Barb's beautiful Christmas Trees on display
Stitch, eat, sleep... repeat! That was the theme for this weekend and the
Knowledge & Needles Retreat, actually its the theme every year! The event and stitching commenced Friday evening and we didn't stop until lunch time today! This is one of those events I look forward to every year, getting together with my good stitching friends (some years meeting a new one or two). Friday evening 18 of us descended upon the
Timberhouse Country Inn outside of Brighton Ontario and quickly settled into our little stitching nests.
Joyce showing off her amazing Mona Lisa!
The tables were beautifully set
Chef Dan with Maitre'd Bruce explaining the day's menu
Sylvia, impatiently waiting for lunch!
It was a lovely couple of days of stitching, gabbing, eating, and some shopping! Saturday afternoon we all took a break from our stitching and headed to Knowledge & Needles HQ where Ann, the owner's husband had a most excellent lunch waiting for us!
Barb checking out the goodies in the gift boxes we each found at our place
Clare, Bernie &
Ann enjoying a glass of wine before our first course is served
Leek & Potato Soup - our first course (and very tasty!)
Seven Layer Salad, Chicken & Broccoli Braid, Cinnamon & Nutmeg Carrots - main course
Lianne doing a little shopping at Knowledge & Needles
After the starter and main course we took a break from food for a little while to go shopping! I was pretty restrained this year and bought only 1 piece of 40 count linen for a SAL I'll be starting in the New Year with some of my stitching friends, one little Lizzie Kate chart, and three JBW charts. Quite tame compared to some of the other ladies shopping that day!
Lianne pouring over her new stash with Clare, Sharon, Sheila, Judie, Ann, Barb, and Berine all ogling!
From shopping we went back to eating with this fantastic trifle that Ann made. After we had done enough eating and shopping for one day it was back to the Timberhouse for more stitching (are you surprised?). The evening brought on our 3rd annual ornament exchange, and what fun we have with this! Upon arrival we all put the ornament we've stitched (and kept top secret) in a paper bag that goes into a basket. Saturday night we take turns drawing names one by one picking ornaments. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.
Judie showing off Ann's ornament that she picked
Naan, our oldest retreat member showing off
Bonnie's ornament
Beatrice with I think Joyce's ornament
What amazes me is that we NEVER have a duplicate!
Our little tree all decorated with the ornaments after the exchange
This year I received Beatrice's beautiful ornament, I've been lucky so far and received ornaments from different people each year! I'm sure many of the ladies walked away looking forward to putting their new ornament up on their trees in the near future, and planning next year's ornament!
Here I am showing off
Beatrice's ornament, as usual lots of bling!
Ann, serving shrimp Saturday evening
We stitched late into the night, but sadly Sunday morning, then lunchtime rolled around all too soon where we one by one started to pack up and say goodbye. Some of these ladies I won't be seeing again until the New Year or spring, which is always sad! This is such a fantastic group of ladies I love them all!
