Monday, April 30, 2007

I Had A Glorious Weekend

This past weekend I attended our Quilt Pocket Jamboree at the Heritage Hotel & Conference Center in Southbury, CT. This is the first time I have spent four days with quilters and all I can say is WOW! What a great weekend I had. I came home with way more items than I left with and I didn't spend a lot of money! Here are the goodies that came home with me.

First up - I'm always kidding DH that he needs to stop bringing home bags from the conferences he attends. Well, now he can kid me about bags. I came home with four new bags. Three were gifts and one came from a quilt shop we visited.

We did an Ugly Fabric Swap. Everyone started with one yard of ugly fabric. We tore it half, tossed half on our shoulder and passed half around the circle while music was playing. When the music stopped we tore the piece we had in our hands in half, tossed half on our shoulder and started passing the remaining piece around. We repeated this process several times. When we were down to a piece about 8 x 8 inches we took the first half yard of fabric and gave it to the person on our left. The fabric we had became our ugly fabric collection and our challenge is to make something out of all the fabrics. My collection is below. I actually like the brown teacup fabric. I don't know what I'm going to make yet.

Everyone brought a gift for everyone else. Here are some of the gifts I got. There's a Moda travel bag, a beverage wrap, needle book, two scissor fobs, a small holder for needle and thread, a needle case and a small wallhanging.

Here's the patterns I now have to work on. I'm excited about these patterns. The stitchery pattern is a Brownwyn Hayes pattern. I love the coffee cup pattern. The redwork patterns will go well with my redwork alphabet blocks.

One of the women gave everyone a pillowcase. She also had me as a teacup swap partner so I got two. Aren't they gorgeous?


Another women gave us teddy bear panels with coordinating strips to make a wallhanging. These will look good in my kitchen.

Here are the books I brought home. I won the Quilts, Quilts, Quilts book. The other books I bought. Triangles on a Roll was only $5. It's full of designs for using TOARs. I'm excited to try some of them. The Empty Nesters Cookbook is just what I've been looking for since DS moved out. It's hard to cook for two. And I couldn't turn down the Coffee Cafe book. It's chock full of coffee history and recipes.

The next two pictures show the fabric I received. There's an assortment of FQs, nickel squares, 6 inch squares and some scraps. The multi-colored item in the bottom left is a bookmark. It has coins in it to act as weights to hold the book open. The sports fabric will make a great wall hanging or baby quilt.


And, last, but no least, here are the rest of the goodies: two coffee cups, a magnetic pin dish, chimes, a note holder, pin cushion, glass wrap, small journal, sticky notes, a Canada pencil, a paperweight, a quilter's pin and a Dunkin Donuts gift card.


To say I am overwhelmed at the generosity of quilters is an understatement. I would never have imagined I would receive all these wonderful gifts.

Tomorrow I will share photos and stories of what we did.

23 comments:

Linda C said...

I bet this won't be the last time you head off for this event. It sounds as though you had a glorious weekend indeed. Cool presents and purchases.

Doodlebug Gail said...

OMG - I can't believe all those gorgeous goodies and fabric you came home with! How wonderful that you were able to spend time with a group of generous quilters. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the weekend.

Unknown said...

Wow! That's quite a booty you got there! Hum... maybe I need to go to a retreat...

Cynthia said...

sounds like you had a fantastic time. I wish i lived near you so i could have come along. You have so many fantastic things you brought home. Lucky you!!!!

May Britt said...

Lucky girl. I have also experienced that quilters are very generous sharing. Looking forward to see more from your weekend.

Carole said...

Wow, what a loot you made off with! What a great weekend it must have been! Looking forward to reading more about your retreat!

YankeeQuilter said...

What a great weekend! Love the coffee block pattern! I'm seriously missing my Dunkin Dounuts coffee...

Gail said...

WOW!! can I join your group? LOL What a great time you had.

Libby said...

Wow - that's quite a lot fun stuff you brought home. I'm always amused by the fabrics people think are 'ugly' Glad you had a great time.

Greenmare said...

Wow just like Christmas for you! You must still be flying~ I'm awesomely jealous! Pluse I love coming to your blog, I love the name. I keep hoping that as soon as I click on Coffe Time, a huge mug of coffee will appear out of thin air.........
sigh, never happens, but I keep coming back!

Rhonda said...

Sounds & looks like you had a blast. The company of quilters is always refreshing and energizing!

Patti said...

Quilt retreats are by far the very, very best. I would go on a retreat at least once a month if (1) I could afford it, (2) I didn't have a husband to miss, (3) I were retired, and (4) there were that many retreats.

Quilter Kathy said...

Wow...what a haul!
Aren't quilters just the best!?!

Marla said...

Good thing you got bags to get your haul home with you!!!!

Nancy said...

What a haul! Cant wait to see pictures and stories of the rest of your weekend.

Elaine Adair said...

What fun! I'll be glad to see what you make of the ugly fabric. Once I was a segment on Simply Quilts, where everyone did -- I call it Birds in the Air -- with Ugly Fabric. The end result was wonderful - the overall graphic design took over the 'ugly' and it was very pleasing. They used one ugly, and one background (also kinda ugly!) Good luck.

Presents? Yeppers - how neat.

Anonymous said...

LOL Paula! I see the Seattle Chocolates aren't in any of the piles. Guess they didn't make it home, hmm? What a great time we had!! I'm looking forward to 2009 but wish it wasn't so far away..

Yvonne

Darlene said...

Oh my goodness, my goodness what an incredible week end you had! It's always fun to spend time with quilters. I can't wait to hear more about this!

Anonymous said...

WOW, WOW ! What a splendid weekend ! I'm glad for you, you deserve it !
(love that "uggly fabric" music game, will talk about it at my next quilting bee...)
Hugs & smiles !
NADINE

Leigh said...

What a great time you all had. Next time can I come too?

tami said...

Wow that sounds like so much fun. You have quite a haul.

Quinta da Quilter said...

What an awesome weekend!!

Which quilt shop did you visit? I live about an hour away from that area and would love to find another local quilt shop!

Tracey @ozcountryquiltingmum said...

Too good to be legal! So much fun and so much stuff, it looks like a great time, well done, Tracey