Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My First Overnight Quilt Retreat

Last week I had the pleasure to go on a quilt retreat at Cannon Beach.  It was at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center.  I had a delightful time and I hope I get to repeat it again:)  We had a small group of 12 (10 ladies and 2 men who joined in with their wives).

The setting was perfect . . . both our rooms and the room we used for quilting were oceanfront.  The weather wasn't beautiful the whole time, but the ocean is always beautiful!  Oh, yeah . . . and we were supposed to be going for quilting anyway!!!  This is what we got to see when we looked out our windows.

We got down there Monday afternoon at about 3:30 and had to check out Wednesday at 2:00.  It felt like it went too fast and we could've stayed longer!  Tuesday and Wednesday we had lunch at the conference center.  They put on a fancy lunch for us.  When we arrived at the dining hall, the table was all set except for our soup.  We had this huge salad, clam chowder, breadsticks and brownies.  I don't think anyone was able to eat their whole salad!

Here are some of the ladies busy at work!  Some of my pictures turned out really blurry so I don't have them all to show:(

The project Jerrie Lynn was working on was really beautiful.  She's making a fall wall hanging for herself.  I don't embroider, so to me it looks like a huge amount of work . . . as in I would NEVER try it!

Emma started and finished her quilt top.  It turned out so pretty.  This is the pattern we'll be using at our January day retreat, so I'm excited to get fabric for my own now!

Because our retreat was at a Christian conference center, they wanted us to have some sort of devotional.  They agreed it was fine for us to sing, so we sang each day.  Jerrie Lynn was kind enough to play the piano for us.  All of these pictures turned out blurry but I decided to use them anyway.

This is my machine (and our sewing room).  This was taken when most people were already packing up.  Also, a pile of scraps from my project.

As the other ladies would tell you, food is always a pretty important thing when I'm off traveling or doing something fun:)  The first night we tried Pizza a'fetta.  Between all of us, we tried their soup, salads and pizza by the slice.  The next night we went to Morris' Fireside restaurant.  They had a big variety to choose from and everyone really enjoyed it.  We got to sit right next to the fireplace.  The building was really neat and fun to look around.  Notice the plant hangers in the picture . . . next time you see an old hanging scale for sale - think planter!!!  Also, notice our door greeters in the center bottom:)

I roomed with my sister, Charity, and had a great time being with her.  She was also the driver for half of our group.  This is our driver, our van group, and our door lady as we were driving around Cannon Beach:)

This is our whole group . . . and a wonderful group it was to hang out with for several days.
  

On our way home we had lots of rain off and on.  We were blessed with rainbows, too.  Part of the time we were actually able to see the entire rainbow with a faint one beside it.  It was also the closest I've ever seen a rainbow.  It traveled right along with us, right next to us!

Can hardly wait to see if I can find a way to go again next year.  Everyone enjoyed it SOOO much that we already reserved it again.  Definitely something to look forward to when we know an actual date . . . and know exactly what we will be finding when we get there!!!!!  Thanks again to everyone:)  A special thanks to David and our girls for making it happen for me!!