Asheville Symphony

Well we do have quite a nice symphony here in Asheville. They are currently auditioning 6 candidates to be the new conductor. This is the second one I've seen and heard, a very young and talented man....the first was the one and only woman being considered. 

Both are excellent and have more energy than I can imagine...They are great fun to watch and of course the music is nothing short of wonderful. I think I've loved classical music since I've been a kid...

  So it was a wonderful night...

and great to have friends who share the same love.

Retreat Pt 2

What....????...What is all this white stuff we woke up to...brrr.....well reluctantly,  we cleaned off our windows, warmed up the cars and headed off to breakfast.

 We were still happy campers despite the cold...(we knew we had a wonderful day ahead).

 Onto the community room where Mary was well into her very large and dramatic quilt made with Japanese Fabric. Mary doesn't particularly like working with Japanese fabric but a dear friend gave her quite a bit and Mary feels she should use it...but the quilts she makes with it are wonderful!

 Marene has finished this beautiful top with such precision piecing...I'm green with envy.

 Georgia gets us up and moving during the day whether we want to or not....NOT !

 Barbara is working on this wonderful pieced quilt whiich she realized had the blocks reversed (orange) and quickly fixed it. I failed to take a pic of the new and improved version but Barbara's piecing skills are just simply fabulous (dahling)!

 This is another one of Leigh Annes which I love...so scrappy....

 and here is her Peacock panel further along...really like the blocks she is using to frame it.

 So these are mine....upside down...How can you really tell?...but I wanted to use scraps and run blocks through my Accu Quilter to cut the blocks into a finished 6 1/2"....They were great fun to do and a good way to use scraps.

 Our 10 year celebration cake which Mary had the kitchen make to surprise us. Mary takes care of our retreat every year...all the paperwork and dealings that go into making it go so well for all of us. Hope she knows how much she is loved and appreciated!

 Okay...so I had to make an extra large pic for a group that has extra large hearts and love....I love these gals and am so happy to be part of them...
Til next time.

Our 10th Retreat...Can You Believe it!

We recently returned from our annual PTA retreat - our 10th to be exact....hard to believe. We've always been lucky enough to get the same house every year which holds 10 of us and the large community room for sewing.

 First things first....get the refrigerator stocked for later....Make room for the bubbly.

 Next is our snack table in the community room in case we are starving between meals...

 and last is to set up our sewing spots. Notice our priorities - food and bubbly coming first.

 The room is so large and this year, each one of us had a double wide table to work on....

 and some of us chose to group ourselves as a threesome which we do every year.

 I hung up the one project I was going to work on - all pinned and ready to sew.

 Janice had her pieces all cut and boxed...

 and ready to zip on through.

 Marene was working on perfect points...

 Leigh Anne was working on several quilts including this elegant panel surrounded by piecework.

 Kate always sews rings around us - a great piecer but also very speedy. She had already made the strip-pieced 4" squares so all she had to do was sew them together.

 A very productive day and then it was back to the house for happy hour.

 Lots of goodies and bubbly.

 And onto dinner where we push the tables together....Stay tuned for more beautiful projects and some snow!