Grab a cup of coffee or tea .. this might be a tad long lol ....

I had the most wonderful time last week at A Stitcher's Retreat, once I got there! I'm really glad when I travel I like to arrive a day early .. I left Seattle Tuesday morning .. arrived in Detroit about 4pm. I was supposed to have left Detroit for a 20 minute plane ride to Toledo at 5:15 .. well Detroit got hit with a spring thunderstorm that decided to stall over the airport! I got to spend 2-1/2 hours in the little plane on the tarmak trying to see if the airport would let us leave .. long story short, I finally arrived at my hotel in Toledo at about midnight .. it was a long day! Wednesday was check in day at the retreat .. I got to sleep in because I didn't have a long drive to Sauders Inn. Once I found the Inn, I was still too early to check in, so I had fun looking around the little town of Archbold and enjoyed lunch at The Barn Restaurant. Stitcher's starting arriving about 2ish ... we all hung around in the lobby stitching and getting to know each other .. I was stunned to see that about 85% of the women were there at last years Stitcher's Retreat. There stitchers from 24 states, Alaska the farthest away .. I think there were 83 stitchers total. We got checked in to our rooms about 4ish and had a couple of hours before dinner to rest or stitch or walk around and investigate the Inn .. I did a little of it all :) Dinner was at The Barn Restaurant, buffet style and very tasty. After dinner we got to do some stash shopping *smile* .. and I had a great time spending way too much money! The designers bring all kinds of goodies to sell, even some things that you can only purchase at a retreat. There's pictures of my purchases, the class pieces and assorted pictures of the retreat in my webshots album titled 2007 Stitchers Retreat.

When we checked in we got our reschedule of classes that we had signed up for .. I forgot what I had signed up for .. it was like 6 months ago that we picked our classes .. well, I found out that I was in classes all day on Thursday! lol .. My first class was from 9-12 with Sisters and Best Friends. The Sisters are really fun and great teachers. The class piece was a sheep with flowers around. They love to play with stitches and emblishments. The sheep design had some over one and some over two stitches .. there was wool for some of the flowers, beads and buttons and a very yummy piece of 19ct cort linen. Lunch was next .. then off to my 2nd class ...

With Ann and Liz from BrightNeedle. I am soo glad I took their class .. their designs are so delicate and different from what I usually choose to stitch .. but I really enjoyed their designs, and I learned something!! woo hoo :) I really really learned how to stitch over one. I've stitched over one a couple of times in the past but always got frustrated, not because of the side of the cross stitch, but because sometimes I would lose my stitch .. and I never really understood why. I'd been told before about a horizonal thread and a verical thread, but never really understood it .. and now I do :) over one is still not the most relaxing stitching for me, but now that I know how to do it the right way, I'm hoping I start liking it more :) The class piece is a bag with a very pretty design and saying stitched on the front and back, a needle holder and a pin cushion. I might not make everything because my finishing experience isn't great .. but I know I'll be stitching the motifs probably more than once lol. So this class ended at 4 and then it was time for the "optional" class I signed up for with Sisters and Best Friends .. again :) This class piece is a companion piece to the sheep .. it's a chicken, using again wool and beads and buttons to create another fun design. By dinner time, I was a bit stitched out! lol After dinner there was more stash shopping to do .. then it was off to bed for me ..

Friday was the last day of the retreat .. after breakfast and checking out .. we had our last classes, it was a round robin 3 teachers and 50 minutes per class .. it was great fun and a nice way to end .. You'll see in my pictures that we really did stitch at the retreat! lol .. I enjoyed myself soo much that I've already signed up for next years retreat!

It is nice to be home .. now my big decisions are what to stitch .. I have like 4 or 5 projects from the retreat all started, plus all my other stash .. I need to retire just so I can stitch! lol Sorry if this post rambled *smile*

I'm grateful for my time with fellow stitchers ...