The Stitcher's Getaway

I'm back with more tales today.  Friday morning after breakfast, we settled in for some serious stitching.  At each of our places around the table we found a folder containing the chart and stitch diagrams for our first group project.  It also contained this homemade stitching folder!

Belinda, our hostess, made these for all of us. It contained some pins, needles, silk and cotton flosses for our weekend's projects.  These are some of my favorite colors.  I just love it!

This was our first group project.  Belinda designed it for us.  I love the tiny fat robins and the acorn finials!  I am just over the moon when it comes to acorns.  Here's what the verse says:

 Birds of a Feather

stitch together

all on a hot

summer's day

They will sit and sew

little xxx's in a row

at the

Stitcher's Getaway

Russellville, KY

2011

The Shoppe on the Square Boutique

A couple of us decided to take a break and walk uptown to do some shopping.  We heard that The Shoppe on the Square was having a 50% off sale on retired Vera Bradley.  Of course we just had to go check that out!  I didn't find any Vera that flipped my skirt but I did find these cute earrings for 50% off!

We also went to the Rare Pearls Antiques store to poke around. You never know what you might stumble across.  You just might find some treasure you didn't know you needed.

Rare Pearls Antiques

My treaures

I was so thrilled when I found the heart shaped tea infuser.  Jenny had given me some special loose leaf tea that I've been wanting to try but couldn't find my tea ball.  This will be just perfect for that.  Love that heart shape.  I've never been a coffee drinker but I do love my tea!

I also thought the tin was cute with the little girl stitching on it.  I'm not wild about the painted bear on the shaker box lid but I thought I could stitch something to cover it up.  It will be nice to add to my Shaker box collection.  The best part was I got the whole haul for less than $10!

Mini spittoon?

One of my main reasons for visiting the antiques store was to see if I could find something to use to collect my orts (orts = Old Raggedy Threads).  I know, I could just pile them on the table or put them in a plastic cup but it gave me an excuse to shop, dontcha ya know!

I saw this little aluminum thing that, in my eyes, looks like a mini spittoon.  I don't know what it really is but that's what we called it.  It's great for catching orts!

Here's the spittoon next to the Ott-Lite so you can see the size.  The stocking hanging off the light unfortunately is not mine.  Some of the girls last year drew names to do an exchange.  This was what my neighbor got!  Isn't it cute?

Here are some of the other things folks made and exchanged:

Yes, there were some really talented stitchers in the group.  Just look at these creative finishes!  I didn't get pictures of all of them but suffice it to say they were all drool-worthy.  I would have been happy with any one of them!

Since this post is getting a bit lengthy, I'll sign off here and post more later.  I hope you've enjoyed the trip so far!

The Inspired Stitcher

I'm back with tales to tell as promised

*** Warning Picture Heavy Post ***

Thanks for patiently waiting for my return.  I have so much to tell you.  I'm thinking it's going to take more than one post to catch you up.

So where was this stitching retreat you ask?  Well, here's a hint.

Russellville City Hall

(No, not at the city hall specificially). 

I went to Russellville, Kentucky!  Where is Russellville?  Well, it's not too far from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and not too far from Tennessee for that matter.  It is the county seat of Logan County, Kentucky.  It has that great small town feel and all the southern charm and hospitality you could ask for!

The Breathitt House, where the stitching happened!

The plaque explaining the significance of the Breathitt House

We actually did our stitching at the Breathitt House.  These are pictures I took last year but the house looks the same this year.  It is the home of Govenor John Breathitt who was born 1787 in Virginia and came to Russellville in 1800.  He was elected Governor in 1832.  He was an advocate for the need to preserve Kentucky's valuable documents.  He died in office in 1834.  I learned all this from the above sign.

You might be surprised to know that in addition to being passionate about things involving needle and thread, I'm also a history buff.  I love to visit historic places when I travel.  Russellville made my heart sing when I saw these signs all over town!  I'll share more of these signs later.

~ ~ ~

So about the trip, I met up with my friends Patti, Ruth (Patti's mom) and Char.  We loaded up the car and off on our grand adventure we went!

We were thinking we might run into some traffic when we got near here. Thankfully we skated by with no trouble at all considering there was a major NASCAR race due to take place in a matter of days!

 The Needle Nest - Shelbyville, KY

So it was on to our first stop in Shelbyville for a visit to The Needle Nest.   No road trip is complete without at least one stop at a stitching store for stash.  Come on, you know you do it too.  We all buy stash whenever the opportunity presents itself!  Here's proof.

Here's our happy group of stash shoppers with the owner of the Needle Nest, Harriet (she's the one in the middle).  We all found some pretty neat things we couldn't live without.  Here's a picture of what I got.

Needle Nest Stash
 

Praiseworthy Stitches - Emiliana's Sewing Case
Praiseworthy Stitches - Strawberry Pyn Pillow
Little House Needleworks - The Melicent Turner Sampler
Ewe & Eye & Friends - Find Your Bliss
A scrap of lavender linen and a scrap of blue -  for ornaments or whatever

Mill Hill Petite Glass Beads - for the strawberry pyn pillow's seeds

After all that shopping and driving we decided we were ready for some lunch.   So off to Dairy Queen we went.  One chili dog and a banana split Blizzard later for me and it was back on the road for us!

We were cruising along when our first delay happened around Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  We got in a traffic jam that was caused by a road construction bottleneck.  We went from three lanes down to one!  Yep, it was a mess.  Once we got through that we got into a huge rainstorm.  But we were not to be deterred and continued onward to Russellville.  Our driver had a goal to meet and she wasn't having anything get in the way!

We made it there safe and sound in good time too.  We actually had enough time to unpack and go sit by the pool for a bit before we went into town for dinner with the group!  We ate at a new Italian restaurant on the downtown square called Ariella. 

Ariella Itallian Restaurant

Our waitress told us that the chef used to be Paul Prudhomme's sous chef.  I had the chicken parmesan and it was awesome.  Others at my table had the crab cakes on a bed of linguini with fresh pesto.  We shared nibbles around the table.  That pesto was by far the best pesto I've ever had!

Just when we thought we couldn't put away another bite, the waitress announced that the chef had prepared homemade cannoli just for us!  Who can resist that temptation?  Especially when it came with a side of homemade chocolate mousse!  Yep, heaven on a plate for sure.

We had our waitress ask the chef to come to the dinning room so we could all give him a round of applause.  That was one of the best meals I've had in a long time!

By they way, I took a picture of the cannoli to show you but someone, who shall remain nameless, said it looked naughty so I won't be posting it.  Gotta keep it rated G you know!

So needless to say we all went back to the hotel quite "fat and sassy" as we say at our house.  A good way to start off the weekend for sure and this was just the first day!

More tomorrow,
The Inspired Stitcher

Capturing the color

 

This was yesterday's attempt.

So I came home tonight and started experimenting while my dinner was in the oven.  Yes, I know it's hotter than three hells outside and what am I doing heating up the kitchen.  That's another discussion.  Let's get back to the pictures shall we?

This one's for Mouse.

Okay then, so this picture is for Mouse.  She suggested I lay the fabric directly on the scanner.  So I did and this is what it looks like.  It's better.   I really appreciate the good suggestion!

This one is for Jenny.

(Yes, I put my stitching on the concrete driveway.  If you are gasping, go lay down until the feeling passes.)

I took this picture especially for Jenny.  She wanted me to show how big the fabric piece is.  It's 27 inches long by 18 inches wide.  The actual stitched part is 9 by 9 inches square.  This attempt is pretty good color wise too. 

The best result of them all!

(Yes, now the stitching is laying on the boxwood bush.  Go back to laying down if you gasped again!)

This is the most accurate color I was able to capture.  There is more of a golden color to this attempt which is what it actually looks like in person...at least to my eyes anyway.  I do have the advantage of having the actual fabric in front of me too.

So there you have it.  My very unscientific attempt to capture an accurate linen color.  Pretty interesting!  Thanks to the comments on my last post for the suggestions that prompted this experiment.

On a side note, after dinner I'm going to finish packing my suitcase.  I'm going out of town with some of my stitching peeps for a weekend stitcher's retreat.  I'll have tales to tell when I get back.

There went the timer.  Dinner's ready!

More later,
The Inspired Stitcher

Hedgerow Birds Side One

Designer:  Blackbird Designs

Design:  Hedgerow Birds Project Bag

Fabric:  20 ct. Straw by Weeks Dye Works

Floss:  Gentle Art and Crescent Colors

Started:  4/21/11

Finished:  7/1/11

I started this on our road trip to Iowa on Easter weekend and finished it last Friday at the monthly stitch-in held at my LNS.  The funny thing about this picture is that the fabric in real life is much more yellow.  I could not for the life of me get a good photo of it.  I really like the pink and purple floss colors in this one too.

 

 Here is a picture of the whole project.

I need to start on side two next!  Using the large count and large needle were both firsts for me.  I feel like I'm using a dagger to stitch this compared to my usual size 28 needles!  Funny what you get used to.

The Inspired Stitcher

It's a Quaker Cube!

Here's what it looked like when it was flat!

Here it is finished!

Quaker Cube

40 ct. Flax Linen

DMC 115

Started: 7/2/11

Finished: 7/4/11 

I was rooting around in the stash looking for something else when I ran across the charts for this project.  I've had these freebie charts for a while now.  They came from Stitch-Creations' blog.  She posted the individual charts as a SAL series back in April 2009 (You'll need to click through several posts to get all the pieces).  Her blog is in Dutch but the SAL entries are written in English too!

The original is charted to become a pin cube but I decided I wanted to make it into a fob/ornament.  I had taken a class with Janie Hubble of The Cat's Whiskers on Valentine's Day in 2009.  Part of our class piece was a cube shaped scissor fob.  I've always wanted to do another one and this weekend the creativity bug bit me so I arranged the pieces from this SAL into a cube shape and got to stitching.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  I hope this inspires you to see something in your stash in a new way!

The Inspired Stitcher

A Little Red Quaker

Hmm...what is this?  Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see!  Let's just say it's something that has occupied my time since yesterday morning.  I finished the stitching just now.  I'll wait to show you when it's finished.  Yes, I'm being naughty and keeping you in suspense...for now.

Until tomorrow,
The Inspired Stitcher

Because they said I needed to do this...

Here it is, my first post!  All my peeps (Jenny, Christie, and Marsha) said I needed to do this so here goes.  I'm sure I'll have more interesting things to say as time goes on but for now here it is.

The Inspired Stitcher