My Retreat at Nedra's...

This is my wonderful quilty friend Nedra (Cactus Needle) who hosted a retreat last week at her home in sunny St. George, Utah.
My dear friend Rae Ann (Cutie Pinwheel) and I went down together.
It's about a 4 hour drive south from where we live. We had some great visiting time with each other during the drive and got to know each other even better...Rae Ann is my kindred spirit.
We have had alot of the same experiences in our lives, so we really understand each other.


We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and Nedra had her studio all set up for us to sew with her for 5 fantastic days....she had a welcome basket for each of us...lots of treats and a fabulous cactus pincushion that she made for us out of wool.

Nedra is the best hostess ever. I can't tell you what a gracious lady she is.

She opened her beautiful home to us and took care of our every need. Nedra is always thinking of others.

When she found out that my family loves Pomegranate's...she gave me a bottle of jelly that she had recently made.

That is just one of the many kind things that she did for me during our stay.

Rae Ann and I sewed with Nedra for all 5 days and we stitched and swapped stories from the early morning hours until late into the night. Yes. We bonded. It was fun. Way fun.

On Thursday my quilty BFF Nanette (Freda's Hive) came to sew with us for the day.

Nanette is a hoot and a half. I just love her. We have so much in common and she is my sweetie friend. We like the same things and are ALWAYS drawn to the same projects. We were so blessed to have her there with us and we all enjoyed her company.

On Friday we all went into town and met at the cutest quilting shop...Quilted Works.

We had more friends coming in that day to sew with us so the shop graciously let us use thier classroom for the day. What a great quilt shop and VERY friendly staff. If you are in St. George you will want to visit them for sure!

Nedra teaches there and showed us this pillow she made using Texture Magic.

I havn't used it yet but I have a project planned in the future that I will be sure to tell you about.

This is one of the classes that Nedra is teaching at Quilted Works. It's hanging on the classroom wall there and I took a fewpictures to show you.

It's called Mumbo Jumbo and it's by Pie in the Sky quilts. I just love this scrappy quilt and I plan on making a version of it. It's a great way to use leftover strips.

This is who was in the classroom spending the day together...

Paula and Michelle ( Nanette's cutie sisters), Rae Ann, Glenna (Glenna's Gabfest), Dawn (Piece and Love), Sherri (A Quilting Life), Nanette, Nedra and me.

I taught my new "eat CAKE" pattern while showing my applique method.

We all were stitching away when who should walk in...

the famous Glenna.

Nanette had found out that she would be in St. George and asked her to come and spend time with us.

I am so glad that she did. I was happy to meet her as I love her book and fabrics...if you follow me you know I have blogged about her before. You can check out her website, Hollyhock Quilts by clicking on it.

I took this picture of Glenna and Rae Ann…two cuties.

Glenna showed us a new project that she is working on....

I love it! So quilty and vintagey fun. We had a great time on Friday with everyone and I was so happy to meet Dawn and Nanette's lovely sisters Michelle and Paula and to see Sherri again.

On Saturday, it was back to Nedra's for Rae Ann and I and more sewing.

All 3 of us are making the Sunny Days quilt (below) by Geoff's Mom ...and we worked on it together.

These above are some of my blocks...

...and these are our blocks together.

Rae Ann finished other projects and then cut her Sunny Days quilt in the evening...she had time to make one block just before bed.

The blocks are on Nedra's design wall....

Rae Ann's is at the top, mine are in the middle and Nedra's are at the bottom.

I worked on my basket quilt (Fig Tree) too and almost have all of the blocks complete. I was so glad that I had the time to cut both quilts before coming...because of that I was able to accomplish alot.

I placed some of my blocks on Nedra"s design wall and took a picture right before we left for home.

I am using the white with green polka dots for the side setting triangles. I hope to have this quilt finished soon and I will show more as I make progress.

I had such a wonderful time with new and old quilty friends and I wasn't ready for it to end, so the memory will live in my heart.

As always I wish that I had stopped long enough to take more pictures.

If you would like to see more of our retreat....click here, here, here, here and here.