Winter Retreat!

So last weekend I got to go to a three-day retreat in suburban New York City with my guild, the New York City Metro Mod guild. People come from all over New York City, Long Island and New Jersey- last spring a member flew in from San Francisco, and this year our Boston guy showed up too. That's how great our community is and how committed our members are. 

Anyway I was debating what project to bring, and I settled on my crumb project. At home, I can do a crumb block in about an hour. I had 19 crumb blocks to make to complete the quilt and I thought I could at least get a start on it over the weekend. At the retreat, I was making three blocks an hour and I had all of my blocks completed before lunch on Saturday.

I did bring a backup project- this little charm pack quilt- but I was done with that by dinnertime on Saturday.

The fabric was a charm pack I picked up in the Berkshires last year and the pattern is here if you want to check it out on the SewMeBlog.

I was lucky enough to find a half-jelly-roll of Christmas fabric at the giveaway table Friday night and so I started a partial-seam herringbone just before dinner on Saturday.  I got all of the pieces sewn into four long strips by bedtime. Which is whenever you want at retreat but for me was around 10pm.

My husband often comes with me to retreats because he can do work or read with no distractions and it's a great break from the routine for him. This time he worked on a big project for his job in between saying hi to my pals and relaxing.

But unfortunately we had to leave first thing on Sunday so I cleaned up my machine and doodads on Saturday evening and we headed out right after breakfast. We had a death in the family on New Year's Day and needed to do some family stuff. 

Despite everything I had a truly wonderful time with old friends and new ones, and got so much done. It was a great weekend and I can't wait for the next retreat!