Tiara Retreat Weekend - part 2

I'm glad you enjoyed yesterday's post.  I'm back today to share the exchange pieces with you.  There are some really talented stitchers in this group!   This one is going to have you drooling.

 

Here's Marsha at the exchange table.  We put our exchange pieces in brown paper lunch bags so they would all look the same and nobody would know who's was who's.  I really like doing the exchange this way.

 

I'll do my best to remember who made which one and who picked what.  Let's check out all the stitchy goodness.  Go grab a bib! Here we go!

 

 

This one was stitched by my friend, Donna and picked by Christie.  Love the two sides.  There's a lot of work that went into this one!

Christie made this one and Donna picked it.  How funny is that?  They got each others and it was completely random.

Marsha made this one.  I love the alphabet trim around the edge.  She said it was her first time doing this finish.  It's awesome!

Anna Mae got this one.  It's not as little as it appears.  It was actually too big to fit inside the brown paper lunch bag!  The fabric has gold sparkle threads running through it but my camera dosen't show that very well.  Amy made this one.

I don't recall who made this one.  My birthday twin, Dottie picked it.

 

Isn't this one just too cute?  I love the gray fabric!  I think Tiffany or Sue might have gotten it.  I don't recall who made it.

My friend Tiffany made this one.  I don't recall who picked it.  I think Amy might have.

Meem got this one but I don't remember who made it.  I love these stockings.  I've never tried to make one though.

Amanda got this one.  Again, I don't remember who made it.  Marsha, do you remember?

This one was made by Judith and picked by Marsha.  It's a Bent Creek Littles!  I've wanted to stitch this one for a while and seeing it in person makes me want to do it even more now.  Love the tiny frame!

I think Barb picked this one but I missed who made it.  I'm not fond of spiders in general but this is a cute idea.

Again, I wasn't paying attention who made it but I think maybe it was Pat who got this one.

I saved my personal favorite for last.  This is what I got in the exchange! It is from my friend, Pat and was stitched by my friend, Nancy. It's from the Prairie Schooler chart #41 called Still Life. It's worked on 40ct.  It is so awesome! I've always wanted to stitch this one. Thank you both!

Design: "Leaves" from the Winter Circles #142 booklet

Designer: Cross Eyed Cricket

Fabric: 28ct. Summer Khaki

Floss: DMC as charted

Started: 9/7/13

Finished: 9/22/13

Completed: 9/22/13

This is the one I made!   It was hard to give it away. I think it turned out really cute.  The fabric behind the pillow is what I used for its backing.  I didn't know the person who got it but I hope she enjoys it with fond memories of the weekend.

I stopped at this farmer's market on my way home to pick up a jar of my honey's favorite blackberry jam.

As with all good things, they eventually come to an end. It was a perfect fall weekend spent with some of my favorite people! I'm already looking forward to next time.

Many thanks go to Marsha and Amanda for all their planning and hard work.  It was a most enjoyable retreat.  I'm still giggling over our silliness and am inspired to start more fall/christmas stitching. 

 

I hope you all enjoyed seeing all the lovely exchange pieces today.  I can't wait to share the fun Secret Stitcher gift that was in my mailbox Friday before I left.  There's a funny story I have to share with you about it.

 

 

Even more next time,

 

The Inspired Stitcher

Tiara Retreat Weekend - part 1

I spent this past weekend ensconced in the woods of Indiana at the annual Tiara Club's retreat!  It was a much needed stitching getaway.  We basically stitched, ate, and slept a little then repeated.  It was wonderful!

We were greeted with this super cute welcome gift.  Love the fall colors!  I wish you all could smell the wonderful salt scrub, my peep, Marsha made.  Yes, not only is she a talented stitcher she makes awesome soaps too!   Love the little pumpkin waxer and the needle tubes are really going to be handy.  They even came with needles in them!  Cool!

 

We always have a "free to a good home" table.  This year I actually remembered to bring a contribution.  I had a JoAnn's bag stuffed full and I happily got rid of it all!  I can honestly say I only came back home with a few things from the table...that felt good.

 

 

We always have a "show and tell" table too! Just check out the wonderfulness that showed up this year! 

 

 

I thought this one was so cute.  Love that pink fabric!

 

You'll recognize one of the Foster brothers is done now!  It looks great too.  This one belongs to my peep, Christie.  I hope she does a post about it so you all can see more of it.

Speaking of finishes, I had a couple myself over the weekend.  I'm so thrilled I got so much done.  The picture above shows everything I worked on.  Let's take a closer look.

Friday afternoon and evening, I worked on the Hornbook Bestiary.  I got all the third row's squares done and started on "K is for Kitten."  I finished filling in the kitten on Saturday morning.

Then I decided to "ornamentify" my "Bee Happy" heart I showed you in this post.  A little Mouse reminded me of some pretty awesome chenille trim I had received in an exchange this year.  I had tucked this trim away in a "safe" place and promptly lost it.  Don't you hate when you do that?!

I have to say, if you've never worked with this chenille trim, you seriously need to get yourself some and give it a go.  This stuff hides a multitude of sins and it's super easy to work with too.  I can see myself using this stuff more often.  Thanks, Mouse for spoiling me!

Design:  "Merry Christmas" freebie

Designer:  Threadwork Primitives

Fabric: 36ct. opalescent white

Floss:  DMC 115 & 367

Started:  9/28/13

Finished:  9/28/13

Needs to be ornamentified!

Once I finished the heart, I moved onto one of several Christmas ornaments I need to stitch.  This one worked up really quickly and I'm thinking of doing another one.  I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it.  I'm thinking maybe with a beaded edge but then a small pillow would be cute too.  Stay tuned!

Design:  Tin Toppers "ABC Sampler"

Designer:  Samplers and Such

Fabric:  36ct. light sand

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started:  9/28/13

Finished:9/28/13

This was the last thing I stitched on Saturday.  This is one that's been calling me from the basket o'joy for a while now.  It will eventually become a tin topper and fob.  I still need to do the back stitching on the fob and add my name/date to the tin topper.  I love this one!

I'll leave you for today with some comic relief.  This is my peep, Nancy's floss ring.  Yes, it does resemble a rat's nest.  Nancy even said so.  She's such a hoot!  Of course, when I looked at it I saw something else.

I think it makes for a good hair do!  You know like those daisy wreaths the hippies wore in the 60's.

Yep, we were getting a little silly at this point.  You know me, I can't help myself sometimes.  I'm like that dontcha know.  LOL!

~*~*~*~

Well folks, this one is getting lengthy today.  I still need to show you what I made for the exchange and what I received.  I also need to share the other exchange pieces with you.  I'm going to save it for tomorrow.  Stay tuned!  I hope you enjoyed the retreat so far.


More tomorrow,

The Inspired Stitcher

Tiara Club Retreat Weekend

This past weekend was our annual Tiara Club Retreat weekend.  Yes, I've basically lived out of a suitcase for the past six weeks and I've loved every minute of it too.  I'm a self confessed travel nut!  Yep, it's true.

There are my Shepherd's Bush travel peeps and two of my Russellville retreat peeps sitting in the middle of the room.  We had so many folks come this year that we had tables set up in the middle!

Here's the view from my corner of the room!  See Senior Frog there in the lower right corner?  He went with me to this retreat.  He doesn't like to fly so he stayed home when I went to Utah.  LOL!

Here's the beautifully decorated fireplace in the dining hall!  Makes me want to get out those decorations I have yet to get out this season.  Guess it would help if I stayed home!

Here's our dessert from Friday night!  I looked forward to this all day long.  Let's have a moment with the apple dumpling and the cinnamon ice cream.  Okay?  This dessert is almost a religious experience.  I feel better now.  Moving on...

Let's look at some stitching!  These three were being worked on around me.  The first one was completed by my peep, Marsha!  You go girl!  The one in the middle was done by Stitchinpeanut, and the third was done by my peep, Christie.  Ladies, these are awesome!!!  It was so fun to see them side by side and done on different colored fabrics.

Speaking of progress and finishes, I made good progress on my BAP's October assignment!  I was able to get one of this month's butterflies done, some greenery and a start on another butterfly!  I've waited all year to stitch one of those butterflies.  It's even prettier in person!

I also got Lizzie Kate's Fall Squared started and finished!  Now I just need to complete it.  I'm percolating on how I want to do that.  Maybe I'll work on it this weekend.  We'll see...

Here's another finish I was particularly proud to see and say I stitched a part of it!  See those acorns?  Remember when I posted this?  Our friend Pat was able to come to the retreat and brought the sampler we made for her!

Attending the retreat was a huge thing considering she's recovered from a stroke and uterine cancer this year!  You should have seen the huge smile on her face when she was showing off this sampler.  I'm so proud of her and happy she was able to be there with us!!!  Thanks to Pat's sister, Barb, for bringing her!

Speaking of Barb, this is the biscornu she made for the retreat exchange and I won it!!!  It's so very me!  Just look at those acorns and I love that little owl!  The best part, she got mine!  What are the chances?!  Here's a picture of mine.  I love when things like that happen.

I wasn't able to take pictures of all of the exchange pieces this year but I did get a picture of this cutie made by my buddy, Paula and won by my buddy, Meem!  Paula stitched this all over one and it is amazing!  Paula does such beautiful work!

Before we departed on Sunday, we snapped this picture of the "Russellville Girls."  The two girls on the right (the one in black/red and the one wearing pink) drove 4 hours to come to the retreat!

Usually I only get to see them in Russellville in the summer so it was a real treat to get to spend time with them this past weekend.  Waves to my Russellville peeps!

***

Well folks, that's all I've got today!  I don't plan to go anywhere else this month but I am traveling the first of next month so there will be a full report from that event later.

I'm glad you took the time to visit with me today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!

Until next time,


The Inspired Stitcher

Tiara Stitch-in

Wow, what a week I've had!  Lots of things happening lately and now today is the first of August!  Really?!  This summer has just slipped right past me for sure.  Let's start with the stitchy stuff...

Saturday was our monthly Tiara stitch-in.  I worked on my Rouge du Rhin "L" for my tote bag project.  I actually got the stitching finished on Sunday.  Hmm...I should probably take a picture of that.

Moving to my left, check out these beautiful morning glories!  I'm told this one is going to be close to four feet long when it's done!  Looks great so far.

I love the colors in this Shepherd's Bush.  This peep is hoping to get it done by September so she can have Jill Rensel frame it for her.  Won't that be stunning?!

This one is a reproduction of an antique quilt in the Shelburne Museum's collection.  I love the bright colors!

I actually saw this quilt when the traveling exhibit "Art of the Needle" came to town.   The quilt was donated to the museum in 1955 by Ida W. Beck who lived from 1880 – 1967.  She was a shut-in who specialized in needlework and monogramming. It's stunning in person!

This one is a golden anniversary sampler one of my peeps is doing for a friend.  Her friend's hubby passed away not long ago but she's going to finish the gift anyway.  So bitter sweet.

This is a new start on the "Folk Art Hornbook" by Hillside Samplings found on the Bay of Evil.  I'm glad to see the Bay of Evil (eBay) gets other folks in trouble too.  LOL!  I love the painted hornbook that goes with this one!

Making the full circle around the table, this is the one that was being worked on to my right.  It's by Jeannette Douglas called "My Story."  I have this one in the stash from the Shepherd's Bush retreat 2010.  Unfortunately I never got further than the trees.  LOL!  This one is so pretty in person!

***

We were a smaller than usual group as you can tell by the WIPs.  Here's what came for show and tell.

An Erica Michaels piece.  I like the frame!

I love the saying on this Country Cottage piece.

I love the colors of this Praiseworthy Stitches "Faith."  There's just something about Quaker designs.

I don't recall who this one is by but I love the charms on the ribbon.  I'm told they came from Hobby Lobby.

I love the colors of this JBW wedding sampler.  That silver frame just sets it off!

This is Little House Needleworks' "Elizabeth Hancock" sampler.  I remember when my peep was working on this earlier in the year.  She changed out the colors of the flower vine because the called for white was just now showing up.  I like how it turned out! 

This one always reminds me of my "I Sigh Not for Beauty" since they both have the same verse on them.  Speaking of, I did give "Beauty" some more attention at the stitch-in in the afternoon.  I got the house all the way done.  I didn't take a picture because it doesn't look that much different than the last time you saw it.

***

As I mentioned earlier there's been a lot happening around here lately.  Some of you know my 10 year old car gave up on me before I gave up on it.  LOL!  So we had to go car shopping.  Most folks would be excited about that...me, not so much!  I equate it to bra shopping, a necessary evil.  So we spent two angst filled days shopping and I found one...finally.  Whew!  Hopefully I won't have to do that again for another 10 years!

The same day we picked up the new car, my little girl got her snippety snip done.  Poor baby!  Here she is that evening.  As you can tell by the ears and the sad face she's not feeling too hot.

She was a real snuggle bunny that night.  My little velcro dog wanted me to stay right by her side all night long.  At one point, she even put her head on my shoulder and let out a big sigh.  Talk about melting my heart!

I'm pleased to report it's been a week today since her surgery and you'd never know anything happened to her.  She was actually her normal fired up self the very next morning!  If only people bounced back from surgery like that.  LOL!

***

Well folks, that's all I've got today.  I've been doing some gift stitching lately so I can't share that just yet.  I hope everyone has had a good week so far.  Thankfully we are barreling toward a weekend! Yippee!!!  Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher