Stir Crazy Retreat

We had a wild and crazy weekend with about 40 of our closest friends!! We got ALL of our old projects done. Well, we got a good start on that resolution!!! We had sew much fun, that we have decided to do it again next month...February 24, 25, 26. Sign up soon, because we are already OVER half full. I'll stick in some photos, so you can see what you missed OR so you can pick yourself out of the mix.

It must be Next Year!!

Alyssa used to stand in her playpen at the store and say, "Busy, busy, busy!" That was at least 26 years ago. And for me, it seems like only yesterday. So now you know how fast my life is flying by.

Last week, I spoke to the Knoxville Quilt Guild. What fun and what great food. Fred went along, just to collect recipes and hold up quilts. It is always such fun to catch up with my friends there and share some of my projects. Keeps me creating so I have new quilts to show.

Last weekend we went to Wesley Woods for our annual retreat. It was a beautiful weekend and we got so many projects finished and so many more started!! Don't you just love a good retreat. Lots of food, fun, friends and fabric. Doesn't get any better.

Marilyn was good enough to share photos.

What the HECK happened?

Is this part of the aging process? All of a sudden the year is GONE, and you don't remember where it WENT! I loved last winter, but I don't even know what happened to the rest of the year.
I quilted some, I worked a lot, we traveled.
And now I'm back to my beloved winter.
I need to slow down and smell the alfalfa!

I spoke to the Knoxville Quilt Guild last Tuesday evening and they asked when I was going to update the Blog...oh, my gosh...it looks like I fell off the face of the earth!! This has been a really busy year: 2 shop hops, 1 bus trip that included 8 stores, The Iowa Quilt Guild held their annual meeting at our place, Viking Convention and Sewfest, Quilt Market, AQS and we purchased the building next door to the store (the former social security building) to use as our Event Center.
2010 has been a wild ride.

December 2 will begin our Patches & Pieces Quild Guild "Comfort & Joy" Quilt Show, it will continue December 3 and 4th, as well. Creston is a happening place that weekend with the lighted Christmas Parade, the Uptown Block Walk and lots of Holiday Happenings. Great place to kick off the Holidays and stimulate the local economy.

New Year, New Resolutions. NOT!

Same resolutions as every year: sew more, eat less and laugh often. I'm very good at the laughter. With the 4 day work weeks, we've had lately, I'm getting a lot of sewing done!! The snow days, have kept me home more this year than all the other 27 years combined. Fred says, I can't retire, because I'd just eat myself to death. So I'll be at the store for many years to come. Thursday, we got stuck and had to walk home. I'm waaaay too old for that to happen again.

The scooping should be getting easier, since we've had so much practice.

As many of you know, I LOVE the winter!! Honestly! I feel like I get more done in the winter and I love watching it snow. So pretty. Even now, I still love the winter.

With the snow days, I'm getting so many projects done. I've put in a photo of my brother's birthday present: the windmill wallhanging. He better be grateful. He has 5 sisters and it's a real battle to stay in first place!

It's ALMOST winter!

If this isn't winter, I'm not sure I want to be in Iowa next week! Fred has scooped a winter's worth of snow from in front of the store. He just brought in more ice melt and he's looking at me sideways when I say I love the winter!! Winter is a VERY productive time for me and I don't feel the least bit guilty just sitting and sewing. However, it really should have come three weeks ago, so I'd be ready for Christmas. Now I have to cram too much stitching into too few days.

I think I can come up for air!!

I did not fall off the face of the earth, though I have nearly drowned in projects, both BIG and small in the past month. We have had the 3-day. 5-state, 12 store bus tour, the South Iowa Shop Hop, the AQS show, our annual Quilt Camp Retreat and numerous speaking engagements! It's all fun and it's all work, at the same time. I know I have the best job, so I try not to mumble where anyone will hear me. I'll work my way backward so you know I haven't been slacking...no trips to the Bahamas. Last night I spoke to the Knoxville Quilt Guild. Great food (as always), Great people and a Great pet-themed party. And to boot they listened patiently until well past all our bedtimes. Fred and I arrived home just after midnight. We chatted and watched for deer all the way home. I'm always pumped up after teaching or speaking, so it takes me a while to come back down to earth. Good thing I'm only addicted to fabric and coffee. Oh, yes, and there is that need for chocolate.

And before that was the weekend. We went to Camp Wesley Woods for our annual Retreat, just me and 29 of my closest friends. It was so much fun and as always, so much food. It takes a lot of fuel to quilt day and night and day and night and day!! We have already booked next year's Quilt Camp at Indianola, Iowa, for November 12, 13, 14, 2010. Plan to join us. I promised a Christmas Quilt Project. I'm writing it here, so someone will remind me. Who's in charge of that?

If you didn't get to the AQS Show, you missed a good one, again. What an inspiration! Just makes you want to quilt something! Anything! Everything! And it makes me think I can do it all. Kelly, from the Quilting Connection in Ames and I committed to the Husqvarna Viking Booth for next year. So we'll see you all there!
The day after AQS was my family's Thanksgiving (yes, we've had our turkey) November 1st, so Mom and Dad could get gone to Texas. We had 45-50 people at our house, actually at our Barn for dinner. I know what you're thinking, Joyce doesn't actually cook, so Fred did all the work for that dinner. You're right. And Pot Luck from a family of really good cooks. I sew, they cook. My life is good.

Tomorrow night is our Patches & Pieces Quilt Guild meeting, we'll be making our final plans for the Comfort & Joy Quilt Show. Another Good one, I'll bet!! And I LOVE the lighted Christmas Parade. For me, that's the beginning of the season.

More later, I promise!

ahhhh!

Is it Christmas yet? This year is absolutely flying by! We did the bus trip, the shop hop and now on to the AQS show in Des Moines and our retreat at Camp Wesley Woods. By then, we'll be gearing up for the Comfort and Joy Quilt Show, which commences just before the Lighted Christmas Parade. See It is almost Christmas!! Some of us need to get started on projects...or we could just finish last years and tell people we're ahead of the game. Our Artsie group is having our retreat in the wilds of Union County this weekend, so maybe we can all get some projects finished, between the laughter and and the eating. Just getting together and relaxing would be enough, but oh, no, we actually have to try to teach each other new techniques. With friends like this, who needs quilt magazines. I took a poor picture of the Camp Quilt include here. I call it Squared Away. It's an easy charm and jelly roll quilt, just the kind of quilt to stitch up in your jammies at Quilt Camp.