Quilter’s Station Retreat

Let me start by saying “thank you” to those who continue to visit my blog! Compared to flosstube, blogs are definitely “old school,” but it is an easy way for me to document my needlework experiences and finishes and it reaches those who are not on other social media platforms. Thank you for hanging in here with me!

Last weekend my PIC and our group of stitching buddies traveled to Kansas City for the semi-annual Quilter’s Station Cross Stitch Extravaganza. We love this retreat and look forward to it each and every time.

We left on Wednesday and traveled south on I-35, making our usual stops along the way. The Red Barn Visitor Center at the top of Iowa, Hickory Park in Ames, IA, for lunch, and the Amish General Store in Lamoni, IA for our cow photo. It was a sunny day, hence some shadows.

We leave on Wednesday, so we can shop on Thursday. We visit C.C. and Company (a needlework shop) and then head to Greenwood, MO for antique shopping. The highlight of the day is always lunch at the Greenwood Country Tea Room. On this trip, I ordered their ribbon sandwich - layers of egg salad and olive tapenade. Dessert is a must and this time I ordered a piece of hummingbird cake. Both the sandwich and the cake were delicious! Oh, and let’s not forget the pickled beets - my favorite!

We finished out our day at Quilter’s Station. It’s always fun exploring the back room, looking through their amazing selection of cross stitch linen, and checking out other treasures in the store!

The retreat started on Friday. Our first teacher was Theresa Venette from Shakespeare’s Peddler (Kitten Stitcher). Theresa designed an amazing sampler for us which compliments the previous two Quilter’s Station retreats samplers she designed for us. (#1 and #2 are now available to everyone.)

Vickie Jennett from Needlework Press presented in the afternoon. She started with a lovely presentation about houses in samplers. Our design for the retreat was a sweet school girl sampler with a house on it!

On Saturday, Lois from Lady Dot started out the day with a “project.” We worked on creating these top hats using trims and feathers. It will look good with fall displays. Lois always shares finishing techniques that can be transferred to other projects.

Last but not least - Susan Standley from A Stitch in Time. She gave a very interesting talk about the history of pins. It was a great introduction to her project - a pin drum!

Beautiful design! She said there may be more coordinating pieces in the future!

Here are the designers all together…

Always a great weekend. Already looking forward to the next one in April 2027!

Finishing Frenzy #4

My group of stitching friends and I met yesterday for another finishing day. Between yesterday and this morning, I completed three more projects.

Up first - a 15-sided biscornu. Our Needlework Guild of Minnesota evening zoom group has been working on 15-sided biscornus. This pattern was purchased on Etsy from Atelier Pin & Needle and is called “My Little Pumpkin”.

My second finish is called the “Spring Parade Sewing Box” and it’s from Stacy Nash. It includes a duck, a bunny, and a lamb. So cute!

Lastly, this design from Lucy Beam resonated with me. Hmmmm….guilty as charged.

When I posted my recent Mary Beale update I did not include a close up picture of the two pages recently worked on. The page on the left is “Esther and the King” and it is finished. The page on the right depicts Job praying for his friends. His friends are not stitched yet! I still need to stitch top left and top right. Then it will be finished!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Beale and Betsy Morgan Updates, Fast Frisian Finish,

Where did the summer go? I’m looking forward to cooler temperatures and praying for rain, but not so happy that time is fleeting by so quickly. Stitching wise, I have quite a bit to catch you up on.

Last week, I finished the Fast Frisian sampler designed by Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery. It was intended to be a stitch a long, but once I got going on it, I couldn’t stop.

For comparison, I’m including a photo of the Quick Quaker, also designed by Jacob, that I stitched earlier this year. Hope to get both of these hemstitched sometime soon.

Also want to provide you with an update on the Betsy Morgan stitch a long with the Willow Tree Sampler Guild in Texas. Each month, we stitch a band of the sampler. We’re nearing the end!

If you’ve been following this blog then you are familiar with the Mary Beale project that I am doing with five other friends. We’ve taken her Days of Advent Sampler, and rather than stitching it as a sampler, we’re stitching it on one long (4 yard) piece of linen which we will eventually turn into an accordion style book. Here’s what the sampler looks like (photo taken from Mary Beale’s website).

Our group got together last weekend at a friend’s cabin and stitched exclusively for four days on Mary Beale. While we were there, we took progress photos!

This is where my Mary Beale piece stands as of today. I finished the block with Esther and the King, and I started the block with Job praying for his friends (far right).

I think you are all caught up now! Tomorrow a group of us is gathering to do some finishing. We are trying to schedule at least one day every month to work on finishing. Some of us need to get caught up; others just don’t want to get behind. I have my projects selected and collected all the supplies needed. We’ll see how much progress I make. Finishing takes a lot of time!

Next week we’re heading to the Quilter’s Station retreat. Yay!

NGM Retreat

Two weekends ago I attended the Needlework Guild on Minnesota retreat. Our retreats are back on track. Last year we found a wonderful hotel to host our retreats. The rooms are comfortable, the food is great, and the lighting in the stitching rooms is great. The theme of the retreat this year was, “We the People…Stitch!”

During the retreat, I had the opportunity to take three classes with Cissy Bailey Smith.

Many of Cissy’s pieces are designed to be self-lined, which means, they are fairly easy to finish. You have to love the nun stitch. Lucky for me, I love to do the nun stitch! Here are the three projects: 

In My Heart Needlebook:

Margaret’s Holdall based on motifs from the Margaret Mutter 1793 sampler:

And the We the People Patriotic Etui:

(Note that the etui model was not completely finished which allowed for us to fully understand how to join the nun stitches!)

The personalization for all three projects was updated and/or Cissy provided us with a variety of options so that we could personalize to our liking.

Thank you, Cissy, for coming to Minnesota!

We have some catching up to do…

Hello! I haven’t been very good about posting regularly, so now I am behind in sharing my finishes with you. Let’s delay no more!

My most recent finish is this patriotic design from Plum Street Samplers: Pledge of Allegiance. It was so much fun to stitch; a combination of the linen color and the threads. I stitched it as charted. I’m sad that it is finished!

Fully finishes continue to happen around here too. Remember that monthly Betsy Morgan project I worked on most of last year and a little bit this year? There were 12 designs - they are now finished into a book!

In my last post, I shared my stitching finish of George and Martha. It’s now finished into a scissor keep. There’s a strong magnet on top of the drum which keeps the scissors in place. This was a Shining Needle Society offering designed by Barbara Jackson.

An update to an earlier finish I shared with you, also designed by Barbara Jackson. I realized that I was supposed to add my initials and the year in the blank spaces on the front of the box. Voila! I added a couple of pretty buttons and it looks more complete now.

This sweet sewing roll is from Erica Michaels. It was a teaching piece for shop owners at Nashville a few years ago. There were two colorways offered. The finishing kit was from Lady Dot. It’s called Lions, Tigers, and Bears!

More soon. I have a retreat to tell you about! Take care.