Dear Jane Southeast Sewing Retreat!

Just to show you how spacious the room we sewed in was....here are several pics!

I think there were 24 of us attending, which put 2 of us to a table. It was perfect. The lodging is much like hotel lodging...my room had a set of bunk beds and a double bed, and I had it all to myself! I really needed to not worry about keeping someone up with my snoring when I am so exhausted. Another one of those things that comes with middle age adult onset. ARGH. Being tired and sleeping in strange beds usually means that I don't sleep too well.

The food was really good too! Part of this retreat is that we don't have to cook..they cook FOR us, and Boy did they cook! It was better than last year, either that or I was so hungry I didn't care :c)

If you look at the walls, you'll notice that not everyone was working on "Dear Jane"...it's more like Dear Jane & Friends. You can work on whatever you want to work on!


Irene had brought her finished Virginia Bound quilt top, LOVE those Joseph's Coat borders! Isn't it fabulous?


I also want to share with you the antiques I found in an antique mall in Opelika, AL. ONE of the quilts came home with me....I'd make you play a guessing game,but here it is! Look at the back..it says "Savoy "R" Fine Sea Island Sheeting"! Isn't that just too cool? The quilt had been folded for so long that some of the blue ink on that label crocked over into mirror image. The fabrics are crisp and clean, even the one flannel piece is still fuzzy. There is nothing in here that would put it to any specific date other than that printed piece of flannel, as the stripes and plaids are timeless. I'm checking with a friend of mine to see if she can help me date it.

I love the two brown borders and the two blue borders. And the binding? Well, one side is front to back, one side is back to front, one side is knife edge turned to the inside..just no rhyme or reason! It's as if the maker had 4 people binding at once just doing their own thing. Don't you just love it?! Look at those fans. The thread is heavy, as if they used the string from unraveling the seams on feedsacks to do the quilting with.

The other quilts were cool too, tho many too shredded to want to do more than take a pic of them:


antiquing through AL & GA 2008
You will see a pic of a "Gunnie Sack" dress in there too...I wore one just like this to my jr prom. *LOL* I had to take a picture....memory lane and all that, you know? Funny, but I don't consider anything YOUNGER than I am to be an "ANTIQUE"..do you?