Retreat Weekend!

I love Retreat Weekends and I especially look forward to this one. It always fall on Martin Luther King's Birthday weekend and is located about 40 minutes from home. Such perfect timing -- Christmas holiday is over and the house is slowly getting back to normal. Also the closer the retreat, the more time for sewing! I did get a little bit of a later start than normal. I had to stop by my mother's house to check on her bandage. She had a "scrape biopsy" done on her upper right arm. It was hard for her to change out the band-aid since she's right-handed. No problem ... just put me a little behind but it was OK by me.

So what did I accomplish? What felt like 100s of flying geese for On Ringo Lake, the mystery quilt presented by Bonnie Hunter. In fact, it was 152 but they are squared-up to perfection and sewn together in pairs. Yes, that's 76 pairs with more needed! If you want to see this quilt, visit Bonnie's Quiltville blog right here. You can still download the pattern but I'm pretty sure it will be leaving the website soon.

Since I'm also starting back on my Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt, I took that project with me as well. I finished Block #7 - April. It is a 6" block = tiny! I was working on Block #3 too but then discovered some of it was paper-pieced and I didn't have that part printed out. I'm so grateful that Angie at Gnome Angel started this back up again. She has terrific tips on block assembly, Marti Michell has tutorials for putting together the patchwork blocks, and the book has a CD complete with paper-piecing patterns. This go-round we're piecing the blocks in numerical order, with the goal to complete 2 per week. That puts us done in a year as there are 99 blocks plus assembly. I plan on getting several more blocks in order over the weekend. At least I got one block done at retreat!

Our retreat's fearless leader, LindaLee, always offers a small project. This retreat was no exception and we put together a matching pair of microwave bowl cozies. They were so cute and easy! I hope to make bunches of them up for the family! So cute!

Tonight is FNSI. I've been working on an embroidery project and plan on finishing it up tonight while watching the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. Wendy of Sugarlane Designs is our hostess and it's not too late to join us. If you click here, you'll go to her website and you can sign in. We have fun all over the world from Australia to USA to Europe and possibly more! Sewing is always more fun with friends!

Keep on sewing!