More from Myrtle Beach ...

Here's the real reason I love going to Myrtle Beach every October ... great friends that I miss so much because they live in Ohio, NY and NC ... but when we are together it seems like no time has past ... Char, Laurie, Chris and Patti .. love you!

and this group of crazy ladies from NC and SC ... a few I met through blogging and exchanges before meeting them "live" in MB ... and a few I met for the first time last year ... they are a fun loving group of ladies that I really enjoy spending time with ... Sandra, Faye, Linda, Charleen, Lynn, and Karen ... love you guys!
Now here's a smiley bunch ... Carol, Fiona, Karen, Nicole, Chris and Diane ... keep me laughing all week!
New and old friends ... just doesn't get better than this!Smile, you're on Candid Camera!

omgosh these tshirts where so funny!!! I really wanted a Bitch 3 one :)

Three wonderful designers joined us this year ... Tanya (far right) of The Scarlett house. This was the only picture I got of Tanya. What a sweet lady and so talented. She does these amazing samplers and cutesy designs too ... I have her newest one, Jingle All The Way and just love it!

The second designer at the retreat was Paulette of Plum Street Samplers ... she's a hoot! I felt like I've known her for ever ... probably because I read her blog and know all about her and her family ... she brought her newest designs with her. I feel in love with Turkey Love and can't wait to start it ... Fiona, Paulette, Carol, Amy and Tracy ... I sure enjoyed sharing a table with all of you funny funny ladies ...

The third designer was Marie of Blackberry Lane Design. Unfortunately I didn't get one picture of Marie :( But I did get some fabulous purple Halloweeny fabric from her to stitch her new design Goblins on Parade. This was Marie's 2nd year attending the retreat. I hope it's not her last one.

I shamelessly stole this picture from Faye's blog because I couldn't find one good picture of 3 women that mean the most to me ... my bestest friends ... love you so much ...

So there you have it ... lots of smiling reasons for why I love attending this retreat. Looks like I have enough for one more post about the Pals Fall Fling ... exchanges, finishes and a few goodies. Thanks for all your comments ... love hearing from you.

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

I'm grateful for retreats ...

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

I'm grateful for retreats ...

Home from the Pals Fall Fling ...

Can't believe I've been home for a week already! Time sure flies when you are having fun ... lol ... not much fun this week at all ... works sucks, DH had car problems this week and I'm not feeling the best ... but all I have to do is look back at these pictures to remind me what a great time I had with all my stitching buddies.

Part 1 of my trip ... this was the awesome view Chris and I had from our room ... not to bad :)One day we took a walk on the pier ... lots of fishermen and women ... they were catching lots of Spots. I heard that they are great eating, but a pain to clean ...
These little birds were fun to watch all along the pier ...

ahhhh water and sunshine ...

The first couple of days where lovely but then the weather took a turn for the cold, rainy and windy ... I've never seen it blow so hard ... but it was so pretty ...

Crazy crazy wind ... the surfers loved it!

But the real reason we were here wasn't for the weather ... it was for stitching and laughing, reconnecting with old friends and making new friends, more stitching and some stitchers actually finished pieces too!

lots of stitching going on ...

My dear friend Char (no blog) finished this lovely piece. I don't remember the name of it, but she was stitching it for her sister. It's beautiful in person.

When I first saw this BBD design I feel in love with it. I was so excited that it was included in their A Stitcher's Journey booklet and I knew I wanted to stitch it at the beach ... I thought it was just so apropos to stitch it at the Pals Fall Fling with all my stitching friends ... don't you think so Diane? lol funny I thought I'd get it finished having all the stitching time I had, but unfortunately there was some frogging (or as Karen says, reverse stitching!) that had to happened ... guess I can't talk, laugh, count and stitch at the same time ...

Nicole was busy building a house ... lovely isn't it ...

Sandra (no blog) was stitching on this sweet design ...

and this was only one of the Christmas ornaments Faye was stitching ...

Linda (no blog) was working on this cute design and finished it. I just love the bird. I didn't write down the name of this design ... I'll have to track it down, I just love it ...

Here's Charlene stitching on Chessie & Me, Pumpkin Row ... love the fabric!

another stitcher, Lynn (no blog) was stitching on Bluebird Alphabet by Just Nan ... I need to add this to my wish list ...

Well, that's just a bit of the Fall Fling ... Part 2 will be coming soon ... thanks for visiting.

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

I'm grateful for retreats ...

Leaving on a jet plane ...

This time tomorrow this will be my view for the next 7 days ... I sooooo can't wait! It's time for the Pal's Fall Fling in Myrtle Beach, SC. I look forward to this retreat every year. Can't wait to see long time friends and meet new Pals too. Lots of laughs, hugs, eating and stitching ... so good for the soul!

Last week I finished up just a few more projects ... here's another ornament for the Halloween/Fall exchange ... such a cute pumpkin ...

I had fun finishing this pillow ... love the pom pom trim. I'm giving this one to my daughter-in-law Monica ...
Here's my last finish for now ... I love the fabric I found for this one ... I've had this fabric for a couple of years. When I pulled it out of my fabric stash I just chuckled and thought the witch looked like she was happy dancing after casting a spell lol
I was doing some last minute shopping ... wandered into Marshall's and found this little witch sitting on a pumpkin reading her spells book ... I sooooo couldn't pass her up, especially for 1/2 price! Isn't she cute?!

Thanks for all your comments about my last post ... I really enjoyed reading them all. It's fun to share my finishing with everyone.

Be good, stay out of trouble, get lots of stitching done and I'll see ya'll in a week.

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

I'm grateful for retreats ...

I'm a finishing fool ....

Next time I leave this much finishing to do ... just shoot me and put me out of my misery! It's been a wild couple of weeks trying to get this pile of finishing done ... a lot of them are for exchanges at the Pal's Fall Fling ... I leave on Sunday, so I had to get my butt in gear! Grab a cup of coffee or tea ... there's a lot of pictures! Remember this picture?
Well here's what they turned into ... I just love this cute finish. It's from The Stitcherhood's eXpressions: Halloween
And a few more ... Boo is from eXpressions: Halloween too and Witch is a freebie from Glen Oaks Primitives.
I stitched this freebie from The Stitcherhood twice last year. One was for an exchange, the other one for me ... I finally got around to finishing it ... I was really pleased with how it turned out ...
Crows was a freebie from primitivebettys ... I found the sunflower button at The Attic a couple of years ago ... thought it was perfect for the pillow ...
I finished stitching Waiting for the Harvest by BBD last year ... I got frustrated getting my initials to fit the design and threw it in my finishing drawer to be done later ... well a year later it's finished into a a pillow and honestly it's my favorite finish! I love the fabric ... love the lace ... love how it looks as a pillow and I'm in love with the design again ...
Here's all three pillows together ... love love love them ... all the above finishes were done last week ...
The week before was finishing ornaments ... there's a Halloween/Fall ornament exchange and a Christmas ornament exchange at the Pal's Fall Fling and I love participating in both ... here's what I'm taking ... This one is from The Trilogy's Sneak Peek Halloween ... I love how this turned out ... the hanger is bats .... this one will be hard to give away ...
I can't for the life of me remember who the design of theses are ... but they turned out really cute ...

Next up is Christmas ... This sweet design was another one I stitched last year and can't remember who the designer is. I think it came from one of the more recent JCS Ornament magazines. This was going to be one of my ornaments for the Christmas ornament exchange ... I say "was" ... when Terry was looking at all the ornaments I finished, he picked this one up and said Oh I really like this one ... I think it might be missed if it was hanging on the Christmas tree this year *smile*

I stitched two of this design ... really quick stitch. One will be for the exchange and one for a gift ... this design is from Lilybet and was a complimentary pattern from one of the LNS's I order from ...

2010 Joy Stamp ornament is from Jeanette Douglas Designs in the 2010 JCS Ornament magazine. This was the first time I've tried this kind of finishing and I love how it turned out! This one is staying home ... I'm going to stitch this year's 2011 Noel Stamp ornament, hopefully before the end of the year ...
You knew I couldn't stay away from this designers most recent chart ... French Country Reindeer by JBW Designs ... this is my new favorite way to finish ornaments ... aren't they cute :)
and here's a picture of all of them together ...
Whew ... took me almost as long to write this post as it did to finish everything! lol ... thanks for hanging in there ... hope your coffee/tea didn't get cold!

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

I'm grateful for finishing??? ...