Fall Elim Retreat 2018

This weekend was the stitching retreat at Elim Lodge on the east side of Pigeon Lake. On the way up on Thursday, Poppy and I stopped into CraftWorks at Fowler's Corners and From the Heart Quilt Shop in Bethany.

I picked up some gold-coloured wool to use for the houses on my wool appliqué project. Poppy bought a quilt pattern and fabric.

Several of us arrived on Thursday and fended for ourselves food-wise. We stitched...

Barb, Poppy, and I stayed in Sunset - a building about 200 feet away. We each had a room to ourselves with private bath. It snowed overnight. I was really glad I remembered to bring boots.

Kim, Siobhain, and Jen arrived on Friday. 5 of us went for dinner at Jesse's in Ennismore. The rest were reluctant to get on the road again and decided to eat at the dining hall.

I didn't take a lot of photos but did walk around the table and got some shots of some of the pieces people were working on.

Jeanette is working on a whitework piece by Jenny Adin-Christie.

Mary decorated the fireplace with her panoply of Christmas trees.

She also decorated several large Crazy Quilt stockings with buttons, beads, and costume jewelry bits.

Poppy is working on an extremely detailed tulip design from Inspirations magazine. She painted the canvas first with acrylic paints.

Carol has her hexies all organized and alternated between creating more with the Kaffe Fassett fabrics and and working on a beautiful garden quilt.

She brought her finished armchair caddy from last year's challenge to show us.

Many of us brought snacks to share.

Jen is very intrigued with these fabric trays called 'French purses'. This is one Edith brought.

Our room has lots of windows on each side. Here, Poppy is in full concentration mode.

After lunch on Saturday we went to see what the quilters were doing.

The snowman was created using embroidery machine lace.

This flower pincushion is well used. The petals are good for holding clips.

Marilyn and I loved the reindeer pillow. What a simple, yet effective, idea.

Many people were making these zipper bags. Inexpensive, quilted placemats were used.

We saw a few examples of selvedge projects. This one is a sewing machine cover.

These 'stained glass' quilts are created with a fusible appliqué technique on a black background.

I liked the muted fabrics and simple design of this quilt.

This braided rug inspired Poppy to get all the necessary bits for one for herself.

This stained glass quilt was very precisely pieced.

The owner of this machine has attended one of the Missouri Star Quilt Company events. Her machine was autographed by Jenny Doan.

This bit-mouthed frog was a great thread catcher.

Back at Hawthorne, I finished one side of my quaker pear. It's stitched with one ply on 36ct antique white fabric I purchased on our way to Twist last August. I'm using the DMC conversions from the Weeks Dye Works threads.

Yvonne showed us this lovely pouch she had quilted with squares of fabric and cross-stitched pieces.

What a clever idea.

I also got a Christmas ornament stitched and almost half of my punch needle project done. I only have the sky and the rest of the grass to do.

We also got our wool pieces cut out for our wool appliqué class next month. Some of us used the fusible Shape Flex and others used freezer paper. I left my black wool and felt home by mistake so still have to cut them out.  I am really liking my micro serrated scissors.

It was so fun to get so much stitching done and learn all kinds of new things from the other folks in attendance. Now I have to wait a whole year until the next one as we will be down south for the spring one.