Thursday, February 28, 2013

Cabin Fever Recap

Wow! What a weekend!  Can you tell how much fun we had by the fact that it's Thursday and I'm just now getting around to posting? :o)
 
Hosting a retreat was never something I thought I would do. But once I got the idea the wheels just kept turning. And I sure am glad they did. What a fun time with some truly wonderful women.
 
 
Here's one of the two carts we had overloaded at Sam's the day before heading to the cabin. We had plenty (almost too much) food!

 
I had my kids work as minions to helps stuff all the goodie bags. They kind of took over my family room for the evening!

 
On Day 1 Amber Johnson from Gigi's Thimble gave a trunk show. I'm so embarrassed of the picture quality on my phone. Amber stayed for the whole retreat and it was so much fun having her.

 
I LOVE this pattern of hers. It's on my pattern bucket list. :o)
 
 
Please click on the link so you can see the patterns for real. These pictures are sad!
 
 
Day 2 brought Natalia Bonner from Piece N' Quilt. This girl and her quilts are AMAZING!

 
She shared quilts from her book Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting. That book is fabulous!

 
One of my favorites of Natalia's!!!
 
 
On day 3 Kati Spencer of From the Blue Chair braved the blizzard to come up and show us her quilts.

 
LOVE her Honeycomb pattern!!!

 
This mini is fabulous!

 
The colors are gorgeous and the finished 1/2 square triangles are 1"!!!

 
I could not have done this retreat if it wasn't for Shannon helping me with all the meals. Her husband Stuart is an amazing cook! He came up and made us dutch oven roast dinner and turned around the next morning to make a mountain breakfast for us. I sure am a lucky girl to have these two as friends. Don't worry, he managed to get a nap in! :o)

 
I had a few friends warn me not to plan on getting much sewing time in since I was the host so I didn't pack very much to work on. By day 2 I was bored and needed to sew! :o) Luckily a car load ran down to the Corn Wagon and picked me up a charm of Honey Honey to play with.
 
For those of you wondering if I would do it all again- ABSOLUTELY!  The thing about quilters is we're really just one giant family spread all around the world. When you get together as a group of strangers that all share a common thread (pun intended!) you form a friendship. The ladies that were at the retreat with me made it so wonderful. I really do mean it when I say I think I had more fun than they did. :o)  Thanks ladies for a fabulous weekend!
 
 

8 comments:

Suzanne said...

It was the best retreat I have ever been to. I am up for making a semi annual occurrence, how about you? Looking forward to seeing many of the attendees out and about in the local shops:-)

Lynette said...

You guys are the best, and the venue was amazing! Thank you sooo much. :D

Natalia from Piece N Quilt said...

Do it again! Next time I'm staying for sure!!! :)

FlourishingPalms said...

What a great retreat! And you're so right about all us quilters just being one big family spread all over the world. I've met very few quilters that I couldn't get along with, and assuredly, my best friends are quilters. Your pics make me miss going on retreats. Since moving to Florida last June, I haven't sewed with quilting friends, and I really miss it! Good for you to have been the organizer of such a fine event.

Anna Hall said...

The retreat sounds like so much fun!! Thank you for writing this blogpost - I absolutely love the last paragraph you wrote. I feel the same way!

ChristaQuilts said...

I am so jealous! Looks like you guys had tons of fun. A friend of mine from the Las Vegas modern quilt guild told me she went and had a blast. If you guys do it again, I want in!!

Yvonne said...

So great to hear that it was such a fun weekend! The quilt look amazing!

jeifner said...

Sounds amazing! I've been to Cornwagon before. I'd love to go on a retreat. I figure that might be one of the few places I could go where if I cut up tons of fabric to sew it back together again I won't get the, "I think she's gone mental" look and the comment, "But that's a lot of work." I get those a lot :)