Back From Retreat

My four day retreat at the beach is over...

I'm bummed that it's over but so refreshed and happy that it happened.  I worked hard, played hard, napped hard and got all five things on my 'to do' list accomplished.  I watched a movie, chatted with friends... a lot... slept.. a lot.. read... enjoyed the sounds of the ocean, the sights of dolphins swimming by, the seagulls tapping on the windowpanes.. it was all heavenly.

No, that's not me... I don't know who it is... someone else at retreat brought back this photo, so I thought I'd post it...  It looks so fun and playful - just like I felt on retreat.

Anyway... Now I have a tough task ahead of me for tonight.  I have a bunch of navy blue strips for binding, and I have to sew them together.   It's really hard to see a diagonal line drawn on navy blue, which will make the job tough... but never impossible.. I WILL get this done.

If I finish that binding, I can send the quilt off to the lady who is going to quilt it for me.  She will be doing what we call 'heirloom quilting', which is custom quilting, very dense... I can't wait to see it all done.  I won't mention her name here, just in case she is sensitive about such things, until I can clear it with her that it is okay to do so.  But her gallery is amazing and I am so thrilled to have her doing my quilt.

She will be attaching the binding for me as well as doing the quilting because we decided on a wool batting and I am allergic to wool.  Hence the binding must be done as well as the actual quilt.

I will be taking a picture of the quilt top tonight so I can post it here later...

I also discovered a wonderful chair for quilting and bought one for myself.  One of the ladies at retreat had one, and it was much lighter and more portable than the one I brought to retreat.  She let us all try out her chair.  I highly recommend it.   It is from The Container Store of all places...

They call it a bungee office chair, and it comes in black, blue, lime green, berry pink and chocolate.  I bought the black one.  It is SO comfortable.   Supports everything, gives good lumbar support, and nothing really for the cats to shred.  Looking forward to mine arriving.

You can see the chair and read more about it at The Container Store.

Here is the quilt I finished on retreat:

It's called Woodland Creatures and if you've been following my blog at all, you've seen bits and pieces as I have completed them... This is what it's all been leading up to.  The top is finished!!!  A 13-month BOM done in 13 months... When does THAT ever happen???  I guess I was inspired.