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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Meet the Siouxland Sampler Quilters!

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Hello from Sioux City, Iowa!

Retreat #2 of this fairly quick trip away from home….it has been non-stop quilty gatherings with all of the excitement and flurry of activity.  I have enjoyed this so much, feeling like *I* am on retreat right along with everyone else!

Yesterday morning we gathered with 46 folks for a Jared Takes a Wife workshop – and what you see here is a group all yelling “TADA!!” as they quickly mastered spinning the seams on the back of their 4 patches.  It’s the simple things that make us so happy, isn’t it?

Our retreat is being held at the Stoney Creek Inn in downtown Sioux City.  What a great place for an event.  Comfy rooms, great breakfast, our lunches have been catered in, and there are nearby eateries perfect for getting out at dinner time.


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But who wants to leave when you are having this much fun??

This is Paula!  Paula was at the Lake Okoboji retreat too!  Paula agrees with me that retreat hopping is quilt-life at its best!

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Rock that chain, sister!

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It’s all about those TADA moments that make us smile!

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It’s also about the gadgets!

We all gathered around as one quilters shared with us her “Magic Box” of tools, necessary items and STUFF.  This one came from Menards….nut look at all of the trays and cubbies! 

Best of all? It has a built in cup holder!  We laughed and laughed….and then wished they came in Purple instead of man black and brown.  But function trumps aesthetics any day.  Perfect for the serial retreater on the go!

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Having a great time making new friends!

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Didn’t they do great?

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Yeeeehawww!

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My lecture presentation was open to non-retreating guild members and folks from the community as well.  And then back to sewing they went!  I crawled off to bed!  We’ll see how chipper they all are this morning.

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Check out our special lecture cookies!

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Pin cushions!!

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Triangle squares!

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Almost too pretty to eat!

But they went like the proverbial hotcakes!

You’ll find the rest of our day here in our slide show!



This morning we’ve got My Blue Heaven up on deck – a whole day to learn working with specialty rulers for half square triangles, quarter square triangles, and flying geese units.

Little bit of a funny story this morning.  I am down to get breakfast early so I can come back up, edit all of these photos and get everything done before class.  I meet a guy at the beverage dispensary, and he reads my tshirt, gifted to me by the Okoboji group – it says University of Okoboji, so of course he starts up a conversation, “Oh, so you are from Iowa…..”

“No, I’m here from North Carolina, teaching two days of workshops to quilters on retreat, we had a lecture last night as well….”

And he says “Lecture? on QUILTING?  Well that doesn’t sound like a real eye opener….”  Hahahahaha!  LITTLE DOES HE KNOW!  I could have given him an ear full, but I smiled to myself, grabbed my beverage and said “Have a nice day!”

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Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Wild and Goosey quilt shared by Holly at our Spring retreat on Lake Okoboji, Iowa this week! Did you catch it in yesterday’s slide show?  Thanks for sharing, Holly!


Wishing you a wonderful Sunday, everyone!


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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:11 AM EDT

    Pat T says it looks like the Siouxland Samplers are having a great time doing Jared Takes a Wife. The Stony Creek Inn and area is a great place in Sioux City. Wish I could have done that retreat also, but was afraid of the tentative schedule of farming. It was full time farming yesterday so that means lunch, drinks and coffee to get out to the field. I was sad to put the large cutting mat away, but I got the 301 set back up. Its a rain delay this morning, so I hope to sew a few units today. I did church last night. Can't wait to see your pictures of today's workshop. Tomorrow we are both off to Sioux Falls, you to the airport and I get to retrieve my fancier machine and to the Orthopedic Institute at 1:15.

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  2. Thanks, Bonnie, for the great picture of me holding up my Jared Takes a Wife blocks! I wrote about the retreat on my blog, and you had asked that I send you the link, so here it is: http://renaissancesandi.blogspot.com/ Thank you for giving me permission to write about my experiences at my first, but definitely not my last! Bonnie Hunter retreat! You rock!!!

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  3. Bonnie, Thanks so much for coming and sharing your quilting talents with northwest Iowa as well as other midwestern community quilters. I had such a fun day working on "Jared Takes a Wife" and I was so blessed to have my photo taken with you along with my Alliatare Quilt". Thank you for teaching with us your tips and sharing your gorgeous scrappy quilts. We love you here in Iowa, but then you are loved all over the world for your expertise in making scrappy quilts. I marvel at your energy and ease at fitting in where ever you go--be it Peru, on a quilting cruise, you name it, you are there. Supper at Hard Rock was nice and relaxing and so glad for the opportunity to be there and share that time with you. Hope you are safely back in North Carolina now and can have some home time to yourself to re-energize, relax, feed your pets and your family, and regroup to go out on another jaunt. I felt that while I was at the retreat that you were so down-to-earth and fit into our Iowa quilting mentality. Maybe quilting mentality is the same everywhere you go?? (Kindness, acceptance for the unusual, appreciation for the truly creative, fun-loving, chocolate-loving, open-mindedness to new tools and innovations, and above all fabric-loving.) Thanks once again for the great class and for coming to northwest Iowa.

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  4. The retreat looks like so much fun! Once again, lots of lovely fabric combinations! Those cookies were awesome! I have a question about the slide show. With the previous slideshow 'method' (for lack of better word at the moment....), after viewing the entire slide show, I could glance at the entire slideshow's thumbprints and select specific slides I wanted to view again (usually to study someone's fabric combination, or sometimes to get a closer look at a machine or something else in the background). With this new method, I can't figure out how I can see a photo again except to go through the entire slideshow again and try to stop it at that photo. Is there a way I can just re-view a specific photo?
    Thank you so much for all the work you put into taking all these photos, editing them, and posting them on your blog. They are a tremendous source of info and inspiration that only YOU could provide!

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  5. I am loving your new format with the videos. Keep them coming - much appreciated. The guy at breakfast was clueless of the quilting world. Hope you stirred up an interest and he goggles quilting and you. When he gets home and relates his encounter, hopefully a quilter will set him straight.

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  6. Perfect comeback: Well you do know that quilters and also strippers? Right?

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