The 2009 COF Retreat

I had a blast at the COF quilting retreat. I'm been totally exhausted this week, but thought I'd share a few things with you. Here's at group pic of most the ladies that attended. We are all members of the HGTV quilting and needlework message board and it was so nice to finally get to meet so many of them. I have never laughed so much and just can't tell you how wonderful of a time we all had. New Hampshire was just beautiful and the weather was perfect. We were up early and to bed very late. Every minute was filled with fun and laughter. We did the Miranda bag for our group project which was taught by Christine. They also offered many classes(around 20) to choose from. I choose to take the Shuttle tatting, machine quilting and overlay applique. I loved the overlay applique and hope to work on it soon. I'll be doing Quiltbeas Victorian Ladies, she taught the class and you can see her beautiful patterns on her blog. I also learned some great tips and techniques from Jayardi for machine quilting so maybe I won't be stuck on stippling forever after all. The shuttle tatting class was great and I hope to find time to work on that some soon. We all took a charter bus trip to Keepsake quilting were I'm sure we broke a record for the biggest sales in one day, LOL. Then many of the ladies and I hit 3 bead shops, wow I know we had to of boosted the economy in that small town. We had 3 fabulous speaker from our group. We have such talented ladies that the committee members didn't have to look far to find some of the most amazing and inspirational speakers. I wish I pictures of all the treasures and things they showed. Some of the many things they shared with us was some quilts that had been quilted on the LA by Thearica Burroughs, she is a impeccable quilter. Her work is jaw dropping and I've seen pictures of her work but they just do not so her work justice. Then we got to see some of Kathy Shaw's fabulous Shadow applique, CQ, and another amazing red and white quilt she is working on that just blew me away. Next we had Quiltbea show us her stack and whack quilts, replique(which look just like stained glass) these were gorgeous and some of her overlay applique, which is to die for. Her quilts were just stunning. They shared with us there methods and tips, which made my to-do list grow twice as long. There was a show and tell session also, which was so inspiring.The meals were delicious but the time we shared while enjoying them were the best and I'll cherish them forever. We had our meet and greet where we each got up and showed our t-shirts we made to represent our state. This was not an easy challenge but the results were just fantastic. I was just totally in awe of the creativity of this wonder group of ladies. It was so much fun that it made my hating to get up in front of a group so worth it. We did some speed dating which really gave us all a chance to meet and get acquainted with each other. It was so nice to finally be able to put a face to the board name of the ladies I've been online friends with for the past year.I shared a room at the Inn with my sister and Lois and I couldn't have had better company. I hadn't seen my sister in many years but that won't happen no more. I have the best sister, to know her is to love her. Lois just made me feel right at home, easy to talk to, kept me laughing and is so energetic. She taught me how to do filet crochet, hand piecing curves. I got to see some of the things she was working on, one was stunning kimono quilt blocks and her things were so beautiful that she has got my sister wanting to start quilting again. My sister has already went and bought her some of the Asian fabric. Lois does all kinds of quilting, needle work, CQ, beading and just about anything thread related. She also won on the FQ challenge we had. I can't say enough about the ladies I got to meet and am already planning on getting together with them again soon. I'm sure I've left some things out but it was just packed full of so much fun memories and I just can't quit thinking about it. It was more then I had ever dreamed it would be. We took up the Bed and breakfast and most of the main building and had the conference center where most of the events took place. Everything was so convenient for those of us that wanted to arrive early and stay later to explore on our own. Here another pic of just a few of us, 4 of the comittee members(Nickilee, Quiltingnewbie, Ely, and Auntie Reba)They done a fabulous job of putting this all together. Then there is my sister, Lois Kathy, and I. I'm on the left with the yellow shirt. My sister is on the right with the black jacket. You can't tell in this pic but we look a lot alike. My roommante Lois is front center with the diamond appliqued sweater, and next to me in the back row is Kathy, I just love her and she doesn't live too far from me(YEAH!!!) I have more pics to share but that will have to be another post. Gosh, I also want to tell you I got to meet Tisme, she hosted the first swap I was ever in and she has always been such a great friend to me. It was a dream for me to finally get to meet her. The only thing that could have made this any better was if I could had got to meet Holee.