Trillium Quilt Guild retreat

Several weeks ago, I learned that there was still room for guild members to sign up for the quilt retreat at Mt. Morris. I was frantically trying to get ready for my Grand Opening, and the idea of getting away for a week to do nothing but quilt sounded wonderful, so I signed up.

Five of us signed up. I contacted one of the women, Nancy, who was going and asked if we could carpool, but she said that her husband was taking her and they were going to pick up another quilter, Carol, on the way, so I followed them since I’ve never been to Mt. Morris before. The trip takes several hours. During that time, I had Nancy riding with me for a while and we had a nice chat about Alaska. Then I had Carol ride with me for a while and, against my better judgment, we discussed politics. She’s a Republican but she was fairly easy to talk to. We finally arrived at Mt. Morris.

Black Oak Lodge – our home away from home for this week

Note the gray sky through the trees in the above picture. We went out for dinner last night because the retreat center doesn’t start serving meals until tonight. As we were riding to and from, I had a good look at the sun and it looked like an orange ball in the sky. It didn’t hurt to look at it. We got to talking about how odd the sun looked and one of the women said that she had heard on the news that the smoke from the fires out west is drifting this way. I called Mark last night and asked him what the sun looked like in Door County and he said it looked like a normal sun. Mt Morris is a fair piece west of Door County, so when I told him about our discussion after dinner, he was surprised. I would imagine the smoke has reached Door County by this morning.

Since there are only 5 of us, we each got our own room. It took me a while to choose which room I wanted, but I finally selected this one:

There were packaged blankets, pillows, and pillowcases for our beds, so I got two blankets and a pillow and made the bed on the left.
Each room has its own bathroom. This is an improvement on some retreat lodgings I’ve been to in the past! Everything here looks very clean.

We each get our own table for spreading out too. We all brought projects to work on this week. There are all kinds of beautiful things spread out around the room!

If you look to the far left, you can see my sewing machine. From left to right, there’s Karen, Miriam, Nancy (hiding behind the lamp), and Carol. I’m enjoying listening to the conversations in the room and getting to know the others!

Right after we got back from dinner, one of the retreat center staff came in to check on us and ask if there was anything we needed? They had provided well for us, so he said if we need anything, let the office know. I have been really impressed with the staff. Before I even left home, I got a call from the woman who prepares the meals. She had been told that I’m on a plant-based diet, so she wanted to ask me what kinds of things I can and can’t eat. I told her I didn’t want to be a problem, but she assured me that she’s used to handling special requests. She was very sweet!

We were all tired and went to bed fairly early, but I got up early this morning ready to begin the day. No one else was up when I came out of my room, so I sat down to write my blog. Carol just came out and is making coffee, so I’m sure the others won’t be far behind. 😉 I’m going to have breakfast now and then enjoy a day of quilting!

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