A quilting I went.

I was surprised to learn that when the N. Houston post office collapsed on 9/19 from the heavy rains in that area it would affect my area too.  Apparently due to budget cuts Brazos County closed their sorting and distribution center some time ago and all our mail goes through the N. Houston PO.  Oh man that's not good. We got our first bit of mail on 9/27 and it continues to trickle in but very sporadic.  Best part of that is it had my paycheck in it. Double YAY.

There was almost a mishap coming back down the driveway through the cows and Jerry. I managed to drop the mail and Jerry was hoping it was something to so he ducked down to check it out but I beat him to the envelopes. I might have had to call the boss and say the Donkey ate my check instead of saying the Dog. But I was a tad faster than Jerry. Thankfully.

David went and sent me these pictures from our neighbors across the road. Jamie and her husband Dendy killed a young Rattlesnake just outside their back door. NOOO! Where's the momma? YIKES. And then he tells me we had a copperhead out by the front gate on the road. I thought maybe he'd run over it but it was kinda dark at 5:30am. So all week I kept looking for that damn thing to come out of the grass.

I'm sorry but I hate spiders and snakes. And yes I know I live in the country but it don't mean I can't hate and fear them.

So  I worked a few hours the first days of October and packed for my Quilt retreat. It's so hard to decide what to take and how many projects to pack to work on. I'm always overly ambitious with how many projects I pack.  I actually had 2 retreats I was going to attend this time. Crazy me.
I was invited to to attend a mini retreat at RR Retreats in LaGrange and then the retreat I organized.

So Friday afternoon rolled around and I headed out to LaGrange to RR Retreats.





It was supposed to be a Black/White retreat but about 5 of us still needed to finish and get help from Margie, the retreat owner on our Center medallions for our Round Robins.  Two of the girls present were going to be on my team of 5 ladies. We were meeting for the first time. Very nice ladies and fun.  Margie is on our team and 3-4 others. The woman loves Round Robins obviously.  It was nice to hear her brag about The Reluctant Rounds our team from 2017-18.

She told all of the 17-19 ladies present at this mini retreat that our quilt we worked on for her was the best ever. It was proportional and beautiful. Of course she drilled it in our heads to gradually increase the size of each border and not start off big.
Kudo's Reluctant Robins we did good. 
While at Margie's I met some new and very talented ladies. Then I figured why this one gal looked so familiar. Her daughter played water polo with Pamela in High School and at Texas A&M. Small world.
I have to show this quilting on one of Margie's quilts. It is awesome and it was even more awesome when I found out Lisa did it free hand. No digital or panograph! Free Hand. Wow.

 


She showed me some of her other work and I was just as wow'ed

I am so impressed with the detail.  Lisa runs her own quilting company called My Quilting Fairy. Cute name too.  She's located in Katy.

This is Margie the Retreat owner and the host of this mini retreat. She's working hard to help each of us that wanted help with our book for the round robin. The book provides information as to what we like, what fabrics to use the most or just a little of, how big we'd like it to be and it also lets the ladies who will be adding a border on our quilts what we don't want.  I guess I should have taken a picture of the page for an example.


Margie is the Queen of Round Robins. She will be participating in 3-4 at the same time. Wow. I don't know how she does it.  She's my mentor for round robin activity and border building.




Here's what was being created at the mini retreat. Not black and white but wow creativity and talent was shining.



 This quilt I believe was being worked on by Kim. She's in my round robin group.








This quilt is being made by a beginner quilter named Jeanie. It's her daughter that played water polo with mine.







Now I've managed to forget the name of the gal making this sweet quilt.  It's sew sweet looking. I want to say her name was Karen but I'm not sure. Bad Me.

 And this quilt (Yellow Brick Road pattern) is being made by Charlotte, another beginner quilter. It's looking really good. She is one of the few who actually worked on a black and white quilt theme.

On Sunday 10/6 it was time for me to head out to Kountz, Texas for the retreat I had organized. I looked at Google Maps and it was supposed to be a 3 1/2 hour drive but it didn't know I'd get stuck behind people who would drive 45-55 in a 70 mph area on two different roads. These people were really trying my patience but it didn't matter. I couldn't  pass either because of oncoming traffic or the no passing zone. Ugh I couldn't win.  I had to call the girls and tell them I wouldn't be at the restaurant on time.
It actually took 4 1/2 hours.

About a month before our retreat one of the girls asked about doing a challenge. I said sure like what?
So Donna Lynn suggested we each make/decorate a Witches Hat and wear it to the restaurant when we meet up on Sunday 10/6. I sent the email and everyone was in.
I got to the restaurant before everyone left. As I walked in this older guy and his family were walking out. I had to laugh because he literally stared me down but walked as far to the left of me as he could. I wish I could have pulled my camera out and taken a picture of his expression.

It's really easy to find all the girlsWitches. LOL  These 10 little Witches are very creative.

 Here's pictures of the individual hats.   We had the retreat owners judge the hats. They were really good.     They had some tough choices but they did it.

*Vickie's hat won the Best in the Mini Group

Jane's Hat

I just realized I'm missing a picture of the 3rd hat. I tried cropping a picture of Sandy Y. but that didn't work. It came out blurry when I cropped and enlarged. 

Donna Lynn's Hat

Kim's Hat

 I got honorable mention for my Fall theme. I have to give my daughter credit for picking out the decor and I had to put it on the hat. One of the gals that worked at the retreat actually bought my hat. Wow!  Pretty awesome. Didn't expect that.

                 

All the hats look like they came out of a magazine. Lots of creativity and time.

Pat's Hat

This hat even had flashing lights. Too Cool.

Diana's Hat won Best Over All

Laural's Hat won Most Creative

Kim even brought her own transportation.  LOL She came from Albuquerque, NM to join us. And we're glad she did.

We had another first timer with us. Laural came all the way from Littleton, CO. Again glad she did.

Here's the whole group of little witches. We had 2 mortals among us. LOL.  They planned on participating but ran out of time and that's okay.       Next time. Just glad they had time to join us at retreat.       

 Thanks to Donna Lynn for coming up with this challenge. It was fun.
We tried another new venue called Stone Creek Lodge in Kountz, TX and we really loved it. Great food and plenty of left overs for us to eat later. The layout was great. They even had a Quilt Store on site that we shop in our jammies if we wanted to. Not to mention the ladies who ran the place were very friendly and helpful.
Oh I guess there was only one bone I have with Dani..... She gave me a couple of suggestions of where to eat and the one I picked didn't have their liquor license and we couldn't have a margarita to start retreat off with. LOL Just kidding. I did mean to give Dani a bad time about that and forgot.
This was our work room. Big and spacious.

 And this is where had our meals.

 The surrounding area outside was really nice too.

 

I made the ladies each a stiletto to use when sewing. I hadn't glued them yet in this picture.  Sometimes I can be creative.

 Here's a few pictures of the talent and creative ladies I surround myself with. 

Donna Lynn's

Sandy Y. paper piecing

 Diana made a Crown Royal Quilt. She was working on this at her first retreat with us back in October 2018. She almost had it pretty much finished then but the finishing touches on it at this retreat. It is so colorful.
 

Donna Lynn's finish

I forgot who's panel this is.      

Sandy Y

 And this is what the floor looks like up close. I scared the heck out of everyone when I slipped out of my chair and fell on the floor. Jarred my back but surprisely never got a headache.  My trick for the first night at retreat. Geez.
 

Kim's almost finished here.

Pat's panel finish

I forgot another one. Didn't keep track of everyone's progress apparently.  Love the quilt. 

 Kim and Donna Lynn are helping Connie with the layout and sizing on her quilt.
There might have been some tomfoolery going on. Kim didn't realize someone had been putting strips of fabric in her hair.
 
My daughter Pamela bought some special cute cookies from a nursing friend of hers for me to share with my quilting buddies.

Donna Lynn & Kim

 





The retreat venue is also used as a wedding venue so sometimes there are men present too. Sandy captured the picture on the main bathroom door.  Since we had no men in our group we were able to use that restroom also. There was a total of 4 showers and 5 restrooms for us. Great sign.

I believe this was Pat's

Here's a few more quilt shots.

Judy's Walk About pattern progress.
I'm in the process of making one like this now.
Judy showed me a trick to make those half square triangles faster after I Had already cut 24 of individually. I'll be using her method next time most definitely.

A work in progress for Jane on the right and not sure who's the one on the left belongs too.

This is  some of the fabric I was using to make a baby quilt. Can't show the completed top in case the recipient reads this post. Finished it though and sent it home with my quilter Donna Lynn to quilt it. Again my color expert daughter helped pick out the fabric. She's good at it.

 
 Even though the retreat had a quilt shop we still made a quick trip to a shop in Silsbee called The Vintage Owl. They had racks of fabric at 60% off and this display of red checked, trucks and barns. I was so temped to buy some but I didn't. So much eye candy.

Fabric, patterns, novelties, kits oh my.

Our time went by too quickly. Before we were ready it was time to pack up and head out.
On my way home I stopped off at my Mom's for a quick visit. The drive home went much smoother.

David had gotten off work early that day so he was home waiting for me.

Well that's it for now.

Until next blog post ...