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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

2015 Finishes So Far

It's nice to be back to stitching again. After a couple of years without doing much (apparently due in part to a VitD deficiency - Public Service Announcement: get your levels checked if you're feeling tired and achy at all), I'm back in business!

I started off in February by finishing a little project that I'm planning to send to a friend as it is a bit of an inside joke. Not that I'm likely to get around to making it pretty for another couple of years, but hey...it's progress.

Then I, shockingly, assembled the Polychrome Palooza knotwork kit that I finished in November 2011...see: right on time. Considering sewing isn't my strength, it didn't turn out too horrid.
Then there was the recent retreat. We started the event with a little project on Friday night. It was quite fun to whomp together the strawberry fob/pincushion as a starter for the event.

The next day we received the retreat sample that goes along with this fob. I've gotten a good amount completed on this project, but haven't gotten a photo of it yet...so you'll just have to wait on that WIP.
It's a lovely piece and is very fun to stitch. There are a lot of little thing going on to make it interesting. This was designed and taught by Kim Nugent of Samplers Not Forgotten (she doesn't currently have a website, but your LNS probably has her stuff if they're worth their salt ;-D).

I should post my nametag from the retreat. I just remembered that counts as a finish also!

Finally, I was poking through the patterns I bought the other day and discovered that one of the pincushion patterns would work perfectly with a box I bought a while back. I just needed to fiddle with the dimensions a bit...and the fabric and the colors. So I shrunk down the Key Keep with Fob from Jeannette Douglas Designs and used it for the box lid.
Now I just need to get around to posting where I'm at with various projects. That might be another year or so!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The Stitching Retreat Weekend

This past weekend I attended the A Stitcher's Garden stitching retreat. This was my seventh time at the retreat, and I had just as much fun as always. The retreat committee (Gail, Sue and Pat) always knock our socks off with the work they do for the event. Between the goodie bags they put together, the awards handouts, the little bits and bobs that we find at the dinner table, we walk out with more lovely projects than one can do in a year. Then there is always the boutique, which is filled with goodies that Jan (the shop owner) picks out from the Nashville show, where it's impossible to walk out empty handed.

On top of all that the retreat teacher they select is always incredible! This year we had Kim Nugent from Samplers Not Forgotten. She put together a lovely needle book project for us to work on. I'll be posting some photos of that in the upcoming days. I haven't gotten quite so far as to go through my photos from the retreat...I've been too busy stitching!

For now, I've posted all of the lovely charts that I received from the retreat and that I purchased from the boutique on my Pattern Stash page. This weekend I might actually have some free time to catch up with posting my finished, WIPs and even work on the retreat project a bit more!!

Thank you to all of the ladies from A Stitcher's Garden and happy stitching to all of the retreat attendees! Plan to see me at the next retreat!