NO - the Virtual Retreat is OVER!!! Oh my gosh - it was an amazing five days of catching up with friends, meeting new friends, information gathering, and general frivolity! I had such a great time, and from the e-mails and messages that I received from everyone who participated, they also enjoyed it.
As a matter of fact, we all had so much fun that we all want to do it again!!! I'm going to schedule more dates, and they are going to be sooner than you think! So watch for those. I won't do five days again - I did find that a wee bit long for me. But here's the weirdest thing - even though I was at my house, I barely interacted with anything in my house, so I truly felt like I was away!
One of the ladies who joined yesterday said, "I'm not sure why I didn't call in on the other days, but I'm so glad that I did today!" So if you were sitting on the fence, link in next time. Some people sewed, some people chatted (that was me for a good part of yesterday, but I was ripping something out), and I had to laugh when one person signed in for a while and then confessed that all she did was fidget with a zipper the entire time.
This is a picture she posted, and she was playing with the zipper on the left-most pouch.
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| Pouches made to match a purchased bag |
Hey - this Virtual Retreat wasn't about SEWING. It was about reconnecting, it was about being there to listen to what people had to say, it was about making new friends, and it was about sharing and caring. Our mental health is critical, and I feel so much better after connecting to these great ladies. Oh, and Paul stopped in briefly to get birthday wishes for his 60th birthday yesterday. Some people connected to the link, then muted their microphone and just sewed while they listened. That was OK. There was ZERO pressure to produce anything!!!
We learned so much yesterday, AGAIN! We got the inside scoop on the insurance industry as it relates to our cars and the current crisis. We had a car expert in our midst who gave us advice about our vehicles - again what to do during the current crisis. We got to meet Jackie from Surrey, who gave us an update of what's going on in BC, and we learned how different guilds are coping or going to deal with the current situation. And loads more.
I don't even know how many people in total called in, but there were quite a few. I don't think we were ever more than 13 or 14 at a time, and that was great as we got to really chat with each other. I asked for them to send me pictures, and this is what I have to share with you today.
If you or someone in your family has one of these shelving units, it makes an EXCELLENT storage facility for fabric!!!! I know - every family needed one of these. Karen snagged this from a thrift shop near her, and it's now her fabric storage unit. Most of the fabric is behind glass doors! Two parts of my storage unit like that is currently sitting in my office. The other one is downstairs with the thread for the long arm.
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| A super fabric storage unit |
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| An extra table on wheels |
I love it when people share their sewing rooms and storage ideas. Everyone has different tools and space available to them, and everyone has such creative ideas! It's great fun. Thanks for sharing Karen!!
We also got a view of Jackie's sewing room, with storage cupboards from IKEA!
Some of us sew in the dark basements - well basements with little windows like me, and then some of us sew in this fantastic space. Carol lives at the lake, and her basement is a walk-out. This was her view while she sewed. OK -- totally jealous, but then they have BLACK flies, and we do not!
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| Carol's view |
This is my water view, and I think I'll stick with it!!!! This was feeding time at the pond. Those fish are hungry these days. The second I drop the food on the water, they make a mad dash to get it. One fish was so excited the other day that he flipped himself onto a lily pad. That's not good, but he flapped around once or twice, and he was back in the water. I kind of freaked out, but he knew what to do.
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| Feeding frenzy |
And I had to laugh as Nina joined us again yesterday. The time difference between Germany and my location is 6 hours. So while we're having lunch, there she is sitting with a glass of wine because it was dinner!!!
I got one more binding project done! This is my rectangular jelly roll rug. I used up some scrappy fabrics, but do you notice that I took care to create somewhat of a pattern with the darn strips? At least, it's symmetrical!
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| Binding is on the jelly roll rug |
The corners are not the best - do I care? Nope. I'm over it. It's a rug for the floor.
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| The corners are a bit wonky |
I got a few more things done, and I'll share those tomorrow.
Carol was madly working on her Row by Row license plates. Remember those?? Well, we all went crazy and ended up with loads of them. Carol was showing me one of the ones she worked on. The shop's name was Elaine's Attic, and in my honor, she framed it in orange. !!!
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| The Zoom quilt gang! |
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| Carol's license plates |
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| Nina's millefiori quilt block |
This is the third in a series of milkweed themed projects that Helen Anne is working on. She took a class with Jane Sassaman. I know the picture doesn't do justice to this. It's gorgeous, and I can't wait to see it in real life. We helped picked the background fabric and watched as she did all the applique and decorative stitching. Great job, Helen Anne!!!! It's stunning!
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| Helen Anne's milkweed project |
Heather joined for a bit yesterday and was working on a project by Missouri Star. She had two blocks completed and made significant progress on the sections for the other blocks! This is going to be amazing. I love quilts with black backgrounds!!!!
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| Heather's quilt blocks |
As we spent a lot of time chatting about Row by Row, Karen, showed us one of the kits that she had purchased from the quilt store in Whitehorse several years ago. HER kit is DONE.
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| Karen's Row by Row quilt kit - DONE |
Loads of other stuff that happened, and well, you just had to be there!! To everyone who signed in - THANK YOU!!!! You made the Virtual Retreat a huge success. It was loads of fun, and I can't wait to do it all again!!!
Now it's time to get to work! I need to find some fabric for my Celebration quilt. I dug out the color swatch charts for Toscana (Northcott). There's nothing in there that matches that light blue, so I'm going to search the internet for the Patrick Lose fabric. Yep - something else might be better, but there's no time for that!
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| No suitable matches for this fabric |
BUT I did find a pretty good match on one of the other missing fabrics. I'm going to do a bit more digging today.
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| A good match in the purples |
So I was a slug yesterday. I was freezing all day, and then I realized it's because I barely moved. Our Zoom session went really LATE, and by the time I stopped the call, it was too late for a walk. I did 3.2 miles yesterday. A total SLUG!!!! That's OK - I'll make it up up this week.
Here's my picture of the day. Yes - more sky, more scraggly trees.
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| Highway 16 east of the Battlefords |
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| My position on the map for my Cross Canada walk |
Oh - I have so much more to share, but there is no more time today!!! I've got to get moving. We're having a Zoom sewing day (4 hours only) with our Monday seeing group today! I can't wait!!!! And then I have a TON of work to do after that session.
Have a super day!!!!
Ciao!!!!
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