Quilt Retreat = Fun...

It was time for another quilt retreat. Yippee Yahoo. I jumped in the car Sunday the 12th and headed to RR Retreats by Margie in LaGrange for a week of laughter, sewing and bonding with 10 of my Quilty BFF's. First we meet up at Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant for an early dinner and by 5-5:30 we drive that last 7 miles out to the retreat and the fun begins.......

We were hopping Roxie and Rosie, the ponies would give birth while we were there but that didn't happen. 
But the evening entertainment one afternoon was Margie yelling Chop Chop the ponies came running to the porch. They knew Momma had scraps to feed them. 

We had barely unloaded and the Ladies were hard at work setting up and starting to sew. Some were starting new projects like myself and other were completing UFO's. I call Sandy my over achiever because she always completes at 3-4 tops. 


She comes prepared with tops all cut out
 and ready to piece. Isn't this cat quilt top too cute.  Her first finish of many. Like this next one.

And then there was poor Donna Lynn who kept getting an electrical shock every time she tried to sew or got close to her machine pedal. Her little purple machine was having issues.  Jim (Margie retreat owners husband) came to the rescue. Apparently one of the cords wasn't grounded. Never knew sewing could be so electrifying. 

These girls are great. I always give out silly game/door prizes and at different times they contribute items. Can't thank them enough.  And one of the girls made us all winners in the game Left Right Center. Judy made us all lanyards. 

I was trying to play LRC for myself and one of our new retreater Ana who had to go home sick. I promise I didn't cheat. The girls made sure of it but Ana actually won the game and all 30 Fat Quarters from the LRC game.

Ana was excited and surprised.

Ana and Donna Marie

The theme was polka dots and strips. I still have all the fat quarters I won from 2 retreats ago. Haven't decided what to make with mine. One day.



As always we have fun and there's always plenty of laughter. One evening for dinner Margie the retreat owner was setting the table and putting a Mexican candy next to each plate but she was one short. I told her it wasn't a problem I'd just give the one at my plate to the person who didn't have one. She couldn't figure out why and how she came up short because she just knew she counted out 11 when she bought them. Well at dinner Margie brought up the subject of the missing candy and how she knew the folks that made it and apologized for being short. It was no big deal and then Ana speaks up "uh I ate the candy" She had no clue that they were Margie's. Ana thought they were there for anyone. It was too funny. Margie goes I knew I bought 11. Ana said it was good though and was willing to give up the one next her plate. This is probably one of those you had to be there moments 

Some of us took the usual field trip to the Quilt shop 'All Around the Block' in Giddings. I was a good girl and only bought a half yard of fabric and 4 1/2" square ruler. On the way back I stopped so

Judy could take a picture up close of some bluebonnets for a friend of hers to use to make quilt medallion. So while she was down I snapped her picture.

Next was my machine mishap. I needed some spare bobbins ready to sew with so I started winding bobbins only I couldn't pull the first bobbin off the winder. What's going on? I pulled and pulled then I decided to call the store back in Katy that just did a check up on my other machine to see if they had any ideas. The young lady Stephanie gave me several suggestions. Finally she goes you can maybe unwind the bobbin by hand. Why would I do that? 

She tells me that the tension on the bobbin is so tight it might have made the bobbin tighten on the winder. I told Stephanie I would try anything. She goes really, well then try standing on your head and wave your hands and make sure someone video's it and send a copy to her. Cracked me up.  I want to be sure and meet her when I go to McDougal's in Katy. I took all the thread of my bobbin and sure enough the bobbin came right off the spindle. YAHOO 

One night about midnight Denise and are the last two up and sewing away when I her say "that's not good". I assumed she sewed something wrong but when I look up there's lots of smoke coming out of her machine. Like I said sewing is electrifying. She had to go home for a meeting the next day so she ran her machine to the repair shop and came back the following day with another machine to sew with to finish out the retreat.

Never a dull moment at retreat.

One of my projects was to make a coffee maker cover and a toaster cover for the farm coffee pot and toaster. Got that completed. Yay. I also worked on a quilt top for my step-father Joe to give to his new great granddaughter. That is if he likes it. If not then I'll have one made for the next baby girl I need a quilt for. Picture coming later. David sent this picture to me today.
He put them to use already

My next major project was making a T shirt Quilt for Pamela. I figured I'd practice on her's before making one for a friend. I had never made one so I turned to Margie for help and tutoring. It's not what you

call hard but very time consuming with the measuring the cutting and more measuring and more cutting then sewing. Then again it is me making and I messed up one of the T shirts by placing my rotary cutter in the wrong slot when trimming up to size. So Okay it's not a disaster yet. I can just trim a 1/2" off all the other shirt squares to make them all the same size. Easy enough right? 

Well obviously not since I ended up picking up the T shirt that I screwed up in the first place and started trimming another 1/2" off it.  OMG what a dorkus! Margie just shook her head and asked how I did that.... Pretty easy. And to top it off I ended up 1 T shirt short so I'm digging through Pamela's T shirts at the house for 2 more shirts. Thanks to Margie it looks awesome. I figure Pamela won't be reading my post for a while so I'm okay to post this picture. 
The quilt is turning out beautiful thanks to Margie's help.  






And then it was time for an adult beverage. At this point I've already harmed the T shirt so the wine can't hurt at this point.


We had a day visitor one on Thursday. Jane had asked if she could invite her friend Vickie up to let her see what a retreat is about.

That way when I have an opening she can entice her friend to join us. Jane is showing Vickie (in blue)around

And check out this cute mermaid block. Cindy is suppose to make 20 of these little darlings but she decided that this little mermaid was gonna be an only child. LOL
This little mermaid block had I think 20 pieces to cut and piece together.



Now saying that brings me to a sad announcement to some of my retreaters who didn't join us this retreat... 

This fall will be our last retreat at Margie's.  Margie is cutting back and will be moving into the big house where we've always retreated. Her new retreat the Hilltop House By Margie in LaGrange,TX will only hold up to 7 and as of right now I'm not sure how to pare down my group from 10-12 retreaters to only 7. I love retreating at Margie's so it was a hard decision but with her paring down she might be able to join me at one or two of my retreats. I'd like that and so would the rest of my group. 

Hilltop House will still have the same great views, fun and hospitality.  The only thing changing is the group size. So if anyone needs a retreat for 6-7 in 2018 you need to check it out.  Can't beat the price $50 per night and no deposit. Food is an additional nominal cost or she has a fully stocked kitchen to cook in for yourselves. But you don't want to miss her cooking a meal for you. Yum. She officially started advertising today so if you're interested you can Call Margie for Availability (832) 454-7871 OR email her at margie@hilltop-house-by-margie.com

Here's a couple pictures of other completions....

 

 

To see any other pictures from retreat... Click Here

The Material Girls

It's always hard leaving retreat. It's like you just get settled and before you know it it's time to check out. So my here's the end of my 8th successful retreat. Now I'm headed to Round Top to visit a friend and then on down the road to Pamela's for the weekend and hang out at the farm with David. More on that next post...

So until next blog....