Quilting retreat extraordinaire! and more

GOOD-

1. Just got back from a quilt retreat all day Friday and Saturday. We quilted for about 26 hours total. We all worked on the same pattern, one that we had all wanted to do, but it looked so overwhelming that none of us dared try it. However, we thought if we all did it together, we could help each other. We were right. It was a huge job, very tedious, but it wasnt has hard as we thought it might have been and with 10 quilters there, we were all able to help each other through the trickier parts.

We held it in Mike Ray's garage, actually, in a huge workshop in his brand new multi-car garage. Heat (including a heated floor), a super long workbench, the perfect height for cutting, room for tables, trashcans, ironing boards and irons, etc for 10 quilters. The floor was so clean we could lay our quilts out on it. It was an amazing room! Then upstairs from that was an in-law suite of sorts. We slept, showered, etc there. (The Ray's home is also where the longarm quilting machine is kept/used--Karen Ray is one of the three owners --Karen, Sharon and Carol.)

So this retreat had no cost, super friends, endless quilting. How can it get better than that? (Oh, I just remembered, it COULD get better! We decided that next retreat will include a visit each evening from a lady in our ward who is a massage therapist. THAT would make the experience complete!)

This is the quilt we were working on. Everyone made it in different colors an sizes. You can see that mine was green and white. I made the largest size so it could fit on a queen sized bed. I still have to add borders but I cant figure out what I want to do for the borders. And because I am a really quick quilter, I finished my top (except the borders) Only one other lady finished her top, and hers was about a quarter size of mine. Everyone's colors were so different! And all were beautiful!

2. I have gotten a lot done around the house. Ran a lot of errands. Helped a family in the ward one early morning, fixed some real dinners, caught up with laundry, started organizing the Thanksgiving dinner at the church. This extra 10 hours a day is really great.

3. Molly got straight A's the first quarter! We were sweating it out in a few classes. But the schedule switch was good choice. It is possible for her to work hard and achieve success with this schedule. The teacher with her other schedule would have made it impossible to achieve success, even with an unreasonable amount of work and effort. YAY for Molly and her hard work!

4. For the first time, the computer let me add a picture to the blog. That is pretty exciting stuff.

5. Four of the teachers I worked with took me out to lunch to thank me for my hard work. We went to Mike's American Grill (the best/most popular restaurant in the area.) It was fun and nice of them.

WORST

1. I miss the kids in my class. I don't miss anything else though.

2. There is still so much to do around the house. Things I have been wanting to get to. But now that I have time, I am overwhelmed with all the things I want to do. How do I prioritize?

3. I now have the YUDU machine and all the accessories I need. But I am too chicken to actually try it. Yikes. (and dumb)