A Quilting I went

 Oh and I forgot to mention that I found out from my little sister Jerri Lynn that we both inherited the low heart rate (in the 40's) from our Dad. I learned he had a pacemaker when he was suffering from cancer and passed in 2016 but never knew why he had the pacemaker. And in light of my new pacemaker I called my sister to find out. He had a low resting heart rate and his got so low he passed out. So there you have it.

I'm still doing fine. My body continues to get used to the new heart rate. I get tired faster but the doctor says I'm healing up fine, the pacemaker hasn't seen anything unusual (Thank God) and in 3 months I'll be feeling good or great. Hope so.

 Sunday (10/18) morning arrives and I'm feeling okay so after several "are you sure you're okay" from David and me assuring him I'm feeling fine, he begins to load my car. I've already warned the girls going on the quilt retreat with me that they'll be doing my lifting.

When I arrived in Yoakum and found Three Oaks Retreat that I passed the first time. I was looking for a mailbox with bright colored letters in this picture. 

photo by Three Oaks

Not the balloons so much but the mailbox. Only the wording was smaller so I didn't see it. LOL

And followed the sign to where the fun was to begin. 

I was greeted by this sweet welcome sign.

I was also greeted by my 2 newest retreaters Bekki and Kim. They had me unloaded and set up and ready to sew in minutes. Can't thank them enough. They have no idea that this was an easy unload because normally I have about 3 more baskets of debris. I took it easy when I packed knowing someone else was gonna have to unload and load me up.

Out front decor was very welcoming. 

Slowly but surely all my quilty friends started arriving and setting up. Since we were able to check in at noon I made the executive decision that we'd meet at the retreat and then go to dinner around 5-6pm.

Folks went to work right away on projects that had long been sitting in closets waiting for their turn to be completed.

Did I mention this post is all about the retreat and might be put you into photo overload. LOL

 My video doesn't do the area justice but it gives you and idea of the shop available at the retreat center.

The retreat used to be a family home but Diana and her Mom-in-law bought the house and turned it into an awesome quilt retreat.

The next few pictures are of our rooms. Only one room didn't have a bathroom in it but it was about 5-6 steps away so no biggy.  

The bedroom pictures are photos by Three Oaks.

This room was in the same hall as the room that Donna Marie, Kim and I stayed in to the right of the den.

Our room was the one without a bathroom in it.  I slept very well in the bed.  

The next 2 bedrooms were to the left of the den. The first room here used to be the office if I remember right and the retreat added the bathroom. Or a formal living area I can't remember.

The blue and yellow room was the master originally. It was funny because the girls found a hidden room with a single behind the mirrors or through the closet. It has no windows but you either loved the room or hated it. We were told there was one retreater who always requested to stay in that  secluded room. 

The next two photos are also from the Three Oaks site of the spacious and relaxing patio. I caught a couple of the girls napping out there but I wasn't fast or quiet enough to 

catch a photo. catch it in a photo.  But here's me with my pacemaker incision in all it's glory on the patio.  LOL 

We drove 24 minutes back to Hallettsville for dinner at Los Cabos San Lucas Sunday evening.  Food was very tasty. Several got margaritas but I refrained. While I know it wasn't really the margarita that sent me into Afib on Oct 3rd but it's the association in my mind. 
I figure I'll wait to drink any alcohol until home with David just in case. David even had me put a bottle of wine in my bag but again I refrained.

After dinner we came back and the gals started working and some were talking about what they didn't bring and might need to buy at the quilt shop so I hollered for everyone to look under their chair for an envelope.

I had the Retreat put a $15 gift card under a chair and Donna Marie was the lucky winner.

       

I want to thank Donna Lynn AKA Donna Lavender from Donna's Lavender Nest for her donation for door/game prizes. She didn't join us this but sent some patterns and cute pins she made and other little items. I forgot to take a picture of them dang it but they were adorable. 

I didn't last long after dinner and had to head to bed. Everyone was tired and was winding down. Several had come to sit in the den on the comfy recliners and couch. The was the last thing I saw until I heard something that woke me up, then I heard someone call out a name. Both names of which I'll leave anonymous.  This is not how I wanted our retreat to start and I know the person I found surrounded and laying on the floor did not like the ending of her night.  Good news is she didn't hit her head but did land on her shoulder and she eventually got herself up.  That was scary. I thought we might be taking her to the hospital or calling for an ambulance. She got up the next morning a tad sore but said she was good to go. I just texted her to check on her. Her doctor gave her a shot and she is gonna have to have some therapy. Hated to hear that. Or that's physical therapy not mental.  Her words. LOL

Monday (10/19) was a full day of quilty fun. Elly worked on this sweet pillowcase her grand-daughter.  And This is our Elly working hard on another project.

 

 These simple squares place in a special order will be cut with a special ruler called the Twister and will end of looking like the pattern in the picture called Twisted Chevron.  How crazy is that? Except the pattern call for a lot more fabric than was needed. Oh well. 

 I have to say Thank you to my sweet Elly for taking over 50% of the pictures.

This is Bekki one my new retreaters. She's awesome and so very helpful.  She was always helping someone fix their machine.  The next picture is of Donna Marie and Kim. Kim is also a new retreater. She's a hoot. Both of the new girls blended like they had been with us since the beginning. I've been organizing retreats since October 2013. We've come a long way baby

 Connie put this together really quickly with fabric from Barbara Paul's stash, may she rest in peace. She fought a long hard battle with cancer. I'm sure she's smiling down on Connie seeing her fabric being put to good use. 

We have more than one Donna in our group so I add their middle name when I'm hollering for one of them.  Donna Karen and Jane (sisters), me and Donna Marie. 

Pat and Connie put a smile on for the camera. Pat has relatives in Yoakum and one

owns the BBQ Shack there. That's what we had for lunch on Tuesday. Yummy! Gee do I mention that when Pat and Elly get back and are setting up for lunch that someone dropped the bag with the BBQ sauce.  LOL. The girls saved a cup. Pat bought more the next day for leftovers.

Monday's Lunch time.. Yummy Stouffer's Lasagna with Texas Toast and a great salad made by Diane for Monday, She is front left. Judy behind her, Denise, Kim and Bekki.

Kim was so excited to finish her unicorn whale quilt. LOL Yes Kim I know.... It's a Narwhale.  I had never heard of before but there really is a whale that is called the unicorn of the sea(Narwhal). The colors and the quilt turned out really cute.             

This is my longtime friend Denise.  We used to work together and we have belonged to the same book club for 24 years come this January,     And here's a photo of Judy's project. Looks like fence rails but I think the pattern had a different name. 

Here's a better picture of Diana the salad maker.  And check out the quilt she finished from Barbara's stash. Let's see if I get this right. Her daughter was married to Barbara's son.      

Here a couple more tops that Diana was working on.  

               

Donna Marie is having a hard time with the layout.

 This was a paper piece that Bekki brought to work on.  So intricate looking. I haven't paper pieced but this one scares me but she's doing a beautiful job.

Denise with her finished quilt top. So darn cool.  I think it was a block of the block the month from a while back and she was ready to finish it up. She can mark it off her list of UFO's now

A Couple of the girls were making pillow cases. Sew cute. Just posting a couple pictures of them.

         

Bekki pulled out the fabric for this quilt that she had already cut to sew in these blocks Sunday and was finished by Monday. Wow.  I love the colors and the pattern.  Myself and Kim were trying to figure out how to get into our bag or car without Bekki noticing. LOL  

Bekki was also working on her block of the month quilt from Lone Star Quiltworks. I totally wanted to steal it for my Texas Guest room.  Love Love  What you can't really see in the photo is the fabric detail which is bluebonnets, Texas western and wild flowers. If you enlarge the picture you'll see.

Donna Karen started working on this UFO at the last retreat she attended and hasn't touched it since but she finished it this time. Another cute project.

  

Here is Jane with one of her finished projects

These ladies were so much fun and took care of me. If I disappeared more than 15 minutes some would come check on me.  I'm not gonna post every picture of the ladies but here's few.  To see all the pictures taken click HERE . Actually I think I put most of them on here. Sorry but We had so much fun I had to share

  

  

 

And Yes I worked on something.... a Christmas lap quilt for my Aggie.

A few years back Judy brought a dice game called Left Right Center and we've been playing ever since.  Some people play with money some play with candy... We play with fat quarters. If you only had 3 FQ and rolled the below you'd have nothing.  LOL  The person with a 1 plus FQ's left is a winner of the FQ's in the center.  I choose a theme for the fabric so that it will coordinate hopefully and the person who wins could make a small quilt or add to it. This retreat was Kaffe Fassett fabric. It all goes together.  I've had polka dot and stripes theme, pastel colors, black and white, you name. 

 

We started out  with 3 FQ but in the last few retreats I went to 4 then 5.  You never know who will finally win.  Just when you think you're out of the game the person next to you passes a FQ back your way. This game was crazy. Two of the girls kept passing the same FQ back and forth until  they didn't. Donna Karen kept rolling the dice and it came up with snake eyes and never had to give up her FQ's.

These girls were the last 3 left playing.  Until Donna Karen was the luck lady to be the last one holding  a couple of FQ's.  Her win was 60 FQ's of Kaffe Fassett.

 

She was a happy retreater.

      

Congratulations to all my door/game prize winners. 

And thanks to all the girls who brought desserts and snacks.

Like Bekki, Connie, Pat, Diana........ there's more

Okay retreat is over and so is the picture overload almost.

Thank you Diana, Kat and Robin for creating a great place to retreat and taking care of all our wants and needs from all us Material Girls. 

Congratulations to my door/game prize winners. 

Okay retreat is over and so is the picture overload.

Hugs everyone.

Until next blog post... 

friendship is a tapestry woven through the years with threads of joy, laughter, happiness and tears.