Thursday, October 27, 2022

How about a field trip to Shiner?

 After the friendly game of Left*Right*Center everyone went back to being creative and sewing away. 

Connie was working on a blue and white quilt. It's going to be really pretty when she finishes. Connie helped Anita on her rag quilt. Everyone is always helping each other. That's what's great about going on retreat. The comradery. The being with ladies who love and have the same hobby you do. 

Everyone was jealous of Jane. She made it look so easy to get on the floor and get back up.

Most of these ladies have been with me since 2013.  October makes 9 years of retreating together.

Denise and Ellen met at work years ago. They even had babies about the same time. They're kids grew up together.  And there's Ellen and her friend Jane. They've been friends since elementary school. There's a story for everyone at my retreat. 
  
Pat was working on her Hunter Star. She put it up on the design wall and was having a fun time trying to lay it out. So the question was 'How many quilters does it take to put quilt blocks together?"
And finally it all went together and came out great. Love it.

Tuesday Morning (10-11) 8 of us got us got dressed, ate some of Kathy's yummy breakfast casserole and went to Shiner. Stay calm we didn't go to the Brewery. We went to a cool quilt shop called The Square Quilter. When you first walk in you think this shop is small but as you continue to walk in you find more rooms of fabric, thread and quilting essentials. The 8 of us might have spent some money here but I'll never tell who or how much.

After all that shopping we were hungry so we headed to The Sunken Gardens.
It's cafeteria style. You serve yourself and when you get to the cash register they weigh your plate. Yep you pay by the weight of your plate. The food was good and they had a good selection.


More work and completions.  Great job Diana. Love all the fish on the border.

Donna Marie worked on this top but I didn't get a picture of it when she was sewing it up. And she made a couple of cute gift bags or you could give it to a child as a little purse.
  
Here's one of my tops I finished for a new baby boy in the Ft Worth Area. Momma requested dinosaurs. You'll have to click on the picture to enlarge to see the dinos.
My next top I worked on was more dinos. But I need to fix the border. It needs dinos and less green. It's kinda in your face. I need to figure something out to fix it.  You'll have to wait and see if I find more of the dino fabric at a later date.

You always have that one friend who stands out. And that's my buddy Donna Lynn. She's my gal that quilts all my quilts. Love her. She keeps me laughing. I can't remember what was said or happened but Donna Lynn was being mischievious and Anita goes
 "That's what you get for finding friends online. " LOL That's how I met Donna Lynn. She was a fellow blogger and I asked her if she wanted to go on a quilt retreat. After I did it and she said yes I hoped she wasn't a crazy person.
Well she is crazy. Crazy fun..  








Denise was having fun. We all were.
What great group of ladies! Thanks to each of them for bringing food, helping cook and clean, for bringing laughter and talent to the retreat.
And before we knew it, it was Thursday and time to check out. 
Us ladies all worked together at a company called WTS at the time I was there. Kathy, Ellen and Denise were there at the beginning of that company. I came in much later.
Denise, Ellen, Kathy and me. Long time friends of 25+ years.
These ladies worked with me at CyFair School District in Houston.
Donna, Pat and me.

And these 3 are family. Sheryl, Diana, and Connie.


 The End . Everyone got home safely.

Until the next blog......Blessed are the piece makers, for they shall quilt forever

Friday, October 21, 2022

A Week on the Seamy Side with the Material Girls

 What a wonderful week. Hanging out with the talented and fun Material Girls. 

My friend and sorority sister Sheryl rode with me. We talked the whole way. We stopped in Halletsville to pick up some groceries and eat an early dinner before checking into the retreat.  We were early so we met Donna Lynn at the Vintage Market an antique shop. 

Found all kinds of pretties but I had to save my money for fabric.  LOL We will be going on a field trip to a shop we've never been before. But I saw a great T-Shirt.  Gotta love it.

We had dinner at Los Cabos San Lucas. We stopped there each time we go to retreat at Three Oaks in Yoakum. Food is good and so are the margarita's so they say. 

Three Oaks is a great retreat and the venue is run by Kat and she's great to work with. Now that I've said that... there is big news on this subject.  Kat announced yesterday the venue will be changing ownership to Wanda Moss who is a super nice lady. She drove the Calico Crossing Queen bus full of quilting goodies.. The venue name is changing to The Oaks at Yoakum. All retreats are in tact that have been booked and she'll be adding a few surprises. I can only wish Kat the best in next chapter. 

But while we were there we were comfortable and had lots of laughs and we made a new friend. I had one bed left so I sent out an email to 5 people on my backup list and Anita Moore was the first to reply "I want to come". We had never met and she us, but she was a delight. She fit right in. 

Pat hung up her vintage Santa Quilt on the design wall. Hers came out so cute.

Then Denise shared her quilt she had been working for a couple retreats. This girl makes some of the most awesome quilts.
 
Donna Lynn put her dresden blocks and went to work putting borders on them.


Sunday morning was breakfast tacos. This is the half I couldn't eat. These things were huge and yummy. Didn't expect to be so big but they all got ate by the last day of retreat.
Ellen will shoot me probably because she hated this project. The rest of us were impressed and thought it pretty cool. She put it away and went to work on her next project. A Rosary quilt. It came out looking great.

  

Denise went to work on her UFO. Pretty. Can't wait to see her finished quilt top.

Kathy and Sheryl are my two non-quilters. Kathy was crocheting. a really pretty throw.. She also did some embroidery work. She was working on all the green grass blades. Sheryl was felting. She was working on little gnomes for wine bottle toppers.

 
  

A couple retreats ago a retreater (Vicki) made $1 bills into origami shapes for our game of Left*Right*Center. She inspired Donna Marie to make some this year. 
A dress, an elephant, a shirt n tie, a house and a heart. So cool. I think my fav was the heart but the elephant was almost everyone else's.
Donna said she'd never do the elephant again. It was difficult and a pain. LOL
I tried to capture a few of the reactions at the end of the game. It was close. You're not out until until you have no money and your neighbors have no money. These ladies were hoping to be the last one holding a dollar.

Poor Anita dropping her last dollar in the pot and Elly was so happy to be back in the game. But that was short lived.
      

The last one holding money was Denise. She had never won when we've played with fat quarters or now with money.  This will be her shopping money for our field trip to Shiner to visit a quilt shop called the Square Quilter.  
I'll stop for this post because there are so many pictures of my quilty friends I want to share.. And the fun just keeps going....
Until the next post.... Life is quiltisentially about being together