Quilt Retreat in The Country

I received a phone call from my friend Lola, asking me if I would like to attend a quilt retreat, I couldn't say yes fast enough. The group hosting this event were the Ladies of The Lake Quilt Guild, from Longview, Washington. First things first, I had to become a member, then I was on board. Our event was super bowl weekend, how perfect for me. The retreat was way out in the country towards Raymond, Washington at Falls Creek Retreat Center. The perfect setting to do nothing but sew to ones heart content. Lodging was great, food delicious, company superb, what more could a quilter ask for? I was about to embark on a weekend to remember.
My first square done, yahoo!!!!
Quilt squares done ready to be put together into strips, then those strips put together to form the center of the quilt.
With my blocks sewn together, I was ready to sew my strips on, almost there!
You can see here I had the most perfect work area to create in.
I accomplished my goal to finish this Log Cabin Quilt, now it was ready for the machine quilter.
My friend Lola and I pretty happy with our accomplishments this weekend, as you can see we had so much room to work with.
This was a view from upstairs, as you can see we had lots of room, perfect cutting tables, design walls and ironing stations.
Part of the retreat were some demonstrations done, Lola did a ten minute table runner, Debi here was showing us some tricks of the trade for appliqueing. I picked up some great tips, thank you Debi!
Cathy showing a new tool to turn ties inside out after sewing your strip, way to cool, I was at Jo Ann's the next day to buy one, that certainly will make ties so much easier. Yahoo!
One of our assignments was to bring 50 signature strips to share with our fellow quilters, to make a signature quilt from, for the memory of this event. How fun it was to meet some of these people.
This is one of the finished signature quilts that some one in the group finished, I think this was their quilt project for the quilt retreat.
This was a finished signature block with my name included, no this is not my square, another project for me to do one of these days. I love the heart center and of course the star, how about you?
Lola and Pam signing their signature strips for their contribution for everyone.
Everyone was given a piece of fabric to create a block with, here Pam and Cathy are hanging the quilt squares on the design board for all to see, later there would be a drawing for for groupings of 12, for some lucky people.
Our group shot here, there were 42 of us. All these women were so kind and sharing.
Having not brought enough for me to work on, I decided Sunday morning I would go for a hike, there is a falls on this property, with easy access to viewing it, so I was off and was not disappointed. It felt good to be out in nature, very refreshing.
Following the river bed, I knew I would find my way to Falls Creek.
While walking on the trail I came upon a surprise, an old hunters cabin, complete with a Monarch wood cook stove, old spring bed, side table with a wash basin, oh the memories that must have been made here!
This cabin was such a treat to go in and explore, left in tact from its last inhabitants.
Another hike took up a steep incline to a chapel, coming to a T in the road one way to the upper cross another to the lower cross, knowing full well I needed to go to the upper cross first, I made my accent; that was where the chapel was, heading back down the mountain I followed the signs to the lower cross, I have to say this was my favorite, nestled in the woods with wood benches to sit on and just reflect, was perfect for sharing my gratefulness for this past year.