Quilting Retreat Time!

Yahoo! After a year of planning, the COF 2009 Retreat is here! 2 more days and a group of 70 quilters from the HGTV Quilting forum will descend upon Manchester, NH for 3 days of nonstop fun April 24-26th. These ladies come from all over the United States, 29 states are actually represented this year and one lady just flew in from Ireland!

Last year, while at the 2nd Annual Retreat in Houston, Texas, I was nominated to host this years' Retreat. I chose Manchester NH because it has a small airport and is so much easier than trying to get in/out of Boston and it's driving distance for at least 25 of the ladies. We are staying at a wonderful place called Highlander Inn which has both a Main hotel area along with a B&B. The B&B has been designated the sleeping quarters for the rowdy bunch (me included LOL!). 5 other ladies from RI, MA & NH formed the 2009 committee and have come up with some great ideas which will make for a lot of fun and laughter. In case I don't get to personally thank them in all the excitement and running around we'll be doing - Elaine, Ely, Carline, Christine, & Cheryl, THANK YOU for all your help and time that you have put into making this a wonderful time for all of us. You are the best and it has been fun working on this project with you! Oh, One other person I need to thank is my wonderful hubby Rob. He has put up with my stressing moments and my OH NO! moments throughout the past year. Always with a helping hand and ever so supportive. I've got the best dang Babe in the world!

Just a few of the many door prizes waiting to be won.

Three years ago the First annual COF Retreat was held in Minnesota, 2 years ago the 2nd COF Retreat was in Texas and now, this year we will be in Manchester, NH for the 3rd Annual COF Retreat. What started out as a little get together has grown into a wonderful little family of some fabulous women and great quilters. Some of the "newbies" to this years retreat are telling me that they are nervous - funny I was too when I went to my first one but within minutes of walking into a room full of hugs, you wonder why you ever stressed out. Most of these ladies have become dear friends to each other and are angels in a time of need and can joke and party with the best.

Every year the hosting Committee picks out a fabric that sorta represents the state that the Retreat is held in. This year, being NH, we picked out a fabric with cows (picture up in right corner) as NH has quite their share of cow farms. Each attendee is instructed to make something, anything. using the FQ. Only rule is you can only use 1 FQ of the particular fabric and no more - others fabrics can be used though. New to the line up this year is a T-Shirt Challenge. We were looking for something that would be a fun way to introduce ourselves and thought that by making a T-shirt representing the state/country you were from would be a great way! Plenty of prizes will be given out in both the FQ Challenge and T-Shirt Challenge. A few other surprise are planned too but I can't talk about them until after the Retreat. Also, we've planned Trunk show presentations, Bingo, A group project, and 16 different classes from Needle Applique, Machine Quilting, Binding, Crazy Quilting, Tatting, Redwork, Postcard & Inchies, Polymer Clay Faces to Shadow Applique and more. One of the real treats planned is a trip to Keepsake Quilting. I have a feeling that this quilt store is going to remember this group for a long time - I am so excited that so many of us will finally get to meet and play all under one roof...... 2 more days! Yahoo!