Gone Quilting - Part 1

 Had such a fun time last week. (3/14 - 3/18).  Got together with several of my quilty friends and went to retreat in Kountz, TX at Stone Creek Lodge.  What an awesome place. The ladies there are awesome and the food......! We didn't go hungry and it was sew darn tasty. Be prepared for photo overload.

Donna Marie made me a really cute room assignment chart that we hung up so the gals would be reminded what room they were in.

After we got there around 1ish and all settled in I made a few announcements, welcomed our 3 new ladies that joined us and eventually told everyone to look under their chair to see who was the first winner of the retreat. Couldn't believe it... Donna Marie won a Gift certificate from the quilt shop there at the venue. She won at the October retreat. Everyone figures they need to sit across from me to win. One of the ladies that own the retreat put the "Winner" sticker under the chair before we got there so I didn't even know who was gonna be the winner. Donna Marie you better go buy a lotto ticket.

I had asked the retreat owner for a restaurant with good margaritas and she said it was a Cajun place. Really I ask and especially after she told be the name was Tia Juanita's. LOL. Okay so it's seafood and Mexican food. The food was really good and the girls said the margarita's were awesome. I refrained since the last time I had one in October 2020 I went into Afib. I did order some crawfish. Hadn't had any since I retired in 2018 and left Houston.  Awesome!

When we get back to retreat one of the ladies realizes she left her medication at home. It sounded like a drug deal going down. 2 of us ladies were able to provide her a pill for 2 of 3 or 4 pills she needed. LOL. She was able to call the next morning to the doctor to prescribe a sample doseage of her medications. And another gal forgot her CPAP. There goes her restful night. Ear plugs for everyone else.

Then gifts were exchanged. It was funny. At this retreat it seemed several of us decided to share something we made or received and was able to share with everyone.

Jane walked up to me and said "Jerry called"  LOL And she gave me a donkey cookie cutter. Love it and I was told to go look on my bed and I found a cup and saucer gift with a donkey on it from Donna Lynn and Kim. So sweet. Love these ladies.  Donna Marie made Owl pincushions for everyone, Diana made smelly good soap, and Donna Karen and Vicki made soup bowl holders and a jar mix to make soup. I was able to give each of the ladies a couple rulers and scissors that I was gifted. 

Trust me this don't usual happen like this. I think we were all glad to be together again.  Our 3 newest ladies thought maybe they missed the memo about bringing a gift to share but they didn't. Oh and I walked away from my sewing table and came back to find a Bunny Mug Rug from Donna Lynn.  It's sew cute.

Donna Lynn, Kim and I went in together to buy special cookies from Donna Lynn's friend for retreat. These not only looked cute they tasted good. There were buttons, spools, scissors, sewing machines and pin cushions.

We played a couple of games for other door prizes before retreat was over. 

• Word find was won by Donna Marie. I tell you she should buy a lottery ticket. 
• Word call. pick 20 words out of 60 on sheet. Then I randomly call out words off the sheet and the first one who has all their 20 words called out is the winner and that was Diana. 

Didn't get their pictures at that time. Oops.  Where was my photographer Elly. We missed her this retreat.

• Last game we play was Left Right Center. You start out rolling 3 dice. If you get an L you pass one of your FQ's to the left and if you get a C then it gets tossed into the bucket in the center. The last one holding a FQ plus wins. And that was Connie this retreat. She won a total of 85 Tula Pink FQ's and the bucket.
  

  
  
  I do believe she was a happy winner. YAY!

Everyone got right to work on their projects that have been in closets waiting or something new.

Becky is working on a block. Oh in case you noticed the names .... I have 2 Becky's. One is spelled Bekki, I have 2 Kim's, and 3 Donna's. You could call Donna and they all would look up.  LOL I added their middle names to make it easier.

This is Bekki working on this beautiful WIP and it looks really intricate. Can't wait to see the finished project. She's using Kaffe Fasset fabric.  Correction it's Tula Pink.                                     Most of us had 8' tables to work on so we were spaced out for social distancing.  About 4-5 people had 6' tables but still spread out.

Bekki worked away on this one and finished before retreat was over.

               

Then there was this Apple core pattern one that Pat grumbled and cussed but she won the fight and finished.

This one was titled "How many quilters does it take to thread a needle"  LOL

Actually Bekki was helping Kim and Donna Lynn fix the featherweight machine. It was making a funny noise.    So as not to totally overload you I'll stop for now.

Watch for Part II coming soon with more quilts.

I surround myself with talented and skilled people hoping some of it will rub off on me.

Until next blog "People come into our lives for a purpose"