At Retreat!

Well I'm here in Ganenoque at the Ganenoque Inn! My retreat weekend has begun!

I got out of work at 2:30pm and picked Christin up from the bus stop. We were checked in by 4:30 and heading down to the stitching room, which was packed! We staked out our spots for the weekend while we waited for Chrisanne to arrive.


The St. Lawrence Room, our Stitching Room.

When Chrisanne arrived we all got down to work...


At 5:45 it was time for Wine and Cheese! Its a chance to wander around, chat and meet people!








And here's this weekend's guest instructor Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams! Chirsitin, Chrisanne and I were lucky enough to sit with Jennifer for dinner tonight and had a super-long, lovely chat!

Of course as usual the food was to die for!

Appetizers : Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup or Cesar Salad
Main Course : Pan Fried Catfish, Prime Rib, Roast Chicken, Rack of Lamb, or Pesto Penne.
Desserts : Warm Apple Crumble, Chocolate Mousse Cake, New York Style Cheesecake

So I had the cesar salad, Pesto Penne, a small serving of Apple Crumble and a half a sliced of chocolate mousse cake. A fantastic meal!!!

We then went back to the stitching room and did a little stitching when we decided to retire to our suite and chill, stitch, and watch TV.

Also this evening there was a "show and tell" exhibit where we could show off something(s) we've completed in the last year.







I got to become re-acquainted with an few old stitching friends of mine, a couple of models I stitched for Jennifer!


To Trim a Tree cDragon Dreams


Magic In My Needle cDragon Dreams

I also got to see Jennifer's newest release, I'll Make My Own Happy Ending

I'll Make My Own Happy Ending cDragon Dreams

Tomorrow we'll be attending Jennifer's Class : The Time I Spend Stitching Sampler!

The Last Sleep

My bags are packed... I'm ready to go **Dani sings off key**

Yup! Tonight is my last sleep (are you tired of me blogging about this yet!) then tomorrow after work I get to leave for the Cross Stitich Cupboard's Fall Retreat! I'll be taking my camera... and my laptop so I might be able to blog at the end of each day... we'll see. The Inn advertises wireless internet. So it'll come down to is it free, is there a cost? If so how much? Or will there be an unprotected wireless signal nearby I can pick up? The way I look at it is if you have a wireless signal and you don't password protect it that's not my fault, I'll take advantage of that. Especially because I don't have a high speed connection out here in the boonies where I live so I can do some serious surfing when I get on high speed!

Tonight after work I did my duty and gave blood at the local blood donor clinic. It always amazes me that I can give a pint in under 10 minutes. Today was my 6th time giving blood. I was hoping to get to my packing and organizing earlier tonight, but for the life of me the phone wouldn't stop ringing. I can go weeks, a month, or more without any phone calls! Tonight I'm on the phone for at least two hours! So now I'm all packed, except for the laptop and my stocking which I will be working on Friday evening/night. Once I get my hands on Jennifer Aikman-Smith's class project I'll be working on that for the rest of the weekend!

So have a good weekend if I don't blog while I'm at the retreat! I'll try to have plenty of pictures!

I'm going to *try* to stitch a little before bed.

SBQ... and Two Sleeps!

Let's start with today's Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week!

Q : Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?

A : I almost always make a working copy, very rarely do I work from the original. Unless it is a small design that doesn't need marking up. Also I tend to cart my projects around and the charts tend to get mangled. So I'd rather carry around a copy than the original, that way I don't have a mangled original. Keeping the charts pristine is nice to either trade, share, or sell down the road to someone else who really wants that design.

High-lighting... I'm finding I'm doing that less and less these days. I high-light when I need to, when I find it difficult to keep track of what I'm doing or where I'm going. My best marking suggestion/recommendation for difficult (confetti) projects, for example Teresa Wentzler's Peacock tapestry. To handle the confetti stitching on this design I would use a two high-lighter technique. With the lighter colour (yellow) I would high-light the path I was planning on stitching with a paticular colour. Once I've done those stitches on the fabric I re-high-light over the lighter colour with the darker colour (pink, green, blue).

So tonight I've stayed home and just relaxed (Chillax as I like to say!). I've taken a nap, I've stitched and watched TV. How fantastic!!!

Just two more sleeps until I get to go to the Retreat!!!!!

Three Sleeps

Yay three sleeps until I'm off for my retreat in Ganenoquay.

I can't wait!

October Ornament

Yay I've finally finished my October ornament! You know you don't have a lot of stitching time when it takes you over a week to stitch an ornament. A Bent Creek design at that!

So here's Bent Creek's Joy c1998 from the 1998 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Edition.


Hmmm things look more blue than green here... could be my laptop.

Soooo for the rest of this week I can move onto my Nephew's Stocking again!

Oh yeah... I played soccer Sunday night, my team won 4-1. I had three shots on goal but didn't get any in. Oh well, but it sure was fun!!!

another countdown this week... 4 sleeps until the Cross Stitch Cupboard Retreat!!!!

Creative Sewing And Needlework Festival 2005

Today was the day! I've been waiting for months for the CSNF (Creative Sewing And Needlework Festival) in Toronto.

Last night after work I didn't get out of work until almost 4PM. Needless to say I was not impressed! I had imagined myself being on the road at 3:30. I was happy with the time I made on the road though, I was buzzing in at Marj's apartment at 8PM, 4 hours exactly. That's including two stops! Marj and I had a nice long visit before going to bed after midnight.

This morning I was up at 8AM and by 10AM we were on the road to take the GO Train downtown. That was nice, I don't think I've been on a train since 1997, during my trip to London, England.

Alright I'm sure you're dying to hear about my impressions of this year's show. Well there was a number of empty booths this year. A sign that the show may be in decline? In terms of needlework the show is definitely on the decline. The number of needlework booths from when I first went in 2001 to this year in 2005 has dropped drastically. There was only five needlework booths, pitiful isn't it? Let's see who was there...

Gitta's, one of Toronto's biggest needlework shops. Gitta was hosting Jeannette Douglas one of my favorite Canadian Designers! I bought Jeannette's Class kit from the CSNF Crystal Winter Sampler, fourth in a series (which I have all of them now!). I've heard that Gitta's will not be attending next year's CSNF which is a total shame... yet another sign that the show is in decline???

It was great to see Jeannette again! Jeannette, Marj and I had a great long natter about stitching and the show of course! While we were visiting with Jeannette Yolanda stopped by. It was nice to see her again, we met for the first time at the show a couple of years ago.

Jeannette and I at Gitta's booth



Then we walked over to see a designer we did not expect to be there but had heard from Marj's friend that she had seen him the day before.... TERRANCE NOLAN was there! Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh! I was so excited to hear he had decided to come up to the show. I had talked to him about the show years ago when I met him at CATS (Creative Arts and Textile Showcase). So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that he was there. Terrance was sharing a booth with Maureen Applegate of The Heart's Content. Marj and I must of talked with Terrance for about 30 minutes about the show and how it was not as well populated by needlework as it used to be. He and Maureen have already put in a deposit for next year and will be teaching as well (yay!). Terrance says that he has already gotten in touch with a group of American designers and are hoping to bring up at least 10 of them. Terrance would like to see all the needlework vendors/designers together in one area. He made it one of the conditions of agreeing to come to the show next year that they all be grouped. I think its an excellent idea because its a pain in the a$$ wading through all the quilting and scrapbooking booths to find the odd needlework booth. Did you know that one quilting booth to the next just becomes one big blur! They all start to look the same.

It was also nice to make the acquaintance of Maureen Applegate, I was very impressed with her designs. More impressed by the fact that so many of them are stitch over one on small counts!!! Wow! I was running low on cash by the time we got there so I'll have to look into buying some of her designs at a later date.

Here's Me and Terrance


And here's Marj and Terrance


Here's me and Maureen


Since it was getting close to 2:30 I wanted to hit the Camus booth to say hi to Jennifer Aikman-Smith of Dragon Dreams before she was off to teach a class. We didn't have too long of a visit with Jennifer, and I won't bore you with pictures (didn't take any) since you're going to get to see enough after the Cross Stitch Cupboard's Retreat where Jennifer is the guest instructor. Also I was starving and starting to get the shakes. I bought two charts from that booth, Jennifer's Dragon of the Deeps and her new one I'll Make My Own Happy Ending. I think I'm going to try to get that one stitched up for the retreat next week! Teee Heee! I don't have as busy of a week coming up as this past week.

After lunch Marj and I wandered around making sure we didn't miss anything good. I picked up some Swarovski Crystals and Pearls for my Mum. I also picked up some jump rings to make a bracelet for Marj and I picked up the pattern for the Empressa Chain.

Oh yes, all you Canuck stitchers out there! I wanted to give you a heads up about a new needlework magazine that is purely Canadian its called A Needle Pulling Thread. They were giving away copies for free at the show. Its quite a nice magazine, from the quick look I had and it covers all kinds of needlearts. So keep an eye out for it at your favorite magazine shop, its a quarterly publication.

And now for something completely different...


These moose are all over downtown Toronto, each painted in a different way.

And that was my day!!!

Glutton For Punishment? Or Can't Say No?

Sooooo....

Yesterday at work we got the sudden announement that a staff member was leaving. This was good news for her! That afternoon I was asked ... "Can you frame a school letter?" My reply was well ummm... I can try but no guarantees. Now I'm thinking couldn't I have said no, give me a couple of days???

Last night being Wednesday I had absolutely no time to work on it as it was my teaching night at Taekwon-Do. Boy that's a long night! I teach from 5:15 to 9:30pm that's 5 classes!!! Argh! Starting with little tigers ages 4-6 up to advanced adults. I didn't get home until 10pm. I was given the time to run to the engraver and get the plate done at the end of the work day.

Sooo today after work I ran and picked up the glass for the piece. Zipped up to the Hyundai Dealer and got the replacement mirror for my car, just in time for my drive to Toronto tomorrow. By the time I got home it was almost 5pm. Its essentially taken me until after 11pm tonight to get this one piece done! That's mats cut, letter mounted, and so on. The molding proved to be a little tricky and the glue didn't seem to want to dry. I was just so frustrated by 9pm. I didn't even start making dinner until after 8pm!

Grrrrr... why do I say yes?

I get to go to Toronto after work tomorrow! Yay!!!