View from the porch

I spent the past weekend with 7 friends at a retreat center south of Annapolis, Maryland. The accommodations are rather sparse, about 1 step above camping, but with indoor plumbing, the food is nothing to get excited about, but the atmosphere is electric and inspiring. This is the view from the front porch of the cabin, looking out onto the river. The weather was lousy - horrendous rain for hours on end, but we only noticed it when we had to walk to the building where they served meals.




Here is the cabin. It has a large central area where we have tables set up. The camp management has been dealing with quilters for many years now and they know what we want. They move all the furniture out of the central room and set up tables. They show us where the circuit breaker panel is so that when we have too many irons and coffee pots going at once and trip the circuit, we can remedy the situation ourselves.




Mary Beth the nightowl and Elizabeth enjoy a cup of morning coffee. The coffee drinkers kept the pot going day and night. Between Mary Beth who stitched pretty much all night long and the early risers, there was only about an hour out of 24 that the room was unoccupied.




The cameras were busy documenting the event. Here Elizabeth and I take pictures of each other.




These are some of Mary Beth's hands, in progress.




I'm working on this piece. It's my favorite color, red.




Sometimes we took a moment to read the books and magazines that others brought. Floris is reading while Linda and Teresa (back to camera) stitch.




Teresa gives Linda some advice. Don't know if Linda took it :) We had a great time and everybody hated leaving. This group is very dedicated: Mary Beth drives 3 hours, Elizabeth drives 5. Teresa came a long distance also. Dale, who couldn't be with us this weekend, comes from Massachusetts. Having this twice yearly retreat gives all of us a creative boost and we begin anticipating the next one as soon as we get home from this one!