Pacifica Quilting Retreat 2011, Day 1

Pacifica, California

Just a few miles south of San Francisco

Last weekend I drove a couple of hours to oceanside Pacifica, just down the coast from San Francisco, for my annual quilting retreat by the sea. I packed up a bunch of fabric, tools, and my tiny toaster-sized Janome Sew Mini sewing machine to sew for three days.

On the way I hit some unexpected rain (I don't pay attention to the weather forecast), but the rain was gone by the time I got to Pacifica.

View from my room

Another view from my room

The other side of rocks. At high tide the waves can crash over the rocks onto the parking lot, and yes, onto the cars.

I stayed in the same ocean-front motel that I've been to many times before. The manager knows me as the quilting lady. The motel is very small, maybe 20 rooms. Despite some recent remodeling, it's still kind of run-down. But the view is incredible, and at $99 per night, the room is more affordable than at the nicer motel across the way, where rooms without an ocean view start at $30 more per night. I'd rather spend the extra money on little extras like food. 

The ocean is just across the small parking lot and by opening the window a crack you can hear the crashing waves. While I sew I leave the TV off and enjoy the music of the sea.

Sunset - Thursday night

On the first night, there wasn't much of a sunset, thanks to a mostly cloudy sky. But I did enjoy getting a peek. After the sun went down I ordered a pizza to go and shopped for snacks while my pizza was being made.

I worked on the purple/turquoise blocks on Thursday night.

After dinner I got to work on quilting. I brought along the makings of Cathy's Southwest quilt. Before the trip I was working on paper-pieced Diamond in the Square blocks, and had planned to finish the red/gold ones first thing during the retreat. But I discovered that I had left the red fabric at home, so I went ahead and worked on some purple/turquoise ones.

Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein

I'm looking forward to experimenting with surface design.

After I sewed for a couple of hours I watched TV, began reading my newly-arrived book Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein, then fell asleep listening to the ocean.