Retreat continued and Show 'n Tell

When I last left off telling you about our retreat, I shared a picture of Villa Maria at dusk. It really is a lovely building and a great retreat site. It was originally a boarding school for girls from Catholic families. In 1969 a fire destroyed the dormitory and the Villa Maria that was then came to a close. It took on new life as a Retreat Center and is open to all denominations and as I've said before, used for many activities. Someone in our church women's group learned of the Villa and the group began holding an annual retreat there. While our church was not a Catholic church, it didn't matter as the Villa is a place of retreat and for restoring or renewing one's spirit is how I look at it. The first quilting retreat I hosted was in February of 2003 and from that event and the retreat we held in October of 2003, came the group of friends that make up our guests at our retreat. We are just a group of friends that love to get together. :-)

















So, it was Saturday evening and time for dinner. Collette and I had laid our plans and she made sure that everyone got down to the dining room while I remained behind to do a little "quilting elf" duty. I found the cute pumpkin bags in the teacher section at the Dollar store and Collette shopped for the little "gifties" that went into the bags. I placed a bag by every one's sewing machine and then joined everyone for dinner.



The food at Villa Maria is always good and our evening dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy with garden green beans and garden cukes and onions and salad was delicious. Oh, and the pumpkin bar was so good that Sharon had seconds!


After dinner, everybody returned to the library for more sewing and look what they found - more goodies. We like spoiling our friends!! ;-)












The plan was to sew for a bit and then break for show 'n tell. Here's Barb working on some blocks that she won and that's Joan in the background. They were two very busy stitchers.



Another busy stitcher was Carol M. as she was working on a quilt top that she wanted to share at Show 'n Tell. And here it is...........




Isn't this a cheery snowman quilt? I wish I could tell you more about it but I've forgotten who Carol said it was for and who designed the pattern. Right now, I can tell you this isn't the only quilt info I forgot. Read on..........Oh, and I was going to tell you what I forgot this time that I really should have remembered............comfy shoes. All I brought were the slip-on clog things I wear with slacks which look nice but why didn't I remember my comfy tennies or my Earth shoes sandals. By Saturday night, my feet gave out and I had to do a lot of sitting!




This is Sue with her Star quilt top. It's another one that I can't remember the designer. Sue came the furthest distance as she drove up from Iowa to be with all of us. Only two years ago, we all lived just minutes away from each other, then Sue moved, then I moved and so we love it that we can connect at Villa Maria!!

Carol's log cabin that she is holding in the photo is the center block for a round robin that she is doing with friends from her quilting group. I think the cabin is really cool as it just looks like a log cabin!

Sometimes projects from past retreats come back when they're finished for Show 'n Tell and that's the case with this one above. Laura made this for her daughter's bed and imagine this - it is a paper-pieced project! We watched it "grow" and it is a stunner, isn't it?

At every retreat, I try to come up with stuff that makes us laugh and just plain have a good time. At our last retreat which was about a year and a half ago, I gave a prize that was a couple of yards of "ugly fabric". Arlis was the lucky winner of the rather overpowering pink and burgundy floral. Awful as that fabric looked then, it is awesome in the finished quilt that Arlis made from the fabric. And she even had about a half yard of it left that she gave back to me. Hmmm, wonder what I'll do with that?

About this time, I got something wrong on the setting on my camera and these pictures of Sharon are kind of fuzzy. Not sure what I did but I will be more careful in the future. On the left she's holding her picnic quilt. She won the blocks are our last retreat. I asked everyone to bring a small bag of spring florals and pastels and I provided pre-cut 2 1/2" white tone-on-tone squares for little four patch blocks. Every time you made a block you got your name in the drawing. There were only 15 of us at the retreat so you can see we made a lot of blocks hoping to win them! On the right, Sharon is holding the quilt she made that is her dog "Smoky". I can't remember the name of the technique but it begins with a photo, then a gazillion little squares that are fused on the grid of the picture guide and then tulle is placed over it all and it's machine quilted. If anyone wants more info, I'll get with Sharon and find out what the technique is called.

Gretchen is sharing her quilt from blocks that she won at her retreat called "Sew Close to Home". It's held at Emma Krumbee's in February and is not far from all of us, hence the name. I love the green that she chose to bring all the blocks together. Gretchen got lots done at the retreat which is good because I could at least watch her and others accomplish things while I got very little finished. Of course, as Gretchen reminded me, the one who coordinates the retreat really can't get much sewing done because you're always doing the stuff to keep the retreat going. This is true, so I probably brought more projects than I could have done if I weren't coordinating the retreat but I had to be sure I had plenty to do!! Here's what I did manage to finish. I made one of Ayumi's baskets and I loved it. Everyone took the blog link so they could make some at home. Barb finished a couple of them, too, but somehow I missed getting a picture of them. The large Halloween quilt in my left hand is a giant coaster. I had to make a quilt and finish something! I brought my Christmas cottage blocks to work on but other than sharing them with my friends, I never stitched a one at the retreat. I realized I needed more room to spread out and time to concentrate on them than I had at the retreat.

Collette finished the cross stitch piece that she was working on for her Grandma (my mom) so she was happy with that. After Show 'n Tell was over, the two of us cut out some make-up cases to stitch but then it was time for the popcorn and cookies we wanted to fix for everyone so we decided to put them away and try them another time.

The project for a drawing for this retreat involved words that our dear friend, Kate, considers really bad words - paper piecing! I always thought I didn't like paper-piecing and then once I got the hang of it, I discovered I love the preciseness you get with it. SO, I printed up a simple pattern for making four little sections that when assembled, make a little block. Almost everyone had made their four sections by Saturday night, except Kate. With a little bit of help, she produced her share and her name went in the drawing with all the others.

I am not sure she was convince, though, that there was any good reason to do paper-piecing but as with so many things, we all had a lot of fun and laughter over the whole thing. We had a great evening just sewing, laughing and sharing stories. We always sew later on Saturday night so it was after midnight before most headed off to bed. And again this night, it was Kate, Collette and I who were the last ones left in the sewing room. Eventually, Kate went off to bed and as the night before, I decided to go to our room and, again, can't recall why. As I opened the door to leave the sewing room...........there they were on the floor in the hall................more Gummy Bedbugs! I started laughing and couldn't even talk. Collette wondered what was wrong and I motioned for her to come see.........but this time, I didn't wake anybody up. I figured it was wiser to wait til morning to find out who the bedbug culprit was this time!!

That's all for tonight! Big day tomorrow. I am going to work on the last stitches of my patriotic crazy quilt piece and watch the election coverage. Might not post tomorrow if I get too busy watching the news. Before I forget, I have posted a link to a wonderful quilt giveaway by Abbie so be sure to check it out and go ahead and add a comment. I am hoping to win, though, just so you know. :-)

So, good night, sleep tight and may the ones you vote for win!

Sandi

Easily sidetracked!

That would be me!! Does that happen to any of you? I am sure I suffer from attention issues and yet when I get focused I can really accomplish things. It's just that sometimes, when I should finish focusing on one thing, I get sidetracked and focus on another thing. Case in point - I said I'd be back "in a little bit" to tell you more about our retreat but I got "side-tracked". After I cleaned up the kitchen from the popcorn ball mess, I started going around the house and gathering up my Halloween decorations. Christmas stuff I like to leave in place well after Christmas Day, but when Halloween is over, it's over. Sort of.
My "side-tracking" started on Friday night after all the trick or treaters were done (we only had about 30 kids but some were so cute and they were all so polite!) and I went back to my sewing room to clean up my Halloween fabrics. I still had a pile of Christmas fabrics to clean up from making Nannette's cottage blocks but I wasn't ready to tackle that pile because I have some other Christmas projects that I'll make from those fabrics. So I started organizing my Halloween stuff and decided to store it all neatly in an old black suitcase (somehow seems appropriate for Halloween). And that's when I got "side-tracked" big time!! I have this piece of Halloween fabric that is so cute and has so many jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and such on it and, I thought, wow, how cute these would look in cottage block windows. So, I started fussy cutting window squares for cottage blocks. I also cut enough to make a couple of Ayumi's fabric baskets. Instead of cutting 2" squares, I cut 2 1/2" squares for the basket as I needed the extra 1/2" for better fussy cutting. On Saturday afternoon, I got all the squares sewn together to make two baskets. Had to stop sewing to do some laundry, a haircut for my husband, bath for the dog, and a little vacuuming. And then it was time for supper and I had promised I would make spaghetti. So the little basket sits unfinished on my sewing machine. I am adept at unfinished projects and starting new ones so that I may add to my list of unfinished items. :-)
I was determined to put away the Halloween fabrics once and for all, so last night when I planned to "be back in a bit", I started cutting the roofs, the walls, etc. for nine little Halloween cottages. I am really pleased with the fabric choices and think they will look so cute in a finished quilt for next Halloween. You see, I'm not late for this Halloween........no, I am really early for next Halloween. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! My grandson is coming over next weekend and I think we will have fun doing this early Halloween project. He likes to craft, too and here's what I left for him while we went away on retreat..................

Last year, I sorted out all my Halloween fabrics and separated the cottons from the poly-cottons (sometimes you can tell by the feel of the fabric but when "in doubt", I do the "burn" test and - cut a small swatch of fabric and carefully light a match and burn a corner of the fabric swatch - if the fabric curls and becomes hard like plastic, then it's poly or poly/cotton and if it is soft and crumbles, you can almost guarantee that it's cotton). I decided to split the poly/cotton's between my grandson and our neighbor girl and make them each a craft pack. I included lots of fabrics, cardstock to make a picture, blank envelopes and notecards to creat Halloween cards and ribbons with greetings to add to the cards. I kept just a few pieces in case I want to make any cards in the future.
Then, since we were all getting "goodie bags" at the retreat, I bought a little bag at the Dollar store and filled it with candy, stickers, tattoos, and such for a special treat just for Jacob. I suspect he liked the car the best as he loooooovvvvvves all his little cars.
Well, that's all for now and I really will be back "in a little bit" with more on our retreat!

P.S. Weather today here in Minnesota is unbelievable. It's near 70 degrees and is so nice outside that I decided to sit on the front porch to eat my lunch. This is November and we are usually wearing winter coats by now! I'm not complaining, just telling it like it is. :-)

We interrupt coverage of our Retreat for Snacktime!!!

I have been craving a real, old-fashioned popcorn ball for the past week. The ones that are available in the grocery store look okay but there is nothing like the taste of a real popcorn ball! So on Friday, I picked up the proper ingredients and announced to my husband that I was going to make them on Sunday afternoon. I was even thinking about them in church this morning! And here they are..............the real thing.

I'll share the recipe because it is good everytime. I told Steve I was sure I hadn't made them in several years and he's like - "oh, it can't be that long". But it has! When I was popping the popcorn - real popcorn not the microwave stuff - I realized that the last time I popped real popcorn was when I had a metal lid and now I have glass lids for my pans so it was fun to see the corn pop! Sorry if this sounds like it doesn't take much to entertain me.....it was fun to watch the kernels pop and it momentarily crossed my mind to wonder what would happen if I removed the lid and let the popcorn pop all over the place. That's proof that there is always a little bit of the kid in most of us. :-) Here's the recipe........I don't know where it came from as it's been the one I've used for more than 30 years, written in pencil with a large water spot on the recipe card. :)

Old-Fashioned Popcorn Balls

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup light corn syrup or honey

(I have always used light corn syrup)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

4 quarts warm popped corn

(pop the corn first and keep warm in a 200 degree oven)

Tape a piece of parchment paper (wax side up) to your counter

to place the finished popcorn balls.

Cooking instructions:

Combine sugar, water, salt, corn syrup, and butter in a 2 quart heavy saucepan.

Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Continue cooking (without stirring) at a low boil until mixture reaches the

hard ball stage of 268 degrees (trust me, use a candy thermometer for this as if the mixture is not quite cooked long enough - see my popcorn balls that are falling apart and that's because my syrup mixture is not quite sticky enough but you don't want it to cook to long or you'll have hard rock candy and that's not what you're looking for here!).

Add the vanilla and mix.

Pour hot candy mixture over the freshly popped corn and mix well.

Wet your hands in cold water to shape the balls and place on the waxed parchment paper.

You may have to wet your hands frequently

until all the balls are shaped.

These are really delicious. Oh, and if you want to add food coloring,

do that right after the vanilla.

***********

And now, since I am in recipe mode, SuddenlySandra asked if I was going to share the recipe for the cookies I mentioned in a post last week. This isn't really a recipe, but if it was given a name it would be called "Cheater Cookies", you know like a cheater quilt that is almost like a quilt but not quite.

I wanted cookies and I wanted them fast so I took two cookie mixes from the cupboard - see the picture. :-) I put the dry ingredients in the bowl, then added the oil, margarine and egg called for on the package and mixed it all really well. Then I mixed in about 3/4 cup chopped pecans. The next ingredient was a mix of chips. I used about 1/3 of each package pictured. Mixed it all together and baked them up and they are really, really good. They freeze well and I think I will get some more mixes so I can create other varieties of my "Cheater Cookies"!! :-)

That's the end of our Snack break. I'll be back in a little bit with more about our retreat. I like writing about it because it went by so fast that if I didn't have photos, I'm not sure I'd remember half of what we did!!

Who put the bedbugs on my bed?

It took some investigative work but I finally found out who the "bedbug" culprit was. I wasn't able to discover it at breakfast, though, we were all too busy eating pancakes and sausage and such, laughing and talking. Nobody knew anything about the Gummi bedbugs left on my bed. :-)

But I was beginning to have my suspicions. You know what they say about the quiet, shy ones? Well, I was thinking.............and when we got up to the library to sew, the truth was finally revealed. Joan, yep, the quiet, shy one could no longer keep a straight face. She started laughing and admitted that she had found them at Target and put them on my bed because her dad, too, always said "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!" Finally, I could concentrate! What a mystery and what fun from such a simple thing!
There were morning door prizes...............


I like to change things up a bit, so this time I drew a name and the person would get to pick from one of the four prizes above. The first name was Laura and she chose the Quiltsmart table runner pattern. Then Sue chose the green fabric wrapped gift that contained a small purple photo album with refills and she's going to use it for her quilt photos. Joan chose the small fabric wrapped gift and it was a glass paperweight from Hallmark that she can put a quilt photo in for her sewing desk. Sharon's name was drawn next and so she got the Eagle quilt pattern. She was hoping her name would be drawn as she wanted the pattern. Funny how things work out, huh?

Our sewing machines hummed all morning and there was more talk, more laughter and then before we knew it, it was time for lunch. I had a lunchtime door prize and this one went to Carol F. I couldn't resist this little cookbook of chocolate recipes because everybody knows quilters thrive on chocolate! The little bag was too cute and I tucked in colored file cards for recipes and a fall dishtowel.

We enjoyed a great lunch of chili, salad and more. Then some of the gals took a little trip down to Rather Bee Quilting in Lake City as they were holding a tenth anniversary sale. The rest of us sewed, took walks, a little nap, whatever we wanted to do!

After lunch, I snapped this photo of the Villa. It is a Catholic retreat center run by the Urselin Order of Nuns. It is open to all faiths and many groups use the Villa for inspirational retreats, conferences, bird-watching weekends (Frontenac Park area is one of the best bird-watching sites in Minnesota), quilting retreats, artists, youth groups, and more!!

Later in the afternoon, Laura finished this cute little Thanksgiving quilt. She took the pattern for my little Halloween sampler quilt and just replaced the pumpkin with a turkey and the tree, plus some fall fabrics and presto chango! it's a whole new little quilt!! Isn't it cute?

There was a change in the weather coming, so Sharon suggested perhaps we should take our group picture on Saturday as snow and wind were predicted for Sunday. And that's just what we did and it was a wise thing to do!

Happy as clams, we are front row left to right - Carol M., Collette, Jane, me, Laura and Gretchen.

Back row - zig zagging from left to right are Sue, Arlis, Joan, Kate, Barb, Carol F. and Sharon.

After we took our group photo, I took these shots of some of the trees that surround the grounds of the Villa. Aren't the leaves pretty? Collette was picking up some of the leaves and we took them up to our room and pressed them between an outdated quilt catalog I happened to have in my bag!

I especially loved the close-up of the leaves on that tree. Look at the rich red to yellow on the leaves. Awesome!

............. a photo of the Villa at dusk. Then it was time to go and have dinner. More fun to come when I tell you about our evening activities and show 'n tell! That will come sometime tomorrow. I think I can make our retreat last another two days at least!!

Just a little thought here ~~ earlier today, I thought to myself "do I really need to write such a detailed account of our retreat? Does anyone really care aside from those of us who went to the retreat?" Well, a couple of you have e-mailed or commented that you enjoy reading about our retreat so I am going to continue the detailed account. I like recalling all the fun and perhaps in the telling, you may find some idea or project that you'll want to share at a retreat or with a friend. Well, I've used the extra hour so I better get to bed. Choir in the morning at church so got to get my beauty rest so I'll be in good voice in the morning. I love to sing but since I am not a morning person, I am not in the best singing voice then. By afternoon, I'm in good form and by evening, well, I could do my own musical but I keep it contained to my sewing room. :-) Kaiser is my audience. :-)

Night all..............enjoy the extra hour of sleep!

Sandi

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

"Friends Forever" Retreat.......

Well, you've had a peek at the goodie baskets and you've seen the entrance door to Villa Maria so it's time to go back to last Friday morning and tell you how are retreat began.

I was up early, totally organized and ready to go a half hour sooner than expected. However, you know how it goes. Just about the time you think you are "ahead of schedule" something pops up and you're not. This time I got behind because I stopped at the post office to mail a package of fudge to my son (I figured he deserved some goodies, too) and I got to talking to our postmaster who is not a master, actually, but a "post mistress". She's a quilter and bear maker, too, and had brought in her photo album for me to see. I had to look! One of her bears is so cute that I asked to borrow a picture of it and you'll see it come Election Day! So, I was running a little late but that was okay because when I called Collette (my daughter) to say I'd be late picking her up, she said she was hoping it was me calling to say I would be late! She owns a daycare center and had to work that morning and couldn't quite get away as soon as expected. Funny how sometimes things work out even when you're late. :-)

When I arrive at her house to pick her up, I realize that she has even more stuff than I anticipated. My car was pretty full but I thought I had left enough room for her things as well as mine. However, we were providing the meal so it meant transporting food for the dinner, snacks, projects, sewing machines, suitcases, etc. etc. etc. so we had a lot of stuff to get in the car! We wiggled it here, juggled a bit and moved things around and got it all in. I was able to shut the back hatch and we were off.

Our destination was Villa Maria Retreat Center that is located in Frontenac, MN south of Red Wing (click here for more info) . The retreat center sits nestled in the woods not far from the Mississippi River and it is just beautiful no matter what time of year that one visits!! It took us about two hours to get there and we spent the time going over details for our dinner and making plans for our next retreat. We had already come up with the theme for the next gathering! The fall colors were fading but it is still lovely when you are in the area of Old Frontenac and the cliffs, the hills, the water, the old homes. When we turned into the curved driveway that leads up to the Villa, it was like "coming home". My first retreat there was in 1991 or 92 with our church women's group. When the membership in our church dwindled and our women's group disbanded, there was a sadness knowing that we would not go back to the Villa. I just couldn't imagine not going to the Villa so I began planning a quilting retreat with my friend, Sara. That first one was in Feb. of 2003. There's no set schedule for the retreats and it depends largely on availability at the Villa and my own personal schedule. Someday I'll do a post just about the past retreats. Right now, I'll get back to this current one - "Friends Forever" was the theme.

Our first priority when we arrived was to get the soup into the crock pot so it would be hot enough by the dinner hour. We weren't sure when that would be because when the soup was hot enough was when the dinner hour would be! :-) With the soup in the crockpot and all the food unloaded from the car to the dining room, we scurried upstairs to put name signs on the doors so our guests would know which room they were assigned. Then we had to set up the sewing room and some of our guests started arriving. We decided we don't want to "scurry around" so much and we are going to go the night before next time, no matter what!!!

Once our guests could settle into their rooms and begin setting up their sewing spaces, we headed back to the dining room to finish preparations for dinner. The last guests arrived just as I was coming upstairs to say "Dinner is served" and as you can see in the photos the laughter and the sewing, the visiting with old friends had already begun and it just made me smile. Our sewing space was the Villa Library and it was just right, as baby bear would say. :-)

And here is the table ready for dinner. I was scurrying again and wanted to snap a picture before our guests started filling their plates so guess who wasn't paying attention? Me, of course. See those plastic bags on the cookies and the biscuits? I need an assistant to stage photos for me so I don't have these little mistakes happening. Oh, well. As you can see the food looks good and everyone said it tasted really good.

There were cucumber sandwiches and stuffed olives that Collette made and I baked up a big batch of my homemade biscuits. There was jam and honey for the biscuits, and cheese and crackers, nuts, veggies, and those really good cookies from Pepperidge Farms (so sorry, can't remember their name, only that they are really good).

And then there was soup - a chicken wild rice vegetable concoction that I made and, if I do say so myself, yep, it was really good. I'll share the recipe for it later.

Here are Joan and Sue filling their plates. You can see that the plastic bags have disappeared and the biscuits and cookies were disappearing, too. :-)

Just before I sat down to eat.......time for another photo. Here we are - Collette on the right and moving to the left are Jane, Joan, Gretchen, Sue, Laura and Sharon.

And in this photo from left to right are - Arlis, Barb, Carol F., Carol M., and Kate. While everyone was our guest, each of them is also a good friend. We were all so happy to be together and anticipating a great weekend! Sister Rose came in to extend a welcome from the Villa staff and then it was time to clean up and head upstairs. Everyone pitched in and clean-up went very fast. I sent everyone upstairs while I washed up the bowls and then I headed upstairs to set up my machine and get started on some sewing fun. As I passed through the lobby this little guy caught my eye. He's made from a gourd. Isn't he awesome?!! Somewhere, I have a link to the website where you can order these. I'll find it, just give me time. :-) Speaking of time, it's way late, so time to turn out the lights once again and head to bed. Oh, and I hate to keep you hanging but there really is a bedbug story coming soon.

Night everyone, or Good morning depending on when you're reading this!!! I'll be back Friday evening after the Trick or Treaters have been here to tell you more about the retreat.

Sandi