It's retreat time!

I'm preparing for the Guild's annual 3 day quilting retreat! It's the highlight of my year in so many ways!

We limit the retreat to 24 people and we go to a hotel just off the freeway about an hour's drive from here. Other years we've gone to a lakeside resort, again about an hour from here--I like being by the lake better than being by the freeway-Duh!  But I'm not in charge of the thing so I keep my mouth shut (Can you believe that?  It's true, I really can keep my mouth shut when I have to!)

I'm leaving here Thursday late afternoon, carpooling with one of the retreat committee members, and I'm so eager to get started, I think I'll wet myself have to calm down and keep packing.

I really love the women in the guild--no male members so far.  Each of them is so interesting and they come from such unique backgrounds. Very few are Menomonie natives.  Most have moved here because of their jobs or their husband's job, many of them connected with the University here.  It's just so interesting to be with these ladies.

And laugh!  I probably will wet myself from laughter--note to self, better get some Depends to bring along.  This will be my 4th retreat with the guild and each one gets better than the one before.

I have 3 bed sized quilt projects that I'm taking with. One is the Talkin' Turkey that I started in March. I have the blocks finished and will work on the pieced sashings and pieced borders and hopefully will have the top finished and ready to be pinned and quilted by the time I come home.  I'd like to have this on my bed in time for Christmas.

The other quilt I'd like to have on a bed for Christmas is the Roll Roll Cotton Boll that I made a few years ago when Bonnie Hunter offered it as a mystery. You can read about it at my blog post here. This is it without the borders which I know I added afterwards.  Can't believe it's been ready for quilting for nearly 4 years!  Get a move on, Barb, and get her done!

I'm also taking the Sister's Choice that I've been working on as a leader/ender project and which I'm ready to finish and be done with. This is the picture from Bonnie Hunter's website:

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I'm making mine from a ton of 9-Patch blocks I got as part of a guild exchange program we had last year and "simply" adding the points to turn them into stars.  I say simply because I'm stitching about a quarter inch away from the fold line so I have tiny half square triangles when I trim the corners of the star point units.  I plan to use these in the border. I have to press each one and trim it to 1 1/2 inches and that takes a lot of time. So far I have over 300 of the little things and about 80 cut ones ready to be pressed and trimmed.  Why  did I ever start this project!!!!!

For the star points, I'm using another ton of green fabrics I had stashed away and they are all scrappy instead of coordinated as Bonnie's are.  The problem with this project is that the entire bed quilt will only use about half of the 9 Patch blocks--what am I going to do with the rest of them?  I think I'll start another leader/ender project and make a second Sister's Choice.  I have committed to 2 charity quilts for fundraisers next year.  The second one, I think I'll make controlled star points instead of scrappy.

And the third project I'm bringing is the king sized bed quilt I promised to make my friend in exchange for her making draperies for my house. It's been a year since I made the promise so it's time to start. That quilt will go to the neighborhood long-arm quilter as I know I'd have a hard time doing it on my machine.  And it's so much easier to turn it over to her!

 And I have a couple of fabrics selected to make pillowcases which we will donate to one of our members whose son is stationed somewhere in the Middle East. He asked for bright pillow cases for his unit since he said they get all dingy from being thrown in the laundry, helter skelter.   Trying to find fabrics in my stash that weren't too girly girl was a challenge but I finally found 2 sets.  I think we're doing them like this if you want to take a look:  Hot Dog Pillowcase video.

Today, I'm working on packing up more of Lily's and Tessa's things to take out to Maine next week.  I'm happy Lily will be back with her mom again, and I'm happy that Don and I will resume our lives as empty nesters, but I'm just going to miss that little girl like crazy!  Thank goodness for Skype!