The best kind of weekend...

A stitching weekend with friends, that's what the best weekend is! That's exactly what I was so lucky to have participated in this past weekend. On Friday afternoon I packed the car and headed for a road trip to join several friends in the Brighton/Trenton area. On the way I stopped and picked up Beth who is not fond of driving. She was great company for part of the 3 hr drive. Shortly after supper we arrived at Kathy's new home for the start of a fun-filled weekend. Many of you will be familiar with Kathy and her blog. We were expecting Dani and Christin to join us but Dani's Mum was ill and had been hospitalized just before the start of the weekend. Dani thought it was best to stay close to home and Christin wanted to lend some moral support. We were disappointed to hear they would not be joining us. Ladies, you were missed!

This year there were a number of people who were unable to spend the whole weekend with us but dropped in on either the Saturday or Sunday to spend a few hours stitching and laughing. Always lots of laughing! My sides hurt at times. Besides stitching we also had some instruction on yoga from Bonnie and Beth was brave enough to give it a go while the rest of us giggled and groaned at their antics. There was no flippin' way I could even think about getting down on the floor! Does this mean I'm not flexible?

This post is pretty picture intensive but the pictures speak for themselves and show the wonderful group of women who shared in the fun this weekend.




Our hostess!




Nan with the first finish of the weekend

Nan is going to be putting a quilt together with the PS Alphabet blocks. Several of the ladies have been working on the squares for her.




Beatrice and Barb, who is stitching RM Spring Quakers





Barb's HAED, Bubble Telescope



Isn't Barb's HAED incredible? After seeing Barb's progress, several of the ladies asked Kathy how she was doing with hers. Kathy's HAED was residing  in her trunk of kitted works and WIP. She promptly started emptying the contents of said trunk in her quest. Several minutes later, she had accumulated quite the pile which threatened to rise above her ankles as she dropped each work at her feet! We all agreed that Kathy won for the most WIP!

Kathy spent the weekend stitching on her round robin commitment, a TW Band sampler. I'll save the pictures of that for my next post. By then I'll also have some updated pictures of all that I worked on over the course of the weekend.



Bonnie, our yoga instructor (and secretary)!






Judy, Angie and Ann sharing some fun





Beatrice, who brought the most fantastic Reuben casserole!



Beatrice's Mom, Adriana, with her beautiful stitching



Ann of Knowledge and Needles fame

Ann was wonderful and would call and offer to bring any needed supplies from her shop prior to joining us each day.



Fran showing off her Jardin Prive Quaker

Fran also was stitching this wonderful Romantic Quaker below. Don't you just love the colours? I'm afraid I can't remember who the designer was on this one.



My travelling companion and yoga master, Beth





Judy and Claire sharing a laugh

Claire brought her copy of the newly released JC Halloween Collection Book for all of us to drool over. Tracy Horner's Halloween Mandela is enough for me to want to place my order right away! Bonnie also spotted a picture online of someone stitching Glendon Place's The Witches Wheel.  That was enough for us to put a call in to Ann to see if she had any copies in the shop to bring with her. She only had one and  inquired as to what the bidding would begin at! Since I had travelled the furthest, I was the lucky recipient. Ann will be ordering 5 more copies to complete the remaining requests.

Because this is a long weekend in Canada, the SAL continues until this afternoon. I returned home at supper yesterday since I wanted to spend today with my DH. After this weekend he returns to all his regular rehearsals now the summer is over and I don't expect to see all that much of him for the next while. I'm sure I'll be putting in a few more stitches over the course of the day and so I'll have some progress pics for you on my next post. I divided my stitching between 3 projects, my BBD Sunflower House, LHN America - Canadian version and a surprise gift for a friend. Tomorrow night I'll be stitching again as I join my Tuesday night gang. The fun continues!