Saturday Retreat

After going to bed on Friday at 1:30, I slept very soundly. I woke up at 7:11 Saturday morning and was wide awake so I got up and peed and then went to the gym. I was the only one up from our group, but the place was still bustling! There were probably 10 ladies already sewing. I got to work on the cat placemats. Before I went to bed on Friday, I had stitched around the outside for the seam so that I could turn them right side out and then quilt. I was able to get all of the placemats turned before breakfast. After breakfast, I finished them up pretty quickly.



Speaking of breakfast, we had pancakes, eggs with cheese and sausage links for breakfast. It was yummy! And we didn't have to clean up a thing!

One thing that I noticed when I got up was that there were these Halloween blocks laying out on the floor and they seemed to be abandoned. Mary kept admiring them, too.



After the placemats, I got started on the purse that I took with me. Nikki's purse was the farthest along so I took it with me to at least get the trim put on. Once I started, I just couldn't stop. I would finish one step and realize that I was so much closer to the end than I thought.

With an interruption for a lunch of pulled pork sandwiches, homemade vegetable soup, a bag of chips and orange pie (yummy!)....



.... I got the purse finished shortly after 1:30.





With the purse done, I was free to work on the Star and Nine patch. I wanted to get the pieces for the border done so that I could start laying them out to stitch them together once I got the inner part of the top done. I had to make a bunch of 4 patches...



And then, I had to attach a dark and a light triangle to each 4 patch.



Through all of this, I kept playing with Ruby. I took a ton of pictures and learned a bit about the camera. I have a timer that I can set....

This is what my triangles and 4 patches look like.

Admidst all of this ironing, sewing and picture taking, I was running out of fuel. I decided to lie down for about an hour before dinner. I warmed up my rice bags and climbed into bed. I was out for a good 10 minutes. I got up just in time for dinner which was a baked breaded chicken breast, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade bread and strawberry jelly and a chocolate/pudding/whipped cream dessert. It was great! Then, it was back to the star and nine patch quilt.

I was getting tired of ironing seams open and I kept scorching my fingertips when I was sewing the blocks into rows and then rows into part of the top. I can't remember exactly what I was doing, but at one point, I was ironing and I turned around to do something and my foot got caught on the cord and then iron went down. I froze. The iron was probably on the mat for 3-5 seconds. We had to tel the weekend co-ordinators and they were going to have to tell the Center people in the morning. I was very nervous!



Something else happened right before I took a nap. Mary and I kept teasing Jane, the owner of the Halloween blocks, about Jane needing to get the blocks done so that someone could take them home. I started talking abandonment and Mary kept saying that she was going to take them and finish the quilt. While I was sleeping, Jane told Mary that she had 10 minutes to sew it together and then it would be Mary's. I guess that Jane just didn't feel like finishing the top. So Mary started working on the blocks. When Mary got those done, Jane said she wasn't done because it needed a border. I looked at Brenda and yelled, "prairie points!" Brenda agreed that this is what Jane should make Mary do. But Jane had a border fabric to use on the border. Mary got to work.

I worked as hard as I could on the star and nine patch quilt, but I ran out of steam around 1:45 so I went to bed.