I'm Back from the Retreat

I have so much to tell that I don't know where to start. My friend Kathleen arrived to pick me up, and then we got to Belfast at around 9:30. They wouldn't let us register for our rooms till 4PM, so we headed to the first workshop.Let me mention the one negative point here...The workshops were located in the courtyard area a pretty good distance from the main hotel, so dragging our bags and machines was not an easy feat. The pic below doesn't show it well, but there were a series of steps all along the route to the workshops. The hotel is behind that table, so you can see that the far building in the back where the workshops were was pretty far when you are dragging bags.Boy, was I glad that I bought my featherweight, as most had brought their heavier machines, and they were regretting that decision.

We all finally reached the first workshop. I got to meet Deb Karasik whom I had written to for years, and who was teaching the workshop. I gave her a welcome to Ireland gift and a big hug. The workshop was brilliant, and we worked on a wall hanging called Carnivale. It has tons of spikes and curves, and Deb demonstated how to do them, and to my amazement, I was able to sew them. We then had a lovely lunch and we finished the workshop at 4:30. Here you can see in the pic the wall hanging called Carnivale that Deb Karasik created herself. She is proudly standing in front of it, and isn't it lovely? We all hoped ours would turn out half as nice as that one, and we were busily trying to create the blocks.

The evening was basically ours, and I met with the guild to have dinner, and we had drinks at the bar.

Saturday was our busiest day. We started the day off with a lovely Irish breakfast. We had our second workshop with Deb, who this time gave us a pattern called Autumn Calls. What can I say...more spikes and curves and lots of time to practice all of the techniques. It was not just creating the spikes and curves, you had to put them all together in the right order to create the block shape. I was so glad that I attended and learned how to do it all...Deb is a wonderful teacher!!!!!

There was a lovely lunch, and we finished again at 4:30. A friend of mine, named Harriet was not staying for the dinner and heading back, and as I missed Joe and the boys, I went back earlier than planned. I missed the dinner, but boy was I glad to be see them all and arrive home to a wonderful welcome. I think that besides learning all the techniques, I loved meeting new people. I exchanged details with a woman named Anne who lives in Kilkenny, as we really hit it off. You can see Anne in pink below working and Deb in the background.

If you ever get Deb's latest books called Quilting With Attitude, you will see how detailed the patterns are...I am just so happy to have learned it all, and I now feel confident to do her patterns. I bought some more paper piecing supplies from Deb: a large 18 inch pink quarter inch ruler...I alreday had the 6 inch and 12 inch ones...and a wonderful seam roller, which doesn't make it necessary to have an iron there.

So glad to be back, and I will visit all of your blogs today. I can't wait to see what you have been all up to.

I'm home....Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!