Retreat Report and Near Misses with the Witch

Hello, all.  I returned from Retreat last Monday.  I had fun but I was tired. I came home and had to go to my BOM meeting that night.  Then I worked 12 hr days the next three days.  Since then I have tried to catch up here at home and in my sewing room.

At our retreat we met several lovely ladies.  We also did a mystery quilt.  I am not sure I will ever do that again.  To top it all off, I had a migraine on Friday and was taking too many meds to be sewing.  I screwed up so many times!  I have not spent as much time "unsewing" in all of my 40+ years of sewing put together as I did that day.  I finally finished at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

I am reasonably pleased with it.  But I have to confess this is the repaired version.  AFTER I got the borders on I found another mistake.  Here is the picture I took at the retreat.

Look on the far right side at the middle star and the plain block below.  I have the red pieces backward on BOTH of them.  I was so frustrated I was just going to leave it.  No one else saw it until I pointed it out.  I bring it home and lay it on the floor.  My husband zeroed right in on it.  So, I took both pieces out and turned them around.  Can't even tell.  Thank You, Lord.

I am a cheap skate so I picked my own fabrics from my stash.  So did some of the other ladies.  Some did buy the kits but I only have pictures of one.  Here are some of the others.

This is my aunts.  She cut her fabric the night before we left and I got up and finished it while she showered the morning we left for the retreat.  I don't like yellow but it turned out fantastic.  Very much HER.

This is Ann.  She also made hers from her stash.  She worried the entire time but it turned out fantastic.

This is Claudia.  She and her twin sister, Linda, both bought the same kit.  I didn't like any of the pictures of the fabrics for the kits but they all looked great in the end.


The other thing I did is work on my stacked coins quilt I am calling Making Change. At some point I either cut wrong or changed my seam allowance.  As a result I ended up squaring them all to 16 1/4" instead of 16 1/2".  I think they will work fine.  I am out of the white fabric.  My sister is getting me more tomorrow.  This is where I am so far.

I am not totally happy with it because I did not consider matching the three way split white bars with the vertical bars between the stack.  I think I will like it better when it is sashed with the white strips.  I bought orange batik to back it and hot pink to bind it.  She loves brights.  So, hopefully this will make her happy.

I also bought so much fabric while I was gone my luggage was at the weight limit.  We visited three shops in Austin, one in Kingsland and went to Stitchin' Heaven three times.  I was much better than some of the other women.  Some of them spent $1000!

Now for the near miss with the witch.  I am the witch.  I just about broke out my broom Friday night.  My son is a distance runner for a college.  His entire team was on their cool down (this is a phenomenon non-runners can't grasp.  You run more at a slower pace to "cool" your muscles).  They were near a high school they had been using the track at.  They were in the cross walk.  They had the right of way.  A car slowed and then sped up and hit two of them.  One of whom was my son.  Mama ain't happy!  I can handle an accident but the little twit never even stopped after both of them bounced off the hood of her car.  I wanted to break out the broom and fly down there to give her an attitude adjustment.

The odd thing is all three of my boys have been hit by a car while at college.  The older two were on bicycles.  Number 1 was at fault.  He was on the sidewalk.  The driver stopped and was very shaken and concerned even though #1 assured him it was NOT his fault.  Number 2 was hit by a driver that blew thru a stop sign and he never stopped either.  I think my kids are some sort of magnets for idiot drivers.  God pity one that actually hurts one of my babies.  I can't promise I won't break out my broom!

Right now I am praying that there were lessons learned by all.

I have a lot more pictures from retreat I will try to post later.  My BIL asked me yesterday to make him a Marine quilt.  A lady at retreat had the best Marine fabric.  Unfortunately, it is sold out everywhere I find it on line!  So, that is what I am stewing about.

Off to make ham balls to send back to school with #3.

Just found that Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict still has her linking party open.  So, I am linking up.  Thanks Sarah!  Whoop Whoop!   Amy Lou Who still has hers open, too.  So, though I am late this week I am grateful to link up with these ladies and I am pretty sure Richard is still open.

Keep Stitchin"!

Mary