A travel day

 

Thank goodness for buffer miles! I walked 3.2 KM yesterday. That's the least I've walked in a VERY LONG TIME. I was so tired when I got home that I unpacked the car, had dinner, and basically went to bed for a long, long sleep. I must confess that I didn't sleep well at the retreat. That was no fault of the retreat house, but I suspect the fact that it was pitch black and, for the most part, totally silent had a lot to do with it. Just a different environment than I'm used to. 

It doesn't matter - I'm good now and ready to go! Which is good since I have a lot to do. But thank goodness for all the extra miles that I've been doing because I'm not behind. I just lost a few of my banked miles over this retreat. Adding an extra KM for a week or so will build that buffer back up again. 

I did a LOT of trimming of half square triangles before we left. Shoot - I put them all out this morning, so I could take a picture and then forgot to take the picture! Sigh..............

But here's a picture of one of the bundles that I took last night. There were four bags of trimmed half-square triangles. This one will go back in the retreat box for the next retreat as I'll start making something with them. 

A bag of trimmed half-square triangles

I have to say that we did very well with the food. There was barely anything left to bring home. We had the last bits of leftovers for lunch and then packed up the cars. I think we had more room on the way home than we did going up or we were better organized. 

Dede and I were out of there shortly before 1 PM. We stopped at the maple syrup place to pick up something else, and then we were on the road. We knew we would hit cottage traffic on the way home, but it wasn't that bad. And we took a detour through the worst of it and then took the back roads to get to Cookstown to visit Country Concessions' new location. 

It was hilarious because we missed it the first time. All we saw was the cannabis store! But on the second pass, there was the store tucked back from the street. It's a huge place, and we had a good look around. I was tired and didn't buy much. Only these grippy things for the back of my long-arm rulers. 

Grippy strips for rulers

I barely purchased anything on this trip. I don't need anything, but I did pick up this pattern at Thimbles and Things on the way up. 

Flurry pattern

I feel good about that. I will buy what I need, but I"m not buying what I don't need. We had to make a pit stop at Tim's before we headed out, and we saw these Filled Ring Dream Donuts for sale. We did NOT buy them. They look absolutely decadently sweet. Nope - I had a cookie and a tea. 

New donuts at Tim's

From there, we took the backroads home and ended up very close to the other "new" to us retreat house near Shelbourne. More on that in a couple of weeks when I sneak out again for a couple of days. My car GPS was in a tizzy because it wanted us to take the main highway. And I said NO - I wasn't getting caught in weekend traffic. The roads are smaller, but we didn't stop because of traffic once. 

It seemed to take a long time to get home, but we did make three stops, got caught in a bit of traffic, and took some back roads. 

I had to laugh because Ronda had left earlier in the day and alerted us to fill up with gas up north as the prices were cheaper. I said I didn't need gas and would arrive home with 50 KM still in my tank. However, we were very close to her house when I spotted a station with this price and had to stop and fill up!  The prices were all over the place all the way home. This is the cheapest we saw and the most expensive was close to 140.0. 

Reasonably priced gas

Guess who were beside themselves with joy when I got home? Yep - they went crazy - MOM'S HOME!!!!  Of course, they had to entertain me while I had dinner. That means play fighting in that bed. They are two silly girls who will be so happy to go for their walk this morning. 

The silly girls

I did get the car unpacked and took everything downstairs so I could deal with it this morning. 

Stuff to unpack

Thanks to Dede, who made me TWO mini designs boards with a gorgeous orange fabric binding on the edges. I NEED these as when I get on a cutting binge, I run out! And I'll be cutting and prepping for my upcoming classes, so these will come in very handy. 

Two new mini design boards

I made HUGE progress on my All in a Row quilt, and you'll get to see that later in the week. Well, after the next class, which is this coming Saturday. I should say TWO quilts because I'm making two quilts and trying to incorporate as many rows or parts of rows that I can. 

Great progress on the All in a Row quilt

OK -- so I want to know who was reading my blog and booked the fall dates at Seams Appropriate?? I know it was one of you! Anyway, we decided to book a date in the fall, but hours before I submitted our application, someone else took the date. So we're booked into the spring now - well, I'm waiting for confirmation, but the July date for next year is CONFIRMED. She received multiple bookings this weekend, so if you're planning on booking a retreat, don't wait to book - unless you go in December, there really isn't anything available. 

I've pretty much got everything unpacked, and there isn't much to share! I was missing a few pieces of fabric that are now cut and ready to sew this morning during Monday sewing. Then you'll get to see the All in a Row quilt after the group has seen them this coming weekend. 

I've got a ton of writing to do this week, so that'll be my main focus. And I have a paper pieced block that HAS to be done this week, so I'll be working on that today. 

Then I need to go through the retreat basket and see if I'm missing anything with the remaining projects. I don't think so, but best to check. No sense in being away for four days and run out of work. 

I took ONE basket of stuff, and I could probably have sewed for another four days before I ran out. But that's way better than before when I took five or six containers of work, and well, I could have sewed for months! I'm learning that moderation is a good thing!

Oh wait -- I have two other pictures to share with you. This is our "show and tell" from the retreat. 

From the left - Kathi sewed two quilt tops - the delectable mountains and her koala bear quilt. 

Ronda sewed borders on the Nightmare before Christmas panel, and let's just say that quilt almost brought us to blows!! And that's all you need to know about that. She made and quilted THREE table runners. The third one is at the very far end of the clothesline. 

I worked on the two TEENY projects on the line. 

Dede got the border on the black and white quilt. 

Lynn finished the blocks and assembled that big house quilt. 

Our show and tell

Of course, we had way more than that, but it was all in bits and pieces. 

And then it was time for the group photo. It was too sunny in the front of the house, so we zipped around to the back. I set up the tripod and the timer on the phone. Ooops -- I didn't make it back in time. 

Oops -I'm not looking at the camera

I took several shots, and we are all actually looking at the camera!!! 

The official retreat photo

Well, I best get going; the girls are getting excited. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!