Retreat Show ‘n Tell

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Barb

Once again, the gals of the JSS Bee have proven their talents with some fabulous quilts at retreat.  Let the show begin!

You saw these blocks just a few months ago.  When we all made them for Lani just before she moved to NYC.  Lani doesn’t let any grass grow under her feet when it comes to getting quilts completed.  She surrounded all those beautiful Texas blocks with houses (or is it barns, Lani?), offset them a little and voilà!  Another Lani quilt was born!  And it is just fabulous.  Of course, we can all take credit.  And we do.  I, in particular, am happy to take credit for helping on a wonderful quilt.  Can’t wait to see it quilted, Lani!

By the way, you can’t buy this pattern anywhere.  Lani made it up!  She’s good at that.  She should start writing patterns and get money for these fabulous creations. 

Here’s Lani with another quilt top.  This one was actually made by Sally.  You see, Sally got Lani’s fabric in our Brown Bag Challenge last year and stitched together this fabulous top.  Lani added another border or two at retreat and now it’s finished and ready for quilting.  Lani always completes lots of projects at retreat.  Just like me.  Not.  I should have said Lani is just the opposite of me.  I complete one project every 6 or 7 retreats.  Lani does the opposite.  It’s good to have all kinds of quilters in the world, don’t you think?

Any excuse, that’s my motto.

Look at Betty’s pretty quilt!  These blocks are from last year’s Saturday Sampler at Quilter’s Dream.  Betty got them all together, including setting blocks and triangles.  And it looks fabulous.

Look at this cool quilt Melinda put together in a day.  She’s quick that Melinda!  And she even struggled through the pattern on this one and had to rewrite half of it.  I told her to buy patterns written in English next time.  It would be much easier.

Here’s a great quilt that Melinda brought along to show us all.  Made from souvenirs of a trip to Disney World.  And wait until you see the back!

It’s a creation all its own!  With fabulous quilting by Melinda – so fun!

Newbie Linda put together this cheerful quilt top in the first day.  She works at the same speed as I do.  And anyone who believes that must now go stand on their heads in the corner.

Linda showed this one too.  I think she pieced this whole thing on Day 2.  Maybe.  Or maybe she had part of it done before she came.  Not sure.  I know one thing.  It sure is beautiful!  Good job, Linda!  And it was so fun to meet you.  I hope you come back again soon.

These are some blocks that Linda worked on too.  For a fabulous quilt.  Here.  I’ll show you.

This is one of my infamous “pictures of a picture.”  This one comes from the pattern that Linda is making with the blocks above.  Very cool quilt!

This little gem was made by Phyl for a grandson.  Isn’t it cute?

And Phyl also put together this cute little Irish Chain.  With snowmen!  Very nice.

Pam put together this cool T-shirt quilt for some friends.  So glad you fixed that stem, Pam!  It looks way better now.

Pam also made this cute laptop bag.  I love the fabrics, Pam!  Sorry I cut Pam’s head off in this one.  It wasn’t a particularly flattering picture of Pam and I wanted you to see the bag!

Newbie Tracie put together all these New York Beauty blocks.  She said something strange about thinking that we’d all think she was a slacker or something.  I assume because she only worked on one quilt?  Slacker.  Right.  I told her to sit by me next time and she’d never feel like a slacker again.  Yeah, like these blocks would make anyone feel like a slacker!  They are more than spectacular!  Can’t wait to see how she sets them together.  She’ll probably have them finished by our next Bee day.  I need to hang around Tracie and take lessons on accomplishing something.

If number of things worked on and finished at retreat got a prize, Patti would win hands down.  She made this cute little bag for her iPad.

She also made this cute quilt top.

She finished this one….. and even slept under it a few of the nights.  But don’t let her fool you.  It’s that neato cheater panel in the middle – like I made for Christmas in July in red & black.

She made this cute apron, too.

And she made this cool thing to go under her machine to store her tools as she sews.

Karen finished this great Shop Hop quilt that she started way back in the Dark Ages.  Karen has been taking lessons from me on how to make things take a long time to finish.  Or she’s been making lots of quilts and finishing them while this one was hidden away somewhere.  One of the two.  And I don’t think it was that she’s been learning from me.

Karen made a cool little gadget holder to put under her sewing machine and keep all her tools handy too.  Great quilting, Karen!

Sue H added borders to this great quilt that was made out of her Brown Bag fabric by Sarah last year.  Very cool Sarah and Sue!

Sue also stitched up this cool applique block for her Baltimore Album quilt that she’s making in a monthly class all year.  Very nice!

She also made these cute little houses and trees blocks for another project.  And besides that……..

……. she made a gazillion of these aprons for her daughters and their friends.  Or maybe it was for all the cousins?  Can’t remember for sure.

See?  A gazillion.  She was certainly challenging Patti for the “Person who made or worked on the most projects at retreat” prize.  Too bad there’s not a prize.

Davene made cute Halloween things.  Like this wonderful sweatshirt.

And The Ghost and Mr. Spidey.  And remember the crazy doll she was working on?

Not so crazy when she comes with her own quilt.  Good job, Davene!

Dolly even went for a flight to the top of this quilt one night while we were all sleeping.  Scary Dolly.  She’s definitely not hanging.  She’s flying.  Or so says the culprit who put her up there.

Another Brown Bag quilt from last year.  This time it’s Sue G’s and she added borders to make it bigger.  Nice job Sue and whoever!  UPDATE!  “Whoever” is really Patti with an “i” – as opposed to Patty in California, who Sue G thought had done this.  Sorry, Patti!  It’s a great quilt!

Sue G also put together this cute quilt for Sue H’s new granddaughter.  I think she did it because her middle name was Susan.  Everyone named Susan has claimed it was after her.

LaNelle made this cute quilt.  And I think she had great fun sticking the little animals on!

Here are Suz’ fabulous circles.  She worked on these and also the cute little nine-patches you saw in an earlier blog.  And we did a cool video tutorial with how she did the nine-patch process.  It’s in final editing and will hit the YouTube air waves soon!  I’ll give you a link when it’s ready.

Here is the vertical row that I finished on Janna’s T-shirt quilt.  Or as some might say “column.”  I love the way the T-shirts look like they float on the black musical notes fabric.  Isn’t it going to be great, Janna?  I’m using the Cotton Theory process to quilt these and put them together and it’s going quite well!  At this rate, Janna will have the quilt well before her 92 birthday.  Hurray!

And I pieced all the nine-patch blocks that make up this Magic Trip Around the World quilt on the last night.  For a friend who’s having a baby in December.  I made these blocks mostly after everyone had gone to bed.  Many thought I’d made it up that I did them that night.  They don’t know that I really can accomplish something when I set my mind to it. 

And when I’m trying to overcome my slacker reputation.

Off to sew those blocks together.  And watch the Rangers beat the Giants tonight! 
GO RANGERS!
Barb

Posted in quilts, retreat stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Secrets Revealed at Retreat

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Barb

Revealing our Secret Sisters was a much anticipated event.  We had such fun that this may become a permanent retreat activity.  Hardly anyone was discovered putting little gifts around the room.  Some were even smart and put things in the bathrooms too.  To be discovered all day long.  Didn’t I tell you these gals were sneaky?

Isn’t this little guy on LaNelle’s shoulder cute?  They look like they are having a good conversation.  Every retreater in the room wanted one of these too.  The funny part?  After SS were revealed and it was discovered that Sue H had LaNelle, someone asked Sue where she bought this little guy.  Her answer?  “I don’t know where he came from.” 

You see, Melinda came to retreat a day late.  And her name didn’t get in the draw.  So she and I secretly decided that she would be a “Roving Sis” or as some said “Step Sister” and she just left gifts in mulitple places.  So Sue truly didn’t know how LaNelle got this guy and was quite stumped as she walked around the room showing him off.  The look on her face was priceless when she was asked where she bought him!

Remember I told you there was a theme for the season.  Here’s another that Sue G got that indeed follows the Fall/Halloween theme.  Very cute!

Thank yous to your Secret Sis evolved into the whole room replying in unison “You’re welcome!”  It started with one, which then brought a chorus of “Who said that?”  Soon everyone was replying when someone got a gift and stood up and said, “Thank you, Secret Sister!”  Didn’t I tell you these gals are clever?

Two gals left retreat early so secrets had to be revealed early for them.

Here are Linda, Jules, Phyl, Sue G & Pat.  Pat and Jules had to go home early to go back to work.  Silly work that gets in the way of quilting!  They were not ready to leave.  So Sue revealed herself as Pat’s SS and Pat revealed that she had Phyl who had Jules who had Linda.  Or was it Jules had Phyl and Linda had Jules while Sue had Pat and Pat had ??  Nevermind.  I’ll never get it right.  But it was a “six degrees of separation” kind of thing.  Or something like that.  So it deserved a picture.

Karen’s SS had a smiley theme going.  All her things had smileys on them.  Including this guy………

…….. who was one big smiley face on an alien-looking body.  And he hung out on Karen’s thread.

It was Lani!  And she gave Karen all the rest of the smileys once she was revealed.

So another Mr. Smiley turned up riding the llama/giraffe/horse.  There were smileys everywhere!

Pam’s SS LaNelle made her a pillowcase to match the pj’s she’d worn.  She made it while we were all in the room.  And gave it to Pam.  And not one of us noticed.  Apparently we were oblivious to anything happening around us.  I blame it on all the quilting I accomplished.  Head to the grindstone and all.  Not.

Judy was Suz’ SS and gave her these cool juggling balls.  I’m sure Suz is off taking juggling lessons as I write.  Or watching a baseball game.  One of the two.

My SS turned out to be my friend and fellow Rangers fan, Suz!  Suz is actually the one who got me interested in watching the ballgames and she’s my go-to woman for all my baseball questions.  She had the easiest time of all with getting gifts to me since I was sitting right next to her.  She even slipped them in on me while I just barely had my back turned while I was blogging on the computer!  I guess I was focused.  The final gift she gave me was an authentic post-season souvenir peanut bucket from the Rangers’ game!  Complete with peanuts and candy bars.

Which I enjoyed during the Rangers Ballgame as they defeated the Yankees in Friday night’s game to become the AL Champions!  They are headed to the World Series for the first time ever!  And I will be glued to the TV as the games begin this Wed night.  GO RANGERS!  And if you go to Quilter’s Dream any day next week and say “GO RANGERS!” you can get in on the red fabric sale!  Red fabric on the bolt in stock only – 15% off.  GO RANGERS!  I’m going for the most times I can say GO RANGERS! in a paragraph.  Could you tell?

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with Secret Sisters.  In fact, it is Sue showing her aprons in our Show ‘n Tell time.  So I guess you could say that it’s a teaser for the Show ‘n Tell pics to come on the blog.  But I really included it to show you this:

I mean really.  What in the world is this guy doing at a quilting retreat?

And one last thing……

If I ever purchase a pattern that requires me to do this to organize my fabric?  Just shoot me dead.  Really.

Show ‘n Tell to come!  Soon…..
Barb

Posted in retreat stuff | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Where’s my Waffle?

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Barb

Retreat is over.  When there is no Newbie to make your waffles and serve you, you know you are back to the real world.  I even had to make my own coffee today.  I wanna go back!

Speaking of Newbies…. you need to meet them!

 

Here are the Newbies!  Tracie, Linda & Debbi.  Don’t let the feathers fool you.  It apparently was Newbie Rebellion Retreat.  They were supposed to entertain us.  The best we could get was a few pics of them pretending to entertain us.

And don’t forget Jules!  She left early to get out of entertaining us.  And I had to crop her out of a group picture to even have a picture of her.  We might have to declare “Newbie Overs” and make them all be newbies again at the next retreat.  But we’ll never remember, so I think they are safe.  Oh, the advantages of having an over 50 crowd!

More pretend entertainment for the camera.  Clever newbies is what they were.

One more.  Just because I had the pictures and wanted to use them.  Not because they did anything fabulous.  To entertain us as they were instructed.  Silly Newbies!

Here are the instructions they were given.  In their defense, they did make a newbie hat.  And they did make nametags for everyone.  Although foamboard with my name written on it in lime green does not make a keepsake for me that I want to “treasure forever.”  We made them decorate them further later on.

Look at the things they were given to work with!  You’d think they were just at retreat to sew or something.  Sheesh!  Plus they had feathers and green wigs and masks.  They could have really gone wild.  But they just wanted to sew.  And they rebelled.  LaLa wouldn’t have let them get away with it.  She’d have put her foot down.  We’ll have to make sure LaLa is at the next retreat.  She always whips the Newbies into shape.

When they refused to wear the feathers, their sewing machines got to wear them.

But Tracie just sewed around them.  She was on a mission.  To complete 427 New York Beauty quilt blocks.  And she would not be deterred.

Newbie Linda sat on a very large whoopee cushion when she sewed.  She entertained us evey time she sat down.  Not.  It was just some sort of ergonomic thing.  You apparently have to balance to stay on?  I didn’t sit on it nor did I figure it out.  But it made Linda very happy.  At least she was always smiling.

The Newbies (minus Jules) did entertain us at lunch on the last day.  Only because we made them.  We ganged up on them and made them tell us all about themselves.  Only because they were outnumbered 6 to 1.  Of course I only remember that one of them rode a horse in her wedding and didn’t do a bungie jump.  Or was it the other way around?  One of them got married when she was 16 and had 10 kids.  Or maybe that was the part we made up about her?  She also said something about singing in a country rock band and riding motorcycles before she ever drove a car.  And we believed every word.

You see, we sort of played that “two truths and a lie” game.  Only now I can’t separate the truths from the lies.  I do remember that one Newbie had only truths and no lies.  Apparently she is incapable of lying.  However she was a bit deceptive.  She told us she was born in London.  Now you’d assume London, England if someone told you that, wouldn’t you?  But you’d be very wrong.  She was born in London, Kentucky.  Quite a bit different than London, England.  Clever, Newbie.  Very clever.

So the jury is still out on whether they get to be veterans at the next retreat or they have to redo their Newbie stint.  But I suppose we’ll give them a break.  Tracie did make coffee every time we asked.  And we asked a lot.  And Linda jumped right up and brought me chips when I ran out of chips before I ran out of salsa one day.  (Don’t you hate it when that happens?)  So I didn’t have to leave my sewing machine.  Not that my sewing machine was doing anything.  I was too busy socializing to do much sewing. 

So this retreat will be forever known as “Newbie Rebellion” Retreat.  And they rebelled quite well and got away with it.  Now they can move on to be veterans and terrorize the Newbies at the next retreat in April.  I’m already counting the days.  But I’m still trying to figure out what was in that envelope containing the “newbie code.”

And I want to know where my waffle is.

Still recovering from all the fun,
Barb

Posted in retreat stuff | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Retreat Food

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Barb

It’s 2:30 a.m.  Everyone has gone to bed and is sound asleep.  Except me.  Because I’m the die hard blogger.  And I’m feeling bad that it’s been awhile since I posted.  So I decided you needed to see the food.  Retreat food.  Good stuff.  Prepared by someone else.  Isn’t that the best kind of food?  But first, how about a midnight snack?  Actually a 2:30 a.m. snack.  And boy is it yummy.

 

Pat made some really yummy homemade salsa.  And forgot to take it with her when she left.  Or maybe she just knew I’d need it tonight.  Thanks, Pat!  It’s the best!  And leftover chicken from dinner tonight.  With some fancy-schmancy cornflake breading that is out of this world.  And it’s even better cold out of the fridge at midnight (or 2:30 a.m.) than it is at dinner.  If that’s possible.  Wish you were here to share it with me.

Notice I’m blogging on the computer.  And the little smiley man is falling off his horse.  Or llama.  Or whatever that thing is.  I didn’t notice he was falling off until just now.  And I’m too tired to retake the picture.  Oh, well.

Here’s how it looked at dinner last night.  With homemade macaroni and cheese and yummy green beans.  And the best strawberry spinach salad you ever tasted. 

Here’s how the salad looked in the big serving bowl.  YUMMY!

And this was dessert:

As pretty as it was tasty.  Or maybe as tasty as it was pretty.  My ice cream was melting by the time I took the pic, but the stuff on the right is some sort of vanilla cream concoction that The Compass Centre is famous for.  And it’s really, really good.  Little cream puffs and strawberries with chocolate drizzled over all.  Wish you could have been here.  I don’t think there were any leftovers.

Here are the retreat gals at dinner last night.  We’re eating in the sewing room.  See that quilt hanging on the back wall.  It’s hiding the opening to the dining area.  Because Karen had been hiding in there working on her challenge quilt.  That we will reveal at our Christmas party in December.    I should have been in there too.  I haven’t even started mine.  But if you are a regular blog reader of mine, you already know how I am about deadlines.  ‘Nuff said.

This is the real dining room.  At lunch the other day.  And there was a soup line.  Waiting to get soup.  Notice the chocolate chip cookies on the cart.  They were warm out of the oven.  And very yummy.  You’ll also notice that Suz was ready for the Rangers game that night.  We cheered them on to victory that day.  We plan to cheer them to victory on Friday night at home too.  GO RANGERS!

Here’s the soup – chicken enchilada soup.  And it was so good. 

Are you getting hungry yet?  I’ve warned you not to read my blog before breakfast.  You better go get something to eat.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.  After all, I’m typing in between bites of chicken and chips & salsa.  You might as well get your coffee and come back and join me.

Here is breakfast on any given day.  There are other things too, but most of us prefer the waffles.  The newbies used to make them for us each year.  Not so much this year.  We need to talk about this year’s newbies.  But I’m saving that for another post.  I have things to tell you about the newbies.  The newbies are right now hoping I’ll forget.  And anything is possible.  Keep your fingers crossed, newbies!  We miss LaLa.  She was good at whipping the newbies into shape.  Come back, LaLa!  We miss you!

Dinner one night.  I think it was Monday.  The days are all running together.  Meatloaf – excuse me, Italian Meatloaf.  Very yummy.  With potatoes, black-eyed peas and a great dinner roll. And whipped butter.  The real thing.  Oh, my.

Dinner Tuesday night.  Pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash and green beans.  My poor Dear Hubby is home having Mexican TV dinners.  It’s what he does when I’m away.  Which doesn’t happen too often.  And he actually likes Mexican TV dinners!  But I still feel bad showing all these pics of the fabulous food.  He’s probably drooling all over his computer right now.

I’ll close with one last dessert……

Lemon meringue pie.  In a cup.  It was oh, so, indescribably good.  I can’t even begin to tell you.  I think I saw some leftovers in the kitchen a bit ago.  I think I’ll got get one right now. 

It would be just the thing to top off my chicken, chips & salsa.  Which are all gone, by the way.

Happy eating,
Barb

Posted in food, retreat stuff | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Around the Retreat Design Wall

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Barb

Design walls are a very important part of JSS retreats.  And you have to be quick if you want to capture pictures of all the beautiful works in progress!  The blocks go up and are sewed together in lightning fast speed and then they come down.  If a blogger isn’t ready with her camera at all times, she can miss an important photo opportunity.  Just sayin’.

On with the show!

 

These quilt blocks were made by Newbie Linda from Kentucky.  And they are all sewn together now and I think quilted and bound too.  I’m going to have a talk with these Kentucky gals.  They whip the quilts out in lightning fast speed and then back into their bags they go.  Don’t they know how important it is to declare to the group that a quilt top is finished?  All the cameras have to come out so pictures can be taken.  It’s also an important part of retreating to let everyone ooooo and ahhhhhh over your finished projects.  Finished being a relative term, of course.  You can have a finished block.  Or a finished top.  Or even perhaps a totally finished quilt.  In my case I am happy to hear ooooo’s and ahhhhhh’s over a finished seam.

Do these blocks look familiar?  These were the Saturday Sampler blocks at Quilter’s Dream last year!  Kay is finishing them with an entirely different setting.  And again, these got a lot further along, but I missed the picture before new blocks went up on the wall!  I’m going to have to learn to be faster on the camera button.

Pam is doing a T-shirt quilt.  I think it’s for a friend.  She’s my sister-in-law so you think I’d know these things.  It’s hard to keep up with it all at retreat!

This quilt belongs to Melissa, the owner of The Compass Centre.  I know there’s a big story involved and you’d think that I’d know it, wouldn’t you?  Well, you’d be wrong.  A good blogger would probably know the story.  I’m going to have to work on being a better blogger.

This is the bottom half of this cute quilt.  I’d like to point out the date on the bottom.  If I had just finished this quilt, the date would be 1997 and Mrs. Taylor’s class would all be in college and have forgotten about the quilt.  But don’t worry, Janna.  You’ll have your T-shirt quilt some day!

This is a shop hop quilt that Karen is working on.  Karen is a woman after my own heart with this one.  I think the shop hop was back in the year 1904 or something like that.  See?  Karen is finishing this one in “Barb Time.”  Thanks, Karen!  I won’t point out that she’s finished 4,325 other quilts in the meantime.

This is Jules’ quilt and an example of how design walls can change in the blink of an eye.  I turned my back for 43 seconds and the wall looked like this:

So I quickly snapped another picture!  And now Jules is gone home so the wall is bare again.   We miss you, Jules!

Look familiar, Sally?  Lani added some borders to her cute brown bag quilt that Sally made last year.  We all love it!

This happy quilt top is Patti’s.  She also put binding on a wonderful flannel quilt that was similar to one I made for Christmas in July at Quilter’s Dream last summer.  Of course I missed getting a picture of that one!  But you can see the one I made in the posting entitled “One Down, One to Go,” if you’re interested.

Look at these beautiful New York Beauty blocks that Newbie Tracie is making!  Tracie is a newbie to JSS retreats but she is obviously not new to quilting.  And this is another example of how turning your back can be nerve wracking.

I turned my back on these and I think it was 67 seconds later that they looked like this.  They multiplied like rabbits!

These gals were auditioning border fabrics for this quilt.  Either that or they were auditioning to replace Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune.

Betty just wishes they’d hurry up already and get out of the way so she can sew some more blocks together and complete her 82nd quilt top.  And that was just at this retreat alone.  She’s a whiz kid on her sewing machine!

Remember these blocks?  They are the ones we gave to Lani before she took off from Texas and moved to NEW YORK CITY!  She’s adding cute little houses to each block and we’re sure she’ll have this finished before the end of retreat.  We’ve seen her whip things out very fast before.  In fact, she might already have them done while I’m busy typing this blog!

By the way, for those of you who are interested, we have been reminding Lani that her heart is in Texas when it comes to baseball and it is imperative that she be rooting for the Rangers and not those d*** Yankees.  GO RANGERS!

These are Judy’s strips for the little log cabin blocks she’s making.

Here are a few of the Courthouse Steps blocks on her design ironing board, which is much the same as a design wall.  And yes, those logs are finished at 1/2 inch.  Crazy, Judy!

And they will be the border around this fabulous quilt when they are finished.  I think she needs a few more than 4.

Everyone loves these cute trees that Sue H is working on.  I need to see what this whole quilt is going to be – it is very nice!

Sue G is working on this cute baby quilt.  Nice, Sue!

Remember this one, Sarah?  This one is the brown bag that Sarah made for Sue H last year.  Sue added borders and TaDa!  Finished quilt top!  We all ooo’d and ahhh’d.  Take note, Kentucky gals!

The two pillowcases are Pat’s and the sweatshirt belongs to Davene.  Halloween is a predominant theme in October.  And I know that Pat made more things.  Why don’t I have any pictures of them?  And Pat is gone home.  Come back, Pat!  I need more pictures!  And what will I do if I need to dry my hair and can’t figure out the cord?

These are also Davene’s.  She was on a Halloween roll.  So cute!

Davene is also making this little doll.  Which is very cute until you see it this way:

And then it becomes a little scary.  Especially when she picks it up and starts making the sound of the music from the shower scene in Psycho.  She’s a little deranged, that Davene.  Ya gotta watch her every minute.

We watched her alright.  And took advantage of an opportunity to get a pic of her sleeping.  With her little sleeping doll.  HA!  Caught ya, Davene!  Good thing she wasn’t drooling.

This beautiful creation belongs to LaNelle!  I know, I know.  For those of you who know LaNelle, you would be inclined to think this was Vicki’s and LaNelle was taking the credit.  (See post on September 1st entitled Paper Piecing with LaNelle.)  But I can vouch for LaNelle this time.  I saw her making this with my own two eyes.  Way to go LaNelle!

This fabulous quilt is Betty’s.  Another one with Quilter’s Dream Saturday Sampler blocks from last year!  Betty is pondering her setting in this picture.  But that was 30 minutes ago.  I’m sure she has it totally quilted and bound by now.  That Betty is a wonder.  I need to hang around her more.

I close today with a few mottos around the room.

I really love this one.  How about you, Sally?  Isn’t this one great?  It’s my motto as I eat retreat food.  Way too much retreat food.  Pics soon!

I got this magnet from my Secret Sis today.  Made me start singing….. “We are fammm-i-ly!  I got all my sisters with me!  We are fammmm-i-ly! Get up everybody and sing.”  I think Madelyn put my SS up to this.  She thought we should all be together for the baseball game tonight.  You see, Suz and I broke from the group to travel 8 miles to a sports bar to watch the Rangers play last night.  We knew they had a big huge screen TV and we wanted to watch with reckless abandon with the fans.  We left the retreat with Suz’ big screen TV here and it promptly stopped working!  It was an online way to watch and not nearly as good with streaming video as it was at the sports bar.  We invited the others to go along, but they wanted to sew.  Big surprise, eh?  Since it really is all about a quilting retreat, isn’t it?  But we couldn’t get the Rangers and Yankees to postpone their games until next week just for us. 

So tonight we are going to be family.  Madelyn thought it was important.  And we’ll watch together.  We’ve done our research and found a good radio station online too.  Sure hope it all comes together the way we hope and we can sew AND watch/listen.  And be family.  Because sometimes….. family is just more important.  We love you Madelyn!  And this is a good motto.

But this one is my real motto for the day.  Maybe for the week.  Maybe the year.  Oh, shoot, it’s my lifetime motto.

Because this is my sewing table today.  How is a person supposed to sew here?  And yes, there is a sewing machine under there.  Recognize the fabric, Janna?  At least you know if I’m working on anything, it is your quilt!  And if I’d stop blogging for a bit, I might actually get some sewing done.  Don’t give up!  Miracles do happen!

And now it’s time for……….. GO RANGERS!!!!!!!!!

Keep on designing,
Barb

Posted in quilts, retreat stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments