Forest Road Reteat - Day Two - Part One

Ack - today is the last day - we're going home this afternoon!  But what fun we've had.

I'll post some pictures this coming week as I took lots on my phone but should have taken a few with my iPad so they would be easy to upload. I'm loving this iPad for blogging except that the r is still a wee bit sticky and so is the t. I might take the keyboard back and get a new one - I did pay a lot of money for the darn thing. But it lights up as well when you're typing so you can type in the semi darkness.

The day started off well. I was busy working on my Kaleidoscope quilt. Making Block 12 which involved a lot of pieces for the 16 setting triangles.

I had brought a table runner for Ronda that I liked out of the book that I'm teaching. I cut one for her and one of me. So when she was done piecing whatever she was working on, we moved over to the table runner so we could work on it together. Yeah!  While the initial sewing and cutting steps were not bad, - OK - they were super easy, it was laying out those next sections which was a bit tricky. Just when I thought I had all the pieces laid out, I didn't have them in the correct order. But with a little bit of concentration and perseverance, the pieces were in the right order and it was a simple mattter of sewing the strips together. Table runners done!

Then back to Kaleidoscope and I was almost done the 16 setting triangles - I might just get this done for lunch when BAM - I realized that I had made a mistake. Yep - right from the get go, I had switched the half square triangles around and ALL the piecing I had done had to be taken out. The HST were OK (thank god) - how can one mess those up? I shouldn't ask that question. I could not believe what I had done. What an idiot. Amazing how your brain just goes into auto pilot and I never noticed that I was sewing color to color instead of color to black.  Rather than toss it in the bag to rip at home, I decided to rip one out so I could at least have one done. Once I finished it, I went to take a picture with the bad ones and WAIT A MINUTE - where did they go?  AHA - it would appear that Ronda took them so she could rip out for me. That's not necessary I said. And she said - I know, but over the course of the afternoon, she ripped them out for me and I managed to get them all back together by dinner time.

She did other things than just rip out my blocks in the afternoon, but it was such a huge help to have her do that. Thanks Ronda - you're the best!!!!!  Thank goodness that bag needed a home!

I even managed to get a couple of the big corners on this quilt completed last night and I hope to get all the remaining components done today before we leave. That will leave two borders around the centre to sew on, the HUGE corner triangles (that I'm piecing now) and the final border. That shouldn't take too long at all to put together. I'm happy as a clam!

We've eaten very well here but all healthy stuff. We've had fruit for dessert and although I did see a dish with guacamole and chips, I didn't have any. I've not seen cookies or squares and no one has asked for them or needed them.  Ladies of my retreats - are you listening??  Ronda and I are on breakfast and lunch duty today so we won't get quite as much sewing done, but we're the two lesser cooks so it won't be so fancily laid out!

I'm always learning something. Yesterday I needed to plug in my phone and I only had the USB cable and not the plug end, but as I was rooting around in my backpack for a plug, Kim says - we have a plug in the kitchen with a USB plug in it.  NO WAY!  Yes way! Apparently these things have existed for several years. Ronda has one at her house and never told me! I need people to keep me up to date with technology stuff - I do live a sheltered life. Turns out you can get power bars with the darn things on them as well. Now how about that! I guess I'm going to have to get me a new power bar as well. Let's just say that we all had a good laugh about that. Who knew? And how the heck do you find out about this stuff? I didn't need to buy new power bars so how would I know those things exist?