Quilting Retreat

Can I just say that a quilting retreat is a blast?   We had four spectacular days of sewing, shopping, cooking, eating, watching sunsets on the beach, laughing and visiting.  It's amazing how much can be accomplished when you have no interruptions.

These are the three gals who joined me - Elizabeth, Lisa and Leisa (with Elizabeth's and Leisa's finished quilt tops).

Elizabeth was our "official" photographer for the retreat so you can check out her BLOG to see our fun documented.  She did an incredible post on it and I won't even try to compete with it.  She also posted on IG at #beachsidequiltingretreat while we were there.

There were wonderful gifts exchanged.  Look at all of the great new items I was showered with on my first retreat.

So....what did I accomplish?

My tree skirt is finished.  Thank you, Connie, for the help in finding her old post where she made the beautiful tree skirt that I duplicated.

I managed to piece my Allietare quilt from Bonnie Hunter's QAL last winter.  I love, love, love the colors in this.  I'll get my borders on and get it quilted, hopefully, before the next QAL this winter.

I thought this Grinch paper pieced design was so cute and had so much fun stitching this one up.  It is a free Kristi Lehame design from Peachblossom Patterns.

We made red X blocks for the #70273 Project Brigade.  You can read all about it HERE.  Be sure to check it out as I am sure you will want to join in on this project.  If you as as touched as I was,you will want to make many more red x blocks because of their significance.

Are any of you familiar with Peppa Pig?  The grandkids here love the show and I found some great flannel for a nightgown for an upcoming birthday gift.

There were several other finishes, but those are secret for the moment.  I will show them later.

We contributed a bit to the economy on our outings (as you will see on Elizabeth's posts) but in one antique shop there WERE two of these gorgeous Le Crueset pumpkin pans. We scored big time on these.  They worked really well on making bread for dinner when we got home.  They also look beautiful sitting on the stove for fall!

  

   

Returning home I had a lovely package in the mail from Wendy of Ivory Spring.  I had won these beautiful Rosewater FQ by Windham.  Thanks, Wendy.  I will enjoy these beautiful prints.

Now to finish unpacking and getting the sewing room back together!

Away and More....

Another week has just zipped past.  The year marches forward.

My dear friend, Ida, is hosting the second annual Pincushion Parade and it is time to link up.  I won't bore you with the slew of pincushions from years past as you can see them HERE, but I will show you my new pincushions from this year.  I LOVE these little bird pincushions and they are so practical.  Filled with crushed walnut shells they are the perfect pincushion to take along on trips.  They are a free downloadable pattern from Deonn at Quiltscapes.  Thanks, Deonn.

Now....you might ask why I have several birds.  Well...I am hosting what I hope will be our first annual Beachside Quilting Retreat this weekend and I made them for the gals who will be attending.  More on that later, but I have to say that I have never attended a quilting retreat so this is a big adventure to not only attend, but to also host.

This year I also added a turtle to my collection and he holds all of my flat pins.  This is a pattern from Sue at Supermom No Cape.

Be sure to check out the Perfectly Pincushion Parade and show off your pincushions.  There are great prizes to be won.

Dear hubby celebrated one of those milestone birthdays this week so we had a big family celebration.  One of our granddaughters celebrated her 17th birthday along with him.

 For his birthday we took a road trip - driving out through Death Valley and into Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas.  We stayed in Red Rock for the night before driving back home.  I loved the view from our room of the swimming pool - a sun shaped pool with ray "pools" extending from it.  It is such a great place to stay in Vegas - away from the strip.

 An update on the baby cockatiels....Day 30 and they are now finding the food bowl and becoming very independent of the parents.  It won't be long before they are completely on their own. They now have lots of feathers and are exercising their wings.

 So....as I said, this is going to be a weekend of sewing for me.  I am looking forward to the fun of a retreat, sewing with friends AND to finishing some projects  Bags are packed and I hope I have it planned out well enough.