Sew Beachy Retreat

I have just returned from a quilt retreat in California.  Venture beach to be exact. 

I fly in there and meet up with some other quilty friends.  

This is the third year we have all been together.  

There are old friends and new.

 I always bring Captain Jack along to my retreats.  

I get photos of him throughout the time we are there.  

He is now the official mascot of Sew Beachy!

As you can see it was mostly cloudy and gray when we were there.

This year we did a secret Santa gifting. 

If you remember, I made the blue dragon wine mat for my person.

We also played a plastic wrap game (we call it Satan ball) 

where you unwrap a ball of plastic wrap full of small gifts while the person to your left rolls dice and when they get doubles you have to pass the ball.  

Jack met up with a new friend this year. 

Kooky (I think) was his name.

 This shows our sewing space. 

It is the garage of the house we stay at.  

The organizers bring tables and chairs and we sew in this big open space. 

 There are windows to the right and we can see the beach/ocean while we sew.

I usually get some pics of Jack and his friends when we are here.  

Michele brought the Koala to be Jack's friend.

This is Karen, she was the person I made the dragon wine mat for.  

You can see the shirt she has on. 

 It was the official shirt of the retreat.  

On one side it says "What's up beaches?" and on the other Sew Beachy 2019.  

The tail of the mermaid is made up of Tula fabric images. 

 They were so cute!

This is my friend, Jamie from Made by Jamie. She is the SWEETEST!!

Here is the "other" Pam of the group.  

She taught us our clam shell pillow project this year.

This lady is super talented.  

She attempted to teach me how to crochet (LOLOL).  Better luck next time, Pam.  

What can I say? 

I'm not the most adept student!

Some of my roomies.  Paula, who flies in from Kansas.

And Melanie, who flies in from Colorado.

I managed to get one top all finished.  

My friend, Traci is opening a brick and mortor shop and needed shop samples so I made this one.  

It is all done with Tula Pink Monkey Wrench using a free pattern called Tribute Star.

We visited a shop and I was so excited that I could wear flip flops in December without being cold!

My favorite part about the second shop was Pearl, the cat!

Traci managed to find the "happy to see us" snowman at one of the shops, LOL.

She flies in from Wisconsin.

I only have this photo of Traci and I from the trip. 

 She was one of the roomies and also the designated driver for our group!

We did get a photo of the whole "room".

L to R Nancy, Paula, Traci, Me, Jack and Melanie

(Sorry Nancy, I don't have a photo of the 2 of us)

They are "amazing".

I LOVE all of these women!

One of the 2 projects we made were these project bags.  

I used Sebastian from the Gastlies collection.

You may or may not realize that I don't really like making bags but at the retreat, 

with someone to hold my hand, I can do it!

Our room bought shirts for our room, HA.  

We called ourselves the "Midwest Mermaids". 

Paula brought her Bedazzler and we glammed them up with some bling!  

My friend, Susan, made me hold her wine glass for this photo, lol.

It was a great trip!  We had one nice sunset.  

We also got to see some dolphins playing in the waves right outside our door!  

The organizer of the retreat is uncertain if we will be able to return 

as the rental rules in CA have changed.  

She is working on figuring it out.  

Jack and I flew home on Monday afternoon.  We were both pooped!

It was an amazing weekend. 

I will show you the clam pillow once I have it finished. 

(please don't hold your breath, LOL, hand work takes a back seat at this moment)

I think that catches you up with what I have been up to.

I will likely be away now until after the first of the year. 

 I don't really have a great computer to post from at home.

I might try though as that is a long time to be away.

If not, have a great holiday and I will be back in January!

~XOP~

OBX Continued

The next trip was to Jockey's Ridge.  

It is a state park and there are multiple sand dunes there.  

 This was the lead up to the ridge.

These were the dunes.  

Thank goodness the day was overcast or the sand would have burnt our feet!

Such a great view once we were up on top of the ridges

The people walking on top of one of the ridges reminded me of what 

I think it would look like in Egypt.  

You can see father and daughter sitting on the ridge, in the distance.

We took a photo of the three of us on ridge too.

I thought this pinecone was amazing with all of the colors.

Next up was Kitty Hawk and the Wright Borther's Memorial. 

 This rock was the starting point for their flights and many famous aviators 

have touched this exact rock 

(Including my husband). 

 Both of the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Chuck Yeager to name a few.

These stones represent the first 4 flights of the Wright brothers.  

The first of which lasted only 12 seconds!

This is looking the other direction to Kill Devil Hill. 

This is the hill the Wright brothers took their glider up to work on it's flight.  

That hill is NO JOKE, I thought I would die before I got to the top!

I can NOT imagine walking up that hill carrying a gigantic glider like the brothers had to. 

 Makes me sweat just thinking about it, LOL.  

This is the road leading up to the hill and the monument.

This was the back side of the monument.  It was super impressive!

You can see this is the path we walked to get up to the monument.

While standing taking the photo of the path, 

I turned around toward the monument and this is what it looks like on this side.

We headed back to the camper after that and let the boys outside to play in their tent.

I thought you might like seeing them play in the tent too.

 Then when we came inside they were lounging about on the table and the bench.  

It was difficult to see Cole in the photo above as he is so dark and blends into the shadows.

Lazy boy Finn.  He thinks he owns the camper!

This is our daughter and her boyfriend and their dog, Max on the beach.

She took this of me when I was not paying attention.  

Beach finds.  Hubby found the one on the right and I found the one on the left.  

My daughter and I found the Mermaid Purses.

Hubby and I walked over to the other side of the road to watch the sunset one night.

The next day we got up to watch the sunrise together.

Last day on the beach before heading home.  It was a wonderful time!

So now you will have to endure some more traveling kitten photos.

Funny story.  We stopped for gas and I got out to use the bathroom while hubby pumped the gas.  

A few minutes later he was in the store at the gas station and was asking me if I had the keys.  

Well, no, why would I have the keys?  

We walked back to the truck only to find a 

certain 2 somebodies standing on the arm of the door, and we were locked out!!! 

 Luckily, the gas station let us use their phone and we have On-Star so they were able to unlock the truck and we were on our way in a matter of minutes.  

Thanks On-Star!

Finn thought his shoulder would be a good vantage point

I hope you have enjoyed our trip to the OBX.  You may consider going there sometime.  

Off season was great, just listen for hurricanes prior to traveling in the fall!

~XOP~