Sunday, June 3, 2007

Back Home Again

The drive to Naramata was spectacular, we saw several deer and a black bear along the drive, sorry didn't get pictures. We arrived Sun afternoon and were greeted by the ladies from Edmonton. Three of the ladies drive 10 hours the Saturday before and then another 2 hours Sunday just to come to the Naramata retreat. They also stopped to pick up Louise, she founded Quiltaholics 30 years ago, and is now 83. She moved away from our area and can't attend the regular Tuesday meetings anymore, so it was really nice for her to come. After our hugs and hello's we got straight into quilting. A typical day was up early for breakfast, take a walk before it gets too hot, sew, laugh, eat lunch, sew, sew, a drink for happy hour, eat dinner and sew, laugh, and sew some more. We did get some sleep in there as well. And little break for shopping at Poppins Quilt Shop on Wed.

Here is a view of the building we sewed in, it's directly across from the beach.
We had somewhat of a view of the lake from our sewing room, the lake is behind those trees.
I was very happy to have completed more than half of my Double Wedding Ring blocks. They still need to be trimmed but I'm very happy to have so many done. I also worked on my redwork and a little bit of knitting. I'll show the redwork later when I get it made into something, maybe another bag is on the horizon :-)
The Quiltaholics have a challenge each year for the retreat. This years challenge was to make a quilt using only 2" x 3 1/2" rectangles which is from the book Successful Scrap Quilts. All the quilt pictures below are using this one rectangle, it's unbelievable how different each one turned out. I didn't have the book so I just couldn't get the inspiration to make one.









I'm off to take care of a sick cat, Jenny managed to hurt her paw while I was away. Took her to the vet yesterday and they needed to put her under to remove the nail. Just before I left for the retreat she was at the vet for a kidney infection, so she's really not feeling well. Poor little Jenny, she's getting old. This summer she will be turning 15 years old.

17 comments:

Rose Johnston said...

the quilts r gorgeous wendy and the retreat looks lovely!!! Your double wedding rings looks fabulous, great job with them, i love the colours!!

Vicki W said...

what a lovely location and sounds like great fun! The challenge quilts are fantastic. That is one of my favorite scrap quilt books.

JoAnna said...

Thanks for sharing the photos of the quilts -- they are so neat! I love that you can do so many different things with the same raw material.

Hugs for your kitty!

Carole said...

Looks like it was a wonderful time! Sorry to read about Jenny! Gently chin rubs for her! Your DWR is coming out sweet! Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

What a super location, love your double wedding ring, you must be really happy with the progress you made on it.

Darlene said...

Your DWR quilt is looking beautiful. Wow, you made great progress. You'll have that finished before you know it.

What a lovely location for a retreat. I'm glad you had a great time!

Libby said...

Sounds like a fun retreat - the challenge pieces turned out great.

swooze said...

Great progress on your DWR. Those challenge quilts are great too. Hope Jenny gets better soon.

The Calico Cat said...

I have that Successful Scrap Quilts book & still want/plan to make a quilt or two or 3... I even have a TON of rectangles cut & waiting...

Doodlebug Gail said...

What a pretty place for a retreat - a place to soothe your soul. Lovely quilts - especially like blue and floral/cream .... looks like they're both from the same pattern - it is nice to see the pattern in different colourways.

Rhonda said...

Wow...what a great retreat. Isn't it great that we have neat places to meet and sew...and I love the different quilts made for the same pattern.

Pam said...

Looks like a beautiful spot for a retreat. It is nice to have a retreat that is 4-5 days long - you can really get a lot of quilting done in that amount of time.

Poor Jenny - hopefully she is getting better.

sara, the house of charm said...

The location sounds marvelous! DWR pattern quilt is gorgeous!!!!!!

jovaliquilts said...

I own that book and just love looking through it! It's amazing how different all those quilts look, even those made from the same pattern. Thanks for sharing so many photos.
Cheri

Jeanne said...

What a wonderful bunch of challenge quilts! Thanks for sharing them. I hope Jenny is doing better soon.

keslyn said...

Looks like you had a wonderful productive time away, are the ark's in your double wedding ring quilt appliqued on? I have made a couple of Double Wedding Ring quilts but I have always sewn them as rings, this methods looks much simplier.
Hope your cat is Ok
Kerry

Knot Garden said...

Looks like a beautiful location! Your DWR blocks are stunning. Looking forward to seeing the redwork.