My most fabulous quilt retreat

I had a grea time at the Brooklyn Quilters' Guild retreat in Connecticut over the weekend. There's nothing like a weekend away with good friends and being waited on hand-and-foot so all you need to do is sew, sew, sew!
Here's what I accomplished:

I made the small bird quilt above from the bird blocks I'd made for the Block Lotto drawing and was supposed to send away to the lucky lottery winner.  But I needed a small quilt for a spring-themed quilt secret swap I'd signed up for, and what could be more perfect than birds and flowers? I made 3 more bird blocks afterwards to send off to the lucky Block Lotto winner.

I also assembled and started machine quilting the mug blocks I'd won earlier in the year in Block Lotto. Aren't these mugs great? This quilt was one of the hits of the retreat---lots of quilters stopped by to admire the great variety of quirky mugs I'd won. It was fun to be able to show it off, and maybe get a few new recruits for the block lotto?

Hmmm....I think I've got a theme going here. The quilt top pictured above, which I also assembled over the weekend, is made from Block Lotto blocks I won last month. I love the modern look of it. This one is lap-sized, and I'm going to finish it and give it to my dear Dad, who's got Alzheimer's. I think he's going to love it.

This photo show the only dark part of the weekend, which occurred when I sewed through my finger while I was free-motion quilting the mug quilt. Ouch! It was a first for me, but several other quilters told me they'd done the same thing at some point during their quilting careers. I was lucky to have done it while I was in a room full of quilters---three of whom happened to be nurses. The finger was impaled on the needle, and stuck in the machine, but they rushed to my rescue and had me bandaged and sewing again in no time. I'm sure it's going to look pretty nasty for awhile, but since it doesn't hurt much, and it's bandaged up pretty well, I've decided to keep it wrapped and not look at it until I have to.
TMI? I hope not!
Ginny