CQI 7th Annual Retreat in Kansas City - Part One

We are all back from Kansas City, where we held the 7th annual CQI Retreat. This year the retreat was held from Wednesday September 10 through Sunday morning, September 14.  Twenty-eight women registered, but only 26 were able to make it (dear Barb W became ill at the last moment. But she is well now, thank goodness. And Josie Trevino had a serious fall in which she broke her ankle).

Our venue was The Heartland, a retreat facility in Parkville, Missouri about a 10 minute drive from the Kansas City International airport.  Some ladies arrived by plane, some drove, and a couple even took a train.

The grounds of The Heartland were beautiful.  It was cloudy most of the time we were there, but the sun came out for us on Saturday, and made up for lost time.

Driving onto the grounds from the road

One of the buildings in which we slept 

Places to hike to on the premises

Lovely vistas from all the buildings

We ate our meals in the dining room, a short walk away in a neighboring building. Meals were served buffet style and we had the basic beverage choices of water, coffee, tea and lemonade (and milk upon request). 

Buffet line: a typical lunch

Mealtime in the dining hall.

This was the main hall where we did our stitching, held classes and activities and generally spent all our time when we were not sleeping or eating.   This first picture is taken from the entrance way, looking south across the room.  The stitching tables were on the far end, arranged so that the women could stitch together in large groups.  On the nearmost right side is a round table (and a white board not pictured) that we used primarily for classes, but also for displays as needed.

This is a view of the room from the other corner (looking in the same direction), and at night.  In the foreground are vendor tables that we kept set up permanently.  When the vendors took off their covering tablecloths, it meant their shop was open.  Lots of S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement Xperiences) available!

Attached to our big stitching room was a kitchen where we kept our snacks out. They also had coffee and a refrigerator for our use.  It came in handy - we had to keep our stitching strength up!!!  We had chocolate, peanuts, chocolate, fruit, chocolate, pretzels, and chocolate.

Connie Kalina, enjoying some snacks (as we all did!!)

We didn’t seem to get many good pictures of the Swag Bags, but they included generous donations and samples from many vendors.  Some of them included Vintage Vogue, Pellon USA, Ribbonsmyth, Colour Complements, as well as many member Etsy store vendors.

In addition to the lovely supplies donated, there were several finished products, like these wool pincushions made by Josie Trevino and Barbara Warner.

On Wednesday evening after dinner, we did introductions, then played some games like CQ Bingo, CQ Anagrams, CQ Madlibs and a CQ Word Search.  Most of us were tired from travel, so it was an early night, relatively speaking.

Lonna checks out the tables before the Stash Dash begins.

But the next morning, Thursday, were up and ready to get going right after breakfast. The first activity was the Stash Dash. Many of the women brought (or mailed ahead) unwanted stash.  The stash dash used to be just fabric, but has grown over the years. This year`s Stash Dash was the best ever, and was spread out over 4 tables. In addition to fabric, there was lace, silkie prints, trims, buttons, beads, miscellaneous sewing supplies and notions, and even some silk flowers. 

Once it began, there were women everywhere with scissors and bags. There was no running with scissors or arguing - everyone was so calm and well behaved. Probably because the veterans of CQ have so much stash already, that it was much easier to let the newer stitchers get theirs first.  :-)

L-R: Tahlia, Connie, Freda, Sandy, Sharyn, Carol

The lace and silkies (picture prints on silk or cotton) table was very popular, and in the end was reduced to less than a handful of items.

Most ladies were quite happy with their newly-acquired booty!

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ANNOUNCING A GIVEAWAY!!!!

Because so many of our members were not able to attend, the Moderators of CQI have planned a giveaway for everyone to participate in this week (except those who attended the Retreat, LOL). We have three great prizes to give away.  

Here is the first prize we will award:  A set of Crazy Quilting Templates from Sharon Boggon of Pintangle. The winner will receive not only the templates, but an e-file containing the accompanying booklet of instructions and designs. 

HOW TO ENTER:  Just leave a comment below about the retreat, the post or CQI. Make sure your comment has your name and a working email address so we can contact you if your name is drawn.  If you are not linked, then type your email address in your comments: name (at) email (dot) com.

We will draw a number by Random Number Generator on Tuesday evening. The commenter with the corresponding number will be the winner. The winner will be announced here on the blog on Wednesday morning.   At that time, we will also have the Part Two retreat post and announce a new giveaway!  Although you may enter every one of the 3 drawings, you can only win once! :-)  Good luck and thanks for dropping by!