Monday, December 12, 2011

Food, Fun and Stitching

We enjoyed another fun retreat here at The Cabin.  This time I remembered to take pictures of the meals prepared by Bernie. 

The ladies brought great projects to work on.  Jenifer and Susan were both working on Autumn Splendour, the bag I designed for the fall TopStitchers club.  Many different techniques are used in the creation of this bag.  One of which is couching.  Below is a picture of my favourite presser foot designed for couching narrow decorative cords.
There's a little hole in the front of the foot that the cord is threaded through.
Here's Barbara quilting her fabulous fish wall hanging.
 This is Sky working on an adorable penguin wall hanging for a special person on her Christmas list.
Here's Jenifer working on her Autumn Splendour bag.  She nearly completed her bag during the retreat.
This is Susan working on her Autumn Splendour bag.  Let's see if she finishes it...
On the menu for lunch was French Onion soup and a grilled turkey, brie and cranberry sandwich.  My mouth is watering as I remember the medley of flavours. 

I'm new to photographing food. I'm getting a light to get rid of shadows.  All I need is a bit more practice.  But I think you get the idea.

Here I am working on the quilt that's on the design wall in the background, it's called Montana Cartwheel.  I'm making a queen size quilt.  The quilt calls for 80 arcs.  I have 20 of them done so far.  But to tell the truth I only stitched two 2" seams the whole day.  I'm easily distracted.
This, oh boy, this is a Goat cheese appetizer with roasted garlic and pesto.  The entire Cabin smelled heavenly.  I didn't get a chance to take the picture before we started digging in.
The hosts.
The Girls.  We polished off that entire plate.
Here's Barbara showing her beautiful Sudoku quilt top.
Susan completed the outside of her Autumn Splendour bag.  She's looking pretty happy.

For supper we had Greek food.  Chicken or lamb Souvlaki, lemon infused, roasted potatoes, tzatziki, and Bernie's signature Caesar salad.  All the food was prepared from scratch.

After supper we continued sewing...
Barbara finished quilting her wall hanging.
Here's detail of her precision quilting.
Susan continued working on her bag. 
Jenifer is inserting the zipper into her lining.

Here's a very happy Susan with her finished Autumn Splendour bag.  Way to go Susan.

All in all we shared a day full of delicious food, lots of laughter and sewing.  I can hardly wait for the next retreat.  I hope you can join us.

Happy Stitches.