Loon Lake Retreat 2013

This past long weekend I had the amazing opportunity once again to attend the Loon Lake Quilt Retreat in beautiful British Columbia!  Loon Lake is and hour or so outside of Vancouver, a quiet (except for the rowdy quilters) lodge all on its own on a tranquil lake surrounded by mountains, forest and mist.  Sigh. Pretty much the best thing you can imagine.

The retreat is run by the lovely Krista/K1 of Poppyprint.  I was lucky enough to get invited on a cancelation last year, and have basically told The Hubs that there is no freaking way I am relinquishing my spot EVER, so I plan for this to be my annual get away.  I was on my best behaviour and, aside from trying to engage a group of Buddists in conversation (who happened to by on a silent retreat), I managed to behave and avoid any of the ridiculously embarrassing predicaments that I normally find myself in.  It is a pretty exclusive group of incredible quilters and women hand picked by Krista.  

Everyone gets along so well and it is four days filled with inspiration and food and wine and nature and essentially BLISS. So if you are hoping to ever crack the list and weasel in on a cancellation like me, I suggest you start buttering Krista up now- she likes coffee and chocolate, FYI.

Aside from Krista/K1, I also got to reunite with Krista/K2 Withers, the amazing long arm quilter.  Just a warm, personable fun girl.  I also finally met Krista/K3 of Spotted Stones, who I just loved so much.  Incredibly sweet and kind, and just an amazing aesthetic.  She whipped up the most beautiful things!  I even got spoiled with some gifts on my first day there- one of K3's fabulous deer hyde and screen printed fabric pouches and a Liberty hand embroidered bookmark and book from K1.  Thanks ladies! I love them :)

And of course there is the lovely Felicity of Felicity Quilts, the hilarious Berene of Happy Sew Lucky, the talented Janet of What Comes Next?, and Sindy, JoAnne, Paula and more who you may know from IG.  Such an amazing group who have become true friends! I sewed a table with Felicity, Sindy and Petrushka all and they kept me in stitches (pardon the pun) all weekend!

(3 o'clock in B.C. but 5 o'clock Winnipeg time…time for wine!)

Anyways, enough name dropping ;)

So what did I actually DO?  I spent some time each morning having tea and doing a little stitching outside on the dock, enjoying the quiet and the view.

I went on a two hour hike around the lake with a group of ladies.  We channelled our inner Huckleberry Finns to use this wooden raft on a pulley system to cross the lake.

Of course I did some sewing.

In fact, I borrowed K1's old Pfaff and I am pretty sure it was crying for mercy!  Amazing how much you can get done with a glass of wine in hand ;)   I pre-cut all my fabric which was a huge help, and managed to stitch together 3 quilt tops and 5 pouches!

For two of the quilt tops, I used the same fabrics but different patterns.  They are twin sized, meant for Last But Not Least's bunk beds at the cottage.  Bright and happy pinks, oranges and yellows, perfect for summertime!  I went with simple classic patterns, ones I thought that would fit in well with cottage style- equilateral triangles and Granny Squares. I love how they coordinate without being match-matchy.

I ran out of steam before finishing the final twin quilt top for the girls, but squeaked out this baby top from squares that Alison sent me ages ago in a lovely french-themed gauze print.  Will be perfect for a French-Canadian little girl who recently entered the world!

I was gifted some adorable zippers from Berene, so some pouches needed to be made :)  Three were for my kids, and the other 2 will head overseas full of goodies and Christmas gifts for some sweet kids. I hand embroidered the girls' names on theirs, mimicking the speech bubbles in the Erin McMorris Moxie fabric.  For the boys' pouches, I embroidered a simple first initial and patched it in with Essex yarn dyed linen and some home dec weight text fabric from Sweetwater.

Looking back on these pictures makes me a bit moody.  Hard to believe it has come and gone again.  Yes, I am going through a bit of withdrawal.  Only 360 sleeps until next time!