re: Treat

There is a hope that I can return to my regularly scheduled life after a rather exciting and busy fall.

The All Thumbs Quilting Retreat was the responsibility of fellow quilter Carol and myself.  We went for a fun and relaxing program. 
 

Carol did an exceptional job of getting the goody bags filled and making the prize table alluring.

I was in charge of decor and  a fun project/game.  And of course food and snacks were plentiful with many contributors!

We host up to 24 in a large hall with lots of room and a full kitchen.  The theme was the Fall Harvest and the main goal was to work away on our own projects, enjoy one another's company and have fun. 

I had remembered seeing cookies in a jar at one craft fair and thought that could translate into personal fabric challenges.  My least favourite research topic is recipes but I pulled out my chef's cookbooks and found all kinds of ideas for soups.  Before she returned to her regular day job , DD#1 copied out 30 recipes for me and did a fabulous job!

We had collected jars big enough to get our hands into and figured out each jar could hold a metre of fabric and the 'seasonings'.  A ribbon held the whole concoction together for slipping into the jar. 

The first meeting I handed out questionnaires to everyone.  Then when I got home I determined who got which soup jar.  Next day at coffee break I read a questionnaire and asked the quilters to guess who it was.  Then I handed out a jar.  I tried for some fun mixes with variety.  One question asked for her least favourite colour and I have to say that most soups have the dreaded orange in them.  lol

I had purposely planned extra soups so I could have choices.  Boiled is a classic African soup.  Broth is poured over bread and cheese.  The bread stumped me so this never made the cut.

  Bouillabaisse was well received by its owner!

Duck soup did not have orange in it!  Hopefully my stones resemble beans.

I knew I had elephants somewhere in my stash and careful digging revealed the herd!

I had two colourways of the vegetable theme to work with.  The white background was Everything in the Fridge soup and the black background was End of the Garden Soup.

I was slurping up hubby's tomato soup when it dawned on me that his recipe was perfect for the rice themed fabric.  This soup has ginger in it and is SO tasty.

A favourite quilt retreat destination for one quilter was Scotland and she was happy with Scotch Broth.  Some soups had novelty buttons and a lamb was included in the seasonings pack.

This quilter did not like blue but I knew she'd appreciate the Ukrainian Sorrel recipe.

I was very happy to hand over the Stone Soup to Carol as she has a wonderful ability to draw the best from all those around her.

Taco soup was pretty colourful.

The washday soup featured at the very top has been reserved for DD with my thanks and in the hopes that she will be challenged to brush off her sewing machine and cook up something creative.

I didn't take photos of all the soups but I tried to get all the food groups as well as some international cuisine.  One quilter liked pictorial quilts but not grey so the Chinese Chicken Noodle went to another.  I had a nice orange Bali that gave some nice noodles to the novelty chickens and of course some chicken buttons.  Fresh strawberry soup could have gone to two gals.  One gal luved peas and I thought the pea soup with ham made up with this vintage fabric  and a cute piggy button was just about perfect!  The biggest challenge was getting fabrics to play nicely together.  The recipes sometimes disappeared under piles of ingredients but I sure do like to cook this way!

I myself got one of the two fruit soups.  As I encouraged the ladies, when we get a snow day and need something warm and comforting to distract from the howling winds, swirling snow,  and freezing temperatures ; we can cook up something creative!