More about the retreat....

While at retreat, it was arranged for Hally Bone, a certified quilt appraiser who lives in St. Louis;  and I believe she told me she is the secretary to the AQS quilt appraisers organization or something like that to appraise any quilts that we were interested in having her look at.   Anyways, I took three quilts for her to see, two were antique quilts (one from my mother-in-law ...pink flying geese;  and one from my father-in-law, bow tie) and one that I made, Stars in the Garden.  She was so full of information....talking about the fabrics and dating the fabrics,  the colors (indigos and soldier blues), the stitching, etc, etc. 

Sorry, I couldn't find a full picture of my Stars in the Garden at the moment, but here it is folded up at the end of my bed. 

Well, after having my three appraised, I am thinking that I need to hire armored guards outside the house.  Who would have thought?  Another thing that I didn't realize is that the more awards that you win, the more the appraisal of ALL your quilts go up.  I think I have my most valuable quilts appraised at this point, but really.....I don't think I could afford to have ALL my quilts appraised, but it sure makes you think.

On the way down to St. Louis, I stopped into Quilts Plus ...a top 10 quilt shop and picked up a few odds and ends.  http://www.quiltsplus.com/

Another quilt shop that we spent money at in St. Louis is the Quilted Fox....  http://www.quiltedfox.com/index.htm .  This is another one of those top 10 quilt shops that was featured in  Quilt Sampler magazine a few years ago.  Well worth the trip if you are in the area.  I just picked up a couple spools of silk thread here for my Cherry Trees blocks. 

We, also, hit Jackman's.  http://www.jackmansfabrics.com/ .  Oh....all I can say is that they have lots and lots of great fabrics.  I picked up some yardage of the French General.  I am using this for the Cherry Trees and am collecting more of it for my retreat with Gwen Marston this September.  

I received some great gifts from my Secret Quilter (whom I later found out was Lorrie).  There were gifts at each of our stations on a daily basis and on the last day was the big reveal to find out who had been sneaking things for us to find each time we came back to our seats  It was a whole lot of fun.  I received silk thread, a cute pair of applique scissors, needles, blue marking pen, button head pins in a magnetic jar, candy (chocolate), a really neat magnetic case that holds your applique supplies and they won't fall out and fabric.  Loved everything.

Also, got some really great things from  my roommate, Sandy; magnetic bookmark, nail file, note cards, candy (Mike and Ike)  that she thought was my favorite, but after eating some of it on the ride home, I don't think I have even tasted these things before...LOL...she must have been thinking of one of her OTHER best friends..LOL; a beautiful handmade clay bead bracelet (I love animal prints) and some more beautiful fabric.  Again, loved everything especially the animal print bracelet.  She knows me well when it comes to animal prints.  :D

Gosh, talking about this makes me realize how much I am missing everyone already.