Dogwood Days

This weekend our bee had our 3rd annual retreat to Camp Dogwood. As usual, we had a blast. There was lots of laughter and storytelling and, of course, sewing. I decided to take my big machine and get some quilts quilted. I finished four before I "hit the wall" and could not stipple another inch. Luckily I had some piecing with me to finish up the weekend. Ms. G and I shared a group of tables and just had way too much fun. My ribs hurt from laughing the first night and there was at least one incident where she just about made me spit water all over my machine.

We picked up a mascot this weekend too. This is Woodie. On Saturday morning, he came bounding toward me from across the driveway, just as happy go lucky as a big ol' dog could be. He flopped right over for some belly rubs and then followed me into the sewing room where he got more love and some crackers.


Retreats are wonderful times to be with friends doing what we love to do. It's a chance to be away from commitments, away from the TV and all the doom and gloom and just be "the girls" for a bit...or in our case, the "Troll Sisters". It is a time to laugh and share. There was one moment, though, that neither Mrs. G nor I survived without a little tears. A few months ago, the guild auctioned off Fannye's quilts. Most of us purchased one. I had egged Nane on to keep bidding on one until she got it. It is a split hexagon that is intricate and typical Fannye. Nane decided to border it with a solid navy fabric in order to have straight edges instead of having to deal with binding all those hexagons. So she basted it and wanted to hand applique the top to the border. Nane doesn't hand applique. So Saturday night KB taught her how to hand applique so she could finish Fannye's quilt.

It was almost too much for me and Mrs. G.

We know Fannye was smiling.