This week has zoomed by and I find it hard to believe that it took me so long to post about my adventures last weekend!
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| view of Lake Michigan from work room! |
Last weekend was the 2nd Quilting at the Beach retreat that my mom has planned. About 25 quilters from around the area get together at a resort on the shore of Lake Michigan and we quilt all weekend long, stopping only to eat & sleep! I'd spent the week or two prior, planning what fabric and patterns I would need for the projects I was going to work on there. I'm limited to what fits inside my carry-on suitcase [keeping in mind that I did need to bring basic things like clothes!] and I managed to pack it all in with a little wiggle room for the way home. I'm super lucky that mom has an extra machine and would have extra tools for me to borrow for the weekend - rulers, cutters, mats, pins, threads, etc. (thx mom!)
With such a small airport [ 1 gate] getting there early means sitting around until they open up security 40min. before the flight departs. As per usual with taking the afternoon flight, I picked up lunch at Panera en route to the airport and was super glad I did since they don't serve snacks on the plane. The plane was delayed out of Chicago due to a crew member getting sick so we waited for the plane to show up, and then waited on the runway for clearance to depart. In the end, we were about an hour later than scheduled so it wasn't too bad. Everything went smoothly though getting in to Chicago and it's always nice to be home with M&D.
Friday mom & I headed out for a 3 days of non-stop quilting; setting our stuff up & greeting friends as they arrived. This year was fun because I knew people from last year, everyone wanted to hear about my new job and my aunt [who got me & mom hooked on quilting] came too! Hooray! The food was wonderful again and after the first night it seems all we do is eat & quilt. (Although that is pretty accurate for the weekend).
I picked up some great ideas from Cheryl to use at work with the kids and I love to see what other people are working on and what fabrics they chose. Last year we played a game where everyone brought 2 1/2" strips of batik fabric. I ended up winning most of the strips and convinced mom to give me the strips she had won ;) had enough to make a jelly roll of fabric! This year I turned them into blocks and brought the blocks to put together into a top. Now I can put it together, quilt it and hang it up in my apartment! This year's game involved 10" squares of batiks, but I didn't win this time around.
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| start of the sunflowers(there are 3 in the design) |
I also got my Sunflower applique started and have been working on that in the evenings this week. It's really starting to look like the picture and I can't wait to see it all finished! It's from the Pacific Rim company and they have a lot of great applique patterns that I will probably try after finishing this first one. I got another quilt top finished & worked on some paper piecing for a set of blocks that I've been slowly working on over the last several years. Even took a break from sewing to get a back massage which was fantastic!
Then it was home again on Sunday with a few hours to see dad and watch the last half of the All-Star hockey game (awesome!) and have another home cooked meal. Dad even sent me home with some of his homemade deep dish pizza....yummm. This was then brought to work for lunch during the week and is the type of thing that makes co-workers jealous - several commented that I always brought such good lunches in! So thx for the pizza dad. :)
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