Russellville Recap - part 2

The show and tell table really proved we have been a busy group of stitchers since we last got together!  I  had a hard time getting it all in one picture so there are several.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Here we go!

Four things in this picture are mine.  You've seen the Pomegranate Pincushion in the upper left.  The Remember Me pillow, Strawberry scissor keep and the Antique Vases sewing case are all mine too.  I need to do a separate post to record their finishes here on the blog.  The pillow was last year's group project last seen here.  The Antique Vases sewing case was last seen here. 

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I also wanted to show you the stash haul from the Queen Bee's "boutique" this year.  There were several things on deep discount that I couldn't resist!

These three were all complete kits that included fabric and floss!  The two heart shaped ones even included the Altoids tin as well.  The first one even has silk floss.  All were priced too good to pass up.

All but the Scarlet House one in this picture were also on sale.  I got the kit with the pansy scissor fob.  It has everything but scissors!  Loved the tea themed one and Miss Peepers was just to cute.  I've really been into Patriotic pieces lately and I've seen this on several blogs lately.  Nice!

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What!?!

With that I'll leave you with this picture of a rather odd looking tomato bought at the Farmer's Market behind the "Hive."  I'll let you use your imagination here as to what you think this looks like.  Needless to say we had some fun with this one and everyone had a go at a guess.  Shenanigans abounded.  Oh yes, they did!

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So that's the end for today.  Har har...couldn't resist!  I've got one more post to wrap up the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by for the second installment.


More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Auburn, Indiana Getaway Weekend

Last weekend was my getaway with some of the Russellville girls.  We've decided this is going to be an annual thing.  We've already booked our stay at the Inn at Windmere, for next year!  Paul and Susie always make our stay so enjoyable we really don't want to leave!

We met again this year for lunch on Friday at what used to be known as the Busy Brush Cafe but is now under new ownership and is called The Cranberry Cupboard.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of the tea pot collection.  Almost all of these ended up on our table as several of us had hot tea.  It was a very cold and blustery day...perfect tea weather!

After lunch we browsed around in the attached gift shop.  I found this cool bracelet and couldn't leave without it.  I wore it for the rest of the day.  I often like to find a piece of jewelry to remember a trip.

We also went a couple blocks up to the uptown square and did some antiquing.  I scored this vintage Whitman's tin.  The photo is deceiving.  It's actually about 12" square!  A great size to house a project.  It has some chipped paint but I don't mind.  Thanks to Patti for spotting it for me!  The very best part was I got it for less than $5 and that was with tax!

After our little shopping adventures, we headed out to the B & B to get settled in and stitch until dinner.  This is Patti and I's room.  It's called the "sunrise" room.  Yes, it does face the east.  I just love the style of this bed and bedding.  So girly!

As per usual, I packed way too much crap stuff and really only worked on this all weekend.  From the size of my bag you'd have thought I was going to be stranded on an island for months.  LOL!  Truth be told, I pulled the floss for this as an after thought while I was waiting for Patti to get to my house.  The only one I couldn't find was the darkest blue.  I figured it was just DMC so I could pick it up in the morning on our visit to Stitch n' Frame, who now has an online presence.  Yay!
  

The next morning we were thoroughly spoiled by a huge breakfast cooked by Susie and Paul.  I don't eat that much breakfast in a whole week!  After we rolled away from the table, we grabbed our shopping lists, charts, and headed to Ft. Wayne.  This is the sight that greets you when you walk into Stitch n' Frame!

As you can tell from this picture it goes way back too.  There's lots of goodness to peruse in here!  I had emailed ahead to warn let them know we were coming.  It was busy in the shop without our crew descending upon them.  Good thing they had extra help on hand.  LOL!

Here's a peek at the fabric wall from my seat at the stitching table.  I had already done my damage and was waiting for everyone to finish up.  We rightly enhanced the economy for sure.  It was fun to have show and tell when we got back at the Inn.

Here's a peek at my haul!  I was surprised that they still had quite a few Prairie Schooler charts still in stock.  I had a list of things I was actually looking for and found almost all of them too.  I just love those John James 24 needles, I needed another small project bag and I always pick up one of those LoRan threaders when I see them.  I can't have too many.  The flosses have a funny story I'll share in a minute.  See, I found my DMC too!

Is it me or do these three flosses all look the same to you?!  My peep, Linda, pointed this out to me at the last stitch-in.  So I decided my main mission when I got to the stitch shop was to find substitutes for at least two of them.

Here's what I came up with.  The dye lot they had for Walnut was significantly different than the one I had which is often the case with over-dyes so that was easy.  The next one I couldn't decide between the two so I bought them both.  I'm kinda of leaning toward the Weeks one.  I kept my original floss on the end.

Here's the project these are going to be used for..the big bee.  The middle three colors in the above picture are the ones for the bee's legs so I really wanted something relatively dark compared to the other two browns.  I think I've got a good bunch to work with now.  Who knows when I'll actually start this one.  I'm prepared though!

After our shopping trip we went next door for some lunch at Pizza King.  For my Indiana readers (waves to Vonna) you know this is an institution and so good.  I grew up eating Pizza King and am a bit nostalgic about the place.  There's much more on the menu than just pizza.  We all ended up having sandwiches since we knew pizza was on the menu for our dinner.  Yum!

Here we all are on Sunday morning after yet another tasty breakfast!  As I said before, we thoroughly enjoy ourselves when we visit Windmere.  We really don't want to leave but real life calls us back.  So after the photos were taken, we gave our hugs and said our goodbyes until we see each other again next summer in Russellville.

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Art by Jean Jullien

I want to pause here and to say that our weekend was good in spite of the tradgedy in Paris Friday night.  Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to all of those impacted by it.  I continue to send positive thoughts to my favorite city on earth.  May healing and peace come to the city of light and love.

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Thanks for visiting today. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me to Auburn.  Time spent with stitching friends is always the best.  Have a good rest of your week!


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Russellville Recap part 3

So, back to the recap.  I had way more to share than I first imagined.  You know how I love to take pictures and share things with you all.  So let's get back to it!

Saturday afternoon the peeps from Post and my peep, Evie and I all piled into the car and went into town.  The Post girls had spied an antique store Evie and I didn't know about and we visited the one just down the street from our old location.  

Here's my haul.  I got the glass flower frog and the scarf at our first stop and the two tins at the second.  The rectangular tin is the perfect size for scissors and the square one was a mini cigar tin.  Who knew there were mini cigars?!  I just liked the color.  Right now it has buttons in it.

Progress as of 7-11-15

Since I finished the retreat project early, I worked on "Heaven Above."  This is where I left off on Saturday night.  I also worked on "Speak to the Earth" but not enough to show any progress yet.  I'll do an update on that at the end of the month.

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So lets get to the grand finale!  Our exchange this year was no less awesome than last year.  Seriously, I know I say this every year but we are one super talented group.  I'll let the pictures tell the story.   You are going to love this!  Go grab a cuppa, you are going to want to spend some time looking at all this goodness.

 This was the little cutie I received from Kathy!  OMG, how I dearly love this.  I had wanted this when it first came out and waited too long.  The LNS sold out.  Now I have one of my very own and it is even more special because a dear friend made it for me.  I loved it so much that I went online and hunted down the companion piece.  It should arrive on Monday!  Thank you again, dear friend.  I will treasure this forever.  Your stitches are perfection!

 

Design:  Count Your Blessings

Designer: La D Da

Fabric:  36 ct. mystery fabric gifted to me by Linda

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started:  6/12/15

Finished:  6/13/15

Completed:  7/5/15

This is what I made for the exchange.  My friend Rosie got it and it now lives in the southwest.  She's the one who made the tatted bookmark above.  She gave us a demonstration on how to do tatting after the exchange.  So fascinating!

The design has a special significance to the group.  Every year the Queen Bee sings this song to us and we all join in.  It's a wonderful reminder of all the good we have in our lives and how lucky we are to have each other.  I might just have to stitch this again for myself.

Our return trip across the Ohio on the ferry!

Sadly our time together had to come to an end.  We only had the extension office facility till Saturday night so we said our goodbyes at the hotel on Sunday morning after breakfast.  I always enjoy this getaway.  We've all become so close to each other and it really does feel like a reunion of my extended stitchy family.  I'm already looking forward to next time. Miss you girls already!

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Well friends, that's the recap.  I hoped you enjoyed the visit as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.   I hope your weekend has been good as well.  Thank you for being here.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Russellville Recap part 2

Well folks yesterday got away from me and I didn't get my post up.  I underestimated how many pictures I had to edit.  So go grab a cuppa something, we are going to be here for a while.  I've got a whole lot to share with you today!

After we did our exchange at the hotel, we called one of our peeps for directions to the new hive at the county extension office.  We changed locations this year as the previous one was falling into disrepair.  This new hive was the "bee's knees" as they say and yes, I meant that pun too!  Here's a look at the hive set up.  This new place had a gourmet kitchen and we had our meals catered by a Mennonite lady who was an awesome cook!  This allowed the Queen Bee to participate more in the fun.  I think I worked out really well!

Once everyone was there and settled we were given our getaway project.  As you all know, I do love BBD!  I've wanted to stitch this one for quite sometime.  We got to pick out our floss color. All the floss was by GAST.  I chose Geranium.  It's a bright pinkish red.  The little purple things are Jordan almonds.  Yum!  In the US you see them a lot at weddings and celebrations.

This is what it looked like by the end of the night Friday.  I'm thinking I want to put some beads on it in place of the charted confetti "x" and I've got some button trim in the stash heap somewhere that would be nice around the edge of a pillow finish.

Design: Getaway Girls Count

Designer: Rose Sartore

Fabric:  28 ct.  White

Floss:  WDW Confetti and DMC

Started:  3/22/15

Finished:  3/28/15

Completed:  By the Queen Bee

Also, when we were given our kits we got this project bag.  We had stitched the fronts and sent them in with our registration and the Queen Bee made them all into bags for us.  It was designed by one of our getaway bees, Rose.  We all picked our own colors.  Too cute!

In between stitching and visiting, I shopped the boutique the Queen Bee set up for us.  Just look at all this goodness.  Yes, I found things I couldn't live without.

Hands On Design was one of the biggies this year.  You all know how much I adore her things.  I couldn't help myself.  I was so happy to see the "Pin Feathers" chart there too.  I had passed it by at Finishing Touch and it was haunting me.  Yay!  The little square of fabric is what I'll use for it.  The bees, well they speak for themselves.  The bigger piece of fabric is just because.  I'm sure I'll come up with something to use it.

While we were stitching on Friday, we had a four legged visitor.  Do you see it in the middle of the picture?  Everyone got a sniff and she got an ear scratch.  She came in with the warden and the inmates who fixed the folding door in the upper right corner of the picture.  Yes, you read that correctly!  I didn't initially notice that until I read the one guy's vest.  Um...yeah!  Never a dull moment...no siree!

Okay, so yeah, back to stitchy things.  This was our show and tell table.  The bags in the back contained our exchange gifts.  We did that on Saturday.  Let's have a closer look at these pretties!

Lots of pretty things to share and admire!  We really are a talented group.  I actually have a couple of these charts in my stash and now after seeing them stitched up, I'm tempted.  If only I could live forever to be able to stitch all I'd like to.  I bet you all feel the same way too!

 

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Well folks, this post has gotten longer than I'd intended so I think I'll leave you here and resume the recap tomorrow with the exchange and a peek at some goodies I picked up in town.  I hope you are enjoying the grand adventure so far!

More soon,

The Inspired Stitcher