Wonderful Weekend

Now where was I?

Oh ya, Orillia! For the third annual Family Crafting Retreat. I would call this a photo journal because I have a lot of pictures to post, but we all know I will write a lot too. (What can you do.)

Thursday (a good day to start a weekend on!)

I packed up my car in the morning. I was a little scattered in the days before so I wasn't as organized as usual about packing. At some point I thought to myself, I have enough to keep me busy; surely this is enough.

Then I made myself check the list because you know that it is a good idea. First thing on the list: sewing machine. It was still sitting in my sewing room where I would have forgotten it. Lists are good. Consulting them, even better.

I had a meeting at noon and then left shortly after that. A cousin lives about two-thirds of the way there and she graciously offered me a place to stay for a night.

Despite some blinding snow in southern Ontario (along Lake Huron), the drive was uneventful. I arrived after dinner and we enjoyed some good visiting.

Friday

We got possession of the house where we were going to stay at 10 am, so I was determined to leave early and not waste a moment. I think what that turned into was leaving by 9:30 or so and stopping at a recommended quilt shop on the way!

I was happy to see sunny skies

but it was cold!! When I got in the car, it said 0F, but on the drive, it read as low as -10F. Good thing my car has a great heater! (And I wear a down coat and a hat and mitts...I am a knitter after all!)

I arrived around 12:30 to find my sister and a different cousin there already. (They really had gotten up early and arrived by 10!)

We stay in an old farmhouse. (Click Fireside Retreat, if you want to read more.) They get you in the right mood right away with the many quilt block boards hanging outside. It's a new one on the front porch each year. (Good for photo ops, of course!)

It has a spacious dining room:

(That's a design board on the left with my sister's quilt-in-progress on it.) We make a schedule of who's cooking and make two meals a day. For the rest, you are on your own.

The main gathering room is a converted porch. It's a few steps down from the main house. On the left is a sitting area with a wood stove:

and to the right is a work area with four tables and a cutting station.

It wasn't long until the cousin I stayed with arrived with her sister, and then my mom with another aunt. Another of my sisters would arrive the next day and that was our party of eight.

Friday I worked on:

• cutting squares from cashmere sweaters to make a blanket. (That's what I'm doing in the picture above.)

Once I had them cut, that was enough on that for that day.

• some hand sewing on some fabric wall hangings I was installing in a room at church:

The concrete block walls were depressing, so I installed this fabric behind the shelves. Made the panels the right size and hot glued them to the concrete. Worked a charm.

• Then it was time for play. I had a lot of left over pieces from this quilt, but not quite enough to make another quilt. I thought about putting them together for a centre and adding borders, but it just wasn't appealing to me. So I took about half of the pieces and put this small top together:

It's about 40"x44" and by the end of the evening, it was sewn together!

But while I was still playing with blocks, I took the ones that were left and put this together:

I have plenty of the black fabric to fill in the outside rows with solid squares. I don't have quite enough pieces with coloured corners and I wasn't as convinced by this one, so it didn't get sewn together.

Saturday

I know we didn't go to the quilt store first thing, but I don't remember what I worked on in the morning versus the afternoon, so this is how I'm going to tell the story.

The mother of the woman who runs the retreat centre owns the (very) nearby quilt shop. When we stay, we get a gift certificate for said quilt shop. Needless to stay, we visit the shop and, well, shop.

Here I am with a sister and my mom.

I am holding a panel of fabric, parts of which I found last fall in a scrap bin at a store where I live. It's the most beautiful watercolour style birds. (Click here to see on my IG account.) Now I have more to play with when I decide what to do.

Kim and I doing quilt maths:

I got lost half way through, but she was able to keep track (or at least know what she needed to buy at the end), so that's all that mattered!

At some point on Saturday, I:

• pulled out my Plaidish quilt and got it basted. (I did it on the dining room table with my cutting mat underneath.)

Before I left home, I remembered a large piece of fabric I had picked up second hand, and when I looked at it, it was big enough to work as a backing for this quilt. So I threw it in my bag with a batting I already had, and crossed my fingers that I had everything I needed. I had to sew one seam in the backing fabric, but that was done easily enough.

Anything better than putting in 600 pins while talking with a sister? I don't think so!

• took all the cashmere squares and laid them out. The sister who I helped with quilt maths, helped me with arranging the blocks. That's how it goes.

Once that was done, I sewed the blocks into rows. That was enough for that day. I'm using a stretch stitch which is much slower than a regular straight stitch, and uses more thread, and is almost impossible to take out if you make a mistake -- no pressure!

• got out my Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses later in the day and added sashing pieces to a block. (The one with the cutest hedgehogs!)

I had about half of the pieces done by the time I stopped.

Sunday

We started the day with breakfast and then some of us visited a local church for the service. (Same one as last year. We were happy to hear the roof they were fund raising for last year was completed.)

It's become a tradition to go out for lunch, the ones who weren't at church meeting us there.

We found a nice place last year so we went back there. I enjoyed the plum pockets (wontons with plum and goat cheese, dressed with hot sauce) -- they were good.

When we got back, I rectified a project that hadn't worked out. The quilters among us had agreed to exchange quilted postcards this year. (My "secret projects" on Instagram in the last month may come to mind!)

I had mine ready in good time except for sewing the paper onto the back. The first one -- fine. The second one -- completely jacked up. I got as far as taking the bad stitching out before I left for the weekend, but didn't have time to fix it.

So I gave it with a promise to fix it!

I'll show more of these postcards in a separate post. (Stay tuned!)

Then I pulled out a project that I knew would be a pain in the butt.

I had this block from a class I took a couple years ago.

More recently I had the idea that I could finish it up so it would pair up with this wall hanging I finished a few years ago:
I threw my blue and yellow scraps and a good number of fat quarters into a box (and a bag) so I could go through them to see how many of the same fabrics I had left and what new ones I could add to them.

That was a lot of sorting, then some quilt maths to see what to do to make the block the same size as the centre of the original quilt,

and then a lot of cutting of little squares.

I found a lot of the same fabrics. I got enough squares cut but I did not try to start to sew them together.

I also knit on my current Wool-Aid sweater, but no pics of that. The back has been done for a while and I got close to finishing the front.

Here are some projects finished by other people at the retreat:

My cousin (on the right) asked for indigos in our fabric scrap exchange last year and she used them for this quilt. She saved sewing the binding for this retreat and got it done. It was put to use right away:

Another cousin was working on putting together the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, "Frolic".

I've seen it with more of the blocks put together and it's gorgeous!

Here is another (smaller) one she finished:

On Sunday, we also ventured out for a group photo.

Six cousins and two aunts from four different "families".

Then my immediate family took a picture too.

I do not know what the rest of us are looking at, but Patricia, at least, is paying attention to what we should be doing! (And now that I think of it, I was controlling the camera with a remote, so why in the world did I take this one? Oh well.)

Here's a nicer one:

We're missing two sisters who weren't there. I have to point that out so they know that we did miss them!

Monday

We had the house until 3, but I had too long of a drive to be able to do any crafting on Monday. It was pack up, load the car and go.

A far cry from travelling with one carry-on!

(You know, by 11:30 or so...)

I took my favourite walk at the Guelph OnRoute to the Ellis Chapel to stretch my legs.

I got home tired after another drive that ended with snowfall, and Troy kindly took every thing out of my car for me

to be put away "later".

Taken by my cousin who gets up early enough for sunrises.

My only question now is, "Is it next year yet?"

Family Craft Retreat 2

I think you're supposed to come up with a snappier title for a sequel, but I'll just leave it at "2". We had our second family craft weekend last week Friday to Monday, and it was a great time.

Over the weekend, nine of us attended. Three aunts and six cousins (a pair of sisters and four sisters). It was a good mix of people who saw each other more often and people who hadn't seen each other since last year.

We found a new location that catered to quilters and whose facilities were much more suited to our needs. The Fireside Retreat in Orillia (Ontario) was fantastic.

The old stone farmhouse was very welcoming. There was a bedroom on the main floor for those who couldn't do stairs and the two bedrooms upstairs each had three beds and plenty of room for it.

One sister greeting me and another sister
as we arrived.

The kitchen was modern and included a dishwasher which we were missing last year! We had some very cold weather, and the house was very comfortable, although we were glad for the wood stove in the sitting room.

We managed a picture of the whole group on the front porch. Don't let our missing coats fool you -- it was cold!

The owners change the quilt block on the front porch each year so you can build a collection if you return on different years. The previous blocks were hanging on other outside walls of the house and outbuildings.

The house had a long room that ran the whole width of the house. It was four steps down from the main level, and I suspect it was a converted porch. The one half had three wooden work tables, a cutting/pressing table (with supplies) and some design boards.

There were three tables but four quilters, so my sister worked on the table she (fortunately) brought.

The other side of the room was full of comfortable chairs and the woodstove. It was perfect for knitting, hand sewing, and hanging out. (There were spot working lights everywhere and more available if needed!)

I've never seen so many quilts in a house! Only two examples shown here but there were quilts on walls in all the rooms (including bathrooms!), quilts on the beds, quilts on the closet shelves, quilts on the bedroom window seats, and quilts just rolled up in baskets. We found out later that they were previous shop samples -- the owner's daughter owns a local quilt shop and this is where the samples go to retire.


Once everyone was there Friday night, we did some gift giving.

• One of my sisters brought mittens she makes from felted sweaters. The linings are always cashmere and they are scrumptious.
• One cousin brought craft themed mint tins ("Keep Calm and Knit On" etc).
• Another sister made little rice pack hand warmers (the purple squares).
• One cousin brought booklets of sticky notes in different sizes for pattern notes.
• Our aunt brought a book of poetry her husband had compiled and edited.
• And I brought "snip baskets" I had made. (The little triangles up front.) They can catch all your thread and yarn cut offs and then fold into your project bag without dumping out. For those times you're working away from home.
• Not pictured but just as appreciated were the chocolates another sister put on our pillows! :)

Not to stop there, we four quilters prearranged a fabric swap. We told the others our fabric preferences and swapped about a fat quarters worth of scraps from our stashes. Always fun to add some new options!

Friday night we had the first FO of the weekend already!

She had this quilt almost done so she said it was cheating, but done is done!

Saturday dawned bright and cold again. A good day to stay in and sew.

Unless your booking includes a gift certificate for everyone at the local quilt shop!

Then it's a good day to go to the quilt shop, which most of the group did on Saturday morning.

Otherwise the day was filled with quilting:

Laying out her quilt blocks on the design board in the
dining room. This top would be assembled by the end
of the weekend.

and puzzle building:

We started with a rooster puzzle for my mom but put it away
when it was taking way too much time. The next one was of quilt blocks
but we didn't finish that one either -- too many other things to do.

and going for walks:

I managed at least a short walk on Saturday and Sunday.
It was 6F on Sunday morning for example so plenty chilly!!

On Sunday we enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Lake Country Grill:

Otherwise we took turns cooking breakfast and super each day. That is not why the restaurant was so good -- we ate well all weekend!

Our aunt finished a sweater that had been in the works for seven years!

Looks great, doesn't it!? This weekend helped motivate her to pull it out and work on it and start the mojo-killing job of picking up all the stitches for the front and collar facing.

There were also shenanigans. While my sister was busy quilting, I picked up her blanket square and started working on the crochet edging.

I just hope I guessed what she was doing! (Crochet's easy to take out anyway, right?) The joke was on me when she came over and sat on a couch next to my Lucy Boston square and suggested she finish sewing the block for me. (It's like we're related!)

My main project of the weekend, however, was quilting my blue and white elephant quilt. Here my sister and I are examining it for any remaining blue markings that we need to remove with water spray.

And then two of my sisters braved the chill again to hold up my quilt for a full picture.

I got most of the quilting done. The binding is sewn on but only safety pinned to the back. This was so that I could get the picture and submit it to a call by Quilts, Inc. for an exhibition of blue and white quilts.

I pulled out my computer Sunday night to submit my application and pictures because the deadline was the next day. (I only saw the entry deadline posted on the website in December. Before that it just said "2019".) So I spent the weekend worrying about whether I would have it done and did manage it in the end.

When I pulled up the webpage I saw that they had extended the deadline to the end of March! I guess that  means I have time to actually sew down the binding and to finish some additional quilting I want to add.

As for the retreat, we've already penciled ourselves in for the same weekend next year at the same place. Can't wait!