Beaver Island part 1: Arrival

So here we are! The wonderful gadget the GPS works like a charm getting us safely to White Birch Lodge in Elk Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday, September 30th. It even has a little checkered flag when you "cross the finish line"! ha!

Here is a view from our room overlooking the Elk Rapids Lake. That was about as sunny as it got, because we had pretty rainy weather for the most part, but since we were inside sewing most of the time it didn't matter too much.

We were first shown to our room and then to the big sewing room to stake a claim at a table. We were probably the last ones to arrive. Apparently some had been there since 9 AM! Many were already sewing! We chose what tables were left and Gwen introduced herself to us. She was wonderful and made us feel right at home. She invited us to have dinner with her and 2 other women, Cathy and Krys, also from Beaver Island. They gave us the scoop on how things go at the retreat. We went to dinner at Siren Hall, excellent food....in fact all the restaurants we visited were excellent!



Wednesday, was our first official Retreat day. We were all to meet in the Sewing room at 9AM for Gwen's lecture and trunk show on solids. Then we could get right into the sewing part. We used her lecture as a starting point, a map, on our journey. Then when needed she would do small demos of her techniques, and she would do them as often as needed, and more than once, so you didn't need to worry if you missed one if you had left to go fabric shopping or out for lunch. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I just noticed in the above photo Gwen is showing us a mock up of the new Collaborative Quilting with Freddy Moran book that will be coming out next summer. What a treat!

Next post: part 2, Gwen's Lecture and Trunk Show, stay tuned!