The 5th Annual Good Heart Quilters Retreat began last Friday morning (7/8/16). For those of you who don’t know yet about this small quilting group I participate in, The Good Heart Quilters began meeting about 20 years ago, and have been meeting about once a month, taking summers off. Five years ago, Lisa decided she wanted to do a retreat, so she clears out all the furniture, brings in tables and chairs and we come and sew (or mostly sing and talk, it seems like) for two days in July.
She also invites her relatives to join us, so they all schlep down from Utah/Washington, which is really fun. Above is Elly, our newest member. In the background are Nycole and Brittany. 
I always believe I will get something done, which is a complete fantasy. On Friday, I made four log cabin bee blocks, all the wrong size, and put this Chuck Nohara square together, then had to rip it apart when it didn’t fit. I did make it over to Costco at dinner time and brought back an “All-American Chocolate Cake” (aka, “Death by Chocolate”) so the day wasn’t a total loss.
Lori just puts her head down and goes. This is the culmination of her LQS Sampler Saturdays.
Jean is another who quilts and quilts and gets her blocks sewn together at retreat. She’s amazing.
Coming back from dinner. I think we had about 12 sewers on machines, and one doing handwork. 
We had two more join us on Saturday, which is when I pulled out all my words from the Spelling Bee I’m in, and tried to make some to fill in where I didn’t have. Again, a total illusion that I’ll actually get something done. 
We do Show and Tell at Saturday lunch. This is Brittany’s.
Charlotte did a quilt with Monopoly Fabrics.
Nycole made a quilt in her husband’s favorite soccer team’s colors, and played us the RSL song that is sung at the games.
Laurel finished her exquisite Millefiore Hexie Quilt-A-Long, and even has it backed to a border. I love this one! (Mine sits in pieces on the guest room bed–six months down, six to go.) 
Simone’s been working on a baby quilt: free-form hexies will be appliquéd to a very creative front.
And YES! I finished something: Simone’s word for this month’s Spelling Bee. She’s playing with all our minds and asking us to make the names of colors in a color other than is indicated.
Lisa sent us home with lots of goodies, all in a Daiso Japan zipper case — thank you, Lisa!! See you all next year!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
Greetings. Please tell me where I might purchase the patterns / instructions for the letters in the spelling bee and also the beautiful millefiore quilt. You are all sooooo inspirational!
So admirable that you gals have been together for 20 years! Looks like great output and a fun retreat!
I’m guessing its all in the fun and laughter that punctuates your time on retreat, rather than the sewing that actually gets done! Good times!
Looks like you all had a blast!
On Saturday, July 16, 2016, OccasionalPiece–Quilt! wrote:
> Elizabeth E. posted: ” The 5th Annual Good Heart Quilters Retreat began > last Friday morning (7/8/16). For those of you who don’t know yet about > this small quilting group I participate in, The Good Heart Quilters began > meeting about 20 years ago, and have been meeting about” >
Wow those quilts look amazing!
It looks like you all had fun even though the sewing wasn’t what you had planned. I’m doing deep inspection here on how you have things set up there so I know what I’ll need. 😉 Your words look wonderful together. That is going to make a great quilt. Yes, Simone really played with our minds this month. Isn’t it funny how difficult it is to make your mind go in a different direction (even when I KNEW what I was suppose to make)?
Look at the Millie! Gorgeous
Looks like another fabulous retreat. I leave for Minnesota tomorrow morning. The longer you are together with the same group, the better it gets.
Looks like you have a lot of fun. I have 2 questions: where does one purchase the Chuck Nohara book you keep referring to and what does the poem on the tootsie pop say? Love your blog. I look forward to your posts.Annette
Hi Annette, I tried to reply via email, but it bounced back (something’s wrong with the address I have).
You can find the Tootsie Tool card from the Moda website . Just click on the link to find it.
I purchased the book from Quilt Mania. Here’s the link for that: http://www.quiltmania-inc.us/books/37-2001-nouveaux-modeles-de-patchwork.html
I also have an earlier post that talks about it (and it came up #1 in my Google search!): https://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/chuck-nohara-quilt-blocks/
Enjoy!
˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚ Elizabeth Eastmond opquilt@gmail.com http://www.opquilt.com IG: occasionalpiecequilt
On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 9:54 PM, OccasionalPiece–Quilt! wrote:
>