Final Sylvan Retreat

Hey Ladies
I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow. As all the attendees know this will be the last retreat I will be hosting at Sylvan Lake but hopefully not the last Prairie Hens Quilt Retreat.
As far as Sylvan Lake Crystal will be starting her own retreat and I wish her good luck with her venture.
In the future I am hoping to host smaller Prairie Hen Quilt Retreats in BC.....
 so keep tuned..........

Retreat time almost here

8 days and counting
I hope everyone is as excited as me; I am ready for some sewing time and as much as I love retreat I will be anxious to get back home.
Some of you know and some do not but we are expecting our first grandchild at the end of the month so I am very excited.
I have been sewing lots of baby things but what isn't finished is on the design wall and not coming with me.
I mentioned in the reminder letter about a fun fabric swap I want to try...if you are interested bring a yard of a fabric of your choice with you.
I also mentioned some possible changes for our garage sale table-some of us have assorted items we've made for craft sales etc. such as pincushions, pot holders. Maybe scrap fabric bags or small projects you no longer want to complete rather than so many magazines and patterns.
As always open for suggestions-so far every year we have raised enough to send a child to camp.

See you soon.

41 days and counting

How many of you know what projects you are going to bring to the retreat. We always bring a months worth of sewing for 3 days but then you know you won't get bored.
I usually change my mind so many times that by the time I get there I don't know what I brought to work on. I suppose if I didn't start so many things there would be less to choose from but that wouldn't be as much fun.
I will be sending a reminder email shortly and I hope you are all as excited as I am.
Fingers crossed for great fall weather Oct 16-19th.

***Notice*** there has been a cancellation for one of the beds in the bunk area(all lower) so if you know anyone who wants to come have them contact me ASAP.

Everything....including the kitchen sink

I was circulating this picture at the retreat but it was suggested I should post it here also.
First the story:
I was able to attend a great retreat at Pearson College just outside of Victoria in June of this year.
 I'm sure you all know the saying that" you are taking everything except the kitchen sink" when you pack for a holiday or retreat.
The attached picture is what I found courtesy of my husband when I arrived at the retreat

The sink was added unbeknownst to me after I had packed what was required for the retreat. Had a great laugh and then decided I needed a picture before I moved it out of the way. Luckily it was not heavy as it was a used camper sink.
In comparison to the October retreat just finished Linda and I would not have had room even for this but I was taking a class for all three days of this retreat so only had one project.

Another fabulous retreat.....thanks everyone

Another retreat has been a great success and here we are a week later, already.
Only 51 weeks until the next retreat Kelly. I think things are back to normal; or as close as they ever get.
Here are some pictures from the 2013 retreat.....lots more great tops completed and wonderful time spent laughing and eating and sewing.....................

2 of Faye's for her local women's shelter

Cathy's Easy Street - a Bonnie Hunter mystery

Betty & Cathy's pineapple blocks

Such amazing hand-sewn detail on Terry's wool felt quilt

Dixie's batiks

Linda's bright rail fence style top

Faye's batik made from a bali pop package

The fight was on with the cooks trying to take Karen's gorgeous quilt - Great Fun

Some of the quilts I can't remember whose is whose but they are all great and I know there were many more that I did not get pictures of.

Thanks again to a great group of ladies for a fantastic retreat.......See you all next October :)

Spaces available

Less than a month to go and I have had 2  recent cancellations; at this point there are no refunds so these ladies would really like someone to take their spot. Both are considered shared spots.......1 is a bunk and 1 is a shared queen bed. These are on a first come, first serve basis so if you know anyone who would like to come let me know ASAP and we will work out the details.
Can't wait to see everyone. :)

Countdown is on

I sent out the reminder email yesterday as the retreat is little more than a month away.
Hope everyone is getting their projects organized....I know I am trying.
As always there are too many to chose from and if history is any indication I will buy something new to work on on the way to the retreat.:)
You may have noticed the countdown clock at the top if you are interested. When I set it up I thought it only counted down days and then Kelly posted number of hours on Facebook.
 I came back to see if I could add how many hours until retreat and I see they are already there.......who knew? Apparently not me-----LOL.
Anyway; I'm sure time will fly until we can all get together for a fun weekend full of friendship and sewing. See ya there.

See new page at the top.................

I had planned to combine my 2 blogs into one but discovered I could link them as pages instead. I will try to remember to post more often.
Meanwhile please come and check things out at www.smileyquilter.blogspot.ca. 

2012 Retreat

Thank you to all my great Retreaters for another fantastic retreat.
 We had a full house of 47 in attendance for a fabulous retreat this October.
 This was our 11th annual retreat and looking forward to many more.

Retreat pictures

Finally had time to download my camera so here are a few pictures........more to follow

some of the quilts

Wonderful cake provided by Phyllis Towle made and decorated by her daughter Jenny; isn't it wonderful

This group are the ladies who attended my first quilt retreat 10 years ago and they are still here :) Thanks

More wonderful quilts

And a few more quilts. You see lots of bargello quilts as a group of ladies at last years retreat challenged each other to complete a bargello, quite of few had bought a kit a number of years ago and decided it was time to get them completed. Aren't they beautiful.

Survived a great retreat

Thanks.to all the wonderful ladies who attended my 10th retreat. It was fun as always; not much sewing done by me but lots of talking & eating. Hi Donna let me know if you are reading this, I love comments.
As you can see I have started the countdown to next years retreat. I was going to try and combine this blog with my personal blog but it is too technical for this brain tonite. If you want to know what I' m doing between retreats check out smileyquilter.blogspot.com.

25 days !!!!

Can you believe it's only 25 days....................so much to do.

Can't wait to see everyone, better get ready.

45 day update

The time creeps slowly closer, are you getting ready? Me neither LOL!!

Update re Slave Lake quilts - the response has been a little overwhelming so I just wanted to add we were looking for only 1 or 2 blocks per person as we don't have batting, backing and time to make more than 2 or 3 quilts. They are also receiving a lot of quilts from allover so if we send just a few it will help. A couple of people have a completed quilt they would like to donate and this is an option if you like. We can get them delivered if you bring to retreat or you can mail them directly. Any questions please email me.

What to bring to Retreat

I have just sent an email to everyone whose email address I have that is coming to retreat in October to let you know special events we will be doing this year.

Mystery Bag Swap - whatever type of bag you choose containing about $25 of quilty items which will be swapped Sat evening-this is optional and great fun.

Garage Table - small items which anyone can purchase for a donation to Camp Sunnyside.

Blocks for Blanket Slave Lake - 12 1/2" Disappearing 9 patch or Buckeye Beauty

If you have any questions please email me.

Blanket Slave Lake

I have just heard about this great project to help the people of Slave Lake who lost everything in the fire awhile back. Check out this blog for more info patchworktalks.blogspot.com. They are trying to have a quilt for everybody so I think anyone who is interested could bring a quilt block to donate and we will make quilts from them. If everybody brings one block we could make at least 4 quilts. I will email everyone with suggested block patterns and colors, Linda said they mostly need more guy quilts so I will follow this up soon.

Can you believe it? 58 days until retreat!!!!

I haven't checked in here for awhile and was quite surprised to see my countdown calendar says 58 days until retreat, that sounds so close. I hope you are all as excited as me, I can't wait to see everyone and meet the new people.

It is getting close....... need to decide what I will work on and get things prepared and packed to bring to Alberta. I'm trying right now to finish a number of UFO's so hopefully I can start something new, maybe 2 or 3 new things...wouldn't that be fun.

Updates to follow soon

Update Fall retreat

This is a big "THANK YOU" to everyone. All spots are verified and paid for, you guys make my job so much easier.

If anyone is interested there are 6 spots available-email arley.haner@gmail.com if you have any questions.

See you all in the fall.....enjoy your summer.

More than 1 retreat?

I don't know about anybody else but I feel like I am ready for a retreat long before October. I guess i better get busy looking into that. I would love to host one near here but would love another excuse to go back to Alberta for one in the spring. Not sure where there is room and you usually have to book a year in advance so prob looking at spring 2012 already - my how time flies.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Here is best wishes for a fantastic 2011 with lots of quilting time for everyone.

half square triangle border

Here is the picture of the half square triangle border I mentioned yesterday. It is on a small version of smokey mountain stars. I have also included a picture of a portion of the larger smokey mountain stars to show you the contrast of using a cream background versus a black background using the same pattern. If you are interested this a free pattern on Bonnie Hunter's site quiltville.com.