More cool things about Retreats

Deb Neff's strips which started out as a HUGE pile of blocks

Diane Littlejohn with the Bag from...the netherworld. 

 My quilt group, the Batty Binders, is a really fun group of people....I think the name sort of gives it away.  They are the most "retreatingest" group I have ever belonged to.  In Connecticut, we would have sewing days, but going someplace and staying over night is something I don't remember, but then I had a small child when I lived there too.

Batty Binders goes on three weekend retreats a year.  In February, a group of intrepid souls who don't mind bringing potluck, our own bedding, and everything else (I even bring rugs so we don't slip on wet floors as we come in) go to a local Girl Scout camp to sew for three days.  This used to be the only place we went, but about three or four years ago, we managed to get a weekend at the Golden Eagle Christian Retreat Center in Palestine, Ohio.  Palestine was one of those little thriving farming communities in the Midwest   In 1922 (give or take a couple of years) they built a high school  Now, however, it was closed as school consolidated and fewer people lived or did business in Palestine as the highways pretty much by-pass it.  So, they turned it into a retreat center, which feeds you, changes the beds and provides everything a quilter could ask for.  Batty Binders go to Palestine in the spring (mid April usually) and again in the fall.

Debbie Black and Glenda Tron

Both times it is filled with fun and virtually all night quilting....even if Glenda is looking at something on her iPhone.

Retreats are good for doing group projects too.  One of our members had made a bag...and it was really neat, only she said it was really hard.  When almost everyone (I think that only 2 of us didn't make it....one was me..I'm just not a bag lady) started working on it, it became apparent that one of the reasons that it was hard was that the directions were poorly written and had you do some things which could have been done more easily.  Fortunately, Teri Pyles and Gwen Brown were able to figure it out and share the fixes and the warnings.

Becky Kea and Joyce Newnam with Joyce's quilt

We hang up the tops as we finish them...you can see Beth Ann Miller's 1600 quilt in the bright colors behind Debbie and Glenda, in addition to a doggie quilt she made for her granddoggie.

Joyce Newnam was able to finish this really bright quilt for her grandchild.  Becky Kea, who is a resident of Roanoke, VA but has come to keep her daughter company as she completes training at Hobart Welding Academy is helping.  Several people have mentioned how brave Becky is for signing up to go with a bunch of Batty Batts to spend a weekend with people she only knows from about 6 meetings....but just to show you how nice of a group it is, she didn't run away screaming.....

Hopefully you can find a group who does retreats or lives in an area where there are facilities you can use for a moderate amount so you can go.  I go when I can....and always have a blast.

Bear with me all...I'm having a tough time and I am not able to post as much as  I like, but I will be here at least once a week.  More, God willing. :)