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

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