Tag: Retreat

Cleaning Lady

February 4, 2015

I will admit that I haven’t been able to get it all done
and have suffered from
SuperMom Syndrome.I have had to resort to having cleaning lady from time to time.
The night before she came I would run around the house barking orders for the kid’s to
get their room picked up.

oh the groaning and complaining

They would whine, why do we have to pick up if the cleaning lady is coming!!

This is completely understandable. But she was there to clean not pick up their mess.
How could she even get to the bathrooms over the
jungle of toys, clothes and other paraphernalia?

Fast forward, years later and I find myself once again
scurrying throughout the house.
This time it is to get ready for a quilting retreat.
I have been planning, cutting, organizing
and stacking projects for a
long weekend of
non-stop sewing.

I have my basket of red and green strips
and 4 patches for the APQquiltalong.

I have another stack that includes my blocks all cut out and sandwiched between fabric squares and design boards.
I cut out 40 blocks but do not have 40 design boards
or the space to pack them.
I finagled the few design boards I had along with
some squares of fabric and even a few squares of
batting so all my blocks are ready to sit and sew.

These two boxes contain two more UFO projects for retreat sewing. Does it count as a UFO if it is just cut out and I haven’t started sewing yet?

So leave it to one of my kids to say,
why are you doing all that cutting,
aren’t you going to a quilt retreat?

Just like the prep work it took to get the house cleaned,
there is prep work to get ready to be able to
sew non stop for several glorious days.

The only thing I may have forgotten to do is to
see if I could get a cleaning lady
to come while I am gone to clean up all the
mess I have left behind.

Hope you all get some time to sit and sew. It is good for the soul!

modalissa

sewing thimbles

6 Comments

July 18, 2013

I recently went on a retreat.
YEAH ME!

Took several projects to work on but did not FINISH anything.
BOO HISS!

Then I succumbed to peer pressure and started a little thimble quilt.
WHY NOT?
Everyone else was.

The problem with this was everyone one else was happy sewing a pack or

two together, adding borders and FINISHING something.

But NO,

I thought it would be fun to buy a new set of thimbles
each time I go to a show.

I could keep adding on to make a bigger quilt.

At this rate, how many packs do you think it would
take to make a
QUEEN SIZE
thimble quilt.

If you want to make one small quilt or just start
collecting like me,

hollar at
Primitive Gatherings.

If interested in ordering these go to

Go
to the site primitivegatherings.us/shop,

They
are under FABRIC, Then
PRECUTS

So once again I have another project started. The upside is that

I have something

to shop for at every quilt show

for YEARS to come.

It is amazing the trouble that peer pressure

causes no matter your age!

-modalissa

Moda Retreat 2010

25 Comments

April 14, 2010

Moda hosted it’s annual retreat this past weekend. Joining us were stores from all over the country for 3 days of classes, demos, shopping, food and fun. I realize as I post these pictures that it is kind of like having a dinner party and only taking pictures of your home. I didn’t do that. I took pictures of the people that came to the party! If you want to see more pictures of behind the scenes, check out some of our guests’ blogs.

Kaari from French General, Roseann from Rosebud’s Cottage, Heather from the Quilt Barn,

Julie from Keepsake Cottage, Susan Fuquay from American Quilt Retailer and more. Let me know if you have blogged about the event and I will add a link.

So now I will show off the quests of the party!

Several of the shops participated in our Pillowcase sew-a-thon. The pillowcases were made and will be logged in the grand total over at the Million Pillowcase Challenge.

Which by the way is half way to million mark!

The first night we had a Cupcake Carnival, so we cold all let our hair down and have some fun before dinner. One of the most popular carnival booths was our BUTT SKETCH artist. Yes that is what i said!

Butt Sketch. It was great fun!

Melba from the Old Craft Store, I know that is you! I would recognize that Butt anywhere.

Deb From The Quilter’s General Store in Rockford, Illinois , proudly displaying her Butt Sketch.

Quilter’s Garden in Princeton, IL and The Stitchery in Delavan, WI hamming it up.

Kaari Meng from French General with Rachel from The Old Country Store, Intercourse, PA.

Janeese and Patt from Calico House in Lincoln, NE

Mandy from Over the Rainbow sported the perfect balloon hat.(get it? Over the rainbow!)

Several of the moda staff quickly followed. ( they will remain nameless)

Twyla from Sew in Heaven in Holiday Island, AR was sitting quietly. She was probably hoping that I would not hunt her down and add her to the Balloon Head group.

Roseann Kermes from Rosebuds Cottage and TJ from Old Craft Store, Carrollton, Tx

Roseanne’s booth was a ton of fun. It was a Yo-yo competition. Not the toy kind, the sewing kind.

How fast can you sew a yo yo while the clock is ticking?

Since Project Runway is all the rage, we set up a FIG TREE RUNWAY. 2 teams of 2 competed to create there own original fashion design using precuts, ric rac, trims, buttons in 5 minutes or less. We even had a men’s round, after all most of the best designers are men. We knew our own Mark Dunn was very fashion savvy but who would of thought John Atkins our color blind IT Director would have added so much to the team. Hilariously fun!

This picture just makes me smile! 2 of our long time sales reps on hand to help us out.

Gene Stewart and Melody Busch

Brian Dunn & Mark Dunn

Just a few of the people that make it all happen EVERY DAY!!

Thank you for coming to the retreat and choosing moda!

What Happens at Retreat Stays at Retreat-NOT

19 Comments

March 29, 2009

The retreat was not in Vegas but in Bennigton, KS at Lynne Hagmeier’s. No pictures can do the place justice. It should be on the National Museum register. It should also be featured in all decorating and collecting magazines. INCREDIBLE! (we all said, “How does she dust?”)

Some information does stay at the retreat…………..

How much food we ate….Any of our new boyfriends…………………………Any discussions of politics or religion…………..
So some of the stuff I can talk about.
Why does it take 14 hours for an 8 hour road trip?
Well, first stop and first credit card swipe was Oklahoma City Quiltworks. Love this shop! I can always find something different here. (thank goodness the many antique shops did not open until 10:30 or else we would have turned it into an 18 hour road trip.)Another “A-word” Antiquing. In Wichita, KS at Paramount Antique Antique Mall, there were only 3 of us, but it is still a race to get inside to the treasures. We pushed on to arrive in Bennington in the dark. I live in Dallas so driving dark country roads with no signs was an adventure also. The retreat officially began. Lots of laughing and visiting by all.
Day 1: Imagine shopping with Sandy Gervais of Pieces from my Heart, Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs, Amy Bradley of Amy Bradley Designs, Sandy Klop of American Jane, Barb and Mary of Me & My Sister, Terry Thompson of Peace Creek, Laurie Simpson of Minick & Simpson, Jan Patek of Jan Patek Quilts, Barbara Brackman (check out her new blog-post a comment and tell her I sent you) and of course our hostess, Lynne Hagmeier. Yes it was heaven. Sandy Klop was shopping for props for her booth at market with scads of suggestions by all of us. (secret!?) By the last day we were all shopping for each other. Through the power of technology, we actually did some shopping for some of the designers that were not there. Take a picture, send it to them…you want it or not? This group is just that kind of crew, always looking out for each other and willing to help spend each others $$.DAY 2: More shopping. Oh, did you think retreat meant we would be sewing?

We also hit any quilt shop in our tracks. The Quilting Bee in Salina, KS had a display of Lynne’s fabrics so I couldn’t resist making Lynne strike a pose. (you know they all hate me taking pictures-Thank you, Lynne) We played games. Read all about it on Laurie’s blog. We ate lunch in Abilene, KS at Mr. K’s Farmhouse Restaurant. Ed and June Kuntz
welcomed us. (June is a quilter and Ed could talk quilt.) Ed took our picture and asked us to say “muslin” instead of cheese. He won us over! Alma is holding a jar of their homemade salad dressing. All the pie boxes are hidden. Go to their site to read the history, salivate over the menu and learn more about President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Abilene. Material Girls Quilt Shop was closed by the time we got there, boo hiss. Maybe next time. I even found an outfit to wear to Market. What do you think? Flats or heels?
I am so energized by all the talent, creativity and knowledge that was shared. I could go on and on about my 3 days in Kansas but that is it for now. Oh ya, road trip home, 9 hours, only 1 detour and 1 speeding ticket scare. Whew! He got someone else. We were already trying to figure if we could talk him out of a ticket with moda fabrics.