Anita Retreat 2026

My nieces invited me to their quilting retreat which I attended earlier this week. It was only about a 2h drive via the $$$407$$$.

On the way there I stopped for gas at an ESSO station hoping to use PC points at the pump but I was informed over the speaker that I had to go inside and they wouldn't do the PC points things. They did ask for a deposit so I put $60 on my card, then went out and pumped $38 of gas. The guy came out with my receipts and I drove off (more about this later).

The retreat house is in a very upscale enclave of homes just inside Wellesley township - and only a few km west of Heidelberg. Counting all the finished areas of the house I would say it's 6000 square feet.

Among the 5 bedrooms there are 12 beds which can accommodate 14 people. I shared the 'master bedroom' (4 twin beds) with my nieces, Ana and Rosa. There was a huge ensuite bath attached which included a big soaker tub. Each bed had a bed warmer. Towels were nice and fluffy. Most amenities were provided. Very chi chi poo poo.

Downstairs was our work area. 14 six-foot tables and a big ironing station.

There was a kitchen down there as well with full-size fridge, dishwasher and microwave.

I got a lot done; finishing most of the ornate border of The Light of Winter. Just need to fill in the centres of the pink flowers.

I got two checkerboard pieces sewn and quilted onto the batting - ready to make them into project bags. 

The two colourways are in the fabric line. I'll use the companion fabric for the lining.

I also started the half square triangles for the little Black Eyed Susan mini quilt. 

One of the attendees, Reg, gave me a strip of the nifty 1/4" guide tape which made sewing 1/4" away from the diagonal MUCH easier. I didn't have to painstakingly draw a line on each of the 72 - 1.5" squares. I just lined up the tip of the diamond with the left side of my 1/4" presser foot and aligned the bottom of the diamond with the line to the left of the centre red line.

Chain-piecing was very easy.

I got all the wool felt bits cut out for the wool felt appliqué Bowl Fillers - a kit I had purchased ages ago at Quilter's Cupboard.

This morning, I finished all the pinwheels for the mini quilt.

Those pinwheels only measure 2 1/2" square! The individual squares before making them HSTs were 1 1/2" square. Thank goodness Reg loaned me her nifty Slotted Trimmer ruler. This was the one with 1/2" gradations and there is another with 1" gradations. 

Once the HSTs are cut, they don't need to be opened and pressed. Simply line the seam line on the triangle up with the trimmer and trim, the slots in the sides are for trimming the dog ears. So cool!

I'm really glad I took a photo of the sample at Hobby House 

as the fabric description in the pattern didn't exactly match the fabric in the kit. 

I then cut and labelled the rest of the pieces and sewed everything together. I learned to nest the seams when joining pinwheels which made aligning the seams much easier.

I'm taking a break for this and will read when the next steps are - probably cutting out the felt pieces. I'll use the freezer paper but this time I'll reverse the pattern so my elements face the right way.

About my ESSO experience - it's 4 days later and the 'deposit' has been removed from my transactions but the $38 charge of gas I did buy hasn't appeared. Did I get a free fill-up? Time will tell.

You Get What You Pay For

 I've been planning what to take on my crafty retreat tomorrow. We're responsible for our own breakfasts and lunches and divvied up items to share for dinner. I popped into the $1.25 store for a couple of things and saw this cute little amigurumi kit in the craft area.

I figured it could easily be adapted to make a donkey. I checked inside the box to make sure everything was there - including the instructions - as the instructions weren't mentioned in the contents list on the box.

Once I got it home, I removed the contents: white and black yarn, stuffing, eyes, darning needle, crochet hook, and instructions.

The 3.5mm crochet hook looks a bit sketchy but everything else checked out.

The directions are going to take some doing to interpret. I highlighted the first, and very important line:

OK, so the white yarn is in back font, but do you see any red font for the black yarn? 

Not you either?

So I guess I'm going to have to really look at the accompanying photos and count rounds to make the correct colour changes.

The instructions for making the magic loop are with white yarn but the nose of the zebra (where the pattern starts) uses black yarn which should be in a red font. I'll definitely be looking on Ravelry for a legible pattern.

This is a partial list of what I'm taking to work on at the retreat:

• amigurumi zebra kit
• Mystical Lanterns project (I did 5 of the lanterns last night)**
• light interfacing for drawing 2.5" grid for more checkerboard project bags
• knitting - helix sock, more little bears
• The Light of Winter cross-stitch project
• my 'stealth' small for the guild's competition in June
• my birthday start project (I may start it early)
• 2 wool felt appliqué projects to cut out (probably not do any sewing)
• Smitten cross-stitch project

I'll probably throw more stuff in at the last minute. I'm taking my sewing machine in case I get far enough to quilt the checkerboard project bags. Must remember to take the necessary sewing accessories.

I had a nice visit with Skip's niece, Michelle, today. Among Skip's things I found 4 old, gold rings that I assumed had belonged to his mother. I gave Michelle first 'dibs' as she is the eldest granddaughter and she was pleased to receive them. She even recognized one of them as being her grandma's. So nice for her to have something else of her grandma's now.

We got enough wet, heavy snow yesterday to warrant the snow clearing service to make an appearance. And even got a little more overnight. The 2h drive tomorrow shouldn't be treacherous as I'll mostly be sticking to major highways. The Len's Mill pop up store at the St. Jacob's market is en route so I will make a stop there before arriving at the retreat location.

A Timely Delivery

9 days ago I ordered the Mystical Lanterns crochet kit and pattern from Wool Warehouse in the UK.  I didn't expect to receive the parcel before leaving for my retreat. I was very happy to receive it today.

I was not so happy to have to pay duty and a $9.99CAD handling fee. 

However, I hadn't had to pay this with the previous two kits ordered from the UK so I guess I was lucky those previous two times. 

Twelve 100g balls of vivid colour; Stylecraft Life DK is a 75/25 acrylic/wool blend.

A couple of them are heathered, the rest are solids.

I also ordered the pattern; am itching to get started.

It looks like a pretty easy pattern. With all the outer rounds being different colours, I'll definitely join them invisibly. I'm pretty sure there will be enough yarn to make an ever wider or longer blanket.

Am still taking a bunch of projects to work on at the retreat but I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time cranking out some of these 'lanterns'.

It's turned into a wet, snowy day. We're supposed to get 4cm of snow. Scooter is spending the day at our public library downtown (3.4km away) and got there on foot. I texted him to let him know I'd be happy to retrieve him if he didn't want to slip and slide but so far he's OK with getting home on his own.

Veronica is quite surprised at the snowfall as are we. (click the play triangle twice)

On this gloomy day, I spent some more time working on the border of The Light of Winter.

Just the leaves and eyelets and filling in the centres of the pink flowers left to do on the border.

Now to start packing for the retreat - I leave in a couple of days.

All the Way Around

Yesterday I put a push on to get the outline of the border done. I removed about 1/3 of the stitches I had stitched in order to correct mis-counts or being out by one thread. I had to resort to using the magnifier on my lamp in addition to my 3.0 magnifying reader glasses.

Now I can stitch the motifs socially and probably not screw up as much.

I frequently dragged my needle across to the border on the other side to make sure the alignment was correct. Thank goodness I was able to figure out where I had gone wrong. 

I also decided to unpick the deer that was below the house on the right as I didn't want to repeat the counting error on its mirror image on the other side.

I usually knit at night while watching TV. Last night I almost completed the leg of the second helix sock.

Scooter has settled in here for the next few weeks. He teaches English as a Foreign Language to folks all over the world so I told him he could set up in his dad's office. I really haven't been able to do a lot of clearing out of Skip's stuff but made space on the desk and bookshelf.

I'm pleased Scooter has moved his teaching stuff into that space so it can be separate from his bedroom. He  does a lot of conversational stuff with the children he teaches so has lots of props to prompt conversation. The little flour dough hand imprint below the clock was made for his Grandma on the occasion of her 80th birthday in 1997 when Scooter was 3.9 years old. (written on the back)

It's nice having him here and not too much of an adjustment. The house is big enough we can both do our 'thing' and not get in each other's way. I've always enjoyed spending time with him.

The girlies are planning a road trip to a stitching retreat in August. Sadly, Jen1 and I won't be attending because it overlaps with the time she and I will go to music camp. I could have attended both and just left the Ottawa retreat early on the Sunday - driven the 4 hours to Whitby, packed up the car for camp, picked up Jen1, and driven the 2 hours to 'camp' at Wilfrid Laurier U in Waterloo. Even though I want to do 'all the things', I opted to not overdo things. Instead I'll do my own little road trip in SW Ontario at another time.

Speaking of retreats. I'm starting to get my mind in gear for my departure this Sunday. Check-in is 4pm so I'll leave in time to visit a Len's Mill store in Waterloo en route. (not that I need anything - cough).  I'm taking way more projects than I'll ever work on but I want all my bases covered. I just thought of another sewing project I can take - must make note of it in my phone.

While I do all my crafty things, I often listen to podcasts. Lately, I've been listening to 'The Secret World of  Roald Dahl'. Very interesting. After working as a spy during WWII, he authored, 'James and the Giant Peach', Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'BFG', 'Matilda', etc. I don't believe I've read any of his children's books so have a couple on hold at the library. I may even download the eBooks on my iPad rather than wait for audiobooks to become available. 

Lola!

Last night I fully finished Lola. 

She's knit from 100% merino wool.  Her sweater is Mustard, an acrylic DK remnant from the Persian Tiles blanket.

Lola, Ernest, and Veronica

I have another one on the needles but I need to change the colour of the duplicate-stitched heart stitches because they don't show up very well.

I've been getting quite a bit done on The Light of Winter. 

There's hope I may actually finish it before the summer.

I'd like to do a start on my birthday - the day before the first spring StitchNorth. I'll need to do more thinking on the matter. Perhaps the Fluttering Butterflies project I received last week.

However, last night I remembered I had a couple of wool felt appliqué kits I could get going on.

I bought this complete kit a couple of years ago at Quilter's Cupboard. I saw it on display last fall at a craft show and remembered that I had the kit.

I also have the complete kit for this project. Which I bought from Cotton Harvest at least a year ago.

I'm a sucker for sunflowers.

I just ironed freezer paper onto printer paper so I could copy the patterns onto the freezer paper. That way I won't have to reverse the templates to cut out the felt pieces. Rather than select floss ahead of time to go with the felt colours, I'll just take my full floss stash and select as I go.

I also have a couple of ugly Christmas sweater wool felt appliqué kits in my stash somewhere. 

That also brings to mind the three little foundation paper piecing kits I could work on, too.

Introducing Veronica!

I took the latest little bear to stitching yesterday. Everyone thought it should be a girl and Sharon G insisted she should be named Veronica.

After I got home, I stitched her eyelashes and attached a bow matching her sweater.

I present - Veronica!

She likes to have adventures with Ernest.

Inspired by the Paralympics, they thought figure skating would be fun for their Bearalympics. (Thanks to ChatGPT).

Veronica is always up for a wee photo shoot. For example, today at the fabric shop.

Stay tuned for lots of adventures with Ernest and Veronica.

A Fine Day Out

Today we ventured into The Big City to visit the Knitting Loft, a yarn shop and Country Clothesline, a fabric shop.

MaryK and our driver, Poppy were our trusty companions. My, what an amazing assortment of quality yarns they have! 

Ernest and Veronica (our newest little buddy) posed for the photo shoot.

All I came away with was a ball of bear-coloured DKweight yarn. What ever will I knit with it???

After lunch we headed to Country Clothesline off O'Connor in East York. It's not a big shop but it has lots of Liberty of London, Tilda, Wm Morris, etc. fabrics.

There also lots and lots of fat quarters - tastefully arranged by colour palette.

I bought a 'scrap bag' which had 1.5 yards of random widths of fabrics.

Inside were 11 WOF strips ranging between 3.5" and 5.5" wide. They'd be great for EPP, backing stitched projects, small checkerboard projects, etc.

I picked up some snips on sale and a pack of Tilda fabric-covered buttons. 

They'd be cute decorating little sewn items: biscornus, pincushions, pillows, etc.

I thought they'd work well with anything from this charm pack I also purchased.

After a lovely day of shopping and camaraderie Poppy skillfully drove us back home.

It truly was a fine day out.