Retreat 2023 by Carlinda Daigle!

Another guest post by our good friend Carlinda!    Anyone wanting to submit a blog post - you are welcome to do so at krquilters@gmail.com!

 

On the road to retreat!  

The ladies got together at Villa Madonna in Rothesay earlier this month (Feb. 1 – 5) for the Keswick Ridge Quilters annual quilting retreat.  If you have never been to one here is a little insight to hopefully entice you to join us next year.

The most important thing to do once you have decided you are going is to make lists – a list for projects, a list for clothing and a list of what to take from your sewing room at home.  There are numerous ways to get ideas for a packing for retreat list.  

Every road trip starts with Tim Horton’s, so Carlinda and Jodi had to stop for a beverage and a donut – drivers’ rule. 

 

When you arrive at Villa Madonna there is a table with the room layout and which room you were assigned.  This was Carlinda’s room for Thursday to Saturday night.  It was close to the wheelchair accessible washroom/shower, a one-person washroom and the dining room.  She said the room was just the right size because she spent most of her time sewing.  The twin bed was comfortable.

        

 

All of the ladies were upstairs in the same boardroom.  Each person had one table for their working station as well as two irons and ironing boards set up.  There were two cutting tables for everyone to take turns using during the retreat. 

                         

 

                       

  

 

As you can see anything goes, bring your own chair, bring your sewing table from home, bring one project or many projects to work on.  The natural light was nice to have as we watched the snow fall from a distance. 

 

Carlinda was working on a quilt for her bed in shades of her favorite color – Purple!  The pattern she was following was a Fabric Café 3-yard quilt named Modern Charm.  This pattern has one solid block and one block with a churn dash.  The picture with the stacks is the 180 half square triangles which is half of what is needed for her queen size quilt. 

                          

 

 

 

Now the quilting retreat isn’t all sewing and quilting.  A few of the ladies decided to take a ferry ride over to K & P Studio Quilting on the Kingston Peninsula (which is where the K & P comes from in the studio name).  The ladies timed it just right and drove on and off as soon as they arrived.  K & P Studio is a little spot in Lisa Mosher’s home where she has fabric and a few notions as well as her long arm quilting machine. 

                                    

 

Now K & P Studio wasn’t the only quilt shop that the ladies visited while on the retreat.  Town and Country Quilt Store in Rothesay was offering a 20% discount if you were at the retreat so we made sure to keep them busy and take advantage of the deal.  Tina and staff were great helping us spend our money.

 

Now if you were working on a detailed project and needed a break for your eyes and brain there was something for that as well.  There were a couple of puzzles with a quilt theme to them that was brought by one of the ladies.  It was nice to be able to put a quilt together quickly… piece by piece.  There was also a crossword puzzle from the New York Times for those that aren’t puzzle people.

 

                                    

 

Now you may be asking “What about the food?”  Well the meals were great.  All three meals were served in the dining room which was cafeteria style.  There were more than one option for each meal.  Some of the meals that were served – chicken pot pie, chicken with potatoes and vegetables, soup and sandwiches for lunch, desserts, coffee and tea included.  Snacks were brought by a few members.

 

 

 

A fun activity that we did together was the “Left Center right” dice game.  The game consisted of three dice and you rolled all three to begin with.  If you rolled an L you gave one of your fat quarters to the person on your left, the same applied for R to the right and C for center.  We went through the game in about a half hour leaving four ladies with about 18 fat quarters each.  A great stash builder.

 

On lunch on Sunday was the signal of the end of a great retreat.  Everyone packed up their belongings and sadly packed up the vehicles, some of them were loaded pretty darn snug with three ladies travelling together.  One of the ladies was enjoying herself so much she was a day behind and was surprised when we told her it was Sunday.  That is how much fun these retreats are for everyone. 

 

The retreat is a great getaway for the middle of the winter and if you start saving now you can have enough for February 2024.

thanks Carlinda! Sounds like a great time!