Another Retreat Redux - 2011 style

A few weeks ago two of my retreat road trip buddies and I headed for the gorgeous Shuswap Lake area of B.C. for our annual 5 days of good times. You know the drill: food, wine, fabric, Featherweights (finally, I'm in the club!), sunshine, shop-hopping and a bit more food. Plus you've already heard about the fund raiser where I met fortrel.

The past year has been one of pretty constant production for me, so for the first time I didn't really feel pressured to sew the entire time. In fact, I took a really laid back approach and managed to almost finish a novel while we were away (The Help - highly recommend it). One thing I worked on will be kept under wraps until it gets further along. I'm just being protective because I know it's going to take me a very long time to make. So, in order to feel like I was getting somewhere, I decided to take a break from the tedious piecing and make coordinating pillow cases for this future quilt. They didn't teach me "Always be Prepared" in Girl Guides for nothing!

This is Agatha in action. I realize that I haven't properly introduced her and I need to do that soon.

Rossie gets stuff done. Like a lot of stuff. I think she pieced this whole baby quilt after we got there on the first day. Jeez, make me look bad.

Adapted "Sparkling Gemstones" pattern from the book Jelly Roll Quilts

by Pam and Nicky Lintott. This is one of the prettiest jelly roll books I've seen. It is full of gorgeous patterns.

Meanwhile Sandi got down to business putting the borders on this piece of French General awesomeness (these two girls, combined, have more French General than most fabric stores, and they've both made their own versions of this quilt).

And what else did your's truly get up to? Well, I put borders on and basted this stitchery.

This will be an end of school year present for my daughter, who just completed her first year of French Immersion. I initially did the embroidery on this same retreat two years ago (see? I take my time!). This is actually a twin, the first one was finished ages ago and was one of the very first things I ever blogged about.

I also made 8 thread catchers. Some for special orders, and some more just because I seem to go into bulk production whenever someone asks for one. They're all gone already, so all I can show you is the aftermath.

These are the corners I trim off of the thread bags

There you have it, a little slice of my May retreat heaven. The exciting part is (1) Only 350 days 'till we get to go back again, woohoo! and (2) Sandi has offered B and I the lakehouse for 5 days in July so we can go cycling together while the kids are off at camp. Double woohoo!

Best wishes for a great week. I've got lots to do and it starts with the kids off school tomorrow for a teacher's pro-day.....