I Missed the Retreat (but here are some pictures!)

I'm loving my time in MN with daughter Beka and the grands....little Anastacia is 11 days old now. She is a cuddly little bundle who hardly cries. She seems to be alert more and more each day. But this year, in order to be at her birth, I missed the Scottie Dog Quilts Fall Mystery Quilting Retreat. I haven't missed one of our retreats in the past 11 years or so. Liz and Crystal hosted this one. I know they did a fine job without me and I was quite gratified to hear that at one point on Saturday afternoon Sydney wandered into the sewing room and loudly queried, "Raise your hand if you miss Gamma!" And I'm told every hand went up. Thanks, gals, you made me feel great!
Liz posted a few photos on Facebook and I copied them for this blog. The pattern was from Clothworks called Tulips by Barb Tourtilloette. Here is the pattern. It is quick and yet displays large prints well. Here's Suzanne's quilt.


I think this one is Shari's (with our new Block of the month in the background).
I like the lime background in this one.Crystal used 1930's prints (no surprise there!) and it is wonderful.

And Marie's is a beauty too! Don't you love to see one quilt done so differently and every one of them a winner!Two of the gals brought their "Juicy Fruit" quilts from a couple of years back. Here's Marie's:
I think this next one is Lindsay's. Just the difference the fabric makes.

I missed the retreat...the fun, the laughter, renewing old friendships and meeting new quilters, dinner at Rita's Mexican Cantina and The Banana Hut (Hawaiian!)....I did get to see the quilts and I Skyped a bit. See you next Spring!

High Tea at the Eureka Inn

There was a benefit today for the Humboldt County Historical Society today at the Historic Eureka Inn. The Inn's owners had gone bankrupt in 2004 and it had been closed and changed hands a few times before opening in May of 2010. There are only 50 rooms ready for occupancy and the restaurant, pub and coffee shop are currently closed, but the current owner, Mr. Libo Zhu has a vision to restore this wonderful Eureka Treasure to it's former glory.Redwood Sewing Center will be holding our next Mystery Quilting Retreat here April 8-10, 2011. ( If you are interested, call the store at 707 444-9662).

Today we were there for High Tea! And what a wonderful time was had by all. I think there were 100 guests. Most of the ladies present wore hats. At our table we wore hats, gloves, pearls and our pinkies were held up high! My beautiful daughter, Liz and Geri.Just a small portion of the dessert table...lemon bars, cookies and scones from Ramone's Bakery.

Margie and her lovely daughter Charlotte.

Here we are, mother and daughter.

Some more desserts...luscious cupcakes filled with goodness! (mine was chocolate with raspberry filling.) There was so much more food, but I guess I didn't get a photo. Cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad, Thai wraps, shaved Tri-Tip roast from Porter Street Barbecue ( with Cypress Grove Cheve blended with Tulle Lake horseradish!), mushroom tarts, Swedish cucumber salad and so much more. The food was fabulous, the company even more so! We laughed, told stories on one another, planned our next quilting projects, caught up on family news while entertained by a 6 piece musical group which played an eclectic mix of classical and folk tunes from many lands.
Donna, Brigette & Kenny. I loved his hat too! See Liz's bag? So chic black satin with just a peek of pink. So girly, yet sophisticated.
Here we all are (thanks Kenny, for patiently taking photos with all our cameras). L-R: Margie, Dona, Geri, Judy, Brigette, me (BrendaLou), Liz and Charlotte.

After we had our photo op we took a tour of some of the guest rooms. We are so excited about our upcoming retreat being held here. Don't worry about the restaurant not being open yet...we've got wonderful caterers coming in. And the Redwood Lounge may just be open by April.

I'm so Excited!

We had a fabulous weekend here at Redwood Sewing Center. Our Scottie Dog Mystery Quilting Retreat was a rousing success. The food was wonderful, the quilt pattern (Criss Cross Applesauce) was very well received and we got to sew the entire weekend with amazingly wonderful quilting women!

Today is Monday and somehow the Monday after Retreat can be kind of a "let down" day. But today I am so excited there is absolutely no let down. A friend had her baby boy early this morning (it's not been officially announced so I can't say another word just yet) AND.....ta da! Tomorrow our Pfaff educator is coming to do a special training just for our staff. I can hardly wait. We became dealers in late August and I began to sew on my Pfaff Quilt Expressions 4.0 machine

around the first of September. I was prepared to like my new machine, of course. But little did I know how much! I am so in love with my Pfaff! The dual feed foot on this Pfaff machine is really something....this means that any time you sew, you can have the advantage of a built-in walking foot. Oh, my! This baby keeps your fabrics from slipping, wobbling and more. My stitches are straighter and more even. I push a button and voila! Both my threads are cut. It has presser foot lift I can touch with my knee....or just tap the foot pedal and the presser foot goes up or down.....neat! On my own I learned a lot about this machine....but there is so much more to learn. I don't even know the right questions to ask. I can make button holes two ways....but this machine can make 6 different kinds of button holes. It has a wonderfully large and extended neck making quilting a larger quilt relatively easy. There are embroidery stitches up the wazoo (I always wanted to use that phrase!) and three alphabets. I can't wait until tomorrow afternoon when our Pfaff Educator comes to teach me (and my whole staff) all the tricks, tips and take away any mysteries we might have about our machines.We'll even learn to use the Pfaff Grand Quilter....of course Liz is already a pro at it. I look forward to being able to quilt our store samples right on the sales floor. Did you know that this big baby extends up to 120" (think King sized Quilt!), is complete with the table, poles, etc, has a stitch regulator and is affordable? Our lessons will be 1/2 day on Tuesday and all day Wed....but don't let that deter you if you wanted to come to the store. We'll be glad to help you....the whole staff will be here!

Did I say I was excited? Well, I am!