On Thursday, October 27 I flew to Newark New Jersey. This was the start of a fabulous weekend with 22 women from all over the US that came together for a weekend of quilting, friendship and fun (and good eating). My friend Sue picked me up at the airport around 6 PM in a rather cool rainstorm. We spent Thursday night at Sue's home in NJ, got up on Friday morning, packed the car and headed down to CT. This is how the trees looked on Friday morning.
We made our way down to Litchfield, CT and to Camp Washington by 3:30 pm. We chose our rooms, unpacked the car, set up our sewing machines and spent some time meeting the new girls and getting reacquainted with the ones from last year's retreat. We were all delighted to see each other. By 5:30 we were back in cars and headed to Marie's home for dinner. We all enjoyed her hospitality and the great meal. One our our group, Pam, was having a birthday. We surprised her with a cake and sang happy birthday. After this great get-together, we made our way back to the Camp and got settled in for "Show and Tell". Shellie showed off her lovely turtle quilt. I will show more of the "Show and Tell" photos in another post.
After our show and tell evening, many of us went to bed, but got up rather early to begin our sewing. We had heard rumors of a snowstorm, but did not pay much attention to it.
Around 11:30 am we got in cars and traveled into Litchfield for lunch at the West Street Grill. This is what it looked like when arrived.
By the time we had completed lunch and started on our way back to the camp, it looked like this.
It was cold, but it was so beautiful. The snow was light and airy and the town looked like a Christmas card. We managed to get back to the Camp and sewed away until sometimes around 4:30 or 5:00. The lights went out and stayed out. Of course our sewing was over, but we did not let that stop us from having a good time. We exchanged our fat quarters (that had been wrapped so we could not see them) by playing a game where we could steal others gift if we liked it better than the ones on the table. If you managed to get your choice back after three steals it was yours to keep. We all had fun in the pale light of the lanterns and flash lights. We woke up the next morning to somewhere around 14-15 inches of the white powdery stuff.
Late afternoon
Early Sunday Morning
We did exchange our 2.5 in strips and Debbie showed us how we could make blocks from the strips.
(Bento Box)
We are all expected to bring the quilt made from these strips to Show and Tell next year.
We also had our block drawing. Cathy McG won the Jack in the Box blocks. I am sure she will have a great quilt made out of these blocks by the time we all see each other again. Marge over at Delaware Quilts gave us permission to use this block.
The snow plows were out and busy when we got up the last morning. By 10:00 am, with help from some very nice men at the Camp and a group of very savvy women, the cars got shoveled out, moved up to the front of the house, packed up, and was ready for the ride home.
A great time was had by all, and we cannot wait until next year's retreat to do it all over again (well, maybe not the snow part!)
More pictures later..............
Sandra
