Fall Retreat

Fall is my favorite time of year! I love the colors and the crisp air. It's also a wonderful time to plan a retreat at the Sacred Heart Retreat house in Coolville, Ohio. Thirteen of us gals came together to enjoy the season. The weather was just perfect to even spend some time outside to work on our hand projects.

Here from Canfield Ohio, are (from left to right) Debbi, Monica and Gabriela working in the gazebo by the pond.

We even sat in benches beside the pond to work. Here is the youngest gal in the group, Gabriela's niece, Monica, working on a paper pieced tumbling block quilt. Sometimes we would get a cool spray of water with a breeze from the fountain in the water.

We got a warm glow from the reflection in the water and enjoyed the view of the trees from the bench below.

Debbi is doing some embroidery without a hoop.

Even the resident cat, Magic,

is enjoying a warm bed of leaves on the hillside.

Inside the retreat house, you could hear the humming of machines running. Here is Bonnie, working on a lovely pink and green quilt.

On the other side of the room, you would find several working on various projects. Lesa is in the foreground. Gloria is in the burgundy shirt, Thea in the white T and Sandy sitting on the sofa doing some hand sewing.

This glorious quilt is being worked on by Lesa.

Irene was working on a quilt she started at the retreat in July. Such lovely fabric combinations!

And she even finished!

In the evening, halloween goodie bags were given out and each contributed a gift to add in the bags. Thea was wearing her Dame Edna glasses and ready to hand out some apple fabric. Gretchen is sitting the the background.

A special goodie bag was given to Sandy that made her cry! She had started a memory quilt of her husband, but because of strokes, it was difficult for her to complete. I got it together and quilted it and while at the retreat, the gals took turns sewing stitches in the binding.

She had also bought some UFO blocks from the July retreat and I surprised her again by getting it together and had her name embroidered in the center of the quilt.

On Saturday we also watched others working on various techniques. Here is Suzan working on some felted ATC's while Sandy looks on.

I also had them work on a mini mystery project in which they eventually discovered that they were making owls! They worked in wool while my piece had been done in upholstry fabric and cotton.

As you remember from the last post, they got their charms and were added to their owls if they wished. You can find the tutorial on the owls here and here.

Here's Thea making a "specktacle" of herself wearing one of the owls. lol I had them get sticks for their owl to perch on.

I even loved the back of her T shirt!

I also had showed them how to make a tiny stuffed owl. I put mine on a pin cushion.

A retreat wouldn't be complete without snacks! Here's Bonnie and Irene. We also had wonderful meals, but unfortunately no photos as we were too busy stuffing our faces! lol

As the retreat wound down, we all had to clean up. This is Sherry the sweeper queen!

The hard part was saying goodbye as we all wanted to stay another day, week, month and year. lol Here is Gloria getting ready to go while Patches inspects the packages to see if there was any more spare chicken hidden in any of the bags.

We all took last min. pictures to have some memories. Bonnie took this one! Great going Bonnie! LOL

I guess she wanted some memories of all of the good food that contributed to our figures. LOL

O.K. trying again....... That's better Bonnie!

From left to right is Suzan, Gretchen, Debbi, Wanda, Monica, Gabriela and Thea. At this point some of the others had already left or were still upstairs packing.

Finally Patches sat in the driveway once again watching each car leave and awaiting for the next group to bring in chicken or other such morsels. An enjoyable time was had by all!