Erica attends a sewing retreat

I have officially been a member of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Sewing Guild for one full year. The guild is made up of around fifty kind & wonderful women who have taken me in as one of their own (even though my attendance record for meetings is awful and my sewing skill level is a little shaky). Each year, the guild holds a three-day sewing retreat at Canyon Camp in Hinton, OK. I was interested in participating but wasn't sure if an all-weekend retreat was right for me. My friend, Brenda, encouraged me to ask if it was possible for me to register for just a day. Jane, the former President of the Oklahoma chapter and chairwoman for the retreat, made an exception for me to only attend Friday's session. Attending retreat for one day meant twelve hours of non-stop sewing (9am - 9pm). I decided to pack ambitiously and brought three projects to work on. At the end of the evening, I had only finished one of the three! As mentioned above, my sewing skills are a little shaky. LOL

Note the picture of my rugged Subaru in the outdoors. LOL

Canyon Camp is a beautiful campsite for the United Methodist Church. We were housed in the conference center which was about a quarter of a mile away from the cafeteria. (There were many other buildings and cabins but I wasn't allowed to explore too much on my own. The only downside of being the youngest member attending a retreat with fifty-two older women is that I had fifty-two "moms" looking after me.) Jane was waiting for me when I arrived -- I was late, no surprise -- she greeted me wholeheartedly with a "There she is! Erica!!" and goodie bag. The goodie bag was a handmade lunch bag filled with treats and supplies for the weekend. The Sewing Retreat Board has spent all year preparing (aka hand-making) these for us. I was lead into the main conference room to set up my sewing station and then to the kitchen for snacks. Wes made a pecan pie from scratch for me to bring to share. All the women were impressed that my husband bakes. I was placed at the end of a long table across from Brenda and her friend Karen (I think that was her name. I'm terrible!)

Top: Our sewing room. I sat in the back corner (not pictured). 

Bottom: Wes's beautiful and delicious pie amidst all the other snacks.  

When I started teaching myself to sew a couple of years ago, I noticed that everyone was 1. very eager to help me learn and give me tips & tricks and 2. astonished that a "young person" has taken an interest in sewing. The ladies of American Sewing Guild were no different. A week before the retreat, Jane emailed me a pattern of a stuffed animal (sloth) that she thought I should make during the retreat. I brought all of the supplies and decided to start on that project first. Jane came over to my station to help me get settled and started on the project. Throughout the remainder of the morning, it felt like almost everyone came up to me to check on me and ask what I was working on. This is a very close knit and social bunch so it wasn't that much of a surprise but I think a majority of the attention was fixed on me; maybe because this was my first time attending retreat and they wanted me to feel extra welcome. I enjoyed the attention and making friends but with all the chatting, I barely got anything done. Brenda later told me that the retreat is more for socializing than for sewing. I am very slow when it comes to sewing projects and this sloth project was no different. I spent the entire morning tracing and cutting my pattern and then it was lunchtime. Where did the time go!?!

We enjoyed a nice trek to the cafeteria for lunch (baked potatoes, chili and salad bar with an apple tart for dessert).  After lunch, we had our first workshop. Another woman named Brenda taught us how to make a matching coin purse and pin cushion set. I was doing great until my sewing machine broke. Oh no!!!!!! This is the same sewing machine that was giving me trouble during my sewing course at Frances Tuttle a few months ago. I thought I had fixed it and it was working fine in the morning but it was not cooperating this afternoon. The machine was not picking up the bobbin thread, instead it was forming "birds nest" knots with my thread. Luckily, I was surrounded by sewing machine pros and everyone came around to have a look. My friend, Brenda, Susan and LuElla each spent around 10 - 30 minutes sitting with my machine trying to fix it. After that, I spent another forty-five minutes or so trying to diagnose and fix the issue via help from the Internet. I followed every troubleshooting tip but had no luck. I was afraid that I would have to end my day early but Brenda (my sewing machine savior) lent me her machine to use for the remainder of the day. She claimed that she had a lot of tracing and cutting to do and wouldn't be needing it. I think she saw me about to burst into tears of frustration and swooped in to save the day.  I owe this woman so much.

Along with lending me her super easy to use digital sewing machine (I want one of these SO BAD!!), Brenda gave me a private lesson on the coin purse and pin cushion. Our teacher, the other Brenda, had completed the workshop and was busy with projects of her own by that time. I missed out on a majority of the workshop but Brenda had previously made the project before so she had no problem guiding me. The afternoon flew by and then it was dinner time before I knew it (I was still not done sewing my sloth).  We made another walk to the cafeteria for dinner (chicken tacos, Mexican rice, refried beans and a salad bar with a lemon bar for dessert). I ate quickly and returned to my sloth. I was determined to at least finish one of the projects I had brought. The project called for adhering fabric with fusible web. I had never used this before but the instructions seemed fairly straight forward so I started without asking for help. Little did I know, you need to use a press cloth when ironing on the fusible web. So, dumb little me ruined Jane's ironing board cover. I felt so awful because 1. Jane had already done so much for me, 2. she handmade that ironing board cover (read: irreplaceable), 3. it was a shared ironing board so I ruined it for all the other women who needed to iron and 4. I didn't know how to get off the ironed on sticky mess that I had made. After confessing to Jane, I went to Marilyn for help (she's previously invited me over to her house and given me fabric so I felt pretty close to her as a ally). She told me not to worry, the mess would wash out but in the meantime, we could turn the cover inside-out. The second time someone had to save the day for me. After regrouping from my mini panic attack, I finished my stuffed sloth and showed it off to all my new friends. By that time, it was getting dark and it was time for me to leave.

All I have to show for after a full day of sewing - one stuffed animal, one pin cushion and one coin purse.

I had a wonderful time at the annual sewing retreat (even with the aforementioned hiccups). I learned a ton and met many new friends. Each and every woman in attendance was extremely kind and welcoming. They invited me to sit with them during mealtimes, showered me with encouragement and constructive criticism and showed me their finished projects and asked for my approval (like I had any idea what I was doing. LOL) At times I felt like a burden with my many requests for help and faulty sewing machine but that was just my lack of confidence creeping in. They never did anything to lead me to feel inferior. I'm not sure if Jane will invite me back after ruining her ironing board cover but I will be happy to return to 2019's retreat if they'll have me.

Erica & Lacey relive our emo days.

AFI!! All of the pictures on this blog post are of AFI since I really didn't care for the two opening bands.

Back in 2004, my best friend, Lacey, and I bonded over emo music and dreamed of dating guys who wore eyeliner. We weren't exactly part of the emo crowd--we weren't edgy enough--but, oh, how we loved to watch from the sidelines. I've gotten less and less edgy in my old age but Lacey is still hip enough to keep up with the music scene. So when she found out that the band, AFI (one of our favorites a decade ago), was coming to town and invited me to go with her, I said, "Sure, why not?" As soon as we got to the concert venue, I discovered exactly why not... I am old. LOL Very, very, old.

AFI at 10:10...can you believe that?!? Who even stays up that late anymore? Apparently the young'ens do. 

At age 32, Lacey & I were among the oldest in attendance. Do you remember hearing those "you know you're old if..." jokes as a kid? Well, they are actually pretty true. Here are a few you can make fun of us for...
     * Our first concern was that AFI wasn't starting their set until 10:10pm! That is entirely past my bedtime. And if they didn't start until that late, lord only knows what time we'll actually make it home! We were genuinely worried that we might fall asleep before we could watch the band we came to see. It wasn't looking good as I started yawning around 9:30pm. The band must have somehow sensed our concern and actually came on stage a little early (at 10pm). Thank goodness!
     * The style of dress from the early 1990s is making a comeback and we actually remembered dressing that way as a kid. Remember wearing long t-shirts with short denim shorts and choker necklaces? That's a thing again. We realized that instead of having "flashback 1980s day" for school fundraisers, the young'ens nowadays are having "flashback 1990s-dress day".
     * We actually found ourselves complaining about the noise (do the speakers need to be that loud?...we couldn't hear each other talk.), strobe lights (too blinding) and temperature (too hot, too many sweaty bodies, yuck) of the concert venue.
     * But we did fully appreciate the cleanness of the public restrooms.

How did Davey Havok manage wear a jacket in this stuffy room?

Besides those few chuckle worthy complaints, the concert overall was rather enjoyable. I can say that I still like angsty rock music after I initially fell in love with it almost fifteen years ago. The first opening band was Citizen (from Ohio... that's how they kept referring to themselves as, "We're Citizen from Ohio"... there must be a lot of bands named Citizen from various states). After every song, they would stop and thank us for listening to them. It was a nice gesture at first, but then it felt overly appreciative and almost desperate. Lacey suggested that maybe they get booed off stage a lot so they were very happy that we were still a captive audience. Another thing that happens when you get old... you turn into a cynical curmudgeon. Hahaha!

During the set change, the concert venue played a compilation of Outkast's greatest hits over the loudspeaker. We enjoyed the throwback tracks but wondered if anyone else in attendance ever even heard of Outkast. I seemed to be the only one singing along to Hey Ya! 

Trying out our best "we're badass emo girl" faces. Please note our back shirts and eye make up. We are so hard core!

The second band to play was Circa Survive. They were a crowd favorite but Lacey & I had never heard of them *insert "you know you're old if joke" here* I thought the lead singer's use of auto-tune made him sound like Ozzy Osbourne sucking from a helium balloon. It was during their performance that we started to complain about the lighting. The strobe lights were very impressive but maybe overly so. I turned to Lacey and told her I couldn't look at that stage because the lights were blinding me. Maybe I needed to bring in my sunglasses.

                     I would have gotten pictures of the entire band but only the lead singer was up close and personal. 

Lastly, was AFI... the awesome emo rockers that we stayed up so late to see. They did not disappoint! At first we were worried that we wouldn't recognize their songs because they have released a lot of new music since we first listened to them. But, they played mostly their old songs from the Sing the Sorrow and December Underground albums (the ones that Lacey & I knew by heart). Besides playing our favorite songs, the best thing about their performance was that each member of the band stood on a riser so us short kids could view them, too. (^_^) Although I was tired and my legs ached from standing all night, I jumped up & down and scream-sung the songs along with the rest of the crowd. We left our old lady complaining behind and felt young again for an hour. I think that's the great thing about music; its something you can just immerse yourself in and forget about your worries for a while. But then my ears rang the entire way home. Ugh... old age. LOL

Last AFI picture.