Sarcastic Quilter: Stash Bash Fun! (Better late than never.)

It's been a little over a month since I attended the 1st annual Stash Bash (at least I hope it's the 1st annual Stash Bash).

I can't believe it's been that long. I came home intending to blog within a week. Clearly, my intentions are worthless. However, I am blogging now and most of this post will be photos for your enjoyment.

First a big thank you to the sponsors. I had a great time and it was so much fun trying new products. A few of which have officially made it into my must have pile. Go check out the links, do a little shopping, do a little blog reading... it's def. worth your time.

Oliso - oh, my lovely, lovely new iron to be!
Stash Fabrics - Beth brought FQs for partipants to purchase & at her offered prices, I couldn't pass up an FQ from almost every fabric in the Notting Hill line! Beth doesn't yet know how much I fell in love with her for bringing those FQs.
Pink Castle Chalk Fabrics
Fat Quarter Shop
Art Gallery Fabrics - Oh, oh, oh lovely fabric. Super soft and smooth. I'm a new fan!
Our Epoch
The Craft Junky
Jacey
Karamat

Second, a thank you to the Calvin Center in GA. This was a beautiful retreat location & the staff was friendly and accommodating.

Great food, too, by this guy, Brian. Great personality, great smile & a great chef... a keeper for someone, that's for sure!

Last, thank you to Chris of Frecklemama who took the time to put this together. The idea was a place where a large group could gather, wear PJs, sew, and chat. It was a big success as far as I am concerned! I met some new people, learned a couple new sewing tricks (like how to sew HSTs in an another manner), saw some fabulous projects and was able to pick up all the Joel Dewberry Notting Hill prints my heart had been desiring.

While I'm at it, I should note that I drove from VA to GA. I swung by and picked up Amy of Amylouwhosews and we spent a total of 16 hrs in a car together. We knew enough of each other to feel we could manage the drive but by the end of, oh, the first hour in the car, it became apparent we would do better than manage. We gabbed, and gabbed, and gabbed. She good naturedly grumbled b/c I asked her to bring veggies for lunch instead of chips (she made me egg salad, too!). Of course, by hour 6, she and I were ready to admit defeat and stopped at the gas station to pick up our travelling junk food staples. I believe she's a peanut butter M&M person and some sort of large soda, I can't remember. I blocked all her drink habits out when I experienced the worse guilt trip ever received b/c I threw out her Sonic cup (the styrofoam on, I might add!). -sigh- I can't talk about it, it's still too stressful. If you want to know, please... go ask her.

Anyway... in pictures (many under the #thestashbash tag in Instagram as are many other participant photos) the trip went something like this!

5am departure

9pm arrival and Amy (center) wastes no time setting up her sewing station. Hi Chris (L) and Heather (R) and Jill (background).

I made a couple pillow cases for me and for Katie. She made me an awesome fabric covered clipboard which I don't have a picture of b/c it's in use.

Below: Great projects have begun.

Jill's large chevrons.

Amanda's constellation quilt came along beautifully!

Ali's big blocks. I am in love.

My quilt which you will see soon but see me testing that Oliso? Yep, I'm a convert.

Laurel's bento box in bright colors. Check out her blog for the version with the borders. Gorgeous!

There were mini instructional workshops, a trip to the fabric store, and a FQ swap game.

I also managed to get my exercising in while there and not eat too much junk. To help me, I packed my Shakeology and blender and brought protein bars, etc. I'm glad I did. I wanted to be good over the weekend but still allow myself to indulge. I think I succeeded.

It helped that my room mate is also a fitness buddy of mine and a Beachbody coach. Meet Cherie:

She even did my workout with me on Sat. which was quite helpful in me being motivated to do it.

One more of my projects, which will have its own blog post of their own very soon. The heart is a 12" or 14" block which I spent a great deal of time doing the math for. Now that it's done, I love it and will be writing a tutorial.

I'll cap off by showing you a full circle view of the room on the last day. We were all busy and happy little bees!

What a wonderful weekend.

Here's a list of blog posts, if you'd like to see/read about others' experiences. There may be others but I just haven't seen them yet.