Monday, November 19, 2012

Retreats Rock!

I have been to two retreats in the last two weekends. How fun! First was the annual retreat that my quilt guild organizes. Since I retired a couple of years ago, I have been able to attend all four days of the retreat. It starts on Thursday at 10:00 AM and ends on Sunday at 3:00 PM. That's a lot of time for sewing! I love it!

We also play games, teach classes, work on mystery quilts, take meal breaks, eat lots of yummy snacks, talk, laugh, and win door prizes. I'm usually among the few crazies who stay up until the wee hours of the night. Friday night I stayed up until almost 3:00 AM, but the other nights I was reasonable and went to bed by about 2:00.

Previously I showed you the 8 Christmas stockings I made and also the quilt I finished and then slept under. Here are a few more retreat treasures:

a friend working on her beautiful quilt.

another beautiful quilt made by the woman on the left

teaching a class

a gorgeous quilt made by someone I didn't previously know

our beautiful work room

After the retreat I was exhausted and slept like a hibernating bear. Then, when I woke up, it was time to do the next retreat. This one was at my church and ran from 10:00 AM on Thursday to 10 PM on Saturday night.

On Day One there were two of us who knitted, crocheted, and sewed into the evening, then went home to sleep. Day Two there were about five of us. Two of us slept overnight at church, quite cozily, in the church library. In fact, we didn't wake up until the Saturday group arrived, hungry, at 10:00 AM. We had to jump up and make breakfast in a hurry. There were about seven of us who stayed until Saturday night. We all got a lot done, and had loads of fun. It was the first crafters' weekend ever at our church, and I think we may do it again. What fun to be retired and have the time and possibility of going on quilting and crafting retreats. I'm lucky! But I'm still catching up on sleep after all this "retreating" -- exhausting at my age!

knitting supplies

the result of an impromptu decision to make a doll blanket from leftover yarns

She finished a prayer shawl that took over a year to make!

a collection of doll blankets, quilted and knitted

another knitted doll blanket, this time for Barbie

I found out a friend was going to deliver hats to a shelter, and they needed more, so I whipped up this hat to add to her pile. (She delivered 16 of them two days later.)

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