Sewing retreat!!!!

I got up yesterday, looked out the window, saw my tunnel through the snow was intact - YEAH! I gave the dogs a quick walk, and we were on our way. My car is small, but Kathy and I managed to get all our stuff in the car. I don't think we could have put anything else in there, but it doesn't matter -- it all fit!

The roads were fine, and we made good time getting here. Yep -- we're at a sewing retreat! And we're here until Sunday!!!!!  Yippeee!!!!  I really like this new house that we are staying at. Retreat at the Farm if you want to check it out. The price is right, the location is right, and it works for us. We are only five, so we're keeping with the current rules, and it's actually quite nice because we each get our own bedroom and sewing table. No squishing together. I think we may need to go to five in the future! It's also way less drama, although I think it depends on the people who come. Some people are just busier than others!!!

We have a great group of people here this time, and it's going to be so mellow. Plus, we have other things planned, and I've got some cooking to do today. So all is good. And if we get snowed in? What do I care?  I've got my portable office, and I'm doing some writing and have access to all my documents on the internet -- I'm in good shape. 

And I think Helen Anne should be allowed to come to all retreats. She's a walker!!  She is on our Cross Canada walk, and well, we went out for a walk yesterday, and we were gone for two hours! We walked at pretty much the same pace, and it was fun to have company for the walk! 

Later I looked at my FitBit, and I was 20 steps away from a neat number. So I walked to the kitchen and back, and oops -- I overshot the mark by a wee bit. 

My FitBit stats for yesterday

No matter -- it was a fun day, and those steps translated into 15.6 KM.  Wow  --- that's good!! 

I love technology. I've got the radio streaming this morning on my portable speaker, and I've got my playlist on Spotify! All the technology comforts of home, but away from home!

I did get some sewing done. I had to get some sewing done and then write about it. I realized this morning when I was proofing that I needed to take some more pictures. That's first on the list of things to do today. Once that post gets uploaded, I'll work on the next one. What's so nice about technology is that I can work while I'm away!!!

But I did spend the evening sewing on this. It's a bunch of big triangles that I had leftover from making borders on quilts, and I had joined them into half-square triangles. The idea was to sew two half-square triangles together to make hourglass blocks with them. 

There are many of them, and I drew the guideline on them (no laser on my sewing machine!), and the first seam is done on them all. I left them in a pile at the back of the sewing machine. 

Sewing up leftovers into hourglass blocks

I'm going to sew a couple, then trim them, so I don't end up trimming all the units at once. That's boring!

They will be scrappy -- well, there will be matched pairs, but no great quantity of any group of fabrics. But as I said, these are the cutoffs from joining strips of fabric for borders, so there are about 8 of each grouping. They can't all be trimmed to the same size, so I have a selection of sizes for the trimming. I have a plan for them, and I'll start sewing them together one day. 

Finished hourglass units

So Tish is taking the Bob Ross thing to the extreme. Yep --- she has Bob Ross socks!!!!

Bob Ross socks

I had a great sleep last night. Likely a combination of the shoveling the day before, the relief of getting to the retreat, and the long walk! I don't think it's too cold outside, but that wind!!!  WOW -- I can hear it whistling around the house this morning. But we have a special activity planned for this afternoon, so we may have to go for a walk this morning. 

Oh -- if I thought I had it bad on my street with the snow, my neighbor at the end was in a much worse situation. The plow didn't even get near the end of her driveway. At least 15 feet, if not more, from the end of her driveway that wasn't plowed. She's right at the end of the dead end. I mean, this plow driver was totally out to lunch when he plowed. It was the worst job I've ever seen. And all he had to do for Rhonda was shove the snow up into the forest entrance like he did with the rest of the snow. I mean --- what was the issue? I think the city got complaints from many people on our street and they are supposed to be back this morning to fix it. Let's pray for a miracle. 

Oh -- thanks to Stephanie, who alerted me that there is a quilt of mine in the latest issue of McCalls' -- March/April. It's a Storm at Sea. This quilt got stuck in the UPS system for almost 4 weeks last September!!!! 

And that's it for me today!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!