Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I’ve just spent three days with four fabulous women, laughing, eating (too well!), learning, sharing, and just enjoying each other’s company. Oh, and we did quite a bit of sewing too! 😉

We had our quilting challenge set by B and on Friday evening we shared our creations with a bit of “Show and Tell” and some local wine. What a creative bunch we are! B set the challenge back in May and while I was finished by the end of June, two of the ladies were in a race against the clock. M only finished hers a few days before our ‘retreat’. Full details on the challenge criteria are here: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/the-challenge/

Here are pictures of our magazine page and our finished challenge pieces (mine are coming in a separate post tomorrow). However, the pictures don’t do the stories and the creation process justice. They are just the finished product and tell nothing of the trials and tribulations and convolutions of the mind that the creators went through to get there!

After we exhibited our challenge pieces, we had more “show and tell” of other quilts and fabric pieces we’d made over the past year or so. Then we had a great dinner made by B. (Meal duties were rostered, so we only made one meal each and were the kitchenhand for another meal.)

Saturday was full of sewing and talking and eating! And Saturday night we had a fabulous dinner at the local hotel, and sprung a big birthday cake surprise for B, who has a ‘zero’ birthday in about 2 weeks. After dinner, we heard G talk about her quilt trip to Paducah in Kentucky, and other places in the US and saw all her gorgeous photos. A big Lotto win that night would’ve seen us jetting off on a similar trip together next year, but alas, that wasn’t to be! We didn’t even win $10…

Sunday was more birthday surprises for B — we had bought her a bird bath for her lovely garden. And more sewing. And more eating. Sunday afternoon we went to Ford House, a local B&B and an Aladdin’s Cave of all sorts of really nice gifts and homewares. It went on and on… We had a delicious afternoon tea there too, then went up to see Judy’s new quilting studio. Judy is a professional long-arm quilter who does all my large quilts. She now has a proper studio for Millie, her 14 foot long arm quilting machine. Her new studio is the envy of us all!

Sunday night was more food, more laughter, more chat. As was this morning. Then it was all over. G, M, and F all left around noon to head back to Bunbury and Perth, and I left a short while later.

Despite all the great food, company, etc. we WERE there to sew. I made some 21 bookmarks (and gave 5 away and sold 2 to B), around 24 luggage tags (and sold 4 to B), and learnt how to do wave patterns using fabric (thanks M!). M helped me out with some neat things I could do on my machine too.

It was a great weekend! Thanks ladies! (We already have plans to do it all again next year, with G setting the challenge.)

Oh, and I sold some more of my Etsy pieces — M purchased 4 bookmarks, G purchased a luggage tag and an art piece, and B purchased some bookmarks and luggage tags that hadn’t even made it to the store! However, I’ll be adding about 14 new bookmarks and 20+ luggage tags over the next couple of weeks as a result of my productivity this weekend.