Quilt Guild Picnic... Rain and All

Tonight was our annual Pella Area Quilters Guild picnic.

Our program committee and board decided a nice progressive picnic would be fun, and board and committee members took on the task of hostessing / cooking for everyone.

Yesterday, one of our hostesses, Jean, mentioned to me that it very well could rain tonight. We discussed it for a minute and decided, rain or shine, the party would go on.

Sure enough, around 3:00 pm today, it started to sprinkle. Throughout the night, we experienced... sprinkles... rain... DOWNPOURS... and even a double rainbow! YAY! :)

We had appetizers and salad at Jean's house from 6 - 6:45. This started a discussion of needing to put together a guild cookbook, 'cause dang, we have some good cooks in the house. ;)

Then it was off to Esther's (out in the "country") for the main dish. It was Italian-themed, of sorts, and delish. We were there from 7 - 7:45. We had a bit of a downpour right when it was time for me, Julia, and Janice (my carmate) to leave... but we braved the rain and left anyway. We were blessed with a double rainbow on the way back into town.

At Esther's, Julia found some chairs "just her size" and had a ball with them...


At Esther's, we all were treated to table seating... yay!



At my house, we had dessert. Two other wonderful ladies helped by making a frozen raspberry dessert and a yummy peaches and cream dessert. I followed up with lemon bars and ice cream. At my house, we also had our challenge block contest.

In March, I challenged the ladies to use pre-cut packages of squares to make a block... you got one square per two packages and could only use the fabric in the package. We were all amazed and blessed with some beautiful blocks... it is amazing what the creative mind comes up with! We received 26 blocks. They will go into a charity quilt for Teen Challenge, which has a women's home here in Pella.

The ladies voted on their favorites, and our winner was Jean. She took home a book. Other book winners included Susan, Karen, Janice, and Nancy (J.). All of the other participants took home a fat quarter of her choice. (If you are reading this and turned in a block and weren't able to attend, you can pick up a FQ the next time I see you!)

Below are some pictures of the blocks...

The winning block...


Other winners...






The blocks altogether...








Also, I'd like to say thank you to Phyllis and Janice, who were instrumental in helping me set up at my home... being 30 weeks pregnant (almost) and having a little one to run after is not ideal for setting up for a picnic... and the rain doesn't help either. Phyllis came over in the afternoon to help with the main setup, and Janice was my carmate and helpmate throughout the dinner, and also helped pin blocks and such. Couldn't have done it without those two wonderful ladies!

Also, a big thanks to Dottie and Phyllis for supplying and serving dessert... YUM!

And... everyone else who helped out the other ladies tonight... helped clean up... everyone deserves a big thanks. It is times like this that I am so very glad to know such a great group of women and see them work together so well and have such a good time together... raining or not!

erin