Whirrr and B-rrr (warning* long post!)

I know you hear it all the time, but really...where do the days go? It seems like one day you are booking a date for a retreat and Wh-irrr! ...now it history!
It was a good weekend though. We had another big storm
( B-rrr) but all were safe and cozy in the retreat center so all was well.

Even though it is a good bit of work and planning, the ladies are all so appreciative and such good sports, it really is a pleasure to plan.


The last couple of years we have sort of decided on a theme and planned around that. You might remember I posted here  that we had a "Green" theme last year, with recycling being a big part of our demos.


This year we were inspired by our "Easy" buttons to have a "That was Easy" retreat. All of the demos, and make and takes were very simple but clever ideas.


We did fat quarter aprons...super easy! These babies do up in no time and they are reversible!
http://stashmanicure.blogspot.com/2010/07/210-apron-tutorial.html


Here's mine...

I made another one at retreat that you will catch a glimpse of in a later photo. Makes a great gift by itself or paired up with a cookbook.

We did sausage pillow cases...also super easy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLnrC9yo8tY

We made ridiculously easy sewing machine covers.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/sewing-machine-cover

Here's mine gussied up with a few cast off doilies. (We provided each of the ladies with a basic kit to make their own)

We also showed another easy tea towel project.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/gadget-travel-tote

you will see that in a group pic later as well.

We demoed quick and easy tv table ironing boards.

http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2010/01/a-woman-a-plan-an-inexpensive-tv-tray-new-pressing-board.html

Some of you may have odd sized ironing boards, like the little travel ones or the big wide boards. It isn't so easy to find new ironing board covers for those sizes, but we gave a demo for making an easy replacement version.

http://thecozyquilter.blogspot.com/2010/11/job-i-have-been-avoiding.html

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2008/01/super-easy-iron.html

Some super easy wall art for your sewing space and beyond.

http://team-t-adventures.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-cute-wall-art.html

A charm pack table topper with ric-rac (each gal received a spool of ric-rac in her goody bag)

http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2009/03/charm-pack-table-topper.html

We also demoed a super easy way to sew charm squares in straight rows and with 3 strategically placed cuts and a little shuffle, end up with a quilt on point!

http://lynbrown.com/?p=721

I asked my friend if she minded me taking her pic and she jokingly (I think) said "yes she minded" so I sort of cropped her out, but you can see what she was demonstrating to us.

We had our regular Friday night Bingo...

...you buy your cards with a spool of 100% cotton thread and yup, you guessed it, the prize is a basket of thread. 

At one point we used to pay with fat quarters, but have since changed it to thread and that seems to be a big hit. I mean what quilter wouldn't want to win a basket of cotton thread? We play for one line and the winner gets 20 spools of thread; then we continue on the same card to get the outside border of the card for I think 30 spools, and then continue further for a full card and the winner gets about 80 spools.  I may have the numbers wrong, but you get the idea. It is always a lot of fun and it is self funded, so a great hit with the planners as well as the retreaters.

Even with all that going on I still had time to work on my own quilted project

It's amazing what you can pack into a weekend with just a little bit of time a some extra caffein!

You know you are drinking too much coffee when you can thread a sewing machine while it's running!