More Retreat Photos, Facility

In the post I am showing you some shots of the facilities. We were really impressed with the place. It was beautiful. Hope you enjoy.
Julie

Cotton Boll Quilt Guild Annual Retreat 2009

The Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Georgia, is fantastic! We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities, food, and environment. The people were very nice, and treated us very well. We have all agreed to go back again next year.
I finally finished the machine quilting on this small Christmas quilt. It is about 40 inches square, and uses a fat quarter pack that I purchased from Tiny Stitches in Atlanta a couple of years ago. I also added some gold fabric that I had on hand to stretch it enough to make it a decent lap size.
Now I only have to add the binding. It will be ready for Christmas 2009!
The pastel quilt above is one that my roommate, Linda, was working on. She bought the kit to make it at a quilt shop in Conyers, Georgia, and got a lot of work done on it. I am not sure if she finished the top or not.
This is another top Linda was working on. It is sort of a random string quilt that she was putting together with scraps. I liked it!!
Pat H. has worked on this stack-n-whack quilt for the last three retreats. She finally finished the top at this retreat. A section is missing because she was sewing it together at the time. She is going to make this one king-sized to fit on her bed! I hope to see the finished product soon. :-)
And here is my Noah's Ark quilt top, finally put together. I worked on these embroidery blocks over Christmas break. I love them. They were a free stitchery BOM from Lynette Anderson. She is very generous to give these away to her blog fans. If you would like to download the patterns while they are still available, they are here. This makes a very tiny quilt. I am going to add a border to it, then it will be ready to quilt. I just love it.
Stay tuned for more retreat photos. Have a great weekend.
Julie

Alabama Outdoor Heritage Festival

Today I went with several members of my quilt guild to Midway, Alabama for the Alabama Outdoor Heritage Festival. It was a beautiful Fall day, although it was hot. I am going to let most of the photos speak for themselves. Mr. Wehle, a famous bronze sculptor, began rescuing log cabins and bringing them to this land many years ago. It is set up like an old town. So beautiful and safe. I don't worry about the kids, they roam about all day long and I only see them every now and then. It is not crowded and it is very open and friendly. We had a wonderful day.

This is my son and his friend petting some of the sweet horses who came to the festival.
This is one of the bronze statues by Mr. Wehle. He had champion hunting dogs and this is one of the best.

Here are the other guild members who were on hand. It is such a pleasant way to spend a day.

Yummy, the kettle corn man is always set up next to us. We love to eat that kettle corn!!
Here I am with Smokey Bear. Notice it is not Smokey THE Bear, it is just Smokey Bear.

I loved this old handmade washboard. Can you imagine having to wash clothes that way?

Most people who were volunteering were dressed in "regalia" or period clothing. (They made sure we knew it was not a costume, but regalia.) They represented the period from about 1730 to 1830, when non-native people were first settling in Alabama. I'm glad I wasn't yoked up with two big water buckets.
This is a replica of an old covered bridge. It is so much fun to drive over it. I don't know if you can tell, but the bridge dog-legs over at about the middle because the original bridge was built over two creeks that ran near each other.
What a fun day we had. It is so good to hang out with folks who talk like me! Linda is the only person I know outside of my late Daddy, who says someone is "Balling the Jack" when they are going really fast! I tend to say it too. We also say things like, "It was locked up tighter than Dick's hatband." I could probably think of lots more if I put my mind to it.

This was my third year to go and I definitely plan to go back next year. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Julie

Quilt Guild River Trip

Yesterday some members of my quilt guild came up to the Valley for a kayak trip down the Chattahoochee, sponsored by the Middle Chattahoochee River Stewards. My husband was our tour guide. We had a great time! It was a beautiful spring day with dogwoods blooming everywhere. There were also buckeyes, native azaleas, and wisteria blooming. The wisteria is a nasty, invasive vine but it sure is beautiful when it blooms. Smells great too.



This is a "downriver" shot - you can see some guild members with their husbands, and one member's son - Will, in front. Doesn't it look like fun? People don't get out on the river enough.



This is Kim. I think she is taking a break and letting John paddle for a while.


Here are our soon-to-be-wed lovebirds, Dan and Shirley. It looks as if he's treating her right!



Wildlife shots. Cormorants and great blue herons are plentiful. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good look at any bald eagles.




The shot on the top is a mother great blue heron (taking off) and her chick. Now, that's a big chick!


This train trestle is really beautiful. I like the way it is reflected in the water here. The train still crosses it on a regular basis. I wish it had been going over when we were going under. That would have been a great shot!
We had a great time on the river and hope to do it again soon. Until next time,
Julie