A little more quilting and more adventures.

 So I'll share a bit more of the retreat. There was so much creativity and laughter going on.  

This is Diana and Connie. 

Diana worked on her crazy quilt box, stockings and I'm not sure what the last piece, the star will used. She's talented with all the embellishments.

And Connie worked hard on trying to finish this king size quilt top. She was close. 

Here's Jane showing off her part of her table runner. She also made pillow cases.

Kathy generally does beautiful crochet work but this time she worked on quilted bowl holders. Of course I caught her taking a break from all the cutting and piecing. She may start quilting yet. She's one step closer.

Wednesday we went into Giddings to hit the quilt shops and have lunch at Reba's. I told the ladies to go ahead and get in line while I'd hold our table plus wait for the last girls to arrive.  While standing there I looked over and saw this girl that I knew.  

Her mom, Brenda worked with me at Watkins MS in Cypress. I haven't seen Brenda since we moved to the farm. Anyway I walked over and asked "aren't you Brenda's daughter Erin?"  Of course she was.  She took a picture of us and sent it to her mom. It was fun running into her. She lives and works somewhere in the Giddings area.  

Oh and Reba's was great. They have expanded their menu and even have a bar. They moved a larger space down 290 from where they were.

Anita was able to finally get her rag quilt top laid out the way she wanted.

Sew she had lots of cutting to do. Like 3 times the cutting.

That evening the quilting stopped for some die hard Astros fans. They turned on the TV and watched the game. And they were really happy when the Astros won.

Here's a couple of finishes for Vicki. The bright colors made this quilt cheery and the wild life top was so cute. The kit came with brown sashing but she found the teal color and used it for sashing instead. 

     

Yes I had one finish but can't post a picture yet. It may be a gift. And here's the one I finally started. I've had the pattern for about 3 years. It will be a Texas Flag eventually. I'll have to think of borders to add to it so it will fit my king size bed. I might finish it one day. At least I started it.

And before we knew it, it was Thursday 10/12 and our time was up. It was time to pack up and head home. Until Spring and then we'll be back.

Sheryl and I got back to my house, got her belongings transferred to her car so she could head on down the road to her house. Then David helped get my stuff unloaded. We sat down and talked briefly and then I was heading out the door again. LOL

It was the G3 book club meeting night. We just read The Maze by Nelson DeMille. I've read other books of his and really liked his writing. The main character in this book was in the Plum Island book also but I sure don't remember John Corey being so arrogant and annoying. LOL. The overall book was good but you had grit your teeth when he bragged about how good he was. Oh and he was a man whore. If it wore a skirt he was ready to pounce on it. He was a woman magnet. John Corey was tricked into becoming a CI for a former love interest, Beth and cop from the Plum Island book to investigate a series of murders that seemed to be linked to a new Private Investigation service.   I managed to forget my notes about our next couple of meetings and some discussion questions but that didn't stop those present from enjoying the evening. And the girls let me forget to get a group picture again. Dang it.

With the weather change our Belinda's Dream roses are now blooming like crazy. So of course I had to snap some pictures. Well my pictures don't do justice to all the beautiful blooms and color. The pictures are 7 days apart but you can see more color in the 2nd one.

Friday 10/13.. Now David was a little sneaky before I left for retreat and I didn't found out until I got home. I was in the house and I heard a motor start up and the dogs jumped up all alert. I told them it was okay it's just your furless Dad starting the race car but at the same time it sounded like a motorcycle but I knew we didn't have.... Right? So David came in the house a while later and I was telling him that the dogs were very alert when he started the race car and I laughed saying it almost sound like a motorcycle. A few minutes went by and he said can I stop what I was doing and come see something.  So sure no problem.  He leads the way to the barn and goes I got something. Holy crap it's a motorcycle and it's a Harley. A Harley, really.. He bought it last Saturday before I left. He got it home and in the barn before I saw it.

What a little sneak.

 He plans on racing it some in the street class and just got it for fun basically.  It's not fast like his previous drag bikes.

Saturday 10/14.. Date night with the other Kennedy's. We met up in Cameron for the Steak, Stein and Wine Festival. This year there was lots of vendors there and adult beverage booths/trucks. Kelli and I had a glass of wine from our favorite winery En Gedi and the boys got beer from a brewery booth of which I can't remember the name. Kelli and John's son Jared was with us too.

The best part was as we were walking to the square there was a guy with a spider monkey.  She was a cutie. But that little monkey didn't care about no one else but David. She made a bee line to him. She grabbed his hand and climbed right on up on his shoulder and head. She wrapped her tail around David. It was true monkey love.  LOL David wasn't sure what to think.

I wish I could say that our steak dinner tasted as good as it looked but I can't. The potatoes and green beans were awesome but the steak was raw and had so much gristle it was terrible. You couldn't cut it and some were picking it up with their hands trying to eat caveman style. David broke his plastic fork just trying to pick it up.  Not sure what happened this year but it wasn't 44 farms cooking and I don't think this was their meat either.  Oh well it was nice hanging with the other Kennedy's.

That's enough for now.

Until next blog..    "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it." ~ Groucho Marx

  

Our 21st Quilt Retreat at Hidden Treasures was Great.

 10 years of planning quilting retreats for myself and friends. Wow.  This is our 21st retreat. Over half of the ladies that joined me at this retreat have been with me the entire 10 years. 

Warning PHOTO OVERLOAD...

As I said Donna Marie organized gathering gifts to put in the tote pictured here that she made. It had 10 of various items. Even 10 dollar bills x 3. Had a hard time capturing everything but you get the idea. Plus several of the girls gave everyone a welcoming gift.   Thank you Sheryl, Connie, Sandy, Kathy, Denise, Donna Lynn, Vicki, Jane, Anita and I know I'm forgetting someone but thank you all for everyone's welcome gifts.  

This little guy was already on my entry table so he didn't get pictured with the rest of our welcome gifts. I can't kill this one. LOL

Last thank you for now.  Thank you's go out to Vicki, Pat and Donna Lynn. They donated items for me to put in the door prize bags. I buy things throughout the year when I see them but their contribution helped fill the bags.

Moving on to the good stuff.... The fun and the finishes or just the starts of our many quilty projects.

I had to go back and look this quilt up and found that Donna Lynn started this quilt in 2019 and she finished it this retreat and started another quilt

       

This quilt had the sweetest vintage fabric and she put this one together pretty fast. With all this quilting going on Donna Lynn must have forgotten her passenger in the car.  Oops.... I believe she's been there a while.

LOL 

Pat pulled out a twister block quilt that she started well lets say a few days ago. mmmm That's her story and she's sticking to it.

And she brought a quilt for show n tell that she finished at a retreat she went to a week ago. Wow. Lots of work went into it. Beautiful.

Plus she completed a couple other cute projects.

    

Sandy has always been my overachiever when it comes to completely quilt tops when at retreat. She comes with them cut and ready to piece but this year she came ready to do some Diamond Painting. I have seen the kits on some sites but never knew what or how it's done.  She made this coaster for me.

She continued to drop those little beads where they belonged. I want to say she finished 3 different projects at least. It's kinda like painting by numbers but instead you're using little beads.

This is Donna Marie. She finished making the bag for me and then worked on a paper piecing project.

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This crazy woman was on a roll. She finished up a quilt top, donation blankets, pillow cases and shared her cute dolls she made.  Ellen is the life of the retreat.

 And she started another quilt top. 

This is my long time friend and sorority sister Sheryl. She doesn't quilt but she does wool punching. She takes a ball of wool and it becomes in this case a gnome wine bottle topper. She's also been my co-pilot for last several years to retreat. No gnomes were injured during this process. 

We love playing the dice game of Left Right Center. We all hope to win that money.

I love how Kathy gets into the game. She has a special dice throw trying to win. Didn't work at this retreat. It worked in April though. LOL

The big winner was Jane. It was the first time she has ever won the money

A bunch of folks went outside to catch this beautiful sunset one evening. Denise, Anita and I were the last to go back in.

Denise worked on this quilt and completed the top. Love it.  The retreat owner came in and was talking with us and I caught her on camera. Christi has an awesome retreat and she's the hostess with the mostest. The craft room was well light and the food was great. She provided us a nice variety of food. 

Christi was so easy to get a long with and very helpful. We will be going back to Hidden Treasures!

I better stop for now. I hope you've enjoyed the retreat as much as we did! I'll try to share a bit more in my next blog post.

Until then...What happens at quilting retreats, stays at quilting retreat unless your BPO has a blog. LOL