Patchworktime's First Annual Retreat

When Judy announced she would be hosting a retreat I quickly signed up since it was just a little over three hours away. Then the fire happened and I felt too overwhelmed to attend. I wrote Judy and begged off.

When she posted about the closeness of the event date I felt saddened that I would miss it and knew I would regret not attending. I just happened to read a post of a quilter that was visiting the DFW area and and asked her where she was. She responded and asked if I was going to Judy's retreat. I told her no and my reasons why and talked about it probably being full. She encouraged me to ask.

I posted a comment on Judy's post about the event and simpy asked "Are you full". I got one of the fastest responses I think I ever saw that said "No. Can you come?" We exchanged a few emails and then I thought about it and talked with my BFF about it. She simply said GO! With all the stress over how things are NOT going with the house everyone involved felt it would be good for me to get my face out of the house business for a weekend.

I called and made my room reservation. I tried to scrounge up a roommate but did not succeed. I then began my plans for attending. I was up late Thursday night doing laundry and getting things ready. When my eyes popped open at 5 a.m. I thought "Why not?". I got up. Packed the car and was on the road by 5:30 arriving just before 9.

I registered for my room and climbed the stairs to the meeting room. This was my first ever quilt retreat so I was not sure what to expect. I walked into a room full of quilters and several husbands. There were 2 to a table. I walked to the back corner and found a lone quilter. Who other than Cheryl. The lady that encouraged me to attend!

I got the lay of the land and went to the car to get my supplies. I had my Orca Bay in a box in a carry on type bag along with all my tools. I also brought my friends Featherweight. I setup and began happily sewing.

There was plenty of good food, good conversation and new friendships. I sewed the entire weekend making wings for the red strip parts and then assembling the "crabs" from Orca Bay. That is all I did for all of Friday and Saturday until about 9 or 10 p.m. that night. I managed to assemble three full rows before bed. When I got up Sunday morning I decided that I could quickly and easily assemble the Ohio Star rows and that is just what I did before packing up and heading off from the retreat. I missed show and tell as all I had were pieces at that point but I was sure to pull others over to see what I had accomplished before packing it up!