Dyed Quilting: All good things must come to an end...

and boy I am here to tell you this retreat was a good thing. I relaxed, laughed, ate, hooted, hollered, and sewed (a bit). I had so much fun I forgot to take very many pictures, but I did manage a few.

This first picture is wonderful Australian fabric from my Aussie friend Suzanne. The piece across the top is one she dyed herself. The others have all things Australian, such as boomerangs, cockatoos, Aboriginal cave art, kangaroos and more. She is so giving! She spent a lot of the weekend showing many of us techniques we didn't know such as machine embroidery, free motion quilting, hand embroidery. She is a great teacher and friend.

Remember when I was writing about have way too much fabric and being almost embarrassed by it? Well I reminded myself of it when we visited Lacy's Quilt Studio in Loxley, Alabama. She always stays open late one night so we can go shop. This year she gave EVERYONE at the retreat a gift card! There was 35 women in attendance and she gave one $50 card, one $25 card, two $10 and the rest were $5 that we drew out of a basket. Can you believe that? That is another very generous person in our guild. One year she cut two whole bolts of Hoffman Batik into fat quarters and passed them out at a Christmas luncheon. She is amazing.

Anyway as I was saying before I got sidetracked. I remembered I had too much fabric and really didn't need anymore, but I can always use a book and maybe even a DVD to teach me more from the book, so I got the Mastering Precision Piecing book and DVD. I have read some and saw part of the DVD and believe it is going to be very helpful.

After I checked out and was waiting for all of my car mates to be checked out I saw the Triangulations CD and have wanted for along time so I got back in line. LOL

One more thing about the trip to Lacy's; she had ladies waiting at least ten deep to be checked out and at least that many waiting to be cut by her two employees and not one person felt rushed or not important. Everyone was treated very patiently and like they were the only one in the store. That was some of the best customer service I have received in a very long time.

After emptying our checking accounts and loading up on goodies we went back to the retreat facility and got back to more fun. The ladies who put it on allow for selling any of your no longer needed items. I decided I didn't want to sell anything, I didn't want to deal with it, so I just put all of my stuff on the free table. I went with three very large boxes of patterns, fabric and stuff. I was so happy to see it going to good use.

Then I shopped. Most of the magazines and books below were free.

The picture below is of the T-shirt we got this year, we get one every year, and the five wonky stars are some that I made using Bonnie's maverick star pattern from Quiltville. One of the ladies in the retreat made some "slushies" and the stars were labeled the "one too many slushies stars". The slushies were good, but I was told after a couple of bites they were "grown up" slushies so I stopped. I did think about them several more times over the weekend though LOL.

This picture is of my sewing area just to prove to my husband I did sew a little bit. LOL But he knows me. He knows I would much rather visit that sew. I can sew at home when I am alone, but I can't see my friends anymore anytime I want.