Camp Wannasew

Now with more wine coolers and beer...

My trip to Tulsa, which started painfully early on Thursday morning--my cab arrived at 4:15 for a 6:05 flight--is over much too soon. I was in denial until I stepped off the plane in Philadelphia, and even today my hands reject typing and long for the feel of fabric.

When bestpal and I first went to camp in 2003, I didn't even think we'd make it through the whole weekend. (I used to have a fear of the south.) I never imagined I'd still be attending, especially not "by myself." I've made new friends, so I can hardly say I'm going by myself when bestpal doesn't come along. Our original group of six dwindled to only two this year, but I think we may have managed not to alienate everyone we met to make new friends.

If last year's camp motto was "it's all about freedom," this year's started out as "that's part of the charm." We decided that the seemingly inevitable missing flosses and people getting lost on the way to Amish dinner was going to be a fun part of the camp experience. And then? No missing flosses. No lost campers. Not to say that camp was not fun. There was booze! There was raucous laughter! There was nude pillow fighting! (Not really.) Camp was down to 18, but let me tell you how much quieter it was in the halls while we were trying to sleep. Now if 18 people can manage to speak quietly in the bathrooms and not let their doors slam, what is it about the other 20 people who can't manage it? Let them stay home, I say.

Our projects were great! We got to choose a Quaker inspired sampler (Quaker Virtues or Quaker Christmas) and a whole skein of Belle Soie silk (is that redundant?) to design our own set of stitching smalls including a scissor fob, biscornu, and a scissor case. Maybe this year's theme should have been it's all about freedom. I chose "blue heaven" which is sort of periwinkle. You can see the results below. I didn't finish any projects this year but I'm really happy with what I have so far. This is a first. I think I was shooting my mouth too much. But there were new people to hear my boring old stories. The other project was Lizzie*Kate's limited edition kit, My Country. We got both a Silver Needle version (fuzzy fibers, large count fabric) and the original kit. I'm thinking of doing the latter for my cousin's kid as a birth sampler. Our helpful input was heeded and next year spring campers won't be making anything Easter or patriotic. Yay! I have only kept one of each; I usually give the finished Easter projects to my sister and the patriotic to my grandmother; they both appreciate them more than I do. My grandmother will just have to suck it up.

My choices for fob (acorn, monogram), biscornu, and the beginnings of her scissor case.

I bought a ton of stash. Way more than I planned, but I still spent less than the entry fee for a national chess tournament.

Not pictured: fabrics, flosses. It was the fabrics that put me over the edge.

Our goody bags were full of freebie charts, flosses, cookies, and Vera Bradley. I'm not a fan of chintz but I was really excited because we got a pair of VB slippers. I needed new slippers, and the pattern (Kensington) is attractive.

I worked on Hillside Samplings Threadkeeper on the plane and on Thursday night. Here's what it looked like before.

I finished Rose Bunnie by Liberty Street Designs on the plane. Stitched on the called-for linen with substitutions (GAST Harvest Basket for the bunny, Weeks Carrot for the carrot, and white whisper for the tail).

I had been thinking that we might want to do something different next year--it's our sixth camp in Tulsa and it's more difficult to get to Tulsa from PHL (I was up and down three times both ways). But I had so much fun this year, I can't wait for spring!