Several months ago, my high school friend Becky invited Gretchen & I to a retreat with her and some of her crafting friends. They’re all scrapbookers, but the retreat house they rented was also set up for quilting, so Gretchen & I decided to go as well.

I had one main goal for the weekend, and then Art Bin upon Art Bin of additional projects (big and small) to fill the weekend.  This is my 4th or 5th retreat weekend – when will I learn that I ALWAYS overpack projects???  I should have taken a picture of the back of my Traverse!

Main Goal – finish Wishes.  And I did!!!  (Mostly)

There is still a checkerboard border that I need to add, and I may add one more border as well.  I had 4 blocks complete before I left, and fabric for the remaining 8 blocks cut and in individual ziplock bags ready to be pieced.  Best decision ever, let me tell you!

As of 2am on Saturday morning, here was my progress:

Six of the eight blocks were complete, I was well on my way!

I didn’t get sewing until about 10am on Saturday, but I was able to piece my remaining two blocks and add the sashing & borders.  I still have the checkerboard border to add but I was in need of a project change, so shelved that for now.

We have a princess birthday party to attend in a couple of weeks so I dug into my stash and pulled out this super cute princess fabric, and made a pillowcase and two cinch bags.

I hope the birthday girl likes them!  By the time I finished  with those, it was almost 3:30 am!  We got a little caught up watching a tv series, so it was easy to keep on working!

Sunday’s project was two borders on the mystery quilt that I did at the February retreat.  I finished the top at the retreat, but wanted to add two borders. Once I got home, I just never got around to it, and it hung on a hanger for 9 months.  Because I knew I would have lots of table top space, I decided to take it along and finish it up.  I had originally planned to do a 6″ outer border, but this morning decided to do 2.5″ which is the same width of the flowers in the rest of the quilt.  I think it turned out great, and now all I have to do is piece the back and it’s ready for the long arm.

With the amount of projects I packed, I could have stayed for several more days. Now that I’m home and the vehicle is unpacked, I kind of want to keep on going.  I think that’s because I hadn’t sewn in over a month.  I hope I can keep this momentum up and finish my Vice Versa blocks soon!

I almost forgot to tell you about the retreat house. It is Avon’s Lakeside Craft Retreat in Avon, Minnesota and it was perfectly suited for quilters and traditional scrapbookers. The ladies that were doing digital scrapbooking had a hard time with the internet access because it’s in an area with very limited internet access.  It was a frustrating weekend for a couple of them, but my fellow quilter and I got a lot of quilting done!