Retreat Report and Design Wall Monday

Well, my retreat began last Tuesday noon with a slippery slide halfway down the driveway. 


Yes, it's really this steep!

I would have taken a picture of my predicament except that the camera was packed and DH was convinced if I even touched the car it would continue to plummet down the hill.  OK, that's a little exaggeration, but it was clear if I continued on that path I could end up over the edge on the other side of the street.  Two bags of ice melt later I was able to make it to dry pavement and had clear sailing the rest of the way to our retreat center -- the Nazarene church camp in Dickson County.

First, let me explain that we call our little group of 20 the S'mores because the common denominator when we formed 10 years ago was that we wanted to sew s'more, eat s'more, and laugh s'more.  These are the sisters I never had.  I love these girls!  Our numbers were down this year due to illness and scheduling conflicts.  We did have 18 present for the gift exchange on Wednesday.  The rest of the time those who could stay worked on projects ranging from last-minute Christmas gifts to Bonnie Hunter's mystery -- that is, in between trips to the snack table for chocolate and more chocolate!


Wonky chevron units

I tried working on the Clue 2 chevrons, but my travel machine doesn't do its best on bias, so I turned my attention to Cathedral Stars.  I'm proud to say that I have the blocks all together, ready for the borders.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it all together. 




I thought my Cathedral Stars was really bright (at least by my standards), then Donna put her blocks on the wall left of mine.  Nevertheless, I'm really happy with how it's turning out.






The rest of my time I spent on "Jubilee."  I finished the 20 blocks but I'm concerned the lighter blue stars don't have enough contrast and will look unbalanced with the darker red and green stars.  I'll keep them on my design wall this week and try to come up with a balanced layout.  Or I might consider a sashing different from the background ..... 


Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.