'Tom from Tucson' left yesterday, and Tim headed back to Denver early this morning (where he'll be driving into some weather.)  We tried to talk him into delaying his departure for a bit, but unfortunately he needs to get back to work.  Carlo will still be with us for a while, but he's brought his own accommodations.  Of course his pooch Buddy, an old sweetie, is also still here, and I'm pretty sure <g> he'll be able to talk Mom into giving him some belly-rubs once she arrives.

I slept in this morning!  May have helped that it's another gray day (and it looks like it rained again during the night) but whatever the reason, I'm very, very happy!

The only thing left to do to get ready by Saturday is put clean sheets on the bed for Bana (the bedroom had been ready until Tom used it during his visit) and clean the outside of those bedroom windows. Don't want to ruin the "effect" with dirty windows!

Thought I'd post some pix from the quilt retreat (haven't added any bling to my recent posts, and hope that hasn't been too disappointing....!)

Here are the walls of lotto blocks.  Usually all the ironing boards are busy, so I was lucky to find this mostly empty time!)

Here are some of the scrap blocks I made up over the weekend. 

The pattern is starting to show quite nicely... especially if you squint!

It's always fun to watch the Mystery Quilt tops take shape! I think the strip on the far left is Mel's, but not sure about the others.

Ellen finished her top, despite running the class and the challenge, among numerous other duties as Hostess!) 

Suze with hers  (no, Ellen and Denise are not laughing at it...)

Mishi actually finished her top!

  

Since most of the attendees were working on the mystery project there weren't as many other projects up on the design walls.  I've been wanting to whip up this shadow quilt for a long time (it would go really, really fast!) and this one of Kim's is just more impetus to do that!

Ellen's bargello is quite effective, even though she only used two fabrics!

I kept leaving my camera in the room so I didn't get any shots of the various Show & Tell projects (I may be able to borrow some after Carolyn posts them to the site?) which brings us to this year's challenge!  We each had gotten a panel with these four desert scenes that included a church/mission and lots of flora and fauna.

Shelley left NO doubt as to how she feels about challenges;

notice the burned fabric in the baggie at the far right!

The curvy-pieced blues and browns added oomph to this landscape!

All the bright colors in the panel made it perfect for a log cabin.

Several ladies used less-traditional shapes, like this one of Mishi's - 

and these two cuties.

I've seen this elephant pattern done up before, but usually as a silhouette.  It was very effective having been made from the panel pieces scrapped together, and it took 3rd place.

I knew Linda was making a giraffe growth chart for Zahn.  I had sent her a pic of a quilt pattern that showed up at a number of shows in recent years, and she used the idea to help draft her pattern.  She took 1st place!  (Here she simply blinked as I snapped my pic; when it was announcement that she won she was so overcome she got teary!)

But this tree, which "only" got 2nd, was absolutely MY favorite!

It was titled "For the Birds".

And here's Ami, the artist:

And now it lives with me!  :-)  Decisions, decisions on where to hang it...