Quilting Retreat, Enjoyment and new projects.

This weekend I attended a retreat in Katoomba, hosted by Karen and Brendan Kirk, who own The Stitching Post in  Katoomba http://www.thestitchingpost.com.au/ , it was a wonderful couple of days, eating, stitching and meeting new people. the event was held in the Katoomba Christian conference centre. On Saturday the hours were 10 am to 4 pm and on Sunday 9 to 3 pm. I had booked quite early in the year for the retreat and had planned to have a weeks holiday at home, then stay overnight in the blue Mountains, where DH would travel up in the afternoon on Saturday and join me and stay the night. What I did not plan very well was my accommodation, I left this a little later, feeling that  I had plenty of time, but unbeknownst to me, the Leura garden festival was also on the same week, so

accommodation was sparse on the ground. I finally got some accommodation at The Katoomba Guest House, through Wot if, very comfortable, but one did not read the fine print and soon found out upon my hubby's arrival, when he checked in, that we had shared facilities and it was actually a backpackers accommodation, my DH had great delight in sharing this news with me, when I joined him at the RSL after the retreat, did I read the fine print..no I did not. We dined at "Pins" in Lurline St and I must say we were delighted with the menu, service, food and would recommend it as a place to dine, it is located in another gorgeous guest house, that is familiar in Katoomba.

http://www.pinsonlurline.com.au

Entree, salmon with a cream cheese, chives,capers and a rosti, yummy.

Tony had pork goyza and below was our shared dessert, lime and ginger crème brule'ei

After dinner we made our way the guest house, climbing three sets of stairs to get up to the entrance and then 2 more flights to get to our room, I finally saw the room, clean and tidy, and the facilities were down the hallway, oh well I say to myself, you can do this for one night, I must say other than no bathroom in our room, the room was dated but clean and tidy, the bed was comfortable and had clean sheets, other than it being noisy with doors banging and people chatting it was not too bad, my DH and I had a crackle, because if we would have stayed any other night than a Saturday night we would have paid a third of the price, and as plain as day on a sign outside the door, was marked BUDGET accommodation. The delight in the showers were the William Morris inspired tiles, could not resist taking a photo.

William Morris inspired tiles.

Now time to share about the retreat, the teachers present were Marg low, Michelle Marvig and Vicky Porter, Janelle Wind could not make it due to a health issues, but we were lucky enough to get three of her patterns in our goody bag. Each teacher had supplied two patterns and as Karen was kind enough to show us a preview before the class, so we could get some of our stash organised before the retreat as well as purchase ready made kits for each project, very convenient. Also included in our bags was a pin cushion and wallet, made out of coordinating fabrics, a nice little touch and much appreciated, as there was 72 people at the retreat and everyone got one, a lot of work, I used my wallet for my hexagons, thank you also for the gift.

The projects, displayed above, on the first day I did Vicky's Xmas table mat and on the second day, commenced Michelle's cushion, lovely in red, but I did mine in blue.

Lovely to catch up with Marg again, hanging behind us is her lovely Sarah's sampler block of the month quilt.

http://www.marglowdesigns.typepad.com.

We were table number three and had a great  group  of girls, Colette travelled from W.A, lives near Margaret River and Mandy, Janette and Sharnee, came from the Lake Macquarie district. And Sharon lives in Blaxland and attends classes at The Stitching post. The tables were decorated with white Xmas trees and displayed on them were brightly coloured glass Xmas trees made by Brendan, a gift to us all, very much appreciated, thank you Brendan.