Monday with Kelli, Debbie and Lou Ann

On Monday Kelli was home and we went on a little adventure.

It all started with a note from Debbie.  She’s a blog reader who lives in Florida but has family in Oelwein.  Often when she’s home Debbie sends a note and we go down and meet her for lunch.  I love it.  Debbie is so sweet and I always have a fun time visiting her.  Anyway, Debbie was in town and wanted to know if I was up for a visit.  This time she said she’d come to me.

I told Kelli about that and Kelli said that as long as I was laid up, how about we go that way and meet in Oelwein.  We had other business in town and it would work out well.

We called Debbie and she said it would work…so off we went.  First stop, Mexican with Debbie.  The photo didn’t turn out the best but it was fun.

Then off to Lou Ann’s Quilt Garden and Retreat.  If you’re a long time reader you might remember that Lou Ann’s is one of the places that we hosted the Bonnie Hunter quilt retreat at last year.  We are hosting Bonnie Hunter again in 2017 so it’s time to get some planning done.

This wonderful quilt met us at the window.  I love the colors.  But you can’t see it very good…RIGHT?

Now you can.  See?

I loved it.  (more about the quilt in another post)

Lou Ann was hosting a Judy Niemeyer foundation paper piecing workshop so she was busy.  As we waited to talk with Lou Ann we wondered the store and snapped a few pictures.

I love Lou Ann’s store.  She recently did a few updates too.  It looks nicer than ever!

It’s always so clean and well organized.

It’s perfect for a quilt shop.  Tall ceilings..and little rustic but very well kept.

She is great at having new samples and changing things up.  I love the bricks!

There were so many tempting things….

By that time we were done pursuing the shop Lou Ann was done helping a retreater and was on to helping us.  We got prices together and she helped us with some ideas about logistics and organization of our retreat.  Lou Ann is so awesome…she makes suggestions but doesn’t make us feel like we have to use her ideas.  She’s so helpful.

From there we went to the community center in town just two blocks away.  They have an awesome great room that will likely be part of our retreat plans.

We are so excited to see our upcoming retreat starting to come together.  We have MANY who want to return again…we have MANY who have added their name to the list hoping for a seat.  It’s so hard…we wish we could accommodate everyone, but with the lists we already have, there is just no way.

Lou Ann was such an awesome hostess last year for the retreat.  She does a great job running the quilt shop and hostessing the attached quilting retreat center.  If you are even looking for a place to meet up with family or girl friends for a sewing space, we highly recommend Lou Ann’s.  You can contact her via her Facebook page.  You can see the retreat center in Bonnie Hunter’s review of Lou Ann’s retreat.  If you want information about any of the quilts or items shown in the pictures, call the shop at  (319) 283-5165…tell Lou Ann, Jo sent me!

We’ll tell you what we purchased on Sunday in the stash report and for retreat details, you’ll have to keep reading the blog.