So here I am at the retreat house! It was a challenge getting everything organized, but it's all done! And can you tell me why this happens? I had a drawer from the fridge that had been sitting on the counter for weeks (I know—not a priority) and needed to be washed. I then needed to wipe down that part of the fridge. I hate housework—can you tell?
But that needed to be washed before I left yesterday! And the fridge got wiped down, but I see the entire fridge needs to be emptied and wiped down. A job for when I get home!
It is the weirdest thing to come to a retreat at night. We snuck a couple of nights in between other regular retreats. The house doesn't sit empty, and we get two nights for our machine embroidery workshop. Works for me! It just felt so weird—I was discombobulated!
We are at Springhouse Retreat, in case you are wondering. This house is fantastic and large, although I have a couple of other houses to check out in the coming months. It's nice to know that we have some choices. It's funny how when one closes, another seems to open. My first retreat was in June 2007, and since then, there have been many retreats—too many to count!
If anyone would like to attend a quilt retreat, let me know. I have some spaces open in July. It's only three nights and a fun way to test whether you like quilting retreats.
But I was organized yesterday, and not only did I have time to wash part of the fridge, but I got the signed contract out that needed to be done. The customer quilt was done, and I even had time for a nap as I had not slept well the night before.
Here is the customer quilt! Everything was trimmed and ready to be delivered on my way to the retreat house.
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| Customer quilt - done |
My 60-minute-or-less project was to put the binding on the final placemat.
And here's the state of the cutting mat. It's not perfect, but at least there's lots of room to work! The nice thing is that the workload will be more manageable after this retreat. WAIT --- you all know that's a lie. What will happen is that there is just ONE more event that requires coordination with others. It's easy to do something yourself, but organizing with others is challenging. So that will free up a lot of time, as does the fact that the number of classes for June is fewer than May. Only 14 one-hour Zoom sessions are scheduled, and there will be no more!
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| The cutting mat is clear! |
Then it was time to pack the car, which didn't take too long. And now look - I have my living room back! Other quilts needed to be picked up from the house, which also went yesterday. The little tents on the chairs are so that Miss Murphy does not sleep there!
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| The living room is empty again! |
This was the back of the car.
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| Lots of stuff in the car! |
And more stuff in the front seat.
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| More quilts for delivery |
The Pony Express is a wonderful thing, and not only did I drop off quilts, but I also picked up some quilts for my concurrent show at Quilt Canada. I got four more yesterday, so that was all good. I have one quilt to quilt—mine, and it's enormous, so that will be on the list of things to do when I get home. With mine and what I already have, I'm halfway to collecting them all. I'll check in with the others this week and arrange pick-up or drop-off.
So last night, we got settled in, and it was crazy! A few people know each other, but most do not, so we spent a good part of the evening getting to know each other! It was not only about getting to know each other; we also had some show-and-tell. While some have never been to this house, many have never been to a retreat! It's all going to be FUN!
This is Janice's quilt from Tequila Lime. While I saw her quilt on Zoom during the final show-and-tell, it looks much nicer in person. It's incredible, and she quilted it herself and did a fabulous job. Thanks, Janice, for bringing that along. It's a beautiful quilt.
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| Janice's Tequila Lime |
I snapped this photo of someone else's work. While this is NOT quilting or machine embroidery, it's hand embroidery and IMPECCABLE. The satin stitch, long and short, is unbelievable. I'm unsure I would have the patience or the skill to create this.
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| Hand embroidery - beautiful |
We had a little briefing last night. I was up early this morning and got all the files ready. I just needed to transfer the folder with all the information I prepped yesterday onto the USBs. We have some people who are brand new to machine embroidery, so it will be fun to get them going, but we will make it work.
I did not bring a machine as I'll just do the demos on someone else's, and that saved me from bringing that, but I still have my stuff—samples and whatnot—that I brought. All is good, and I can't wait to get started, although now that the blog is written and the files are ready to be stitched out, I might just get out for a walk before we start.
Oh my -- I see the sun. Could it be possible that the sun is out? Of course it is because I'm in the house all day!!
Have a super day!!!!
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