Stitchin' Sisters 2nd Annual Retreat - Part 1

We just finished another amazing three-day retreat! The majority of us traveled there late Monday afternoon to set up our machines and drop off our supplies and then returned Tuesday morning for 3 days of sewing and sharing. Last Fall was the first time that we used this facility and it was ideal for our daytime retreat but overnight accommodation was not available. However, when our retreat finished last October, they started building a new lodge with double rooms (2 twin beds), each with its own 3-piece bathroom. And, wow, is it beautiful! I'll include some photos of the lodge in Part 2. 

A few new 'friends' joined us this year for the retreat and I tried to capture all of them during the first day of sewing:

Carole and Wendy catching up

Marilyn getting ready to cut some fabric

Faye1 working on her bias binding

Jane cutting some half-square triangles

Myrtle was working on these beautiful fall placemats...

....from the company, Designs to Share with You. 

Dawn working on some binding (she did a LOT of binding during the retreat)

Darlene blanket stitching snowmen

Elaine and Donna getting down to work

Cheryl piecing some blue and white squares

Bev W and Sharon using their very handy extension tables (more on that later!)

BJ working on a baby quilt 

Helen cutting something small!

Louise doing some quilting on pretty in pink quilt 

The start of Judy's new blocks

How does this mess make such lovely blocks?

And Jean using the design wall to arrange her blocks

And I was working on this Cardinal Christmas quilt that has been in a box for years!

I missed getting a photo of Debbie at the start of the day but I do have photos of her coming up! Two of our regular sisters, Carmen and Faye2 were unable to attend the retreat and we really missed them. 

Louise made this lovely banner!!! I hope we will continue using it for our 22nd Annual Retreat and beyond!

Later in the afternoon, we played Strip Poker - no need, to avert your eyes, we played with 2 1/2" yellow strips. We divided into 2 tables with 10 at each table and pulled out the dice. The die were labelled with either a L, R, C or dot; if you roll an L, you pass one strip of fabric to your left, if you roll an R, pass the fabric right, C, pass the fabric to the center pile and a dot means that you keep your fabric. 

Our table did something that we had never seen before - someone rolled the 3 die and came up with three Cs! She had to pass 3 pieces of fabric to the center pile and out of circulation - and we had 3 Cs rolled 3 times at our table - unreal!

Here's Carole trying to put a spell on Dawn so that she passes her fabric to Carole ......

 ...but it didn't work and Dawn was the lucky winner at our table!

Meanwhile, things were progressing at the other table ..... 

and Jean was the lucky winner at table 2! Here she is with Debbie sorting her strips!

One of the nice things about being away from home for a retreat is that you can sew right until the dinner bells rings:

And we were well-fed for every meal, every day!

Tuesday night, the lovely Fran, once again opened her shop for us - Snow Goose Quilting in Tofield- and everyone enjoyed shopping in her store. Click here to visit her website

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Fran always makes us feel welcome and is happy to help us with any questions we have - and she is extremely generous with door prize draws! This year the four lucky winners are pictured below:

 Left to right: Elaine, Louise, Jane, Fran (store owner) and Bev W 

 

i'll post our Show and Tell photos in the next post. Thanks for stopping by!

Bev