Hen House Quilting Retreat at the Quilt Barn in Kimberly Went OUT of Business A Couple Years Ago

I have not made updates to this blog due to the quilting retreat, and the Quilt Barn quilt shop, in Kimberly, Idaho, went out of business about three years ago.  They started out with a pretty good thing in an old building in downtown Kimberly.  Our first quilting retreat there was awesome. The next year they closed the old building retreat and moved it into a metal concrete slab building out back, but they failed to move their appointments over on the same dates they were reserved for at the old location.  So, we could not come when we had planned.  We had already put down our deposit.  They really wanted us to come to the new location, so I let our group vote on it.  They wanted to go anyway, so we had to make our reservation for November, because naturally October was all booked.  We had originally booked for the second weekend in September.  We got there and it just was not the same.  It had concrete floors, and those hard plastic folding tables that bow in the middle when you cut.  The kitchen/dining area was bigger and so was the bathrooms, but everything else went down hill, including their attention to us.  We were across the alley and they never came to see what we were making or if we needed anything.  They really ruined the good thing they had built.
     Since then our quilt group has grown from seven members to twelve. We have our own quilting retreat every quarter, at the club house in the subdivision of one of our members.  Instead of over $125 apiece for a three day weekend, it is $25.00 for the entire weekend for everybody.  We each pitch in $5.00 to attend, and the extra funds goes into a pot to help purchase the club house a new refrigerator.  We get to go home each evening and sleep in our own beds, then in the morning go over again and play all day.  The nice thing is we save all that driving time, and if we have to go feed a friends dogs, we can, and then come back!  It is local, cheap, and we can do it every quarter instead of once a year.
   I am leaving this blog up, because there are some lovely photos of Kimberly, ID, on it, and those are timeless!

We arrived at the Hen House on Friday, September 7th.  We were so excited!  We moved in all our sewing/quilting supplies, food, and personal overnight belongings.  Except Cindy.  She brought a car full of everything anyone could possibly need for a fab quilting retreat, except her own personal ovenight belongings.  Big grin.  It was so nice of the owner's husband to make us each a Hen House T-shirt.  That way Cindy had something else to wear.  But who needs all that when you have quilting to do?

Meanwhile, Phyllis had made some incredible stack n'whack blocks and proceeded to dazzle us all.  She put them on the design wall and moved them around and added stunning blue triangle blocks in between.  She got over half of her quilt top pieced together while at the retreat.  Carol made progress on several things, but not like that.    

Be sure to scroll clear to the bottom of this blog to view all the photos.  On Saturday morning, Cindy and Carol took a refreshing walk. Found the local market and bought Cindy a toothbrush and on the way back Carol took a photo of a cute kitty on a window ledge enjoying the morning air.

Photos of Kimberly, ID

I took some photos of Kimberly, Idaho, on Sunday Morning.  I am attaching them on the right hand side of this blog.  A lovely small town, with a wonderul quilt shop, retreat, and sites to photograph.