Retreat Recap of Friday

This is going to be long...  I waited a few days to post this because I knew I would be needing a pick me up in the middle of the week, and reliving the retreat would provide that!

Friday morning I left about quarter after eight and headed to a quilt shop in Shelbyville to meet up with Marla.  We were going to jump start the weekend by stopping there.  It's a nice shop and has friendly people working there.  I tried to talk the owner out of selling me her 98 year old grandmother's 301 sewing machine, but she was pretty adamant that she wasn't selling....  haha.  I purchased some 2-1/2" precut squares in a Christmas print.  Think I might make some square in a square blocks with them as the center.

After Shelbyville we dropped off my car at the retreat in Sullivan as it was on the way to Arthur.  While there, Sharon, the retreat owner, asked me to pick up some material she had waiting for her at the quilt shop in Arthur.  Well, that was right up my alley, so we made that our first stop!  Didn't buy anything for myself in the shop, but I really enjoyed looking around.  Marla purchased some fabrics there.  We did get a glimpse of Sandy and Sheri up the street, but since we had set a meeting time for noon at Yoder's, we didn't catch up to them right then.

Noon wasn't that far away, so we headed over to Yoder's and met up with the rest of the crew.  Mary, Sheri, Sandy, Marla, and I were all ready for a break, so we went to a nice sandwich shop, Roselyn's, and had a sandwich and a drink.

After lunch, we headed to Miller's Dry Goods.  That's where most of my money went!  I bought over six yards of a couple different fabrics that were on the clearance rack for either 2 or 3 bucks a yard.  They will make great backings and I just couldn't turn them down.  I also bought a few one yard cuts.  Miller's was having a store wide 15% off sale.  My total purchase amount was right around $50, but I had a filled punch card from there, so I got an additional $10 off so I came home with quite a bit of fabric for $40!  Score!!!

The next stop was Beechy's Bulk Foods.  That's where I get most of my spices and seasonings.  All of us bought some snack foods for the retreat there.  I think one of our group bought all of the angel food cake they had in the store....  hee hee.

By the time we were done there, we could head over to the retreat and get settled in.  Woohoo!  With only one wrong turn, we found our way back to Sharon's place (Country Home Quilting).  It was very warm and humid, so we got our gear out of the cars and into the basement as quickly as possible.  One of us brought THREE sewing machines, can you believe it?  One to sew on Friday, one to sew on Saturday and get a little TLC, and the other for the rest of us to ooohhh and aaaahhh over it's beauty.

Once everything was in place, the sewing began!  And sew we did...  with a break for dinner around 6:30 (meat loaf, mashed potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, salad, and brownies - very yummy!), we sewed well into the night and then some.  I might mention that there was a little bit of wine involved for some of us.  I think I ended up going to bed around 1 a.m.

What I accomplished sewing on Friday was to get a good start on the first Jimmy John quilt.  Sharon's set up is absolutely wonderful.  Where the machines are set up there is ample room for everyone to comfortably set up their machine and have plenty of space to piece projects.  The cutting table is huge!  I had a bad case of "cutting mat envy" when I saw her mat - 92" long and I don't remember how wide, but it was at least 48".  Love it!  There were three pressing stations, with big boards at each of them.  One of the irons was a Rowenta steam machine of some sort that was amazing.

Okay, I better save some for the next post... haha