About 2 years ago, a chat group originated on Instagram between five ladies who had quilting in common, mainly quilty fun ideas from Lori Holt.
Since that time, two other ladies have joined the group to make seven.
Last summer, we planned a quilt retreat, and Lori Holt was so kind to design a Farm Girl Vintage quilt for us and teach us and give us lots of her quilty fun tips.
Three of the ladies had met last summer at one of Lori's retreats, but the rest of us hadn't.
We all gave each other nicknames too!
Cathy (Tazzie) traveled all the way from Australia to meet us, and was thrilled to also meet our Queen Bee, Lori :)
Kristie (Krusty Oats) traveled from southeastern Utah, Joanna (Jojo) traveled from Oklahoma, Vanessa (Nessa) traveled
from Wyoming, Lynette (Dimples) traveled from Idaho, and I (Cindy Lou) traveled from Northern California. Leanne (Lizzie) wasn't able to make it this time, from Australia.
We missed you Leanne :(
Lori brought her quilty peeps and some other IG friends were invited.
Celeste and Kayse traveled from Houston :)
The day before our quilt retreat, those of us who could, met at Gardner Village for lunch.
This is my IG Bestie group, minus Lynette.
Me, Kristie, Vanessa, Joanna and Cathy (from Australia).
It was incredible to finally meet them!!!
We were like long, lost friends :)
The next morning, we went on a fast walk with my daughter Lindsay and her friend Kara, and looked at all the pretty houses in Daybreak along the way.
Lynette, Cathy, me, Vanessa and Joanna :)
Retreat day, at last!
We stayed at Thimbles and Threads, a quilt shop and retreat lodge in Draper, Utah.
This is the room I shared with Joanna and Vanessa.
Each bed came with a robe, the room was so comfortable, and so was the bed!
I had the best sleeps, but it was also because I stayed up so late and was exhausted.
Every room was named after a quilter, her portrait and a quilt block were framed with a story about her quilt journey :)
All the rooms were decorated the same way, but with different color schemes.
My roommates, Joanna and Vanessa :)
This was my sewing spot, next to Joanna and Lynette, across from Vanessa and Kristie and down the lane from Cathy :)
My friend Beth, and one of Lori's quilty peeps, made everyone an instagram block with their IG name embroidered on it.
How cute!!!
Everyone was so generous in their gift giving....
I had never been to a retreat before, so I didn't know what to expect.
The next time, I'm making quilty gifts for everyone.
I'm going to feature all the individual handmade gifts in another post.
We were constantly taking photos!
Anette, Kristie, Cathy, Celeste, Kayse, Betty, Juli, Joanna and me!
We are all quilty besties now :)
This is the lovely gift that Thimbles and Threads gave us.
A Lori Holt design board, fat quarter, name tag and ruler.
These are Lori's quilty peeps, they go on two retreats a year together, and have sew day once a month or more!
These sweet ladies also help Lori with a lot of her quilts and know how to keep quilty secrets really well :)
Each of the women told some memorable stories about Lori, we laughed a lot!
Suzann, Betty, Juli, Beth, Rosanna, Shanna and Judy.
We were entertained with a trunk show from Farm Girl Vintage.
I love this quilt with the houses and the trees.
It's the same layout as the next one with the pigs, but different blocks were used and it looks totally different!
This is one of my favorites, with the red tractor and all the dancing pinwheels.
I love all these mason jars, this quilt is just another on my long list!
This Farm Girl quilt is darling, and Anette made hers into a Hallowe'en quilt with a witch.
Lori always tells us to make our quilt our own!
Lori says that this vintage apron quilt is her best selling pattern.
Everyone has a memory of their mom or grandmother in the kitchen wearing an apron like this :)
This is the quilt that Lori designed for our retreat.
She told us to bring specific yardage of tan and off white for a background, and reds, greens, blues, pinks, oranges and yellows.
I'm working really hard on my quilt, I hope to be able to show it to you soon.
My tan color is much lighter than Lori's, it's hard to choose a color or shade when you don't what the quilt looks like!
I was also limited to what fabric was available.
A package arrived from England from lucky_shake on Instagram.
She made us each these adorable pear pincushions!
This is a cute photo of Lori with her beautiful green featherweight.
I have wanted to meet Rae Ann for years!
She said the same thing about me!
She's just as sweet in person as she looks in her photos :)
I hardly ever drink soda, let alone soda with caffeine.
I had a caffeinated soda everyday, because we stayed up so late and didn't get much sleep :)
We were getting dirty diet cokes (coke with coconut syrup and fresh squeezed lime) at Swig, and a mouth watering sugar cookie with pink frosting, while in my convertible.
When we returned to the retreat from dinner and snacking, we were really giddy.
We teased our hair all up as if it was windblown from the drive in the convertible, and walked into the retreat.
We got a bunch of laughs!!!
I saw this on someone's car!
A serial quilter!!!
Lori and me, don't you love her quilty glasses?
This is a photo of all the ladies at our IG Farm Girl Vintage retreat.
Do you notice our cute bags?
Vanessa made one for each of us and we're modeling them :)
She chose the fabric to match our favorite color schemes.
It was Cathy's dream come true to meet Lori in person!
Joanna took this photo of me, we sewed, talked, laughed, ate, ate, ate, and posted and looked at Instagram.
Lori designed the Farm Fresh quilt for us last summer and gave the pattern to her quilty peeps to sew at a retreat.
They were under security lock down, not to say a word!
They had to wait an entire year, lol!
I haven't laughed so hard or stayed up so late, or eaten so much chocolate and frosted sugar cookies, in a long time!!!
I'm making a photo book to cherish these memories, and show my grandchildren what a fun time their Grammy has when she's with her IG Besties :)
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