In the mail and off to the Retreat.......

Last Friday, just before I left for the retreat, my mailman brought a package to the door. It was from Sarah over at SewJoy and she sent me some little gifties as a thank you for being one of the three hostesses on her recent Placemat Party blog event (some of you may recognise these as Nanette posted about the gifts this past Monday). There is a half yard cut of that summery yellow fabric, a sweet card and cute owly stickers. And then there was a jar of yummy blueberry jam and a ceramic maple leaf charm that were made by a local group in Sara's area called "Grandmothers for Africa". Thanks, Sara, for the lovely gifts!Last week, I finished another one of Sara's placemats and this one is made up in Pat Sloan's Sweet Liberty fabrics (I won the fat quarter's at Heidi's retreat last March).

I'm going to make seven more of these placemats, all in different patriotic prints so that we will have them for next summer's picnics and the Linn Reunion. :-)

On to the retreat..................

It was hot last Friday. It's hot all the time lately. But I was happy and cool, just knowing I was headed to Bonny's for a weekend of quilting and a relaxing retreat. Our plan is always the same................we meet at McCormick's Family Restaurant in Hutchinson at 6:00 p.m. The place is always busy and the food is always good! We catch up on the latest news and then we head to Bonny's. We told her we would arrive at 7:00 p.m. and we arrived at exactly that hour! My friends.....Sharon, Laura, Stephanie, Marianne and I could hardly wait to get our bags to our rooms and then set up our machines and begin working on projects. I was in the Tea themed room this year.................

I call it the tea room because of the border that rims the room. It's just barely visible in the photo below...........

The dresser in this room reminds me of the one that was in my grandma Goldie's bedroom. Each bedroom at Bonny's is as pretty as the next one. I goofed and forgot to take pictures of the other bedrooms. There were new quilts on some of the beds, too. I'll have to make a note not to forget next year. :-) I set my suitcase and make-up bag on the other side of the bed to take these pictures and then I went downstairs to join everyone as we all set up our projects. It's just like Christmas morning when we start dragging out our quilty things! I did a little sewing, a little stitching, and lots of chatting! And then, just like Christmas morning, after I went upstairs to bed about 2:00 a.m., I couldn't fall asleep! All I could do was think of all the stitching fun that Saturday would hold.

Visions of my 30's prints constantly danced through my head. Last year, I started cutting squares and was determined to cut more this year for a four-patch quilt I want to make. I kept thinking about that quilt and a totebag I started from some Sunbonnet Sue fabric. Finally, I fell asleep about 3:00 a.m. and then I was up by 8:00 a.m. I am a nightowl but nobody wastes time sleeping when they are at a quilt retreat. Right! LOL!
That's all for this post. In my next post, I'll share a full day of quilting at Bonny's, lots of delicious food and gorgeous flowers in her garden. Today, I'm headed over to nearby Arlington to enter some quilty projects in the county fair just for the fun of it. I think I see mini donuts in my future, too.........
Have a good day!
Sandi