Back From Retreat....and ready for the next one!

Hi there! I went on retreat this past weekend. There is a group of five of us who go on retreat together once a year (except this year. We enjoyed it so much we went twice. LOL) We rented a cottage in Poynette, WI on a river with incredible scenery and lots of sewing room. I got back Sunday night, and my hubby took me out to dinner right away. What a blessing, cuz I did NOT feel like cooking!
What a great weekend! I finally got my "Women's Voices" BOM quilt finished. It is a BOM from the Keepsake Quilting catalog and I've been working on it off and on for about three years. It's a Civil War Quilt and the patterns were done using templates in the "old way". Trying to avoid the templates, I converted to rotary cutting technique as much as possible and I used Thangles when I could, but some of them I HAD to use the templates, so of course I saved the hardest blocks for last. My bad. But it's finally done and all my retreat buddies celebrated with me because they've been watching me struggle with it at the last three retreats. I will post a picture as soon as I get a chance. Right now, I am knee deep in quilting. Got three quilts to longarm by the end of the week.
We were near an Amish community this weekend so we took one afternoon and visited a few Amish businesses...a bakery (Yumm), a grocery store, and a quilt shop. The owner had one shelf of 100% cotton, one shelf of flannel and the rest was cotton/poly blend. She had maybe 3 or 4 prints of Christmas fabric (very curious) and all the rest were solids, no bright colors. It was very interesting to see the shop and talk to an Amish quilter. She asked us what types of fabrics we like and made such a funny face when one of our group said "Brights. The ones that are so bright they make your eyes hurt". We all agreed that if she developed a pattern and kit for an Amish style quilt, she would sell lots of her fabric. We also visited a furniture and basket shop. ALL the shops were so interesting. The furniture shop had the most gorgeous handmade furniture! Too bad I didn't have a U-haul along. Then again, my husband is probably glad I didn't. :o)
We watched lots of movies, ate lots of good food (and chocolate LOL), had a bonfire one night, and just had an all-around great time. I feel refreshed and anxious to do some more sewing. Looking ahead for the next retreat already.
Well, back to the studio. I'll post a picture soon. Have a great day, ladies!
piecin' love,
Terri