Sew Grateful!

Yes, this puppy (a.k.a., blob of fabric) is finally actually beginning to look a little bit like a tablerunner! And that's a mighty, mighty good thing as its due date for shipping is in a few days and the anxiety is starting to build up!

Two days of totally amazing inspiration, community, delicious food, hilarity, and humming machines around me at Pamela's sewing retreat kept me going and gave me the encouragement and much needed advice to turn the corner! What a phenomenal community of women! I didn't know a soul going into the weekend and I feel as if I have a new bunch of dear friends after two long, exhausting, but recharging days of sewing, laughing, and companionship! Many thanks to Pam for working so hard on such an extraordinary event! She arranged for two trunk shows: Amy Ellis shared her gorgeous quilts on Friday and talked a bit about her Modern Basics book, and Emily Herrick talked about her fabric collections and shared her stunning quilts (much as I tried, I was unsuccessful in sneaking off with her handiwork!). We were lucky enough to get some of her patterns in adorable little envelope bags that Pamela made for us and filled with all sorts of goodies (she promises to have a tutorial for these on her blog)! I was lucky enough to have Miss Emily as my table partner, so I was both entertained by her wit and also blessed by her wisdom. Thanks Emily for helping me pull the tablerunner top together!

It's a funny kind of thing, the blogging world. You feel as if you know people from reading about them on a daily basis, so when you meet them you kind of recognize them, you know about them, but they (quite reasonably) know nothing about you. So it was great to actually officially meet Amy (of diary of a quilter) officially, and to add some new blogs (and friends) to the list: April, Ella, Maria, and Holly. And to the blogging holdouts: don't worry Sue, I'm still keeping you on the "friends" list!

We also had a simply fabulous hand appliqué class from Jeannette Hartvigsen. Jeannette first showed her amazing, stunning work, then taught us the techniques. We then practiced on a heart. A long, slow learning curve, but so so helpful! And just in time for my top secret Christmas project!

Truly, without the wisdom, humor, encouragement, and time together this weekend with all these women, I would still be sitting in my sewing room with all the separate pieces of my various wonky houses and trees, in tears, with little idea of how to pull it all together -- and without having had the great fun that I did! Thanks to all!