Annual Retreat

Back in April, I wrote that Jodi's house fire was the same weekend as our annual quilters' and scrapbookers' retreat at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Newborn, GA. That is such a wonderful facility and we have such a good and productive couple of days...everyone really looks forward to it. Jodi and her scrapbooking friends congregate on one side of the large conference room, and my quilting friends and I take over the other half. Since the fire was on Friday, and on Saturday Jodi had literally nothing but the shirt on her back and the overnight bag and scrapbooking supplies she had in the car -- and there was nothing she could do about the fire until Monday -- she did come and join us for a couple of hours. Understandably, she couldn't really concentrate on her books or get very creative...but she did sit with friends and sort through her pictures and then get a good night's sleep. The last few years, this has become a family affair for some of us. And when she was there, that made two mother-daughter sets. Here's Jodi and me with Deanna and her daughter, Jill.

Deanna is one of the Batty Babes quilters and last year she brought one of her sisters with her to the retreat. They had such a great time that this year her daughter and all three of her sisters came! She and her daughter came from North Carolina...one sister from South Carolina, one from Texas and one from Arizona. Her son lives here in town, so he came out and joined them all for dinner one night. By the sounds of all the laughing, I'm pretty sure they'll all be back again.

I don't have enough space here (and it's kind of a wrestling match to get some of the pictures on this blog) to show all the wonderful quilts that were created this year, but here are a couple of projects that were in the works. I was working on my 2010 Christmas quilt. Each year I draw a family member's name and somebody gets their own Christmas quilt...until everyone in the family has one. We're down to only Jerry or Jeremy to get this year's, so I decided to make a large red, green, gold and cream flannel one with a simple geometric design. Nothing "frilly" for either of those guys. I also started a pretty one called Hunter's Star that will match my living room very nicely -- provided that I can get it finished before I remodel the living room again!

Ardis, Robin and Liz were all working on a project that several of us tackled this past year. It was a mystery quilt (more on that later) that was designed by a friend of ours and published in McCall's. Here's Liz working on some of her blocks. Ardis' color palette is pinks and browns, Robin's is oranges, corals and aquas, and Liz's -- as you can see -- is red, cream and blue. They will all be the same but yet so different. It's going to be fun to see them side by side.

Amelia makes some of the biggest quilts I've ever seen and after she finished piecing this one, the only place to display it was by wrapping it around this room divider!

So here are the statistics: 27 women, 11 sleeping rooms, 1 big working room, 1 sit-down dinner, 1 buffet breakfast, the rest of the time sharing food for meals, treats, etc. Lots of working, lots of laughing, lots of eating, lots of sharing ideas, lots of appreciation for each other's artistry and hard work...and just a few games of Rummikub before turning in each night. We even made a new convert to the game this year...Jennie. It's just great and we're

looking forward to next year already!!

Retreat

re-treat (ri tret') n. 1 a withdrawal, as from danger 2 a safe, quiet place 3 a period of seclusion, esp. for spiritual renewal.

Hmmm... I went to a quilters and scrapbookers retreat this weekend. But according to Webster, I wonder why we call it that. We do withdraw...but not from danger. As a group we withdraw from the duties, responsibilities, and loved ones in our lives that interrupt our pursuit of our creative hobbies and make accomplishing things difficult. As for it being a safe, quiet place. Well, let's just say it's very safe. We go to the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, GA. They have a huge, wonderful facility on 6,400 acres of natural wooded beauty. They have motel-style rooms and a large conference room where we can set up tables, ironing boards, a huge food spread and still have plenty of room to spread out and work. The quiet part of this definition, however, doesn't quite fit. There is no TV reception out there, but they have a big-screen TV that we can play DVDs on. We also bring our portable music and I'm still singing all the songs from Mama Mia in my head today. Definition 3 doesn't quite fit, either. Rather than it being a period of seclusion, we invite lots of good friends. This time 20 of us "retreated" to this wilderness together.

There were a few special things about the relationships of the group this time. Jodi and I almost always are there together. Me with my quilting friends, and her with her scrapbooking buddies. This time a good friend and one of the Batty Babes, Liz, who hasn't been to one of these in a very long time not only came along, but brought her daughter, Ellen, who is a scrapbooker, too. So we had two mother-daughter pairs. What's more fun than spending your weekend with your friends AND one of your grown daughters? Well...maybe the answer to that is spending it with a sister who is also a good friend. Another of the Batty Babes, Deanna, retired and moved to Charlotte, NC last year. She comes down to visit often and especially when we have something like this going on. This time she brought along a very good friend, Ilona, who also happens to be one of her sisters. Ilona lives in Columbia, SC, so they met up along the way and rode down together. We all enjoyed meeting Ilona and having her with us.

We were also glad to share some part of the weekend with a very good friend that most of us hadn't seen in a long while. Becky has been a nurturing care-giver for her husband, Robert, who has been battling pancreatic cancer for the past two years or so. He lost his gallant fight quite recently and went home to heaven...so she was able to come and share the love of good friends and the soul-nourishing time for creativity.

But you can never find a time that meets everybody's schedule, so we missed a couple of the "regulars". Ardis never misses, but she was off on a great anniversary trip with her husband. And Pam was able to only squeeze out a couple of hours from a weekend filled with working and caring for her mother who is having some health problems. All in all, I would have to say that I agree with most everyone who said, "This was the best one yet! When can we do it again?"