Half a Day at Sunset - With the Gals

It has rained ALL NIGHT and I am out of the house by 6:15 a.m. so that I can get to Allison's by 7:00, transfer to her car and make it to Sunset by 9:00 a.m.  The rain is horrendous to drive in and my state of mind is not very nice when I arrive at Allison's.  She lets me share my worries, we make a plan for the day, and are soon on our way.  It's a lot of driving for a short time there, BUT the time in the car gives us a chance to visit.  Perfect.

It is NOT raining in Sunset and I am thankful for that.  My mood has lightened tremendously and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, even if only for a short time.  Our renewed efforts to "travel light" are rewarded with ALL of our things fitting on one rolling cart, except Allison's machine which is rolling on it's own.  Well, not technically on it's own, but you know what I mean.

My project for today is to somehow make sense of the bargello tree skirt that I cut up yesterday in preparation of today.  I managed to cut not one, but TWO, sets of the wedges the wrong direction and need to somehow put them back together again.  Where are all the king's horse and all the king's men when I need them?

Fixing my mistake means that I have to sew all the wedges (and the pieces cut between them) back together again, in the right order.  That is at least 10 pieces per panel and when I finish, there are seams everywhere throughout the panel.  The biggest question is, "Will it be big enough now that it is back together?"  And the answer is, "NO."

I now have to try and create one wedge identical to each of the two I screwed up.  Where are those scraps?  Hopefully I can pull it all off well.

Meanwhile, Allison and her chair are having a bit of a to-do today.  She can't get the back to stay up and the chair keeps kicking her out of it.  Yes, she's tried more than one chair.  And yes, laughing so hard you can't see, doesn't help.

When the tears in my eyes cleared, I came to my senses enough to try and grab a few pictures from around the room.  Virginia is here for the first time.  In truth, I believe she said it was her first retreat of any type.  A day retreat is a perfect way to get your feet wet, Virginia.

Jennifer is here and I'm so glad to spend some time with her too.

Sue and Pat spot Allison's stack of paper plates and want to learn her system, so she cheerfully offers a small lesson on making scrappy blocks this way.

Here are some new faces and I hope to get to know them both much, much better.  Welcome to Mary and Ellen.

Hey there Stephannie and "no, I won't smile" Virginia.  Hahahaha, yes, I really did hear her mutter that while I was taking the picture.

 The best part of these day retreats is the chance to visit and reconnect with friends AND perhaps learn something along the way.

I love how everyone is always willing to share an idea or tip without hesitation.  If I weren't so focused on this dang repair, I would be doing the same thing.


Jennifer and Sherry (and I think Barb - not sure about the person behind Sherry)

Jennifer's bee group - Jennifer, Sue, Eileen, and Pat.  So glad to meet them all.

I finally have all my wedges made by the time lunch is called.  After a wonderful meal of pulled pork, salad, chips, and fruit - topped off with a yummy cookie, it is time to pack up and head home again.  I take a few minutes and TRY to put my wedges on the design wall to see how they are going to look but they keep falling off.  Since patience is not my strong suit today, I bag that idea (literally) and pack up to go home.

We make good time on the return trip and after saying farewell to my bestie, I make the short jaunt home and wait for Mister to finish a phone call with work.  This gives me a few minutes to lay out the tree skirt.  What do you think?

As soon as Mister is off the call, the car is loaded and we are outta here for a few days.  It's election night and we are really wishing to be anywhere but by the television tonight.  No matter how this election goes, it will be weeks before people calm down.  We're just checking out of the first few days.  See ya later --- lookout West Texas and New Mexico -- here we come.