sewing weekend with friends

Every year, my sewing group - Patchworkgruppe Nersingen - goes missing for one weekend on a retreat organized by Sabine Feldmann of Quilt Oase. This year we wanted a new location to optimize our sewing pleasure. And boy, did we ever find the greatest place in Altheim - Heiligkreuztal south of Ulm and north of the Bodensee. The weather was so beautiful when we arrived on Friday late in the afternoon, too.

This very beautifully restored and updated Kloster (Zisterzienserorden) or convent dating back to the early 13th Century captured our hearts. Kloster Heligkreuztal is a very large complex with several restaurants/bistros, gardens, bookstore, and meditation areas, media rooms, and gift shop. After we set up our working stations in this rather spacious room, we gathered in the Gaststätte for a full and very fresh buffet. After a short while of giggling and relaxing, we went to work hammering away on the sewing machines until wee hours in the morning.

Pure sewing bliss - Photo by Karen Ackva

My station was all the way on the other side of the room close to a window. The room was very spacious so we did not feel cramped at all. We had sewing machines, ironing boards, extension cords, music, all the fabrics and supplies that we needed. An extra delight for us were these amazing design boards provided by the facility! You could wheel them around the room to wherever you wanted.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

We had the chance to work on anything that we wanted; there was no course, just pure sewing fun. I brought my Berenstain Bears II quilt fabric already cut and ready to sew. I actually thought I could finish the quilt before I went to bed. Boy did I overestimate my sewing abilities!! There were close to 200 - seven inch patches; I did manage to get all 12 rows finished, though. Here you can see me laying it out for the final construction.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

The next morning we were greeted with another full and fresh buffet of German breads and pastries, soft boiled eggs, meats and cheese, jams and jellies as well as everything else with your extended German breakfast. We set off back to our sewing machines. When everything was running smoothly, we were pleasantly interrupted by our second breakfast of freshly baked butter pretzels and coffee. We took a short break for some photos for our group photo album as well. Here you can see me waiting for my beautiful models to arrive. I took some personal photos for our exhibit in the fall 2015.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

We returned to sewing and then came lunch. Another awesome spread of roasted lamb, fresh steamed/sauteed veggies, and full salad bar not to mention desert. Shortly after lunch, I finished my quilt and Katrin helped me to show off my quilt as went on a short photo tour of the convent. Thank you, liebe Katrin for helping me tote my quilt top around. ;-)

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

This is such a beautiful and amazing convent. I love how it smelled of history. You could feel the religious presence around you. It really inspired me as well. You could capture the different design elements and use them for new ideas in quilts and artwork.

After our short photo session, we went back to work. All of the other lovely ladies were hard at work pumping out quilt tops, pp light houses, blocks for our guild sampler, ragtime quilts, modern art quilts and pictures. I started to work on another block for my sampler quilt. I want to get it finished before our big exhibit in October in Nersingen.

Afternoon coffee and cake greeted our hungry appetites once again followed by more sewing and then another amazing buffet dinner in the evening. We sewed, we gossipped, we drank wine. We had a great time together. Sisters through sewing. ;-)

Our weekend was rounded up by more fabulous food on Sunday as well as a procession of children taking their first communion. It was very inspiring to watch. This was the view from our sewing room window. Only one-third of the procession is shown.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

Our patchwork weekend came to an end. We said our farewells and made reservations for next year! We will be back! What a lovely convent and accommodations for our fabulous sewing weekend with the girls. ;-)

Thank you, Katrin for most of the photos I showed on my site. She took almost all of them. You can see more photos of the weekend by clicking here. Thank you for stopping by!