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Thursday, May 3, 2018

Lancaster Quilt Retreat

5 years ago, I crashed a quilt retreat with gals in NY, that I met online.
Who knew that we would become great friends and they would invite me along every year.
This year we met in Lancaster PA for our retreat. 
It was a real treat for me,
as I had never been to that part of the country before.
This house, built in 1840 was our home for the week. Pretty cool huh!
(Don't you love my lime green rental car!)
This place has been fully restored and is just gorgeous.
It has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, one of them had a huge double door glass shower and a brand new washer/dryer set in it.
The brick fireplace was in our bedroom. (with a huge big screen TV on the mantle)
 Comfy furniture for all of us.
A giant dining room table that was plenty big enough for all of our machines
 and space to sew.

 Every bedroom had a floral arrangement
The kitchen was fully loaded, with and island stove and oven, dishwasher and a fridge with water and ice in the door. What more could one ask for?
Possibly a gorgeous blue orchid in the window ledge?
Oh and it was real!!!
:-)
This little room off the living room had a pull out bed. We used it for our project room.
 This charming little birdhouse with a copper roof was in a corner.
So many personal touches that made this house so special.
It was on a busy street...lots of big trucks during the day mixed in with the clipity clop of the Amish buggies that shared the same road. It got very quiet at night though.
What a treat to see the Amish quilters at work
and visit all the fabric shops in the area.
 We also visited a tack shop to buy some gloves.
I love this photo with our car pulled up right next to the buggy.
I've never seen a coal furnace like this before.
It worked well, as it was very hot in there.
While there was a chill in the air, there were signs of spring all around.
 I brought along kits for us all, using Connie Kresin's 
"Chinese Forget Me Knot" pattern 
and Island Batik fabrics. You can find the pattern 
A big thanks to Connie for sharing it with us.
Oh...and there was shopping...
Let's just say that my bag was 49.5 pounds when I headed home.
LOL!!
What a great place to buy fabrics. 
Zook's had tons of great fabric for $4.99 a yard and a 20% discount on that!
We also found batiks in 3 yd bundles for $18 at another place.
 I just had to have this fun panel.
 But look at these!!!
Are these just the cutest?
Linda's daughter in law, is a designer for Blank Quilting Corporation.
This is one of her new lines...Tool Time.
These wonderful gals gave me a yard of each of the fabrics in the line.
I can't wait to find that perfect pattern for them.
 They are just so darn cute.
Check out the color chart on the selvage.
I love it!
Bernie has quite the eye for whimsy!
You can see her other lines, that are coming out soon
I'm definitely see more fabric following me home.
LOL!
Thank you girls for the wonderful gift.

Now this post got to be a bit longer than I planned.
Just so many things to share.

Til next time...
Keep on Stitchin'





14 comments:

  1. Wow, what a fun time. I had such a great time reading this post. Thank you. You shared so many great quilty ideas.

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  2. Enjoyed your post. Wish I had been on that trip. Looks like fun Thanks for sharing

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  3. It looks like a lot of fun, and definitely a place that I would love to visit/retreat!

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  4. Thanks for the fun tour of your retreat location. That house is awesome! I love the atmosphere of being right in the middle of Amish country and making quilts at a retreat. What more could you ask for?

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  5. The buggies bring back memories of college days in PA Amish country. The Amish ladies ran our cafeteria and nobody complained about the food! They always had some kind of handwork with them and it was always beautiful. I notice that the double wedding ring quilt being worked on in the store is pastels? I don't recall that being a typical palette, but it's been a LONG time since I viewed much of their work. Looks like you had a great time at a fun place working on some awesome projects. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. I visited Lancaster many, many years ago with 5 "girl" friends. It was so much fun sightseeing and shopping together. I love it there - I'd like to go again. I didn't quilt at the time, but we did go to some quilt shops. I bought pre-quilted material for placemats! LOL Thanks for sharing, Joan.

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  7. Somebody served pizzelles! That makes it a GREAT group! Lancaster is a beautiful area. Looks like you had a great time. How do you travel with your machines?

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  8. I love that area!! How wonderful to be able to spend time there this this delightful group. Looks like you had plenty to choose from with all the sewing projects organised.
    And of course you had to explore the area and all the stores. Love all the fabrics.
    Isn't Zooks the most wonderful place. We were lucky to be there for a sale and scored amazing fabric under $3 at the time.
    The building you stayed looked stunning. Will you go there again or is it different each time you meet?

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  9. What a fun quilt retreat! I love all the pictures you've shared but I feel a bit jealous. :O)

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  10. It seemss like a wonderful retreat. Such nice welcoming touches in the house. So glad you had a lot of fun with what sounds like some great friends.

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  11. What a great retreat! I loved my visit to Lancaster a few years ago. One of my grandmothers had PA Dutch roots even though she was a very forward thinking modern woman for her time. I went to a one room school with outdoor facilities for four years and seeing the Amish schools brought back those memories. I certainly have an appreciation for the simple life of the Amish even though I love my car, electricity and other modern conveniences. On my trip, my group went to dine with an Amish family. They served a sweet/sour dish that reminded me of ham balls that my mother used to fix. Glad you have some wonderful friends who include you in their retreats.

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  12. Oh what a wonderful place to have a quilt retreat! I was sad that I missed out on going to Lancaster on my recent trip to your beautiful country... well, now I just need to visit again :) Thanks so much for sharing all those lovely pictures xx

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  13. Looks like it was a fun quilt retreat Joan and what a neat place to stay! I am so glad that some of the quilters liked the kits you brought and my Chinese Forget Not pattern, they are beautiful!

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  14. Looks like an awesome retreat. Such fun fabrics snuck into your luggage.

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Thanks for stopping by today. Your comments really do make me day!
;-)