Happy to be Home - Part 1

I love going away.  I love going away with my quilting friends.  I even love coming home.  Mostly because I love sleeping in my own bed.  I got home tonight after a long weekend up at Torch Lake at my quilting friend Jackie's lovely home.  9 of the Chickens were there and 2 were missing -- missed you Sue and Judy!  We had a fabulous time, filled with lots of sewing, knitting, eating, drinking, and merriment.

We began our adventure by meeting at Joyce's house with the plan to take two cars.  Small problem.  Both of said vehicles were filled to capacity so there was no room for Diane!  It was like a Chinese fire drill.  All sorts of things came out of one car, into another car, so that everything could be re-configured and the eight of us were on our way!

Our first stop, after the rest stop, was the Icehouse Quilt Shop in Grayling.  I think we were all stunned.  This mecca of a shop has been a destination for quilters for years and their inventory was disappointing.  Normally packed to the hilt with fabric, books, and notions is was decidedly sparse.  I hope they can hang on.  We made our purchases and headed to the local diner for lunch. Here's a shot of the eight of us ~~

Then we were off to Renee's House of Quilting in Williamsburg, where many yards of fabric were purchased. I was cautious and only bought a few buttons and fabulous applique quilt pattern (thinking of a wool version sometime in the future...).

Following our delicious Chili dinner, prepared by Carol, we presented Jackie with our hostess gifts which shocked the pants off of her ~~

A few months ago Jackie had suggested that we make a friendship quilt using a gift box block.  We would all need to make 12 blocks of the same design and swap them so we'd each have a variety of blocks for a quilt.  It was vetoed because most of us didn't want to have to make twelve blocks.  Jackie was disappointed that we didn't share her enthusiasm for the project.  So Kathy decided that we should each make Jackie a block and present her with the blocks when she hosted us this month.

Jackie was tickled and we were thrilled to surprise her.

Each of us brought projects to work on and we were very productive, even though we managed to take care of 8 bottles of wine in three evenings ~~

Isn't that blue bottle a beauty?!  The wines were all fabulous.  I brought the Pacific Rim Riesling (under $10 at Costco) and it was good enough to put on a weekly list.......

Here are a few pictures of the projects we worked on:

Kathy brought her project from the Kat Campau workshop and made another one, creating a 'series' ~~

She's really enjoying exploring this new technique.

Diane and Joyce worked on hand projects ~~

Carol worked on dishcloths, among other things ~~

Deb worked on her floral blocks, auditioning setting block fabrics, and decided on a couple of great Kaffe Fassett fabrics ~~

Pat and Mary worked on various machine piecing projects (sorry no action photos) and Jackie worked on knitting her granddaughter's First Communion Cape, which was lovely but she's running short on the yarn.  I checked Ravelry for more yarn and sent out a note to see if someone might be willing to sell a skein.  Gotta love Ravelry!

I managed to finish 5 hats this weekend.  So glad to make good progress for my shows.

I snapped a few photos of different rooms in Jackie's lovely home:

The Great Room, where we did most of our eating, drinking and crafting ~~

The Sun Room, where we drank our morning coffee and tea and watched as the sun rose over the lake~~

I loved this 'bouquet' of Kaffe fabrics that Jackie made as a centerpiece when Kaffe visited the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island for a weekend workshop last year ~~

Here's Jackie's Gammill long arm quilting machine ~~

It has its very own room!

That will have to do for tonight.  It's late and I need to get to bed.  Back to work tomorrow.  I'll post the rest of the weekend's story and pictures Tuesday.