Brazos House - Winter Wonderland Retreat

2019 has arrived and enough days have passed to arrive at January 31.  Why is that so special?  Well, it's easy.  It denotes that retreat time has begun once again and this time ---- I get to play for 10 days.  Woot woot.  I have packed and repacked.  Purged and packed some more.  My car is loaded to the gills -- no joke.  It is level all the way through the passenger seat in the front.  Please, please, please let a whole lot less come home with me.

By 8 a.m., I am arriving at my home away from home and it truly does feel like those trips back to see family.  Peace is settling in and even though work is ahead of me, I'm super excited.

Through the gate and here come the donkeys.  Braying and running to say hi.  Ahhhh, my soul.

As I exit the car, I can still hear their braying, but it is mixed with the bleating of goats and cackling of chickens.  Farm life --- it's for me and a wonderful orchestra surrounds the house.

Stay focused girl -- you have a lot to get set up and ready for the ladies and only two hours to do it in.  Let the unloading begin.

In I go and the room is almost perfect.  A few changes are all I have to make and soon I can get to the closet.  Val has arrived and I am so thankful for her help.

I took this picture to show that the room really is quite large BEFORE we fill it with all of our oh so necessary stuff.

In fact, here is proof positive.  I am set up and just look at all that I felt I needed to bring.  Oh my.  I have filled my corner AND the bench behind me.  However, in all fairness, a lot of that is for the group -- honest.  I do have three machines with me this time, so I guess I'm a bit more intrusive, but I'm downplaying that.

Now for some food.  I'm hungry and lunchtime has arrived.  Day one means that a trip to Babes is in order and off we go.  Oh, my tummy grumbles all the way there in anticipation.

Cindy joined us for lunch and it is ALWAYS fun to meet another quilter and make new friends.  Welcome to the gang Cindy - we hope to see you at a future retreat or event.

With a full belly and tank of gas, my car is pointed back to the retreat center and fun -- I always feel like I'm missing something when I go for away for awhile.

Rocky brought some fabric to sell and as we are getting ready to measure it out, it is mentioned that from nose to fingertips is a yard, making me question that as all people are not the same.  So ---- an experiment is performed and only one of us out of half a dozen measured a yard.  In fact, some of us really would have been shorted a lot of fabric if several yards were purchased.

The first TA-DA takes place.   I handed Maria her plus blocks from the group exchange when she arrived and absolutely no time was wasted in putting them together.  Awesome.

Settling in at my 301, blocks for Mister's rag quilt are rapidly building in stacks.

Val with a TA-DA (Now before some of you get to thinking that you can't keep up with us at retreat, this was a binding finish, making it a checkmark in the DONE column.)

Maria is on a roll and has another TA-DA.  I LOVE these bright colors, especially the tone on tones.

Rag quilt #1 is on the design wall.  I'm not taking too much time here as it really doesn't matter to me how spread out each color is - I just don't want the same fabrics right next to each other.

From the wall to the pool table.  Nice neat little stacks are ready for webbing.  I would like to get a good start before the day ends and, thus, my machine is zooming through these quite rapidly.

Making it about halfway through the stack, I'm ready to stop for the evening.

And we have reached the end of the highlights for today.  You can definitely see more pics in the Our Quilt World Facebook group and share in all the projects around the room.  LMS and I'm out for today.

Friday - Good morning!  It is the opening day for our new group Quilt-A-Long and the chosen one is Carolina Christmas.  It seems as though Christmas quilts have been my thing the past year and here comes another one.  I have all my parts cut already, which is cheating, I know, but necessary this time.  Organization took place full throttle the past month.  More red and white fun.

And just like that, I have step one complete.  Woohoo!!  Even the little dog ears went into their ornament as this is a past Bonnie Hunter mystery.  I'm loving it.

At the Waco show, we decided to make jelly roll rugs this retreat and my first roll is out and ready to go.  First step is to sew all the strips together like a huge binding.  On your mark, get set, go.

Once that is complete, the seams get trimmed and pressed and then we add the batting.  Only one second in and I discover that it will twist coming off the roll and start with some imaginative way to stop that.  My barricade around me is now complete, but it works sooooo well.

The room is filled with happy sounds and lots of creativity.  This is what makes my heart the happiest.

Darlene with a TA-DA finish.

My rope for the rug is made and I have created a giant ball as instructed.  Yep, I can follow directions with the best of them.

As I start to make the actual rug, I discover that rolling it into a ball is NOT the best option and wind up untwisting the rope as I go.  Drat.  Note to self:  Do not do that again.

Our evening fun is about to begin and that means I need to go get changed into something a little more "wintery" -- I decided on all white.  I know, not the best, but better than nothing.  Others were much more creative.

Darlene, Val, and Stephannie, for example.

Before the games begin, we have a new Sapphire in the house.  Congratulations, Brenda.

It's REALLY late tonight by the time we get started so we decide to try speed rounds of the game.  Two trays at once and fast paced.

It works amazingly well and after 8 minutes, our first winner is Frieda with a stack of white fat quarters.  I'm sooooo jealous, as is Rocky because she steals them for a quick photo after the game.

Onto round two.  Do I need to worry Rocky?  Theft appears to be on your plate tonight.  HAHAHAHA.

Paula wins round two and some Tonga Treasures earth tone batiks.

Fun times with my gang -

Such good times and Maria walks away with the bright batik bundle.  Woohoo!!

A little selfie booth fun follows - a huge thanks to Stephannie for always providing this additional gaiety.

Whew --- jammies on and a finish of my rug!!  I absolutely adore it and as an added bonus, it even lays flat.  Miracle of miracles.

Back to the rag quilt and I now have the top complete.  It just needs binding, a label, and lots of clipping.

LMS and once again, I'm off to dreamland.

Two ladies still awake but not in the room --- smile.

Saturday - Slow down days!!!  Darlene starts us out with her Lighthouse TA-DA.  So wonderful!

Stephanie is working a cross stitch and I want everyone to see how amazing it is so far.

Lydia has her blocks for her QAYG laid out and is ready to make columns.

Using up strips leftover from the rag quilts, binding is made (hopefully enough for both quilts) and I've decided to put the cut off triangles to good use as labels.  HST's here I go.

And TA-DA --- two labels, quick and easy.

Rocky has finished her rug and even with photo bombs galore, here it is. TA-DA

Maria with a TA-DA - love these flavors just so, so much.

Darlene's owl has been quilted and finished.  What an amazing TA-DA!

Some up close fun -

Group picture before dinner.  These ladies are just so important to my life and I know I repeat myself often, but I learn from them all daily.  Thank you so much for sharing yourself with me.  Back row:  Stephanie, Lydia, Brenda, Frieda, Val, Tracey, Darlene, Eveline, Maria, Rocky, yours truly.  Center:  Mindy, Meri.  Front:  Stephannie, Paula.

Val has been working diligently all weekend for a start to finish retreat quilt.  Here is her TA-DA and the Golden Scissors charm to accompany it.  Congratulations Val.  It's wonderful.

I found a vintage apron on the swap table AND some red fabric to make the ties with AND some white to line it.  Yep --- I love it and will use it all next holiday season.

Val with a charity TA-DA -

A glimpse at the swap table long after it's been hit.  By the end of the retreat, very little is left.

Tracey's jewelry TA-DA's --- soooo pretty.

Frieda TA-DA --- I wish you could see the fabrics up close.  My bad on photography.

So many things get taught at retreat -- Paula is learning how to do things on her phone and this was after several ladies learned how to send a hug.  It's such a great time here.

Eveline, too has been working on her start to finish at retreat and TA-DA.  It's simply divine and nets her a Golden Scissors charm for her nametag.  Congratulations, Eveline.

The blue and yellow make my heart sing.

Clipping has begun.  This will be a long process.

Last night picture --- so sad to see it end but so much fun was had.

Sunday - Stephannie sets up to replenish everyone's starch bottles before they leave and our own stock is filled once again too.  Perfect!

She also has her Dachshund quilt top TA-DA --- It is just so dang cute.  I think she stayed up half the night to finish it.

Val with another TA-DA

And I've got the cross sashings sewn onto my QAYG.  Now to put the rows together.  We have to say good-bye to so many and the house soon quiets down like crazy.  Tweener time has begun and there are only a handful of us left.  Early bed tonight.  Thanks to all who made the past four days such fun.  Until next time -- keep on creating.