Sister's Retreat 2007

I've been back from the Sister's Retreat for about a week now, and am finally recovered from the sore abdominal muscles! Wow, we had some serious laughs! I have such a great family, and when the women get together, we have SO MUCH FUN!

We got a lot of sewing done, and I'll post some snippets for you. None are all the way finished (except maybe one), but you'll get the idea. ;)

We worked on fabric postcards, and mine was originally going to be that project that you just jump into, thinking you'll toss it in the trash and move on to an attractive version of what you started... It might still get replaced by a better version, but I was aiming to a) play with my new machine (eeeeeek! yay! it's so gorgeous and wonderful. More about that later!) and b) sew myself a reminder of the view from my sewing machine for the weekend. I could look out the window, and beyond the deck rail was a beautiful view of Hood River, the Columbia River, the railroad on the Washington side of the river, and Mt. Adams.


First I backed the fabrics with Wonder Under (or maybe Steam a Seam?) and fused them all together. You'll notice I forgot to add the mountain. The day I worked on this, it was cloudy and I couldn't see the mountain. Out of sight, out of mind!
Then I sewed some fancy stitches to be the "train" and played with thread colors to make the muddy embankment on the far side of the river.
I spent way too much time trying to get the deck rail just right. I played with the paper backing on the fabric and using my ruler, drew the rails. But after I cut out the deck rail, it was way too big. And the scraps left over from the cutting looked better. So now I still need to sew it all together.

Oops, gotta run, more photos tomorrow!