Russellville Retreat - day 1

I finally got all the pictures sorted and ready to go!  Whew, that was an undertaking.  LOL!  I'll warn you, you are in for a long post today and probably again tomorrow too.  Here we go!

Here's the gang packed and ready to shove off.  It was a beautiful sunny day and hot as usual.

We headed south and took the ferry across the river to Kentucky.  That's the landing on the Kentucky side you see there in front of us!  We are on the ferry in this picture.  I just love the ferry!  I get all giddy when I ride it.  The girls think I'm nuts.  Yeah, maybe I am.

Here's the view from the middle of the river.  Just look at the calm water that day!  I love how the sun is sparkling on the water.  Once on the other side we were on the road for several hours before getting into Russellville.

Here we are at the hotel.  My roommates are totally addicted to their iPads!  They stayed up into the wee hours playing with these things.  I don't have one myself so I'm not sure what all the hype is about.  Maybe if I had one I'd know.  LOL!

A while back I alluded to doing a lot of gift stitching that I couldn't yet show.  Well, you've already seen two of the things I've been working on in my last couple posts (here and here).  Now I can show you the rest of it!  I gave my roomies their gifts before we headed out for dinner.

I stitched us all ORTs buckets!!!  I saw these buckets at Michael's when I was there looking for something else and knew right away what I wanted to do with them!  I always forget my ORTs container but not this time!  Don't you just love the little washers on their twisted cord?!

Design:  Summer Alphabet (just the flops)

 & Initials from stitchpoint.com "Madrid" font

Designer:  Lizzie Kate & Stitchpoint

Fabric:  40 ct. Antique White (1 over 2)

Floss: "C" = DMC 52 + 907
"P" = 113 + 742
"L" = 107 + 912

Started:  6/23/12

Finished and completed all three: 6/24/12

You'll notice in the picture above that two of the containers have something in them.  I also included homemade thread drops made by yours truly!  I felt the containers needed something in them.  These are so fun to make and super easy too!

Design:  Queen Bee

Desinger:  JBW Designs

Fabric: 40 ct. Antique White (1 over 2)

Floss:  WDW Confetti

Started & Finished:  6/22/12

Completed:  6/28/12

Next up, I made this for a very special person I only see at this retreat.  I just wanted to make a little something as a thank you to show my appreciation for all the special things she does.  Besides, this one just screamed her name to me when I saw it.  I think it turned out super cute!  It's only the second time I've attempted this finish and this one is pretty tiny, only 2 1/2 inches square!  Love it!

After the gift giving we headed out to meet the group and head over to the restaurant for dinner.  Here's some of the group chatting it up while we waited for everyone to arrive.

I forgot to get a picture of our humongous pizzas we had for dinner but I did get a picture of dessert.  This one's for you, Patti!  She affectionately called these "moose balls" and dared me to say that on the blog!

There were two of them but I ate one before getting my picture.  They were chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup with homemade whipped cream and a drizzle of raspberry topped with mint leaves!  Oh yes, they were to die for!!!

After dinner we all headed back to the Breathitt House to drop off more stuff and arrange the room for the next day's stitching.  Then we all headed back to the hotel to rest up for a day of stitching and fun!

Stay tuned!  We are just getting started with all the fun and festivities.  Thanks for stopping by and reading clear to the bottom here.


More to come...

The Inspired Stitcher