finally... a sense of accomplishment!

so everything went well on friday and I was able to get in touch with the coordinator of the 'stitch for hope' day-retreat. it was definitely no problem for me to attend and boy am I glad I did! even though I had to leave early for the rehearsal dinner (for DH's brother), I still finished all the quilting on ben's baby/1st birthday quilt. I got the binding on there, too, so now I just need to hand stitch the binding down and do a label for it. I am hoping to get it to aimee that first weekend of november when I will be up in maine for the nimble thimbles retreat. on my way home, I'll stop by and see her. there is also a little purse that goes with it (made with the scraps) that will be for sophie... I don't want her to feel left out, though she did get a quilt when she was born.

after I finished up that, I brought out the pieces to the quilt for chris and ashley, our friends in chicago... it was unfortunate that we weren't able to get out there for the wedding (*major* flight issues) so hopefully this will be a treasured gift for them. my mom has had a few kits kicking around since she's been cleaning out the basement. a lot of them she has started already, but no longer has the desire to finish them (she's working on a lot of other things). so... I am the lucky recipient!! this particular quilt is 90ish" by 80ish"... so the fact that a lot of the blocks were pieced already is fabulous (and that the wedding was in june and I need to get them the gift!). the colors are nice... some maroons, blues, and creams. the pattern is simple, yet home-y. it'll be a great addition, I hope, to their new home.

the retreat was great, too, because they had little mini-projects. I was working hard on my quilting, so I didn't get to participate, but I took the patterns and hope to do them another time. one of them was a square tissue box cover, which was really fast and easy to finish. the other was a pincushion, that looks like a strawberry in form... also quite cute. we had a lunch - pizza donated by first and last tavern and another place I wasn't familiar with (since I'm not from avon, or the area). it was wonderful! and everyone brought desserts from home. so good. the purpose of the retreat was to raise money for breast cancer research (since october is breast cancer month) so during lunch we had a guest come in (the MIL of one of the attending quilters) and talk about her survival story with breast cancer. very touching... such a great story. she was given 2-3 years after her radiation treatment, and she's been going strong for 10!

overall, it was a great time... and I met some really nice people! they are mostly from the farmington valley quilt guild rather than the apple valley quilters, which is the guild I plan to join (tomorrow!). I thought all the ladies were fabulous and really made me feel welcome... if their guild meetings weren't on wednesdays, I would consider joining both!