Camp Blanding Retreat

Well, another great retreat has been added to the record book, but then again have you ever been to a bad retreat??  I'm sure some of you have stories to share! But our retreat was fabulous - good friends, good food, good laughs and some good sewing! Please note, sewing was listed last and for a good reason - I go with the best intentions, but never quite seem to be able to accomplish as much as I planned.  Could be the good friends, good food, and good laughs!!

We had our usual Thursday night dinner at Sonny's - have to kick off the weekend with wings, mac and cheese and corn nuggets - and then it was time to get started sewing.  I picked Paula up at the Tampa airport on my way to Camp Blanding, so we were going to get some much needed time to chat, plan and coordinate!  We spent a lot of time just catching up, but also planned a lot of things for the next few months.  We have two more visits in March: I'm flying to Houston on Tuesday so we can vend at the Dallas Quilt Show (March 13-15) and Paula is flying here for the last weekend in March so we can "create" BOM #4 - Latimer Farms.

There were 110 women at this retreat and I wish I could have taken a picture of every quilt that was being created or finished, but I would have spent all of my time taking pictures!  I managed to take a few and I'll share.

Cinnamon's Quilt Shoppe ran a little store for us and Paula and I bought a "few" of those Moda Candy packs (2 1/2" sqs) and this is the baby quilt that Paula finished from 3 of the Boat House candy packs.  Isn't it adorable!!!  It inspired a couple more ladies to go in and shop!!!

Diane, one of our regular attendees, shared this adorable fox quilt.  My daughter Caitlin would be very jealous!  She loves anything "foxy". (Don't you just love a quilt with "feet"!)

That's Diane sharing a finished quilt!  Sorry, I don't know the name of this one.  The flowers are wool applique.

Our good friend Donna made this Georgia bulldog quilt for her nephew and only needed to add the binding.  She finished it and managed to get it to him on Sunday - one very happy boy!

Vicky (Gloria's twin sister) made this adorable quilt top on Saturday!  I just love this colors.  I'm not sure if this one is headed off to her granddaughter.  Some little girl is going to be very happy to receive this quilt.

Last September a group of us exchanged Churn Dash blocks and Half Square triangle blocks and Pat managed to finished her quilt - put the rest of us to shame, but hopefully inspired us to get busy!  It's just beautiful!  You had to see us all looking to see if our blocks made the cut (I found 2 of mine, so I felt pretty good). Apparently she has a bunch left for another project!

Also on Pat's 2015 To Do list was this quilt: Moda's Collection for A Cause: Love quilt.  She and I bought the last 2 kits that Cinnamon's had at the retreat last year and Pat managed to finish hers.  I'm only slightly jealous.  Now I can't wait to get busy with mine!

A lot of our group were working on our next exchange - Star Blocks - due in September, but I was focused on a couple of RCQ quilts that we need for Spring Market.  I had already finished the blocks for Tanner Legacy (using Paula's Tanner Crossing collection), so Paula arranged them on the wall and I managed to sew up the first 4 rows Tuesday night.  It is so striking and so different from the picture I shared with just the blocks. 

I also finished the blocks for Richmond (using Paula's Historical Stripes collection), but unfortunately we had the wrong fabric for the alternate blocks so I couldn't sew any of it together.  Here's a small sample of some of the blocks.

My goal is to finish Tanner Legacy before I leave for Houston on Tuesday morning and then finish Richmond when I get back home.  I'll be picking up the correct fabric when I'm there.  That will clear the tables for BOM at the end of the month and then it's Easter when my children and granddaughters will be here - YAY!!!

And now it is time to get some sewing done on Tanner Legacy and to catch up on my DVR'd shows.  I personally would like to thank the person who invented DVR'ing.  It is so nice to know that I can go away and my favorite shows are being saved for me.  It is definitely the simple things that make me happy - well that and good jewelry!!

Until next time, happy quilting,
Mary Ellen