It is time to finish my series of posts about the annual May quilting retreat I attended with my Quilting Sisters in Vancouver, WA May 17 – 20 at Sew N Go Retreat Center. To read my previous posts about quilting retreats I’ve attended, see my post category – Retreats.

If you’d like to read my previous posts on my May 2018 retreat (it is hard to believe that was over a month ago now) here they are:

• The Tale of Tango Stripe
• The Road to Retreat (Via Cannon Beach)
• The Pillow Project
• Sasquatch Sightings
• The Votes Are In!
• Please Vote On The Color!

Late Night Quilting

Have you ever attended a quilting retreat? If you are not a quilter but another type of crafter, have you ever attended a crafting retreat?

Sure, I could take a couple days off work and stay at home and sew all day for free. But it would not be as fun as hanging out with a group of other quilters, having all meals prepared for you, having no responsibilities (except any pressure you give yourself to complete projects you bring), and the opportunity for Late Night Quilting!

Here is our Quilting Retreat Center during the day:

And here it is at night when there is Late Night Quilting going on inside:

I am not sure why I took the above photo at an odd angle, except it was late at night and perhaps I had been quilting too long and needed to go to bed.

Inside the Quilting Sweat Shop (aka The Quilt Retreat Room)

Whether during the day or late night at night, the sewing machines were humming and churning out projects:

And on the design walls were quilts in progress such as this one by the Quilting Sister Judy:

Sewing was not limited to making quilts, there were other projects such an adorable tote bag by my Quilting Sister Lisa:

A Cozy Place to Sleep

After a long day of quilting, and perhaps a late night marathon of quilting, you need a cozy place to sleep. Here is the bedroom I stayed in which had quilts on every wall and several on the bed I slept in:

Although the room had several beds in it, as we were a small group of 5, I had the room to myself.

Here is a detail of a lovely medallion quilt that was on the opposite wall from my bed:

Getting Exercise

I knew it was a poor choice health wise to just sit around all day and sew, so I found time each day to walk around the rural farmland area of the quilt retreat center, sometimes with another Quilting Sister and sometimes alone. We had beautiful weather!

And like last year’s May retreat, we visited with friendly horses we met on our walks:

Good Thing I Went On Daily Walks…

As usual we had delicious meals at the Sew N Go Retreat. Each meal was a delightful surprise. Here are a couple images – a yummy main course of the most addicting chicken wings I’ve ever had; and a delicious piece of apple cake:

And yes that is vanilla ice and caramel on top as there would not have been enough calories with just the cake!

And of Course There is Abbie

One of my favorite treats at the Sew N Go Retreat is spending time with Abbie the Quilt Retreat Kitty:

Abbie is getting older and is not as active as she was when I first started attending the retreat many years ago. I was actually trying to read a magazine and Abbie ended up laying on top of the magazine so I could pay attention to her instead.

Here is a “vintage” photo of Abbie and I cuddling during the May 2016 Quilting Retreat:

A Wonderful Reminder

The room I stayed in during the retreat had a wonderful needlepoint sampler that I woke up to each morning and served as a beautiful reminder of how I want to face each day.

I am trying to keep these words in my heart now that I am back home.

Continuing my series of posts on the annual Sew N Go Quilt Retreat in Vancouver, WA I recently attended. If you are starting with this post, here are links to the previous posts:

• Quilting Sisters, Part II
• Quilting Sisters, Part I
• The Road to Retreat (via Bus!)

I am not sure if Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer would approve of this post as there were on dogs at the quilt retreat, only horses and cats.

The Horses

Sew N Go Quilt Retreat is located in a very rural area of Vancouver, WA. The retreat center itself is on acreage and is surrounded by farms. Several times a day some of the quilt retreaters, including myself,  would go on walks around the area – up to 4+ miles per day walking!

While walking we would visit with several groups of horses we discovered hanging out in pastures in area farms. The first day we ran into the horses, we were surprised how the boldly they came over to the edge of their fence to see us. So the next day we were ready with apples!

(Several of my fellow quilt retreaters were on Weight Watchers and watching their “points”. We joked as we fed the horses apples: “No worries horseys, zero points!”)

A horse from the pasture/farm next to the one above:

Next thing we knew, we had two horses, from two different pastures side by side visiting with us and greeting each other through their fences:

The long walks and the visits with the horses were are delightful break from our sewing marathons at the quilt retreat!

The Cats

On one of our walks, we were invited by owners of a local farm to come onto their farm and chat. It turned out that several of them were originally from NY like my quilting sister Kathy and myself.

On their farm we met “Heshe” (he-she) – a cat of unknown gender. I do not remember the entire story but when they adopted Heshe as a barn kitty, they could not determine if it was a “he” or a “she”! Heshe was a very sweet a friendly orange tabby:

But the cat star of the 4-day retreat weekend was my beloved “Abbey the Quilt Retreat Kitty” (she should have her own blog!)

During the retreat, Nancy the quilt retreat host, needed to give Abbey some medications.

Cats, as explained by one of my quilting sisters who is a veterinarian, are difficult to get to swallow pills. Cats do not fall for the tricks dogs fall for (hiding pills in peanut butter, cheese, etc.) and so you have to find a way to get the pill to the back of the cats throat so they will automatically swallow it.

So Abbey was made into a “kitty burrito” to restrain her paws as she was given meds. She calmly and quietly accepted her kitty burrito status but still found a way to spit out her pill! It might have been because a group of quilters were standing around cracking up laughing at how adorable Abbey looked as a burrito!

Each year at the retreat I look forward to hanging out with Abbey, and she knows it. She knows I am “one of her people”. I always find time to snuggle with her and give her lots of attention.

Abbey and I took a lovely nap together, with her sleeping behind my pillow and quietly purring against my head. I could not believe how soothing and meditative it was to listen to her purring.

Okay there was a dog

There was one dog at the quilt retreat, but it was not a live dog. It was a dog quilt – an adorable pattern – “Dogs in Sweaters” by Elizabeth Hartman:

Next post, how about some evidence that actual sewing occurred during the quilt retreat? Maybe (smile).

Postscript

In yesterday’s post I shared about my purchases of a vintage Singer sewing machine while at a fundraising garage sale in Sisters, Oregon. Check our Sassy the Highly Opinionated Miniature Schnauzer’s post Saturday Schnouting (Schnauzer Outing)! for information about our outing this past Saturday in Sisters, Oregon.