SASKATCHEWAN STITCHES CONFERENCE 2016

I have just returned from the Saskatchewan Stitches Conference 2016, held at St Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, SK. This venue is just lovely – totally perfect for a spiritual retreat, or, in our case, a sewing/quilting/knitting/spinning/”you name what we love to do” retreat. This year was the 14th annual Saskatchewan Stitches Conference and I am so pleased I have attended the last 9 years! I tell anyone who will listen that “wild horses” could not keep me away. Seriously, of course it would be so with an event where hundreds of ladies who are all passionate about sewing or quilting or knitting etc congregate to attend classes  during the day and lectures/ show & tell of the daily class activities in the evening by teachers and their students. Some of the very popular classes are bra making with Beverley Johnson from Hamilton (who teaches all over the world and has 2 Craftsy classes as well). Other very popular teachers at this year’s Conference during my 4 day stay (the Conference runs for 10 days) were Jodi Barrows of Square in a Square from Texas; Dianne Jansson from BC; Jackie Van Fossen from Edmonton; Jane Bones from Manitoba; Ron Collins from Saskatoon; a new (to SK Stitches Conference) knitting teacher Anna Dalvi from Ottawa who totally wowed us with her exquisite knitted shawls…. and more teachers. I came at the beginning of the Conference and left before it had finished so I was not able to meet up with some of the teachers who were scheduled to teach later during the Conference.

I was pretty pleased that my classes this year were quite full. The Ruler quilting class was fully booked so we opened up a second day; and Free Motion beyond boring Stippling and Machine Embroidery were also both almost fully booked. Thank you so much to all of you who attended these classes and made your “aha” moments so rewarding for me! I love it when you have such fun and produce such lovely results with your learning process at your Janome & Elna machines! I have pics to show of this Conference – see the blog post coming up next week.

2017 will be a big year in SK and Canada: see below!

I would like to mention that the Saskatchewan Stitches Conference  is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2017 so it will be a bumper big year next year. As with the 10th anniversary, Wendy – the owner of Haus of Stitches in Humboldt who hosts and organizes this conference – is running another fabric challenge as part of her anniversary celebrations. I am sure the details will be posted to her website once this year’s conference is over. But in the meantime, take a look at the challenge fabric below: it is a rather lovely cream/beige solid in a cotton/linen blend. It is a sort of oatmeal colour. Now is that not a super clever idea for a totally blank canvas?!

My Challenge fabric pooled on my cutting table….Mmmmmm…..I wonder what I will make?? There is sure to be a fantastic display of creativity next May at SK Stitches Conference 2017 -if the 2010 Challenge is anything to go by: it was incredible!

In addition, in honour of 2017 being the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of our very beautiful Canada , there is a stipulation that a maple leaf must appear somewhere on the item made. The entrant must also have attended at least one SK Stitches Conference. Besides those things, there are very few rules as Wendy says she does not like to stifle creativity. NO prizes for guessing who bought fabric and who is for sure going to enter the Challenge next year.  I had fun entering the Challenge in 2010 so fully intend to have some more fun!

Challenge entries need to be in by 1 April 2017 and will be displayed in the museum in Humboldt before the Conference as well as at the Conference. The Viewers choice prize is …….drum roll……a JANOME SKYLINE S7!!!!! How cool is that?!

Queries? Please contact the store using the contact details in the Haus of Stitches/SK Stitches Conference bookmark pics above.