Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Annual Chicken Retreat -- Day One

It's really only a 4 hour-ish ride up to Torch Lake but last Friday Sue and I left Madison Heights at 6:45 AM and arrived at Jackie's home at 4:30 PM for our annual Chicken retreat. I know what you're thinking -- how in the world did it take nearly 10 hours to get there? Maybe we should change our names to Skipper and Gilligan.
I'll just start by saying I don't get out much. We stopped for gas and then breakfast about an hour later. At McDonald's we had a cranky old lady waiting on us who apparently only knew how to use the scripted lines they had given her and couldn't tell that because we were far back from the counter that we were actually contemplating our order. In the corner of the restaurant was a small group of older gentlemen, sitting with their large pot of decaf coffee, looking like they meet there every morning.
Our next stop was the Icehouse Quilt Shop in Grayling. If you're a quilter wandering around in the northern end of the peninsula you've got to stop there. I think our stitch group members always take the opportunity to see the latest that this great shop has to offer. I found a great book that uses a no-sew technique for Hearts and Gizzards (or Drunkard's Path) blocks. It's called 'Appli-Curves' by Elaine Waldschmitt and found this fabric to use for a quilt:

The middle fabric was a bargain -- 3 yards for $9. A totally different color palette for me but I liked it and built a quilt around it. Sue found some great fabrics, too, and we were on our way to Cedar to Inish Knits. This cute little yarn shop is really in the middle of nowhere but we always find some beautiful yarn and patterns there. Hey Sue -- check out their webpage for Melissa's bio. And while you're surfing here's her blog, which is great.
Next up was a yummy lunch at the Cedar Rustic Inn, just up the street a bit, and conveniently next door to the Longview Winery tasting room........
From there we made our way to Jackie's in Kewadin. But I'm exhausted from the travel talk so I'll have to write more tomorrow...........

1 comment:

SusanQuilter said...

So I wonder if that mean's Melissa is a writer herself? Sounds like a nice trip so far---wish we were still there!!!