Loon Lake retreat part 1: the people

I think it would be near impossible to NOT have fun spending four days sewing to your heart's content, eating gourmet meals that you don't have to make, and waking up to this view every day:

But it's really the people who top it all with awesome sauce.

And this group of ladies was a saucy bunch!

 

Let's start at the beginning: the master planner, puppeteer, orchestrator of the magic, Krista of Poppyprint.  As this is a small invite-only retreat, you may want to start kissing her arse now so that you can get invited should she have a rare cancelation next year.  Let me tell you, I was on my best behavior and didn't even utter an f-sharp until the last day (I was trying to unsuccessfully sew together some very ugly fabric, but more on that later).  It seems I may have bamboozled her and now have a sturdy foothold that I never plan to relinquish!

If you ever get a chance to take a retreat planned by Krista, do it.  The woman is not only Awesome with a capital A, she is organized.  We wanted for nothing on this trip, all things were smoothly handled and just simply perfect.

For example:  I hoped to borrow a sewing machine so I didn't have to drag mine on the plane, she provided it.  I was short some Pellon interfacing, she happened to have a bolt (!!!) on hand.  I needed some buttonholes for a project that my machine couldn't do, she made them.  For wine of course.  Just look at her, hard at work......

Then there is Krista Withers, longarm arm quilter extraordinaire.  That woman can quilt the bejesus out of stuff, let me tell you, you really need to RUN over to her blog and check it out.  Love this girl.  

I do believe that I may have found a wee bit of a sister-in-mischief with her, as she backed me up as I tried to bring this schenanigans to fruition:

The two Kristas make up K1 and K2, and the missing Krista of Spotted Stones, who attended last year's retreat, is K3.  They granted my the name of K3.5, and said to get the full K4 status I have until next November to have my name legally changed from Kristie to Krista.  Am currently sorting through the paperwork.

Felicity- I could go on forever about this wonderful woman!  She has the most gorgeous eyes and the best laugh...all weekend I strived to be funny just to hear it!  She and her family welcomed me into their home on my arrival and fed me a wonderful brunch while her adorable daughter G showed me all of her precious toys and some of her very best dance moves.  Then she took me shopping for shoes....I love that she was able to find the PERFECT pair for me in seconds: "These shoes scream "Kristie" to me."  Just goes to show you how well you can know people you hadn't physically met.

We got to enjoy some extra time together on the car ride to and from Loon Lake, and just had a blast.  Never an awkward pause in conversation, just instant friends!

In addition to these handful of blogging friends I had known prior to the retreat, I got to meet a bunch of other amazing women who kept me in stitches (pardon the pun) all weekend long.  I was seated with an amazing group of five new-to-me women who took me under their wing and became fast friends.

Berene of Happy Sew Lucky has a wonderful sense of humor that I instantly loved.  And I admit I had a bit of a girl crush on her for her mad skillz.  She is a designer by trade, and has the most original ideas, and an amazing shop full of fantastic kits and patterns that I loved!  And by fluke it turns out she is the designer of my latest favorite fabric I recently purchased from Spoonflower!  Felt like I was seated next to a rock star. Check out this pincushion and needle holder she designed and has in her shop!

Janet of What Comes Next? is likely not only the nicest person I have ever met, but also the most talented   machine quilter that I have ever seen.  What she was churning out on her home machine truly dazzled me.  Loved her humour, too...we could all use a "Hit head here" pillow!

Petrushka was a hoot, constantly coming up with zingers that shocked even me.  Really?  A waitress in a bunny suit?

Vicki was the first to finish a quilt on the weekend, and an amazing one it was.

Jan was a tablemate and one of the Fab 4, a group of, you guessed it, four of us ladies, along with Susan and Ellen, who took some time each day to enjoy some fabulous hikes.  These ladies were kind enough not to leave the prairie girl in the dust. The trail around the lake was fantastic, with a moving dock that had to be pulled over to cross the lake at one point.

Luckily we made it back just before dark!

So many other amazing women met who I now call friends....Sandie, Sindy, Paula, Joann, Rebecca (Never, ever, ever.....) and more!  Can't wait to meet up again next year!

Next post- the stuff I actually made :)

so this chick walks into a quilt retreat...

So this Chick walks into a quilt retreat, and the Girls are all like, "Chick, where did you get that rocking bag?" and the Chick is, like, "Girls, I made it." And the Girls are like, " No way!' and the Chick says, "Way!"  They were impressed by her mad style, righteous color choices and the ever so snazzy silver pleather handle and bottom.

And then of course they rejoiced once aware of the copious amounts of fabric and yarn the bag could hold!

Next,  there may have been some merry hoopla and fist pumping and maybe even some chicken dancing, but who could say for sure, because it was a QUILT RETREAT after all, and so of course there was a lot of alcohol involved.

True story.  {I think}

More tall tales of quilt retreat adventures to follow, stay tuned, you aren't gonna want to miss these ;)

at least my credit card is working out

I wish I knew how to quilt you, mini chocolate bars.

I am feeling entirely too "fluffy" and blame it (partly) on those darn tasty little Halloween chocolate bars.  After my retreat, there will have to be some SERIOUS sugar restriction going on over here!  But my credit card is feeling pretty lean after the fabric shopping workout it has been having lately.  Avert your eyes now if you wish to resist temptation!!

Like everyone in the bloggy universe, I have been loving the text prints out there, and built myself a great stack here:

 

I did a good job resisting Chicopee (not ringing my bell), but as IF I could turn my back on anything Anna Maria Horner....

 

And then these bits of miscellany seemed to find their way to me as well.

I guess it is not only chocolate that I need to start limiting!  Better get sewing up these lovelies!

retreat prep :)

On a very happy note, I will soon be escaping for a weekend for my FIRST EVER quilting retreat!  And I am going big...flying out to Vancouver to hook up with my fabulous and talented friends Krista of Poppyprint and Felicity of Felicity Quilts to spend 3 blissful days holed up in a lodge on a lake in the mountains, eating food I don't have to cook and sewing 24/7 if I darn well feel like it.  That ought to satisfy the sewing itch a bit!  And apparently there is even a fireplace where I can curl up and do some knitting.  I may just miss my flight home.... ;)

I have an absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic list of projects that I have packed and am planning to complete.  I have been spending much of the last week or so pre-cutting fabrics so that I can just get down to business!  I did a "test" make of one of the projects I will be working on, and it is pretty darn cute:

And this sweet little purse opens up to this:

This is from the Storybrook Lane pattern booklet and panel by Ever Kelly (bought here).  It also comes with a bunch of cute finger puppets of stuffed dolls that can be used to play in the house.  I had so much fun making this and picking the coordinating fabrics to go with the panel pieces. I love the library book prints from Victoria and Albert with this! I plan to produce 7 more of these puppies sweat-shop style on the weekend for basically all the little girls on my Christmas list.  That along with 4 quilt tops.  And don't forget the 3 knitting projects.  Hmmm.....can you tell I have a bit of pent up crafty energy?  Wish me luck!

a costume and a winner

Happy Halloween!  So this year, I did something I swore I would never do.  I sewed a Halloween costume.   I always thought that the time and effort to make a costume for one day of the year was not worth it, and would send my kids to the dress up box on Halloween to find something that fit over their snowsuits and call it a day.  And they never seemed to mind.   But this year, my 8 year old son had it in his head that he wanted to be a puffle, and only a puffle would do.

A what?!?!?  For those of you unfamiliar with puffles, they are the wee colorful and fuzzy pets in the Disney online game Club Penguin, and look something like this:

Big G wanted to be a red puffle, so I got some fun fur and some red hairspray and we have this:

Mission accomplished!  Happy kid, happy mom.  The Middle Child chose her Minnie Mouse cosutme from her last dance recital, and Last But Not Least....a princess.  Again.

Now, onto the winner for the Ghastiles fabric bundle from Alice at alidiza.  I took out a couple entries that were duplicated to bring the total to 46 the winner is:

And that is Tawny! Tawny happens to be a fellow Winnipegger (who I have yet to meet in person!) and has a great blog here.

I will get your mailing info and pass it on to Alice.

Have a great Halloween!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Welcome, Festival Goers!

This time around, I have decided to share my favorite quilt-du-jour and most recent finish, my Ghastlies quilt.   I found the perfect "haunted house" at which to photograph my quilt...very spooky!

 

I made this one with no pattern or plan in mind, just started with a few wonky blocks around fussy cuts from Alexander Henry's The Ghastlies line, and the project grew.  I added oranges, purples and pinks from my stash to compliment the greys and blacks, and had a blast bringing it all together.  One of my favorite parts is the wonky border, and the huge spiderweb quilting.  I did a tutorial for the quilting here (and there is also a Ghastly giveaway that you can enter if you'd like!).

The back is a simple spiderweb print from the local Fabricland, which, we discovered by fluke recently, glows in the dark!  My kids were VERY excited by this, really ramped up the "cool" factor for them (is "cool" the word to use these days??).

Wishing you all a spooktacular Halloween, and thanks for stopping by!  You can peek at some of my other finished quilts here if you'd like.  Enjoy the Festival!

Update:  It is nomination time, so if you are kind enough to nominate my quilt, I am #352!  Best categories would be:
- quilt photography
- home machine quilted (spiderweb!)
- throw quilt

Thank you!

spiderweb quilting tutorial and giveaway

*This giveaway is now closed*

Have you heard about the Ghastly Gathering hosted by Alice at aldiza?


She is running a fun little link up of all things Ghastly over at her blog, along with tutorials and such.  You should stop by!  And to top it off, she is giving away bundles of Ghastly fabric to participants (and I was lucky enough to win one- thanks, Alice!)!  She asked me if I would do a tutorial for the spiderweb quilting I used on my own Ghastly quilt.  

And as an added bonus, she will be awarding this bundle of the Ghastlies to someone who comments on this post!

So, here goes!


First of all, RELAX.  It is very freestyle, i.e. impossible to mess up.  The less mapped out and linear, the better.  But it helps to do a bit of preplanning.

I took a piece of paper and roughly sketched my quilt size, and decided how I wanted the web to extend.  Instead of centered, I found it was more dramatic offset to one side.  I placed the epicenter at the top right of the quilt.  Then I mapped out the radiating lines from that point.  I liked it best when lines did not cross through the center and keep going...made it a bit more wonky, which suited my quilt.

I basted my quilt and then chose my thread.  I opted to use a thicker thread, Aurafil 12 wt ("normal" is 50 wt), in a coordinating orange/yellow shade so that my quilting was very pronounced.  This thread reminds me a bit of the Perle cotton thread that I like to use for hand quilting, though not quite as thick.

Next I took some time to mark the radiating lines with dressmakers chalk and a ruler.  This will wash out completely so it is great for this purpose.

I started my quilting, following along those lines.

Once my radiating lines were placed, I started the webbing.  Beginning at the epicentre, I made c-shaped connections between the lines, turning the quilt as I went, the curve dipping towards the centre.

Continue until the entire quilt is covered in a spooky spiderweb!

Remember to leave a comment here to enter Alice's giveaway. Winner will be drawn on Sunday October 31!

*This giveaway is now closed*