Jelly racing

We had our 2019 Race in Amishland again. Not nearly as nice as the club house Lori built for us but you take what you can. Sigh.
 It was a great time. Rain on the way there. Some of us ( me) thought we were leaving a day later than we did so that was exciting.
11 this year and we did so many things. The Pizza delivery guy loves us now. One night an assortment of foods, the next night.. Pizza Party.
 Thursday was sort of a sewing, get settled day. Friday was shopping. One shop started their sale a day early for us. It was really cold though. Sunny but really cold.  This year there was no incident with the police at lunch time. In fact all in all, no medical emergencies or anything out of the ordinary. Except... we got to meet Diane's husband who used the weekend to have her car fixed and drove her back and forth. I think he approved our meeting space
 Syd led us in a fantastic yoga class on Friday morning. It was mostly chair yoga so not too strenuous but we found that maybe next time, breakfast afterwards.
 Saturday was cold and icy.
 The race was, as usual, outstanding. Way more long dance breaks, conga lines past our singing and dancing Flamingo mascot. In the end, Maryanne won, again. Fair and square, no basting this time, she is just that good. Dear Dianne, decided to use enough strips in her jelly roll to make a quilt big enough for us all to hide under so she came in last. We cheered her on while she persevered, as we ate her lunch, We saved her some Cheetos.
 Then more sewing, some shopping, a trip on the ice in the parking lot, ( the birthday cake surprise was NOT dropped) and then the awards ceremony. We gathered for teee and refreshments by a roaring ( electric) fire, The Prize Patrol did not fail us. Syd had gone tote crazy so everyone got a splendid new bag stuffed with goodies. ( thanks to all for the contributions). Our winner received a bag of  "special" stuff. Lynn had provided the most glorious fairy and it was awarded to Dianne for keeping the faith, and not giving up. It will become the mascot for the Goddess of the Orifice.  Next came the Big Birthday surprise. Two Divas turned a magical age. For one, Dianne, we had made a beautiful quilt. A lot of it right under her nose. She was speechless and let me tell you, this is no ordinary occurrence.  Since we had just given Judy a quilt last year and since she specifically told us not to make her another, we presented her with a pair of sombrero pillow cases in memory of the Mexican restaurant sombrero incident of a birthday past ( it was not my idea, I only got the blame and the punches and stress balls pitched at my head)  Thank you Syd and Fran for making them, Then came the carrot cake birthday finale.  Many laughs, so much fun but back to work we went.
 Let's see if I can figure out what people were working on. Susie has the pictures that she will post. By the way, Susie is sick to death of taking all the pictures which makes it all the better to yell for her to do so.  She also made our commemorative mug rugs.
OK,  Jan worked on eye spys. she was making backs and pinning up like crazy.  I believe she had 4 or five layered and ready to quilt by going home time.  Syd was bordering things. And cutting things, and making at least one new top. Kathy plugged away at the Sew along Christmas quilt getting five or six of those little bastards done.  Fran was really into her plaid braid quilt. Fantastic piece. It keeps growing.  Dianne chose another piece that looked not too bad, make a block in an hour..( in what universe?) She plugged  on. It will be beautiful.   Susie was binding her spool piece and jumping up and down to take pictures. I know she did way more than that.  MaryAnn had several things going, old and new. Kits from road trips.  Gwen worked on a fantastic kid's quilt, building the front and back into something wonderful. There was something with applique too, I think,   Lynn sat and plugged away at her "heart" quilt. It is quite beautiful in spite of what Kathy was calling it.  Susan plowed away at kids quilts to send to Texas for lost children.  Judy worked on a number of things including Friendship blocks for Syd. She was farthest away from me so my nose was not in her business very much.
 I think it was Friday afternoon that we all sat down with our Long Time Gone books and discussed our plans and goals. Everyone seemed to have a fabric grouping already. During the weekend almost everyone spent time on those blocks. Lots of fussy piecing and color choices to make. Lynn found the book, Syd took care of ordering them, and has collected the Marti Mitchell info to make it more accessible and Dianne had load of words of wisdom on the thing having endured one of the author's patterns before.
 The white board was burning up with projects done, bobbins used up, ideas hatched.  And the usual slander.
 When the pictures get posted more details will be uncovered and the truth exposed.
 Some of us meet again for more of this, very soon.
We missed the Divas not there.
take care.