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

Russellville Retreat Recap and catching up

Hello friends!  Are you still out there?  I sure hope so!  It seems like this summer is just speeding by already.  I've been on the go every weekend it seems since the middle of June and I don't mind one bit!  No complaints here!

Two weekends ago DH and I rode the motorcycle 950 miles round trip to a motorcycle event in Pigeon Forge, TN.  It was my turn to "give back" since I've dragged him to many a craft/quilt/stitching event over the many years we've been together.  A good time was had by all.  Yes, I even managed to hit a stitch shop!  I can sniff out a stitch shop no matter where I'm at dontcha know.  Check out the gear!  It was raining when I went in and it had stopped when I came out.

 Happy shopper!

 Fabric Wall

 Charts and things!

 And yes, there was stash!  I even bought the plastic zipper pouch to protect it in the saddle bag on the way home. Always thinking ahead dontcha know!

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The fourth was our in-between weekend.  We did the usual trip prep stuff that weekend...laundry, shopping, grass mowing, etc.  Nothing too exciting.  We both went in different directions last weekend...he to another motorcycle event and me to Russellville!  Okay, now we are caught up.

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The main reason I'm checking in today is to do my annual Russellville recap.  The past weekend was our reunion.  I promised the "Queen Bee" I would share the love with all of you as well, so I know she's waiting for this.  Waves to the Queen Bee and the rest of the retreat bees who are reading.  Wish y'all would comment once in a while...ahem, just sayin'!

I started the morning on Thursday meeting the peeps at our friend, Patti's house.  We took the ferry across the river to get to the highway.  I absolutely love that ferry!  The peeps get tickled at me when I get a excited about it.  I never tire of riding across the Ohio on it.

Here's my attempt at a front seat selfie.  It looks like the camera flipped where we were sitting.  I really wasn't driving.  I was the passenger seat navigator.

We drove as far as Louisville for our first stop.  We always like to pay our friends at The Finishing Touch a visit when we find ourselves down that way.  Here's a look at the outside and a few from the inside in case you are curious.

Oh yes, and there was stash to be had.  Here's what I couldn't live without.  My peep, Linda spied the "Pin Money" kit and I kinda lost my mind.  I couldn't live without that one.  I also love this year's JCS Halloween issue.  There are several things in there I really like this time.  The fabric and the floss are for one of them!  Of course I couldn't leave the Drawn Thread chart behind either.

After we enhanced the stash and boosted the economy, we went to lunch on the suggestion to go up the street to Caffe Classico.  It's a cute little local restaurant with a decidedly Italian I leaning.  Of course they had me at "Vespa" when I saw this parked in the corner of the dining room.  Oh yeah!  I want one of these so very badly.  Someday!

After our sustenance, we piled back into the car and kicked it on down to Russellville.  It's an easy drive straight down route 65.  Of course it seemed as though every bridge in Louisville had construction going on which made for a tricky drive through the city but we made it through unscathed.  Whew!

Once in Russellville we checked into the hotel and did our annual peep gift exchange.  I alluded to my "super secret" gifts I was making in my last TUSAL post.  Now I can share what they were!

Design: Shaded Spools Fobs

Designer:  Inspired by Faye

Fabric: 40ct. 18th Century Brown

Floss: various DMC colors

Started:  6/18/15

Finished:  7/6/15

Completed:  7/6/15

Here's what I made for the peeps.  I took my inspiration from a post that Carolina Stitcher did a couple years ago.  Our peep, Marsha won the cutie Faye made. These are pretty close.  I like how they turned out.  Mine doesn't have an initial on it because Hobby Lobby was out of the letter "L."  I matched the spool colors to the scissor colors.  I think they turned out nice!  I'll show you what I made for the main gift exchange next time.

 From E.

 From L.

 From P.

Here's what I received.  My peeps know me so very well.  I love everything so much.  You girls are the best peeps anyone could ask for...seriously!  Never underestimate how much we need our peeps.

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On that beautiful note, I think I'll leave you for today.  I promise to come back and share the group project, show and tell, and of course, all the amazing gifts that were exchanged.  I can hardly wait!  Stay tuned!


More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

TUSAL - June and some progress

It's TUSAL Day!

(For those not familiar, click on the word TUSAL above or the link to the right.)

Here we are on TUSAL day again.  Can you even believe we are half way through this year already?!  It is finally starting to feel like summer around here with all our notorious Midwestern humidity.  All you have to do is look at my wild mop of hair to know it's true.  LOL!  I didn't think it would ever get warm again.

Here's a look at this month's ORT pile and the ORT report below.  I see lots of blue in that pile up there from the project bag!  It was a good month.

Here are this month's contributors to the pile:

"Speak to the Earth" by Donna Kooler Designs (In Progress)
"Heaven Above" by Midsummer Night Designs (In Progress)
"Love My Stitching" by Hands on Designs (Done!)
Russellville getaway exchange piece (Done...to be revealed next month) 

Speaking of my new project bag, I'm so happy I actually got it finished this past month.  Oh yeah!  I've really been enjoying it and am really pleased with how it turned out. I can see myself using those finishing instructions again sometime! 

"Speak to the Earth" is progressing nicely as we saw in this post!  It's actually starting to look like something now that we are about half way into it.  I really love all the colors and soon I'll be stitching the animals on the bottom part.  I can hardly wait.

I decided to give "Heaven Above" some love this past week.  I hadn't worked on it much since my push to get the project bag done.  I'm going to devote more time to it this month now that I have some of the super secret gift stitching done.  I still have a tiny bit to do yet.  The Russellville getaway is coming up next month so I'd better get crackin'!

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 Progress as of 5-5-15

Progress as of 6-15-15

 

Just for giggles, I thought I'd throw in a progress update on "Heaven Above" too.  As you can see I really didn't set the world on fire but each stitch is one more closer to done.  Now the bird has a body and I really like the new purple.  The heart was fun to do too as were the two flowers.  I'm almost done with the first page!

 

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Well friends, we are caught up now.  Hope all is well in your world and you are enjoying the slower pace of summer.  Thank you for visiting with me today.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Speak to the Earth - progress

Saturday I got together with the Tiara Club for an all day stitch.  I hadn't worked on Speak to the Earth much last month and needed to get myself caught up so I decided that would be my project for the day.  I can't believe I haven't shown any progress on this one since March!

Progress as of 3/31/15

I had started working on it at various points last month and got stumped by the queen stitch row.  Now those that know me know I don't mind this stitch at all. It's not a nemesis to me like it is to some folks.  In reflection, I think what had me stumped was two fold.  I'm working on 40 ct. fabric and that makes these stitches super tiny plus, rather than have them touching like they typically are, these had two threads between them on the first row.  The second row snugged into the gap.  For some ridiculous reason I had a mental block on the placement.  Once I got the first one in on both rows, I was off and running again!

  Progress as of 6/7/15

As you can tell from the picture I got a bit carried away.  I know I've said it before but this one is really hard to put down once I get started on it.  I just had to see what that squirrel looked like once I got myself caught up on this month's assignment.  Which, by the way, was to stitch from the middle of the "E" down to the "W" and across to the right.

I also decided to finish framing in the blue zig-zag inner border just so I would have something to count off of for future assignments.  My peep, Marsha, gave me that idea.  I think it's going to be really helpful too.

I feel like this sampler is starting to take shape now.  Soon we will be stitching the animals at the bottom.  I can hardly wait for that!  I'm really enjoying this one.  Now that I have a significant portion stitched I can tell my fabric choice is going to make this seem dainty when it's done.  Cool!

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Well folks, that's all I have for today.  I hope you were able to put needle to linen this past weekend too.  Thanks for stopping by for a visit and thank you for your sweet comments on my last post.  You all just make my day!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Hands on Design Project Bag...Done!

Folks, we have a finish!  I put the last stitch in this one on Sunday.  I had gotten a good go at it last week since I was so close to a finish and stitching with the peeps last Friday gave me the push I needed to actually make it to the finish line!

But that isn't the best part!  Oh no, I actually completed it into it's bag form.  Now I can use it!!  More on that in a minute.  First, I have to tell you how I solved my dilemma about the motif I mentioned on TUSAL day.

I wasn't wild about the motif between the words "sampler" and "motif" as it was charted.  Something about it just didn't strike my fancy.  I tried to chart my initials and even another spool of thread for that spot.  As I was sitting there pondering what to do, I looked at my latest SANQ issue sitting beside me and noticed the motif between the arrows above.  Jackpot!  It fit perfectly.  I ended up putting my initials on the lower right corner so they are still on it just not in a prominent spot as I'd first envisioned.  That's the beauty of stitching, you can change anything you want because it's yours!

Design:  Love My Stitching

Designer: Hands on Design

Fabric: 28 ct. white Monaco

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started: 4/6/15

Finished: 5/31/15

Completed: 6/3/15

Here's the finished bag!  I really like these finishing fabrics.  I still can't believe I got so lucky to find the actual fabric the designer used for the outside.  In case you are interested, the outside fabric is by Riley Blake Designs' line called Polka Dot Stitches in the print called Polka Dot Doily Blue.  I lined it in a polka dot print by Mary Koval from the line called Cat in the Manor that has an aqua and white dot on red.  A perfect match!

The finished size of the bag ended up being 10.5" wide by 12.5" high.  It's a little bit bigger than the ones I've made before.  It is also padded on all sides and has a chart pocket inside that runs lengthwise across the back of the bag.  The finishing instructions are by Sew Much 2 Luv and came with the chart which I thought was really nice.  They were pretty easy to follow too.


I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Stasi from Bee Mused and Bee Stitching who inspired me to pull this chart out and actually stitch it!  I saw hers a while back and just had to do it too.  I also wanted to be able to take this with me to Russellville next month since I bought the chart there last year at retreat.  I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy using this bag!

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So there we are friends!  Thanks for stopping in today and sharing my happy dance.  As always, I appreciate your visits and kind words.  It's so fun to share my stitching with you all.


Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher