Retreat Goodies ...

Another reason we go to retreats ... to buy buy buy! Not living close to a LNS I miss fondling fabric, picking up a chart and kitting it up, and discovering that chart you've never seen before but instantly fall in love with. Well I got to do all that ... and boy was it fun!

First up is my Blackbird Design purchases ...

Some kits and some patterns I kitted up ...

assorted charts that I just had to have ...

I fell in love with this wonderful needlecase/scissor keeper ... maybe cause it's red?

Karen and I both bought this kit and started it Thursday evening ... this will be hanging in my kitchen some day ... too cute ...

I found some yummy fabric and kitted up this Christmas ornament from this years JCS preview issue ...

here's some odds and ends ...

and a couple of purchases from the bathroom at The Silver Needle ... lol yep the bathroom. That's where they display all the shop models for sale. I could have bought a few more, but ran out of money and room in my suitcase. The prices were surprisingly great ... would have spent more stitching them myself ... so I got Dash Away (surprised?! lol), a 4th of July Pine Mountain Pillow and a sweet sunflower pillow. Funny quick story about the pillow ... I had brought that chart from home to kit up and start stitching at the retreat ... of course I had to have it when I saw it in the bathroom! It was a very fun trip to the bathroom lol ...

Everyday at the retreat our tables had wonderful gifts for all of us ... fun fun fun ...

Well ladies, that's the last of the retreat ... it was fun showing you all the pictures ... thanks for all your comments ... I love reading them.

Happy Friday!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for weekends ...

Another reason we go to retreats ...

On Friday The Silver Needle offered two finishing classes taught by finishing extraordinaire Mona. We only took one of the classes, the other one was ornament finishing but we were at the airport picking up Chris during that time. The finishing class we took learning to finish a box ... This will fix Lizzie*Kate's Naughty or Nice pattern from last year. I know I'll be making more of these ... as long as Terry helps cut the mat board lol

Saturday was the 2nd day of our BBD class ... here's a picture of the class piece. It's two projects, one a pin cushion and the other is a needlebook. I finished the stitching for the pin cushion on Sunday, but haven't started the needlebook stitching yet. Speedy stitcher Joan has finished it and it's lovely ... check out her blog. One of the techniques we learned was how to finish a paper mache' box to look like it is worn leather. It was sooo easy and I can't wait to make more.

Alma and Barb brought a lot of their samplers and other projects to us to drool over ... Cathy has some great pictures of the samplers on her blog. I do love how they display their stitching ...

I am really glad I had the opportunity to meet and take classes from Alma, Barb and Mona. I can't wait to try the new things I learned.

One last picture to this post ... the Vera Bradley corner ... heaven in color!

Thanks everyone for your comments ... I've enjoyed reading them and I've met a couple of new bloggers ... what fun! Yes I do have one more post to do about the retreat ... my purchases lol

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for new finishing techniques ...

Old and New Friends ...

On Friday all the ladies started arriving for the retreat. One of my favorite things about going to stitching retreats is spending time with woman share my passion for cross stitch ... My dear friend Karen lives in Arizona and luckily we've been able to see each other at least once a year. Here we are at The Silver Needle ...

A week or so before the retreat I found out that Joan was coming to the retreat too. I've been reading Joan's blog for a while now and she and I belong to a small exchange group ... in fact she's my exchange partner ... I was soooooo excited that we were going to get to meet in person! Joan such a nice person, funny and omgosh she's a quick stitcher!

I got to meet another blogger that came along with Joan ... Cathy, who's blog I've been reading for a long time now but didn't put two and two together ... I wanted to put them both in my purse and bring them home with me *smile* Ladies, It'm so glad I got meet both of you ...

Another dear friend of mine also attended the retreat. I've known Chris for quite a while now and always enjoy when we get to meet up ... Chris stayed with Karen and I ... and yes we do stitch, I have the proof! lol

and they like Starbucks too *smile*

Friday was spent visiting and shopping during the day but there was also a place for us all to stitch and stitch and wait for Barb and Alma to arrive ... and dinner too ...

Barb and Alma Arrive! Here's a picture of our hostess Lindy, Barb and Alma ...

After dinner we received our first class project ... what a wonderful presentation of the little kits ...

Inside was fabric, floss, buttons, rickrack and an alphabet chart. Everything we needed to make a pin pillow. Some ladies finished there's Friday night, stitching and listening to Alma and Barb sharing their stories. I didn't finish mine until Saturday ... it was such a fun little stitch ...

On Saturday they took a group picture of all the "babies" that were in all stages of finish ... aren't they cute! and all so different ...

Well if you are still reading this long long post, like me you probably have to go potty! lol ... I still have more to share another day.

Special shout outs to Karen and Yvonne for sharing your pictures with me. And also to Mary, who was the photographer for SN.

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for old and new friends ...

Retreats are wonderful!

I spent 4 glorious days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now I never thought I ever say that about a city where the weather was over 100 every day and the humidity was at least 80% every day ... I mean I'm a Seattle girl complete with webbed toes *smile* ... but add dear friends, stitching, laughing, chocolate and coffee, shopping, meeting new friends, taking classes from Blackbird Design, fondling stash and hugs ... and well it makes even the hottest of days a bit more tolerable.

The retreat I attended was hosted by The Silver Needle. Karen and I flew in on the Wednesday before the retreat started. Neither of us had every been to Oklahoma and we knew we'd want to do a little sightseeing while we were there. First stop was our hotel ... really nice room.

this couch was really comfy for stitching ...

After getting settled in our room it was off to the grocery store for water, pop and chocolate. Back to the room before heading out to dinner. Back at our room we exchanged a few goodies we each had brought. Karen gave me this great Whitman's tin and the pattern but she also included a few other goodies ...

Inside was a pincushion she made, a bookmark, two blue skeins of floss and a pair of cute scissors.

Thursday morning we headed straight over to The Silver Needle ... we were both itching to see the shop. We were amazed at the shop ... it seems like there were shop models for about 60% of all the charts in the shop ... it really was quite amazing.

Mill Hill kits galore ...

and lovely over one pieces ...

lots and lots of Lizzie Kate ...

and a wall of fabric!

just a few Bent Creek's ...

and a smiling Karen ...

Yep I bought stash on my first visit and I bought stash again and again. I had a little too much fun in the shop. I don't have a big shop close to me so I was kinda like a kid in a candy store and oh it was sooooo much fun! lol I'll share those pictures later ...

After stash shopping we headed out to do a little antique shopping ... we headed to Jenks and after finding nothing at the first few shops we hit the mother load in the last two shops. Karen found two Ball jar lids, the iron, small molds and two glass frogs. My main goal was to find my first glass frog ... I can't seem to find them in Seattle anywhere! Well I found two :) I also found a green parfait class that hopefully will work for the base of one. I also found a pair of salt and pepper shakers and a glass box that I just feel in love with ...

I think I'll stop here ... there's more, lots more ... plus I know there's a lot of bloggers out there that are posting about the BBD retreat too ... don't want all you bloggers getting too bored with us!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for cooler weather ...

Another Lovely Exchange

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. We had dinner with Ken and Lisa ... steaks, corn on the cob and yummy margaritas :) then it was off to Bellevue for their fireworks display. We were lucky it didn't rain on us! Of course I forgot to take a camera with me so no pictures :( But I do have pictures of an exchange that arrived on Tuesday. Kathy and I are doing a personal needlebook exchange. When I opened the package out same all these smaller packages ...

they were all numbered, so before opening them, I put them in order ... of course :)

lol here's the mess after I opened all of them ...

First opened was this lovely needlebook and scissor keeper ... love love love them :)

The scissors and needles were in another package ... immediately found their new homes ...

and the backs ... Kathy's stitching is great and her finishing is awesome!

one of the other packages contained this Lizzie*Kate chart and a yummy skein of orange floss ...

yep, she did spoil me! opening a couple more packages yielded this lovely scissor fob, an adorabel "what not" bag and a little portable ort box ... all made by Kathy!

here's a picture of the ort box opened up ... I can definitely use this when I fly to Tulsa next week!

in another 2 packages were these ... a Canada magnet and very pretty springy necklace ...

Kathy, I've emailed you to say thanks you and all ... but wanted to say again, thank you so much for stitching the lovely needlebook and scissor keeper for me and for all the extras. It's all great!

I had one more 4th of July finish ... wonder if I'll ever want to stitch red, white and blue again! lol ... this one is a freebie by Glory Bee. I just love it. I used a mystery piece of linen, dusty blue in color and the suggested overdyes ... it's really a sweet stitch.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comments ... I do enjoy them! Hope everyone is staying cool ... we have been having a heat wave for Seattle ... mid 90's today!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for sunshine ...