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