fabulous weekend!

Well I must say, this was the most wonderful weekend! I was at the Alford Inn in Van Alstyne, TX for an overnight quilt retreat! It was glorious! The Inn is beautiful, comfortable & is also a quilt store! You can't ask for more than that. Oh & the owner, Cindy is a doll & her staff & family are so sweet!

I went with my friends, Joellen & Carol. There were other ladies there, new friends! & we all worked on different projects all weekend

The first thing I did was put together my quilt top of Red Letter Day fabrics. Remember the whole design process? Well I am sooooo happy with the results! I'm actually going to add one more border, of the tiny orange polka dot fabric, & then I'm going to have this quilted by one of the ladies who attended the retreat. She's a longarm quilter! YAY! & she has an allover pattern that is ducks....

I decided to name the quilt "Duck Pond" I just love the ducks & trees & it reminds me so fondly of when my kiddos were little & we used to take them to the duck pond to walk & feed the ducks!

Next, I decided to try my hand at a mini quilt. I pieced it by machine (those darned little squares are an inch & a quarter!) & then I did my very first machine quilting with my new walking foot. I think I did ok! Don't look too closely, it's not perfect but it was fun! All it needs now is binding.So, now it is midmorning on Saturday & my two projects that I brought are finished! What to do? I still had several hours of retreating left.....

Well, on Friday we had found a wonderful garage sale & I bought a whole bolt (15 yards!) of authentic pillow ticking for $11! So I decided to play around & see if I could make a grocery bag. I picked out some patriotic fabrics in the quilt shop & this is the end result....

I'm going to make more of these.... they are nice & sturdy & deep.... so that's what I did this weekend! I wish I could do this EVERY weekend! Sigh...

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