Retreat number 2 ........ Weekend Mystery........

 This post is rather long and also photo heavy, so you may need a couple cups of coffee.....

It was just before 1pm on Friday when the first car pulled up. Chris and Kathy had arrived from further down the south east of the state. They have been to quite a few retreats here before. Late last year the plans for 21st celebrations were still being mulled over in my mind and I met up with Chris at an end of year function we were at. After not having seen each other since BC (before Covid), we had a chat and I told her I was thinking of some celebrations for a 21st in February. End of conversation. 

A few days later, I received a text message asking what dates in February?? Having no definite plans yet, I asked her what dates might suit her......... and next thing you know, we have a starting date and she asked about Kathy too..... and then some messages went out.... and before I knew it, we had 3 retreats organised all within a fortnight.....It seems like the girls have all been waiting patiently to resume retreats!! 

My organising fairy added more decorations to the front door, and the girls all knew they had arrived at the right house.

The next car to arrive was a couple that were new to Number 8. While Jo and I had never met in person, we had met on screen at  chookyblue's  Zoom stitching days that were held over the last couple of years. It was fantastic when Jo said she would join us, and bring her friend Maxine. They drove just over 4 hours to come to Bordertown!! Thankyou both.

This retreat was a Mystery retreat, where they all made one of the Ready, Set and Sew kits that I have made up for sale. 21% of the proceeds of this kit is being donated to BCNA. 

We played a game of Quilt Bingo (which was a bit different to the usual bingo) and here they are, all filling out there papers. The first one to call out Bingo had the first choice of the quilt they wish to do.

 They were all here by 1pm except Lynda, who had to work til 2pm and then had a 2 hour drive. Lynda gave me permission to be her proxy for the allocation process and then a few messages went back and forth as follows...........

If I am proxy, what colour, style and preference do you have??

.....Not purple, and the easiest one to do!! 👍

......What, no triangles or flying geese?

That's a definite NO..😃

Then I sent pictures of all the simple quilt choices to her....

And she requested Citrus Bars..... which made it rather interesting, because I knew of another lady who was also eyeing off this quilt??

I need a 2nd and 3rd choice please

Citrus Bars, Zebra Crossing or Bali Batiks please....

Hope I can proxy well for you xx

I have every bit of faith you'll do fine.

So I sat at  the table with all the girls and duly acted as proxy for Lynda.

Fortunately I was second to call out Bingo and picked out Lynda's first choice. The other lady was about 5th to choose and seemed happy enough.

                        Then it was time to head out to the sewing room and pick out their kits.

                              

It was not long before their packets were being opened, instructions read (well by some!!) and off they went.

                                  

                              

In any group there are always owls and fowls! Here is one fowl who is early to bed and early to rise.....

                                 

....................and here are 2 owls, who are late to bed, late to rise and even working in their PJ's just before lunch one day. Really no reason to get dressed when you aren't going out of the house is there? 

After a few hours of sitting, Pat made them all stand and put them through a series of exercises to get those muscles working again. They ended up doing the 'hokey pokey'.

Pat's husband called in to bring Pat something she had forgotten to bring and ended up staying to eat with us. One lonely male in amongst 9 women!

Kathy was the first to get a couple of blocks finished....... there is always one over achiever.....

Whoopsie, perhaps there is a problem with this one???

Centre is done...............

......borders are going on.........

......and Ta Daaa!! Starlight is done.

Jo picked Lilyanne.............. and you might think there are lots of photos of Jo in this post, but I had to take a lot at the request of Chookyblue who was following the weekend from afar (about 14 hours away).

Ta daaa......

....and there are even Mitred corners, thanks to a lesson from Pat, who really loves to see mitred corners on borders. (Not everyone obliges though).

Chris chose Garden Delight, named after the fabric range, which is based on the Lantern pattern.

And Ta Daaa again!!

Raylene  was working on Up, Down and Across......and there may have been a 'little' bit of sulking???

She was in the corner, sitting beside Lynda, and was the one who had been eyeing off Citrus Bars!!

The blocks all laid out on the bed.........

......and after an extra day of sewing today, has put them all together and added the borders. She changed the quilt by making it rectangle instead of square so that it is suitable for a QFO quilt.

This is Lynda's Citrus Bars pack all ready at the table (alongside of Raylene).

And this is how far along she was when it was home time. Hopefully I will get a photo soon with the borders added. 

Maxine chose Watercolour Wishes and wins the award for being the most precise, careful, accurate sewer in the room, who carefully presses every step!!

There are 9 blocks in total in the quilt, and we knew that there would be no Ta Daa moment before it was time for home, so here are 6 of the blocks laid out on the bed with the sashes and borders, so that we could see how it would look.

Pat chose Groovy Garden, and did make some progress......in between taking her daughter to hospital one evening and other interruptions.....Pat offered reflexology to any of the girls that wanted it, for a donation for BCNA.

......and had the centre put together before it was time to head home.

I look forward to seeing this with the 3 borders, and I know they will be mitred!!

Val chose Story Time and here she is carefully trimming her flying geese blocks.

Her blocks laid out ready to stitch together.

As it's a birthday party, you need gifts, don't you? This is our Treasure Chest......

....beautifully decorated and it was full of gifts, all lovingly wrapped. The only criteria for receiving one of these was that it had to leave the house with them and not be left behind!! (My drawers and cupboards have had a good clear out.)

Throughout the retreat, there were competitions and puzzles to do, and lots of prizes to give out..... here's Jo trying to work out the names of the quilt blocks on this paper???

And time to choose a gift from the treasure chest!!

......and here is Lynda digging down to the bottom for a good one!!

Val was a 'day girl', which meant going home each night. She came later one day, and she came dressed suitable for the Black and Bling formal dinner that night!!

We told her that it was dangerous sewing in her black clothes, and it was not long before she had threads stuck to her jumper.  Raylene knew that there was one 'gift' in the chest of a sticky roller brush and told Val that was what she needed!! And lo and behold it was so funny when the next gift out of the box was this for Val!!

Some of the gifts were really good and were loved.......

.......and others were a bit different?

..................and some might be treasures for some, but scraps for others!

I loved this saying on a TShirt!!

As with the Statler Retreat, we had a formal dinner night and asked the girls to dress Black and Bling. 

The table was set......

................and the girls went 'all out' with the Theme of Black and Bling! We had such a lot of fun.

The main course was Roast Lamb and vegetables..........

....and cheesecake for dessert!

There was a birthday cake, with candles, and 'someone' was floating around with a camera!!??

Before departure I wanted to get another group photo of the girls out in the pergola. This was a bit tricky because Jo was STILL wearing her PJ's, and I won't tell you what time of the day this was.

She was going to go off and get dressed, but we told her to just wrap her quilt around her! This was taken as she was waiting for all the others to arrive............

....and even after taking about 8 photos,I can say it was hard work getting a good one.

Time to wrap up this post, and head to bed. It has been an amazing time and such a lot of fun getting back to retreats, catching up with friends again, as well as meeting new ones.

Retreat number 3 is underway now, and another group arrived at 1pm this afternoon. More quilts are being constructed, with lots of laughs, chatter, games and prizes. 

The For Sale pages of the blog are active now, and I would love to hear from you if you wish to make a purchase, with 21% of sales donated to BCNA. Raffle tickets are still available at $5 each.

Friday and Sunday afternoon there is Open house here with $10 donation to BCNA. Come and share time with others and enjoy scones with a cuppa. 

If you would like to zoom with chooky and I on Saturday, please contact me.

THANKYOU to all.

Be back soon with another newsfromjude update.

Blessings, From Jude