Retreat fun and creativity Part 2 finally

David and I took a quick trip so my part 2 of the retreat was delayed but I'm back and typing away.

So here goes....

Jane was hard at work making the Traveling pillow book bag. Too cute. She also made playing card holders. She was also the winner of my Accuquilt circle rag quilt die. I had a special drawing for anyone I knew that had an Accuquilt machine.  She also won a calendar that I created using pictures from our retreats. 

 

I finished adding borders to my Texas Flag quilt so it would fit our King size bed and shared Threadcount wine from Quilting Winery in California with the girls. I had to buy it and share for the name alone. It wasn't bad at all.  

Then I made a couple of pillow cases for the Sassy Stitchers Quilt Bee to donate to the CPS department that covers are area using the french seam method.  Surprisingly easy.  And I had Donna Marie teach me how to use my Bloc Loc Ruler. She taught me where to place the ruler and how. 

Elly finished a small quilt then started a red white and blue one and finished off making some Barbie doll clothes for her precious grand babies before we had to pack up..

Elly won a pin cushion, an led light strip for her machine and a Project Journal I created for her to keep track of all her crafts, quilts, doll clothes with pictures and notes. Hope she enjoys using it.  

When I got my first Journal I thought I won't use this but I was so wrong.  I put everything I create in it with pictures and notes.

Kathy hasn't quite caught the quilting bug but she is crafty. She did some embroidery this time and took care of some volunteer work and caught up on some paperwork. She won a Material Girls Calendar this year.

Vicki was busy down in her corner of the room. Working on quilt blocks, a bag and a mug rug. She won a door prize bag with clothes pins and some fabric.

Anita was working hard on a Christmas stockin. Those are sew time consuming but the finished product will be loved by the recipient I'm sure. Anita won a Material Girls Calendar too.

Connie finished her quilt top then worked hard on the getting the backing done so she could give to me and I could pass it on to the quilt. Connie won a door prize bag filled with 2 1/2" charms, sewing machine led light strip, and a Material girls T-towel with all the material girls names listed in the shape of a Christmas wreath of which I didn't take a picture of. Trust me it was really cute. She keeps us entertained with stories and antics.  This time she managed somehow while packing her car to leave locked the keys in the car. Thank goodness for another retreater with Triple A we only had to wait about 40 minutes for them to get there and 5 minutes later had her car unlocked.  

Denise was working on this treasure for her last project. These blocks kept her busy.  Her door prize bag had a tape measure, phone stand, led light strip and a charm pack.

Donna Marie won a notepad, magnet, binder clips, tape measure and some scissors. Pat was my last winner and her bag contained fabric for an apron, seam ripper, needles, pin cushion and a Material girls T-Towel.

Sunday (10/13) Before we left we had to take one last group picture. We had lots of fun and got lots of new projects started. Here's until next retreat...

Back row L-R:  Me, Connie, Kathy, Elly, Pat

Sitting L-R: Anita, Donna Marie, Denise, Vicki and Jane

Peace out my friends it's time to head home!

Back home to unload and rest while I can because tomorrow we head to Magnolia for a wedding.

Until then..When life gives you scraps, make a quilt...

And the Race is On Then again.... with some quilting too

 So it's almost time for a quilt retreat which using means cramming in normal activities and packing.

Saturday(10/5) David had a motorcycle race at Little River Academy he wanted to attend so off he went. He texted me later in the afternoon telling me he managed to hurt his bicep trying to keep the bike upright while warming up the bike. 

I'll tell you now that by the time he got home Sunday his bicep area was all kinds of pretty colors. He did a good job on it.  He decided that day he wouldn't race but was staying the nice and hoped to feel better for the next day of racing. He was sitting in the pits and looked over and saw the trailer tire! NOT GOOD...

So yeah that could have been a disaster coming home after the race which would be in the late evening.  If you can't see it the tread is splitting big time.

I just went and checked my previous blog post and saw the darn video's didn't post. But this time it processed. Here's the desk with a tail. 

The crazy cow one still won't post. oh well I'll try again later.

So while David was at the races I drove to Houston to visit my friend Barbara and gave her the quilt I made for her. She became our realtor back in like 1993 when we decided to sell our home in Woodlands Oaks subdivision that now no longer exists after the area flooded and most of the homes were bought out by FEMA and bulldozed down. During that time she became a friend. So that's the theme I picked for her quilt. Realtor equals houses, right?. Trust me every time she took us to look at houses she had to work. We needed options plus she had please us both. LOL   

I put a big house on the back of the quilt with pictures of a couple of her dogs, a picture of her with her dad and siblings and the door was a picture of her and her son Matt from just a few years ago.  lol Matt was probably probably around 10 and is now 40 something. Just a few years ago. LOL First off she was surprised to see me and was really surprised when I gave her the quilt. I'm glad she liked it. She told me she always wanted to ask me to make one for her but didn't. Well now she doesn't have to.

After spending a couple hours with Barbara I headed to a reunion of former Watkins MS staff to honor Tommy, who was a teacher and who is now fighting cancer. It's going to be an annual reunion after this They say. We pray Tommy will still be with us next year. Today we celebrated with him and caught up with old friends.

Such a great group of co-workers. We worked hard but found time for fun and maybe a few pranks.

This is a picture of Gloria(AP) and the Principal Diana. They were great to work for.
And another AP I worked for was Patty and behind us is Coach Roome. 

 

That's Tommy in the green shirt below. His life partner Andrew and that's Lisa in the middle. She recently won a nice poker jack pot. She was a cool cucumber during the game. I think it was Texas Hold'em.   The next picture of me and my backup in the AP (assistant principal office) Brenda. She came to my rescue many times. For breaks and just plan help.

It was a nice getting to see everyone but I needed to head home. Until next year...

Monday (10/6) I went to quilting bee and only managed to take two pictures. I was busy working on a project and so was everyone else.

Debra was finishing up a quilt for her sister in law. It came out really great! Can't wait to see what she will work on next. And Sondra finished her cute quilt.

Wednesday (10/9) came and it was time for Quilt Retreat but first I had something important to take care of. I had to drive to Bryan to take Pamela her wedding gown for her first fitting.  She had the biggest smile as they were taking it in. Wish I could share but can't reveal the dress until after wedding in January. 

We finished up, had a quick lunch at the Taco place around the corner, took her home and I was off to quilt retreat in Taylor for 5 days and 4 nights. 

Since I couldn't get there at check in I put my friend Donna Marie in charge. She met the retreat owner Lorena and directed the ladies to their rooms and helped them unload and even set up. Two of our friends couldn't make it because one of them, Donna Lynn's husband was in N. Carolina as lineman mechanic and the other one, Kim was at her mercy since Donna Lynn was her ride. Donna Lynn didn't have a place for her 3 dogs to stay. And no she couldn't bring them to retreat. She's always teasing me and asking to bring them with her. 

The girls missed a nice retreat at Jester's Wild. 

The accommodations were great and so was the food. The owner Lorena was super nice and accommodating. She actually had a station set up in the room with us to sew.. This was a first for us. Generally they come check on us but don't sew with us. At first it was a little different but she was just fine and was sew sew very helpful when anyone needed help with a project.

Donna Marie finished a quilt while there. She even pieced the back.  The front of the quilt and colors were sew pretty. The pattern on front I believe is called Annie's Arrowhead using layer cakes.

Donna Marie got creative when showing off her quilt by twirling with it.

Pat was working on a 9 patch quilt of fabric that had a food theme. It was really cute.

And Pat made some pillow cases and a bag. Very productive!

I think I better do a part 2 or you'll be on retreat overload.

 This group made the retreat a success with all the laughs and creativity..  

I'll get part 2 posted as fast as I can.

Until then...“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

Recovered from Shower activities and I'm behind as always...

(9/23) So I've semi rested up after the bridal shower but no grass growing under my feet. LOL. My friend Sheryl asked if I wanted to go to a Phi Mu luncheon in Houston. Our sorority sister JoNell was putting it together so we could see one of Susan another sister who was in town for a visit. A majority of the girls were a class above me but I knew about half of them. We met at The Cheesecake Factory at Memorial City.  It was fun seeing the ladies.

I walked into David's office and started laughing because all I saw was a tail sticking out from under David's desk. It was just a swinging. The desk was happy to see me. Maybe LOL. Apparently Bruno loves to lay under David's desk while David is on the computer. I had a video of the tail but it had errors so oops. It might appear and it might now. Trust me on this it was a cute tail.

(9/24)  The next day it was time to run into Bryan to take my dress into the alterations shop to get it hemmed up.  It's only going to take her 7-10 days. I thought it was take longer but apparently not. Carolina the owner was super nice. She had me out of there in 20 minutes. Most of that time was me putting on my MOB dress. LOL.  No other alterations needed thank goodness.

On Wednesday (9/25) Debra a book club friend called me and we were talking and she asked if I was going to the estate sale about 10 miles away and I said I had thought about it so we decided to go together. Lots of cool stuff. The lady that owned the house was selling a large portion of her quilting stuff. Fabric, books, long arm machine and frame, 3-4 older machines, and a multitude of other items. And the husband had some old rusty vintage items, tools, ladders, etc.  I need to get David over here too. For now Debra and I browsed around.  She bought a few things and old singer machine in a cabinet. If I had room for it I would have bought it so instead I bought some fabric and a Jim Shore Angel. If your not familiar with Jim Shore's work, all his statues have a quilty theme to them. Here's the one I bought at the sale. See the quilt block pattern in her skirt. The second picture is of one I bought a few years ago.  

  

There's all kinds of Jim Shore statues, animals, boats, Santa's, and Halloween themed, etc. 
So I told David about all the good things I saw so we went back on Thursday. LOL  We were going to support this estate sale some more.

David bought me this tractor made out of a vintage sewing machine.  While there David saw some Rusty gold items and petrified wood. We couldn't take it home that day but would come again on Friday to dig it up and load it in the truck.

I saw this sink on a tree. Cool idea but we don't have a tree big enough to hold a sink to use for a planter or whatever. And we both loved this iron wheel and birdhouse pole plus there was an old bell but these things they weren't selling. They're staying with the house. But they were selling the old plow you can barely see behind the bell. We found another plow that we also bought.

We liked the flowers in the flower bed and they're called 4'oclocks. None of the flowers had turned to seed yet but they lady there told me to break of some and see if I could get them to root. So far they're in a vase and still hanging in there. Maybe I'll find some seeds eventually. Here's what the plows and the petrified wood looks like in our landscape. 

Right now this plow kinda blends into the fence but once we put some plants around it, it should pop out more. David had to work hard on digging this one out of its resting place at the estate sale. The owner knew the right way to anchor it in his flower bed. 

This next plow was easy to move and bring home. It's now resting in its new location at the Rock n K. And the rock behind it is a piece of petrified wood. And the other piece of wood is on the other side of the walk way to the house.

And check out all the roses blooming. They started blooming the week after the bridal shower.  

 

While at the estate sale I took advantage of the cloudy day and windmill back drop and took pictures of a quilt I just finished for my friend Barbara.

I made a trip into Houston and gave it to Barbara recently.

I thought a house quilt would be appropriate for a realtor. I met her when we needed a realtor to sell our home in 1993. Each door on the house has a different fabric for a door. One has batman and one has a frog.  

This is how happy the cows are when David feeds them Cubes or as we call it Cow Crack. LOL Not sure if this video will show up either. Something is off but I haven't figured it out. But The cows are running from everywhere as if they're starving but they are not.  Don't get in their way though.

Sorry if video doesn't load. Not sure yet what's up with the upload.

The Belinda's Dream roses are blooming. This single bloom was so pretty sticking up all my itself.

My friend Sheryl sent me a post she saw on FB about a wine called Threadcount made by Quilting Winery.  Well I had to have it since I was about to head to quilt retreat. I googled it and found Total Wine had it. I had no clue if it was sweeet or dry but I knew I wanted the bottle. LOL And I got. Sew fun.  I now know it's a red wine made in California. I'll let you know how it tastes later when I share it at retreat.

That's it for now...

Until next blog...  “Cherish all your happy moments: they make a fine cushion for old age.” ~Christopher Morley