Oelwein Retreat Day #1

If you’re following us you’ll know that we are teaching at our retreat in Oelwein today and that Bonnie Hunter has moved to our second location in West Union, Iowa.  We are now at  Lou Ann’s Quilt Garden and Retreat.  If you want to see what our retreat location is like, go on over to Bonnie’s blog.  She took a slide show of photos showing you LouAnn’s shop and showing the accommodations that LouAnn offers.  I have to say LouAnn is the best.  She was constantly busy providing some of the best hospitality I have even seen….she’s washed the dishes, offered to launder things, emptied garbage cans and been a real cheerleader and support for all the re-treaters.

We met Doris the Quilting Queen.  We chatted about our blogs.  You can find her blog here.

We met Holly who has made many Bonnie quilts and has done them in wonderful colors that I wouldn’t have imagined.  Even though the retreat participants had already shared their goods with Bonnie, Holly was so kind and showed her quilts to Kelli and I.  I thought I would share them here so you can see her talent too.

This is Virginia Bound.

Here’s her Celtic Solstice.

…Grand Illusion….

and my favorite of the bunch Easy Street.

We asked Holly how she picks her colors….her answer was interesting.  She picks a fabric that she loves.  Then she finds fabrics that match it.   She brought some of the fabrics that inspired her fabric selections.

We have done this before but never to the extent that Holly does.  We are sure we’ll be doing this more often….

That’s a sneak peak of the happenings on retreat day #3…more to come tomorrow.  We’re hoping to remember to take more pictures but honestly, we just get so busy chatting that we forget.