to tonight - the 20-year celebration of the Prior Lake Quilters. Lots of fun things to share. Have a good day........

Sandi