Sadly our retreat was cancelled due to the Caldor Fire that threatened South Lake Tahoe. The whole area was evacuated and Zephyr Point Conference Center was used for evacuees housing. Happily things now are back to normal and even Hwy. 50 is open.
Before the retreat I wrote to various companies in the textile industry asking if they could donate any giveaways to our retreat. We had a very generous response and I just wanted to give a BIG SHOUTOUT to thank these companies. Also encourage you our supporters to give them some support by checking out their websites.
Thanks Dharma Trading, Quiltfolk Magazine, and C&T Publishing
One morning a couple of weeks ago, when we should her been at the retreat, we gathered at Sandra’s studio to sort, divide up the giveaways and hold the raffle for prizes. It was bitter sweet. We were just happy that our attendees would receive a surprise package. Later everything was boxed up and shipped on to the attendees.
Marcia Derse and Turtehand Batiks both packed up little bundles of fabric, Thank you.
It has made us happy to receive some nice replies from attendees after receiving their packages.
“I almost cried to see all the goodies you sent. What a dear thing to do. You are all so generous and gracious. Thank you for this thought, it made me miss AA even more! Again, thank you, I have been having so much fun looking and testing everything.”
“I received your package yesterday. That was very sweet of you to send that off to everyone. So many goodies in the package. It’s so sad you had to cancel, but everyone did the right thing.”
“Last night when I returned home from a long day of volunteer work, the unexpected goody box was waiting for me. What joy! My husband said he liked watching my face as I took out each surprise.”
“Your box just arrived. I am so overwhelmed with joy. It was just like Christmas.”
Mistyfuse donated some of their wonderful fusible web for us to use and Goddess Pressing Sheets for all.
As the retreat was so close to going ahead Sandra made all the name tags, and donated some personalized items. Heidi made everyone little hand sewing kits and I brown-bagged a surprise sewing project for all.
As of now we are in no rush to figure out the future of Artistic Alchemy. This was supposed to be our final retreat but you never know something might happen at Zephyr Point in the future. We will be blogging occasionally and keeping all our supporters up to date with our goings on. For me I have a lot of prep work as I get ready for IQF Houston at the end of October. I will be teaching five different classes over five days.
Thanks everyone, until our next post …..
artisticalchemyblog 
May your Rise like the Phoenix! Thank you for your generosity of spirit, knowledge and time.
Thanks Victoria for that nice comment. We will!