2015 retreat pics & write-up

WHEW – I’m sitting here Monday night (11/9) at 7 PM VERY grateful to be home safe and sound from retreat.  The last 4-1/2 hours of the drive were in heavy rain with fog….NOT a fun experience at all.  But the retreat itself…that was magical :~).  Going straight to Grady House on Wednesday gave us extra time to set up so that everyone could hit the ground running on Thursday morning :~).  There was lots of great food…laughs…talking….and sewing, sewing, sewing.  What a wonderful retreat.

We had some nice show and tell from home:

A truly incredible amount of finished projects:

roadmap to exciting places

fun, fan pillowcase

quilt top

I spy quilt

jelly roll race

3 D Christmas Tree

 













































Along with 4 different interpretations of the illusions quilt:

 A blooming 9 patch...truly blooming and getting bigger:

finished...TA DA!

And 2 bargellos...one top finished, and the other started with absolutely gorgeous strata:

We got some killer gifts:

 Including one battery powered seam ripper that I used quite a bit....which incidentally can also take care of those annoying, errant nose hairs :~).

It was a wonderful get together and we're all, already looking forward to next year.

apple pie

Michael got rained out of his normal golf outing on Monday (11/2), so he was home most of the day.  Jan and I switched our errand running to Monday, so she picked me up and we headed out to breakfast.  We had a great breakfast at Cruisin’ Ruebens, where one of our neighbors even picked up our check!  Then it was off to Belk’s for Jan to exchange some shoes, and then WALMART for groceries, the library and the Lake House before heading home.  When I got home, my honey and I got busy making an apple pie.  I had a bunch of streusel topping leftover from a couple of weeks ago, and I decided an apple pie would be the perfect way to use it up.  It was totally yummy and I shared a (still warm) piece with Larry W, who has built me a custom display stand I hope to show you all in a couple of weeks.  

 

soaking in lemon water

fluting the crust

 

piling those apples in after adding lemon juice, lemon zest cinnamon, etc

adding the streusel topping

OMgoodness, this smells INCREDIBLE!!!

YUMM-O!

 I spent the rest of the afternoon starting to pack.  Michael and I had leftovers for dinner, then he left for rehearsal (yet again!) and I settled in to watch TV and knit.

***This is probably the last post you will see for a bit....I leave for my Fiber Floozie retreat at o'dark hundred Wednesday morning.  My honey will be holding down the fort, continuing to go to rehearsals until opening night later this week.  I'll be back late Monday.***

Sunday breakfast, leaning tower of basket, death of a waffle iron, cutting for new quilt, Sandy's quilt loaded

Michael hopped up to get bacon and potatoes 

started on Sunday morning (11/1), while I headed downstairs to put away a bunch of stuff.  I have a basket at the top of the basement stairs that almost always looks like the leaning tower of Pisa (with stuff that needs to go downstairs) and it makes Michael crazy (as well it should!)  So…I decided that every time I went downstairs on Sunday, I would grab a handful of stuff and put it away.  This is what it looked like at the beginning of the day:

Here’s how it looked at the end….

 Believe it or not, I made a good start on it :~).

The one bad thing about our breakfast is that once again, our waffle iron died.  The construction on it is very poor….2 tiny screws holding together the plastic hinge, and Reg (Loree’s husband) has already fixed it once.  He said at that time that if it broke again, we would have to get a new one….so…Michael documented the send off:   

After our terrific breakfast (the aforementioned potatoes, bacon and waffles), 

 

with enough leftover waffles for M's breakfast later in the week

I headed downstairs to continue cutting out blocks for a new quilt, in between putting basket stuff away.  That took me most of the day.   

 

I still have to cut out my 2-1/2 inch black squares

 Michael and I had a quick dinner, then he headed off to rehearsal, and I spent the evening loading up a customer quilt and getting the quilting pattern all set up.   

He was home at 10:30 and we watched one quick 1/2 hour show before heading to bed.

rose for my honey, chocolate pudding, bargello strata

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - I had a slow start on Saturday, my knee pain kept me awake for long portions of time Friday night once I got into bed :~(.  It really seems to be an up and down thing and I don’t know what exactly I’m going to do about it just yet.  I had hoped that walking in the pool would help…and sometimes it seems to and sometimes not so much.  But enough about that….Michael made a smurfy omelet for himself for breakfast, then headed off in the brisk 43 degree weather for golf here at SCCL.  After I cut one of our last roses, and put it on his nightstand for a surprise when we eventually went to bed, 

I headed to the kitchen to make a new recipe.  Our neighbor Joe bought a bunch of whole milk that he didn’t end up using, and he asked if I could figure out something to do with it.  I NEVER turn down free food, so of course I said “SURE!”  So, this morning I made chocolate pudding.  I only had one moment of panic, when I went to get chocolate chips and remembered that I used the last of them in the cake last Thursday.  Luckily I had some leftover bittersweet chocolate from long ago cupcakes, so that got used up.  After that I headed to the studio to sew for just a bit before joining Pat at the Lake House to water walk.  She came home with me afterwards to pick up some disks and try some pudding.  Then Joe came over to visit and try some pudding.  After that my honey came home, unhappy with his score, but happy about the pudding, and finally Paula came down for a visit (we haven’t seen each other in FOREVER!!!) and some pudding!  Everybody said it was yummy!

I worked in a quick talk with Janice before heading back downstairs to sew furiously.  My strata is finally done, ready to go to retreat and become bargello!   

Then it was time to clean up, get dressed up and head on out with Susan & Jim for a fabulous dinner at MAMA RICOTTAS (I had wild mushroom risotto with a side of asparagus, Michael had spaghetti & meatballs, Susan had one of my all time favorites:cheese ravioli with butter & sage sauce, and Jim had lasagna), and then onto Actor’s Theatre for BAD JEW.  It was a FABULOUS play…the actors were incredible…I think all 4 of us really enjoyed it.  The best part?  No intermission, so we were home by 10:30 and I had time to mix up a batch of Belgium Overnight Waffles before heading to bed.