Thursday, January 12, 2023

Last Day

 Linda/Texas Quilt Gal asked a question about our retreat so I thought I would answer it as a post since some of you others might be curious, too.

In 2002 my husband and I moved to the other side of Nashville to live in his childhood home and be closer to his parents who had moved into a retirement/nursing complex. I joined a new quilt guild and quickly became acquainted with other quilters who like to retreat. So around 2004, when Tennessee State Parks offered a BOGO winter promotion on some of their less-used cabins, I invited 4 friends to join me at Rock Island the first full week of January.  The cabins were modern and the location relatively convenient.  

The rest, as they say, is history. Though the participants have changed over the 20 years, the drill is the same.  The cabin has five beds -- two bedrooms and a loft sleeping area -- plus two bathrooms.  One of the bedrooms has a queen bed so one person gets to be "queen" each year on a rotating basis.  We have learned to move the large furniture pieces into out-of-the-way places so that we can set up our sewing stations.

Since we meet at a restaurant for lunch on Sunday, we snack the first night.  Three people are each responsible for one evening meal; two share the lunch prep every day.  The last night we clean out the leftovers, often with a baked potato bar.  Bottom line -- we don't go hungry.

In recent years we have been joined by several of our guild buddies in other cabins.  I don't know how the others rock, but the rule in our cabin is no TV and no drama.  And we're still speaking to each other after all these years!


7 comments:

  1. Libby this is so cool! Love hearing about your reatreat and what you are working on! Love the part about not TV and drama as well! Have fun!

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  2. Sounds like a perfect quilting get-away! Plus, you are very productive!

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  3. Oh that cabin is just beautiful! What a great purchase and what a big heart you have. Do you also use it for family retreats? Thank you for sharing the details about your retreat, and especially the food part - lol! It just looks like so much fun. Glad you have those rules about no drama - that really helps with any friendship!

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  4. So fun that you've been retreating with your buddies for 20 years!
    I really like your soft tones with black project. I totally get how difficult it is to just go random and scrappy rather than trying to plan the color placement. But I bet when you get all the blocks together they'll look great.

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  5. Sounds like a great time for all. Looks like you've made good progress on what you took to work on. Enjoy!

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  6. That sounds like so much fun, Libby! That's one thing my local quilting friends and I have not done - go on a retreat somewhere together. Looks like you all know how to have a good time!

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