Back from missing in action....

Good grief.  Where has the time gone?    I posted last  time that I was getting things ready for a retreat, but what with work, the beautiful weather we were having and getting outside to do some yardwork, prepping things for retreat and packing, I never had a chance to get in here and post about it, take pictures of it or nothing! 

In my last post, I showed you the kit I pulled from my cupboard, Short Story, a Schnibbles quilt.  It was all cut out before I left and I did get the top  done at retreat. 

I have two friends, actually three friends who all bought this same one at the same time I did  and two of them attempted it and they ended up incorporating the fabric into their stashes and the other one hasn't touched it, so I was a little worried about making this my one main project  to work on. There are a lot of pieces and the instructions were certainly not done the "easy" way.  If I had read through and thought of what needed to be done, I could have done it in strips, but no.....I cut all the little pieces out and thanks to the Fons and Porter 1/4 square triangle ruler, I actually made the blocks and they came out pretty good.  The quilt  only measures 33" square, so I think I will quilt this one myself.  The backing and the binding were included in the kit, so I have no excuses. 

Anyways I loaded up my car with absolutely everything that I wanted to and headed out from Michigan to St. Louis, MO to go to our retreat that was held at the Mercy Center...  http://www.mercycenterstl.org/ .  I did plan on being frugal with the number of projects that I took to work on as there are ALWAYS too many things to work on.  So, I took the Schnibbles which I completed (the top), I had prepped #9 BOM Cherry Trees and did start stitching on that and I brought my Hearts and Hands blocks that I didn't get to...oh well. The Schnibbles took a lot longer than I expected. 

Here is my work station AFTER finishing up on the Schnibbles (folded on the back of the chair) and you can see my Cherry Trees on the seat of my chair.  The table is looking a whole lot neater than it did when I was working with all those pieces for Short Story. 

So, we had a great time, lots of fun and laughter, lots of quilting, lots of food, more fun and laughter, shopping, more fun and laughter and more shopping.  We had show-n-tell, played strip poker (with strips of fabric) and bingo (for fat quarters).  

I should  mention that I did make a stop on my way down to St. Louis at one of my favorite quilt shops and did drop a small bundle...  http://www.quiltsplus.com/ .  It is one of those great shops that was included in the top 10 quilt shops magazine  a few years ago.  I get there once or twice a year (on the way down and sometimes on the way back home from St. Louis). 

I'll save my purchases and prizes  and gifts for another post.  Right now, I am recuperating from the long drive down, all the fun while there and then the long drive home, but I am happy and satisfied.