A Cruso Quilter: Cruso Quilters Spring Retreat--Finally!!!

Lynn with her quilt!

Hey ya'll. Last month, my quilting group "The Cruso Quilters" went on retreat to Franklin, NC. I've been bursting at the seams to share the experience with you, but we worked on a special project for our friend Lynn who, due to her radiation treatments, was unable to attend. We kept the project a secret and I was finally able to gift the quilt to Lynn today, so I can post all I want now!!!

There were 8 of us that retreated to the Ridgetop Quilter's Retreat in Franklin, NC. The retreat is a gorgeous 4 bedroom, 4,000 square foot house with ample space for up to 10 quilters. We had 8 in our group this year and had sew much fun!

We were welcomed to Ridgetop by the retreat's owner, Jamie. Jamie was a gracious host who included everything you could imagine to make our stay even better. The only thing noticed by one of our members Jackie was that there was no bathroom scale in the retreat. On her comment card, Jackie wrote "I looked all around the house to see if there was anything missing. The only thing I found, was that there was no bathroom scale. THANK YOU." None of us needed a scale that weekend, because we wouldn't have like the numbers seeing as we ate, sewed, we ate, we sewed, we slept. Pretty much sums up the weekend, lol.

The views from the cabin were stunning to say the least. Once we all arrived, we started our marathon sewing. Other than our project for Lynn, we each brought a project or two to work on. I had every intention of bringing my project cut and ready to sew, but that didn't happen. Once I got everything cut, I started sewing.

Chain piecing at it's best! I chained strip sets together and the stretched around one room and through the next! The project I'm working on is called "Star Gazing" and was featured in the May/June 2012 issue of Quiltmaker.

After supper on Friday we began working on Lynn's quilt. The pattern "Smoky Mountain Stars" by Lori Brobst was our guide. I had worked on this quilt as a class at A Mountain Quiltfest in March and decided this would be a great project to do for Lynn. Each block is constructed identically, yet based on where you put your colors, they look totally different. I had deemed that "oh this should take you 30 minutes or so and you'll be back to your own project." Well, three hours later, several of the ladies decided otherwise, oops.

Although it took us a bit longer to get them all together, we all had a blast working on Lynn's quilt.

Saturday, we went to Deb's Cats N Quilts in Franklin then to the Gazebo for a great lunch.

Saturday evening we spent more time sewing. About 8:30 Saturday evening we decided to break for cake and ice cream. We enjoyed a homemade Butter Pecan Cake that Ernestine made and had 4 different kinds of ice cream to try.

Up to this point, Jackie had been lackadaisically sewing on a Tumbling Block Baby Quilt for a baby due in September. She had over half of the rows done and a good bit of the top together. Well, we were discussing upcoming birthdays in the group. Lou Anne and I were in another room working and we heard Jackie squeal and exclaim, "Oh no..." I went running into the sewing room to find everyone laughing as Jackie realized that the baby was due not in September but June 16th! She exclaimed, "Somebody put on another pot of coffee, I'll be up all night!" Soon after we were sewing right along and Jackie had a "power surge" and I caught that on camera! It was lightly drizzling rain as she pulls up her pants and does a bit of a dance outside.

Sunday morning we got up and continued sewing. Georganna had to leave on Saturday evening to be back for church on Sunday morning. Amy and Linda were the next to leave mid-morning. After snacking around for lunch, the rest of us began to pack up. Soon we were off and back to the real world. We had such a great time that weekend and can't wait to go back next year!

Here we are with our projects completed!