Stitchaway Retreat

I'm back as promised with tales to tell.  This year I was able to spend Thursday evening out in the woods as well as all day Friday and Saturday!  Some creative time management at work permitted this.  Yay!

When I arrived my peep, Marsha presented me with this belated birthday gift!  Just look at those yummy silks and those cute owls.  Swoon!  I have an idea percolating on what I'm going to do with them.  I just need to find the chart and some time.  LOL!  Thank you girlfriend, you know I love pink and silks!

Here's Marsha and our peep, Amanda.  This is just the best picture of those two!  We were having a blast.  Amanda got to come and spend the day with us on Saturday.

I hadn't been there long when Evie came in with this little cutie for me.  It's a belated birthday gift too.  I kinda knew it was coming.  Evie told me at the guild Christmas party I'd be getting something else later.  Isn't it just too dang cute?!  This was another thing I was eyeing at Shepherd's Bush.  It's so cute, I can hardly stand it!  Thank you so much, Evie!

Linda and Evie came in together and this is what Linda gave me.  See those cookies, those are airplane cookies!!!  Omigoodness, that just made my day!  I love, love, love airplane cookies.  You know the ones you get when you fly?!  Yes, those cookies!

I'll let you in on a little known secret, get thee to Walgreens!!  Yep, that's where you can go get your very own airplane cookies.  I made a run the next morning into town and bought three packages for your noshing pleasure.  We went through two full packages between all of us and could have easily started the third package.  Yes, they are that kinda good!

Here's the bracelet closer up so you can actually see it.  The charm says "live, love, laugh."  It suits me just to a "T."  I'm told you can add charms to this bracelet too.  I need to get myself to Hallmark and investigate this.  Thanks, girlie!  You made my day.

Last but certainly not least was this little cutie made by my peep, Patti.  It's a magnetic needle minder.   I think it's a good luck charm because the frog didn't visit me once all weekend.  Whew!  Love it!  Thanks, Patti!

Now for some stitching pictures.  This is Marsha's floss tag!  The motifs above and below the vine are the symbols from her chart stitched in the colors they represent!  Isn't that the neatest idea ever?!  Marsha says it's a bonus that came as part of the La D Da Margaret Cottom sampler she's stitching! I'm hoping she shows a progress pic over on her blog.

I had a proud moment when I saw this!  My friend Janis is stitching the Ellen Maurer-Stroh sampler I finished last month.  She was inspired to start hers after seeing mine grow all year.  I couldn't be happier that I inspired someone to do this sampler.  It truly is a fun stitch!  Janis got all this done at the retreat.  I'm so proud of her!  It looks great, Janis!

I made a promise to myself that I would give all my recent starts some attention while at the retreat.  I'm pleased to say they all got a little time with the needle.  This doesn't look like much but I'm now caught up to the February installment of our John Foster project.  I was very pleased when the borders matched up.   I should have made a victory lap around the room but I didn't.  LOL!

It's hard to tell from the picture but I did make some progress on the Hornbook Bestiary aka the pine cone angel.  I was able to fill in the far right circle and started on the right wing.  I have a feeling this one's going to be a slow go with all the over one on 35 ct.  I must have been crazy when I started this one!  I'll keep plugging away at it.  It looks great in person.

I also couldn't help myself and had to work on this one a bit too!  I limited myself to Thursday evening only or else I would have stitched only this one.  It's a lovely design and sadly I've learned that Barbara Bernard is now retired and unreachable.  Still, if you have this in your stash you really should get it out and work on it.  It's a blast to stitch!  I've gotten all the way around the red part since retreat.

I also started an exchange piece at the retreat and have since finished it too.  I'll be sure to post about it when I know the recipient has received it.  It won't be too long a wait!  The mailing date is coming up.

When I went to go stash shopping I was told my Secret Stitcher had dropped off something for me!  Look at all these wonderful goodies!  I've had my eye on that With My Needle chart for a while now as well as the companion rollup piece.  The tea pouch will come in handy too!  I always need needles,  fuzzy socks and Burt's Bees wax.  Thank you Secret Stitcher!  I love everything.

As promised, there was stash enhancement!  Barbara had a couple trunks of 50% off charts and accessories that were a big hit! I was lucky enough to find three Blackbird designs charts in there along with some other goodies.

This year there were trunk shows by Myrtle Grace Motifs, Stacy Nash Primitives, JBW Designs, Summer House Stitche Workes, Cherry Wood Design Studios, and at least one other I can't recall.  There was lots of stuff to entice you in the Keepsakes Annex room.

Oddly enough I didn't get that many pictures of show and tell this year.  I guess I just forgot.  This is a group of my peeps that challenged each other to stitch the Lizzie Kate Strawberry kit we got at last year's retreat.  Each of them did it a little differently.  I really wished I had gotten a picture of them together.

Photo credit

Last year's retreat theme was strawberries.  This is the design they all stitched.  We were given a black frame, floss, beads and the chart at last year's retreat.  I still have mine in my "to do" pile.  I'm told it's a quick stitch so maybe it will come out to play soon.

This year's theme was hearts.  All our freebies and make-it/take-it projects had hearts or the colors red and pink.  We got a sewing box with several freebie charts inside as well as snacks, we made a rag ball, we got kits for a covered button scissor fob, a tape measure roll up, a needle threader, a biscornu, a chart for the box label, a handmade necklace with hearts, and a pink cookie pinkeep.

These two were my favorites.  I love the little heart beads and the heart clasp on this necklace made by our friend Claire.  Can you believe she made 85 of these?!  Yep, one for everyone attending the retreat.  I also loved the red sandwich cookie pin keep.  It's similar to the one we made at Shepherd's Bush.  Love it!

It was nice to get away for a few days and stitch with my peeps.  We laughed, we ate way more airplane cookies than we should, we helped the shop's economy along in the Annex and we saw lots of beautiful stitching being created.  Most of all we got to spend uninterrupted time together doing what we love to do.

I hope you've enjoyed my recap as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.  Thanks for sticking with me on this extra long post.  I hope everyone has a good end of the week!


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Finishes x2

Well friends, I made it out of the woods!  I'm sorting out pictures and collecting my thoughts.  It was a whirlwind weekend.  Funny how you look forward to something for so long and then poof, it's over!  I'll do a separate post of the weekend's festivities later.  In the mean time, I want to show you a couple of gifts I was able to give this weekend.

Design:  Friends freebie

Designer: Cosmic Handmade

Fabric: 28 ct. Lambswool

Floss: DMC

Started: 10/25/12

Finished:  1/6/13

Completed:  1/17/13

 

I made this for my peep, Christie's birthday which is actually this coming weekend.  I wanted to give it to her early since I knew I might not see her before her special day.  The fabric in the background is what I used for the backing.

 

I changed the placement of the colors on this one by switching the dress and hair colors around.  No particular reason really.  I just thought I'd have fun with it.  For some reason I had a total mental block on the thread part of this design.  I guess the frog just wanted to visit with me or something.

 

Design: "L" from Autumn Alphabet Sampler

Designer: Lizzie Kate

Fabric: 28 ct. Lambswool

Floss:  DMC 115 & 221

Started:  1/18/13

Finished: 1/19/13

Completed: 1/19/13

 

I found out on Thursday that my peep, Linda's birthday is the same day as Christie's!  For some reason I don't think I knew that or if I did it didn't register with me.  Linda is one of the peeps that went to Shepherd's Bush with me. 

 

I had to stitch something for that girlie.  I couldn't let her special day pass without doing something.  I decided when I went home for the night on Thursday that I'd pull out my trusty Lizzie Kate alphabet charts and see what I could whip up for her. 

 

I know Linda loves red.  This combination of DMC's colors has always been a favorite of mine so I went with it!  Linda seemed to really like it.  I think it turned out cute.

 

I'm lucky enough to have a couple pieces stitched by Linda. She was my secret stitcher a couple years ago. It was fun to have the opportunity to stitch for her this time.  I love how the over one turned out on the back.

 

I've used these same alphabets for several Ott-lite fobs this past year. They work great! Who knew when I bought them that I'd get so much mileage out of them. Definitely a good purchase for sure!

 

***

 

Well folks, it's a quick post today.  I've got plenty to show you when I get the pictures ready to go.  I got surprised with several belated birthday gifts of my own and yep, there was stash enhancement too.  Overall it was a fun time.

 

Thanks for visiting with me and welcome to my new followers.  I hope you find something interesting here and will come back again to visit.  Happy Wednesday everyone!  Gotta love the short week.

 

 

More later,

 

The Inspired Stitcher

 

Progress and anticipation

Have you ever started stitching with a color and it just didn't flip your skirt?  Well that happened to me recently on the Quaker Scissor Case project.  I was buzzing along and started stitching the red part.   For some reason the called for floss just wasn't doing it for me.  I think more than anything it was the particular dye lot I had on hand that was the issue.

You see, the dye lot I have has a lot of dark purple in it.  The more I stitched, the more purple I saw.  I really wasn't going for purple tulips!  So when my honey suggested we road trip into the capitol city to celebrate our birthdays, I knew exactly where I wanted to stop.  A trip to Cross My Heart would solve my problem just fine!

I was able to find just the perfect-for-me shade of red to do my tulips.  I had several contenders but in the end it was WDW Baked Apple that won!  I really like the way it looks and those tulips are a joy to stitch.

Here's where I stand as of last night, pardon the wrinkles.  I'm getting there!  This is one of those projects that I'm having a hard time putting down.  I find myself wanting to only work on this.  I plan to give it a good go this weekend.  More about that in a minute.

Of course you know you can't go to a stitch shop without some stash enhancement.  You all know that, right?  Well, here's what came home with me! I couldn't resist that gingham chart.  I think it was the turkey that got me.  Then I found the perfect fabric to use on an exchange that's coming up along with some needed floss.

Here's a better look at the floss toss.  Not all of these will be used in the same project.  Truth be told, there's floss for about three different projects there.  Two of them are exchanges so you'll see them later.

While I was in the shop I heard lots of chatter coming from the back room.  As I moseyed my way around to the back I looked in to see my friend, Nancy!  (Waves to Nancy)  She reads the blog faithfully she tells me.

They were having a stitch-in!  If I didn't have my honey patiently waiting out in the car, I would have sat down to join them.  As it turned out I had a nice visit with Nancy and all the ladies.  I also got to meet the shop dog, Romeo.  He's a cutie pie beagle.  Yes, I got the sniff-over when I got home.  LOL!

I'll be seeing Nancy in a couple days too.  The LNS is having it's annual retreat this weekend.  I'm really getting excited.  Lists are getting checked off, the bag is getting packed, and soon I'll be there!  I promise to bring you a full report next week.  Yes, there will be more stash enhancement!

Well folks, I guess I'd better get on with it today. I hope you are having a good week so far!  I'm thankful mine is going to be a short one.  Thanks for hanging out with me.  Have a great day!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher

TUSAL January

Well folks, it's time for the first TUSAL of the new year!  For those just joining us, TUSAL stands for Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long.

On or about the new moon each month I will post a picture of my ORT (Old Ratty Thread) pile along with my ORT report.  For me, participating in the TUSAL gives me a reason to pause and check in with my stitching progress once a month. 

This year I've put a link in my side bar that will take you to all the information about the TUSAL in case you want to learn more about it or join in the fun.  It looks like this (below).

It will take you here.  Thanks to Daffycat for providing it for us to use.  So without further adieu, here is this month's ORT (old ratty thread) pile and the ORT report follows.

January ORT pile

This months contributors were:

"Gingerbread Mouse" limited edition kit by Just Nan (Done!)
"Hornbook Bestiary" by Scarlet Letter (In progress)
"P" Ott-lite fob using Lizzie Kate letter & Stitchy Kitty frog (Done!)
"Quaker Scissor Case" by Barbara Bernard (In progress)
"John Foster 1885 Sampler" by Historic Stitches (In progress)
Cosmic Handmade freebie (To be completed)

From the looks of the ORT pile, it's safe to say there's been a lot of stitching going on around here and that would be a true statement!  This year is off to a good start.  I hope your ORT pile is growing nicely and your year is off to a good start too.

Welcome to my new followers.  I hope you find something interesting and inspiring here.  Thank you to everyone for their visits and comments.  You all really do make my day!  Happy weekend everyone!!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Another Ott-lite fob

I almost forgot to show you my last finish for 2012.  Now that I know the recipient has received her birthday gift, I can show you what I stitched for my peep, Patti.

She's the one that sent me the cute stuffed Dalmatian for my birthday.  She has a birthday close to a winter holiday too so we commiserate with each other.  Want to see what I stitched her?

Designer:  Lizzie Kate & Stitchy Kitty

Design:  "P" from Winter Alphabet; Frog face from No Frogging Allowed

Fabric:  28 ct. random scrap of white

Floss:  DMC

Started:  Letter "P" 3/4/12; Frog 12/28/12

Finished: 12/28/12

Completed: 12/28/12

Patti commented a couple times last year that she really liked my Ott-lite fob.  So I decided to make her one with the unused "P" from my first attempt to make my own way back in March last year.  I just knew it would get put to good use at some point.  I actually like her fob better than mine.  LOL!  Isn't that frog just too dang cute?!

I always enjoy stitching for my friends and I know they appreciate my efforts too.  That's the thing about stitching for other stitchers, they totally "get it" and appreciate the time it takes to make something.  I also like to give something personalized too.  Patti loves frogs!  So there you have it, my last finish for 2012!

That's all I've got for now.  I'll be back with my first TUSAL post on Friday.  If you aren't sure what that is, stay tuned.  I'll tell you all about it then.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting with me!


More later,

The Inspired Stitcher

Nicola's having a giveaway

If you've never visited Nicola's blog, Stitching by a Cornish Seashore, you should hop over there and have a look.  She's giving away a chart by Olwyn Horwood called "Blue Ribbon Sampler."  It's a really lovely sampler!

She's also hosting a year-long SAL over at Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year and Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year Blog Two to celebrate her big 5-0 birthday.  So far there are 160 of us participating celebrating with her!

If you want to see some awesome eye candy, go pop over to these two blogs as well.  There's lots to see and both blogs are quite active.  I'm sure you'll be inspired to go grab a Scarlet Letter sampler and get stitching too.  I know, I'm an enabler.  You're welcome!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher

New Year's Day Start & 2012 tally

I hope this post finds everyone doing well in this New Year!  I'm back to report my progress on my New Year's Day start.  I spent all day and into the evening yesterday stitching on my new start.  Want to see what I got done?

Pardon the fold lines.  I didn't bother to get the iron out for this picture.  It really doesn't look like much at this point anyway.  This is the width and length of it so far.  Can you guess what it is?

Remember the floss toss from Christmas?

 

Here's a big hint!  It's the outside border on John Foster 1885 Sampler!  A group of my local peeps decided they'd all like to do this one together so this is my start on it.  I think it's going to be a fun project.  Stay tuned!

Here's an update on the Quaker Scissor Case I started on my birthday.  I worked on this all day and into the night on New Year's Eve.  I stitched until I couldn't see anymore and finally put it down a little bit before the ball dropped.  It won't take much to get the blue motif done.  Maybe I'll give it a go tonight.  I really like variegation in this blue!

***

Since I missed posting my 2012 tally on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, I'll give it to you now.  I'm a numbers girl as some of you know.  I always find it interesting to go back and count up what I've done.  So here 'tis:

New Starts: 50

Finishes:  45

UFOs (unfinished objects):  16

WIPs (works in progress):  11

Just for giggles, I decided to count how many gifts and exchanges I stitched last year too.  I've not done that before and Lisa V inspired me to do it this year.  Just about half of what I finished, I gave away.

Gifts stitched:  11

Exchanges:  9
 

I was also lucky enough to attend four stitching retreats last year.  The first one was hosted by our LNS last January, the second one was my annual trip to Russellville, Kentucky, the third one was to Shepherd's Bush and the final one was the local Tiara Club Retreat.

Speaking of retreats, the LNS's retreat is coming up in two weeks!  I can hardly wait.  Thankfully I live just around the corner from the retreat site so I'll be a day-tripper again this year.  I can't wait to see what trunk shows will be there this time and you know there will be stash enhancement!  Oh yes there will!  LOL!

Well folks, that's it from this side of the computer screen today.  I hope everyone is having a good New Year so far!  Thank you so much for your friendship and visits.  I'm looking forward to a very stitch filled 2013!


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher