FNSI - August - and SS Retreat

Lucky to be on a real retreat for FNSI - August with some of the "Sunday Stitchers" ladies.

I started sewing mid afternoon - and quilted these pieces - ready to be made into placemats.
My employer gives us two Volunteer Leave days a year - so I used one of them to sew for charity and saved a day of Annual Leave.

Great to share my progress with Wendy and fellow FNSI'ers.

A lot of my fellow sewers were finishing off charity quilts and I think a bit of my Saturday morning was spent discussing them as well as a bit more quilting and starting on making the placemats.

After lunch - it was Mystery Project time.   Helen and I had been selected to think up a project for the retreat and as we have been quite focused on charity projects lately . . .and we had been able to secure some unusual fabric (ie not suitable for quilts, but still useable), we decided that the project could be placemats to give to Meals on Wheels.
A few weeks ago we had cut the tops, wadding and backings - everyone had been asked to bring a walking foot if possible and green & burgundy thread.

We handed out 2 to each sewing person and by Saturday night we had a stack of 14 finished mats.

After that, I was able to finish off my set of 7 (odd number I know - there will be more)

Then I moved onto a "Secret Project"

Overall, it was a great fun weekend - we were in a new venue - the lighting wasn't excellent, but I had taken a light (fortunately).

Most of the crew sewed charity things all weekend - I forgot to do a tally - but at least 4 jelly roll race tops were finished, one quilt top of squares and many tops had borders added.

There was time set aside for Morning & Afternoon teas and lunch - dinner was a bit of "eat whenever you want to".

Two retreats in a month??? - easy in some ways as I really only had to pack & organise once - but also a bit too close to each other.   Nevermind, rather have too many than none.