Camp Kintail Retreat Report

This post features my projects from last weekend's Crafters retreat at Camp Kintail, but first I want to show you my finished Fall cross stitch...TaDa!  I started this project at the beginning of September and have added stitches to it steadily until this week, when I added the last few.  As I have said before, I love the transparency where the trees overlap and the bright colours in this picture.  I will have it framed shortly and hang it up for the Fall next year.   I have a couple of embroidery kits that I would like to work on next, but likely won't start them for another week or two while I finish up some Christmas gifts. 

In an effort to use up all of the HST's leftover from the Winter wallhanging, I made another placemat for Meals on Wheels.  The backing fabric has tulips on it so it can be used with that side up when winter is over. 

Christine and I made zippered project bags at the retreat. One side is quilted and the other side has clear vinyl so you can see what is in the bag. 

Christine's bag is a bit bigger than mine.  We both used my black and white striped fabric for the binding. 

Here we are with our placemats for Meals on Wheels. 

I signed up for a year's worth of online classes from the Threadhouse Academy and this Tiny House table runner was made for one of the classes.  Some people made a whole quilt with Tiny Houses but I decided to just make a table runner.  It still needs to be quilted.  The houses and trees are meant to be a bit wonky--it adds personality to the project!  I would like to live in this neighbourhood!

I made these blocks by playing with my drunkard's path rulers and partial seams a few months ago.  They have been sitting in a pile in my sewing room, patiently waiting to be put together.  I managed to get this done at the retreat. 

In yet another effort to use up my bin of 2.5" squares, I made another baby quilt.  As you have probably guessed, the bin is still full of squares...  The gray background fabric was in my stash, leftover from backing another quilt. it is mostly used up now.  I should have something in my stash to use for the backing. 

A few years ago, Christine and I met Mary, a knitter, who is also a regular at the retreats and this year, she brought her friend, Elaine, along too.  The four of us hung out together for the weekend and one of the staff members at the Camp took this picture of us with some of our projects.  

The Oxford Quilters Guild is making several Quilts of Valour for injured veterans.  I took a pile of blocks to the retreat to put one of the tops together.  I also made a few more blocks to donate for the next QoV.

Finn stayed at our house for a week while our daughter was at a conference for work.  He's a smart cookie and knows exactly what our routines are when he's here.  

Finn is a specialist at looking cute. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the retreat projects.  My previous post from a couple of days ago shows the finished quilt tops from the Round Robin that I organized for three friends and I earlier this year.  

Home from the Guild Retreat

I just got home from our guild quilt retreat about an hour ago and decided to share some of my projects on my blog.  First up, handwork!  Christine and I watched the World Series  baseball games on the Friday and Saturday nights and  while we watched, we did some cross stitch.  She worked on her Halloween project and I added more stitches to my Fall trees. We had hoped for a different winner of the Championship but it was not to be this year. 

I also did some hand quilting at the retreat --more diagonal lines have been added to my Rainbow Scrap Challenge pineapple log cabin quilt. 

A friend gave me a kit to make some oven mitts a few years ago and before the retreat, I found it in my quilt room.  This was my warm up project for the retreat.  They are ready to use at Christmas time!

I also found a 2.5 inch charm pack in my sewing room and used the little squares to make this little lined basket.  That little package has been in my stash for a while and I am glad to get it used up and made into something useful!

My main project was Jo Avery's 12 Green Bottles quilt.  I am a member of her Thread House Academy this year and this was one of the project this fall.  It is improv pieced and I spent many happy hours at the retreat watching the online lessons and then making the units for the two types of blocks.  This will be a large wall hanging--about 66" square.  I decided on a restrained palette of green and orange with gray, black and white as well as a sprinkling of black and white prints. 

This quilt will take a while but I now know how to make all the units for the remaining 7 blocks. All of the fabrics are from my stash. 

These little houses were made on the weekend too.  They are from another Jo Avery online class.  I already have 6 houses that I made previously as well as two trees.  I forgot to bring the roof fabric with me so this table runner did not get finished at the retreat.  I will work on it at home. 

While looking for supplies for the retreat, I came to realize that I have quite the collection of interesting pincushions.  Some were made by me and some by friends as gifts to me. 

My husband and I belong to the local hiking club and go for a group hike once a week (most weeks).  It was a really pretty walk through the woods this past week. 

It was frosty on my morning walk a couple of days this week. 

Finn has taken to napping with my daughter's yarn .  He thinks the balls of wool make excellent pillows, and no, he does not unravel the balls or play with them. 

My daughter's crochet blanket is growing. 

Finn is a very snuggly dog. 

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, even though I am really late to their parties!

Sewing Retreat Report and Gardening

Last weekend, my husband and I went to the Camp Kintail Crafter's Retreat--Christine, my usual accomplice at retreats, had other plans for the weekend so my husband agreed to go with me.  He did some reading and worked on weathering some model train cars.  We also went for several walks--it was a gorgeous sunny weekend. I finished off the last three blocks for this quilt.  I have not decided what to name it yet... The blocks are not put together yet as they have to be all trimmed to the exact same size first.   They are bigger than standard 12.5" blocks.  All these fabrics came from my stash--the background is Essex linen. 

I also got caught up on my hollow nine patch blocks for this year's rainbow scrap challenge.  Green is the colour for May and red for April.  

I made a pillowcase for my MIL for Mother's Day.  We stopped to have dinner with her on our way home last Sunday.  Her dad was a beekeeper and this fabric has bees on the flowers.  She has it on her pillow now and is telling everyone I made it for her. 

This panel was donated to our church sewing group and I took it on as my project for the bazaar.  There are little ornaments (mostly made already) that will be added and hang on a button for each day of advent.  I did the quilting of the wall hanging at the retreat.  This still needs binding. 

My flannel scrap bin is overflowing again so it is time for another flannel scrap quilt.  I cut up some scraps and started sewing them in pairs.  On Monday night, I started sewing the pairs into foursies.  (Christine was here to sew that evening)

After consulting with my hooking friends, I decided to remove the stem stitches and start over.  Luckily, taking a line of loops out of a hooked rug is very easy and quick.  They both suggested I use two strands of yarn for one line of loops in the stems.  I will give this a try soon. 

I asked my daughter for a picture of her April books and granny squares for her book blanket.  She was quite busy at work in April and did not do a lot of reading.  The pace is picking up in May so there will be more squares made this month. 

We have spent lots of time working on the yard and garden this week. This is the last daffodil to bloom in my backyard--so pretty--I like the orange edge on the centre part of the flower. 

My husband picked our this unusual plant at the garden centre where we bought annual for our porch and patio pots.  It is called Kangaroo Paws and originated in Australia.  We looked up what real kangaroo paws look like and you can see an image at this link.  The plant does look remarkably like real kangaroo paws!

I planted all our patio and porch pots and so far, everything is doing well, despite the squirrels best efforts to dig in the pots...

I need to buy some smaller trays for the bottom two plants on this stand. 

My husband's dad always grew geraniums from seed for us each year so we put geraniums on our front porch every year in his memory. 

Christine and I went out for lunch in Port Stanley for her birthday this week.  We went for a walk and then stopped for ice cream before heading home.  

Our deutzia bush is starting to bloom--it will be covered in these small white flowers very soon. 

Two chipmunks entertained my husband and I as we ate supper one night this week.  They would come close to us and then run off quickly. It was hard to get a good picture!

We hiked with the hiking club one morning.  I love seeing all of the spring green emerging at this time of year. 

And, the trilliums are blooming!

Finn likes to lend a helping paw when my daughter is reading or crocheting.  

My Mother's Day gift was a new cookbook.  I have already tried one of the recipes!  yum!

I will close this off with a sunset picture from Camp Kintail. 

I will link up with three blogs this week--Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers, Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge as well as Frederique's weekly link up.