Sunday, April 07, 2013

Stitchville Retreat - Part One

Just returned from a delightful weekend of stitching.  The end of the weekend is always bittersweet.  We go home happy with wonderful goodies and beautiful projects (both finished and yet-to-be finished) and also sad, because our weekend of fun is over.  Now the countdown begins for next year's retreat.

This was the fourth Stitchville retreat...each year we have the opportunity to meet one of the needlework industry's top designers.  This year's guest of honor was Linda from Chessie and Me.


Over the years, I have enjoyed stitching a number of Linda's designs; I've collected even more of them (I'm sure you can relate.)  Linda designed some wonderful pieces for our weekend retreat.

Do you remember the project that was released by Chessie and Me last fall?  It was a "Fall-ish" design that was mounted on a paper mache box...well, we were treated to the "Spring" version of this design.  We received the design and stitching supplies a few weeks ago so that we could focus on finishing our boxes.  Here's a picture of the finished box - outside top:


And a picture of the inside cover:


But our boxes didn't look like this to begin with; they were sort of a "pepto bismal" pink.  I should have taken a picture of that stage -- sorry, I forgot.  We waxed the areas of the box that we wanted to look worn and then painted our boxes black.  Here's the black box "cemetery"...



After the boxes were dry, we roughed them up a bit with some sandpaper and then sprayed them with some polyurethane and they were ready to be finished!  After securing our stitched pieces to some wool, we glued them to our boxes.  Mine turned out pretty good, don't you think?



See that cute little strawberry?  It was a gift from Linda!  I love my box, it turned out great.

Deb from Stitchville and the other Deb (aka "the Debs") did a wonderful job with the retreat as they always do.  They look after every detail.  There's always a little welcome gift in our rooms... (It looks like one of my caramels is missing.  How did that happen?)


The tables in our stitching room are always beautifully decorated...



All of those wonderful goodies came home with us!  And in addition there was a project bag filled with some additional goodies...


Details, details...those two are so good at taking care of all the details!

Our second project of the weekend was this wonderful sampler...


Love the colors and the verse at the bottom...

"In the Springtime of your Youth
Be sure the seed you sow
That in the Harvest of old age
The good there of you will know."

Of course there was more to the weekend - lots of time for visiting with old and new friends, many Chessie and Me models and stitcher finishes to "ooh and aah" over and some of the attendees brought some of their recently finished projects along.  Tune back in tomorrow for more of the fun!

23 comments:

Keeper of the Crowes said...

Looks like a wonderful experience, Cathy. I love your box and seeing the great pictures you took. Can't wait to see more!!!

Margaret said...

It all looks wonderful! Such fun for sure! And I love the projects too! And the goodies! Looking forward to more!

Nan said...

Sounds like a wonderful weekend and I love the projects.

Giovanna said...

What a wonderful event. Congrats on completing such a lovely box, and thanks for sharing your pictures.

denise said...

sounds like you had lots of fun. beautiful finish!!! denise

Laurie in Iowa said...

I'm glad you enjoyed your weekend retreat. Your project looks fabulous!

Sherri said...

Love your box! All of the goodies look wonderful.

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

How fun, Cathy! Your box looks perfect!

Lelia said...

thx for sharing. What fun!!!!

Samplers, Silks and Linens said...

Looks like a lot of fun - very pretty colourful designs - thankyou for the tips on how to finish a box.

barbara said...

Absolutely beautiful project, Cathy! I love Chessie & Me. :)

Barb said...

Looks like a wonderful weekend. I love the way the boxes turned out. I also love the sampler!

Faye said...

This looks like an exceptional retreat with all those wonderful " details..." I love them all! And your box is perfect!!!!!

Mrs. DillyDally said...

What wonderful projects! You do such beautiful work...and I love seeing and hearing about your stitching adventures! I look forward to your future posts!

Marie said...

Your box is fantastic and such a nice design! What a wonderful retreat ~ I have been on quilting retreats but no stitching ones.

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Thank you for sharing about the retreat--a good time for all.

Your finished box is beautiful

Chris said...

What a fabulous retreat!!

CJ in OK ;-) said...

Love hearing about this in such detail. Your retreat project came out great. I may need to check this retreat out for next year. CJ in OK

Ranae said...

How fun!!!
Love the boxes
Look forward to part 2
Thanks for sharing
P.S. Anna and I are planning a trip up there May 10th and 11th

Diana said...

Love your box! Thanks for shareing.

The Inspired Stitcher said...

What fun! Love the box project. Yours is so pretty!

woolwoman said...

Love your box - what a fun retreat.
lots of neat stash and gifties too.
Yeah for you! I can tell you had a great time - melody

Katrina said...

Just love the projects!!!!!!!! The sampler is wonderful and the box is too sweet. Hopefully in a year or two Linda will release those projects :-). Glad you had such a good weekend.