Shakespeare’s Peddler Retreat

Just returned from Allentown, PA where my PICs and I spent the weekend with about 100 other stitchers at a retreat hosted by Theresa Venette, aka Kitten Stitcher. We had such a great time!

Each “neighborhood” (table) had a name. We resided at “Pincushion Parkway”. Some of the other neighborhood names included “Sampler Street”, “Smyrna Crossing” and “Embroidery Estates”. These creative names added an element of fun and played into the weekend’s theme - “community”. Theresa, aka the HOA supervisor, periodically announced several HOA violations in the communities. But with every violation came a door prize! 

My tablemates, with Theresa:

Theresa designed a beautiful sampler for us titled “A Beautiful Day”. Makes me think of Mr. Rogers… “it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….”

The best part of the weekend was meeting long time friends, as well as new friends. I wish I had remembered to take pictures! Sometimes I get so caught up in the moment, that I forget to do things like that.

• Special shout out to Terri who said she has been reading this blog since the beginning!
• Also had fun meeting Robin and Loretta, both of whom read and comment on my blog on a regular basis!
• What fun it was to see Stasi of Bee-Mused and Bee-Stitching. We met at the Attic once, many, many years ago. It was so great to see her again.

There were many, many more people from guilds, blogs, flosstubes - oh it was so much fun!

Back to reality now, but I will enjoy thinking about this weekend for a long time to come!

June Stitching

Now that I am retired, I have more time to stitch. I try to stitch 3 - 4 hours every evening and if I’m lucky enough to have a guild meeting or some other stitchy meet up during the day, I might add another 4 hours to that. I am working through WIPs and other projects in my stash. I don’t do WIPGO or any other kind of program to determine what I will stitch on; I work on whatever is calling my name. That works best for me.

Here’s some of what I worked on in June:

1) Band #4 - My Favourite Things from Betsy Morgan. This is a project offered by the Willow Tree Sampler Guild in Texas. Each month we complete one band. I think it is quite pretty!

2) Abigail Colby from Primitive Traditions. This pattern is OOP. This will be the top (cover) of a Nantucket basket; I have 7 or 8 more pieces to stitch - the smalls that will go inside the basket. I started this at least a year or more ago and have been working on and off on it. In June, I finished the last medallion located at approximately 10 o’clock. Picture doesn’t do it justice - 36 ct Vintage Luna from Lakeside with Belle Soie silks.

3) Spring Parade Sewing Basket from Stacy Nash. Sweet. This was one of her market releases this year. As soon as I can find the right sized box, I will get this one fully finished.

4) One Hundred Hearts from Samplers Not Forgotten. This was a Silver Needle kit a few years ago. I think I swapped the 32ct linen for 36ct which made the over one words a bit more challenging. The hearts should have been over one too, but I modified them and stitched them over two!

5) Gingerbread Man from Stacy Nash - this was her Jingle Ball class last December. It’s supposed to be a needlebook. My kit included enough linen to stitch the little guy twice. I personalized them and am going to make them into ornaments.

I worked on one other project in June. Our guild is working on a 15-sided biscornu. I finished stitching my first one and started stitching a second one. Maybe I can share this picture next time.

Happy 4th of July. 

Finishing Frenzy #3

Some of my stitching friends and I have been gathering to focus on finishing our unfinished fully stitched items. I think we met twice in May and twice in June. The first meet-up wasn’t as productive for me, but I figured out how to make the time as fruitful as possible and as a result, the last three gatherings have been great! Let me share my finishes with you.

1) MH 1860 from Needlework Press - found the perfect frame on one of my recent visits to Welcome Stitchery. Stretched and pinned it and voila! Isn’t it sweet?

2) Needle keep from Lauren Sauer - this should have been finished a long time ago. I picked up the design probably 10 years ago on one of our trips to Indy. Stitched it right away, but never finished it. As you can see, I need to find a #22 needle!

3) Sweet little needle book from The Primitive Hare. We met her at Welcome Stitchery a couple years ago.  The pattern was in a small booklet of her designs. The linen is from Picture This Plus, but I don’t have the color name. The thread is from GAST - Old Purple Paint.

4) E. Savio from Rovaris - this was a Facebook offer a few years ago. The design was all kitted up and it came with the spool. (The spool is beautiful.) I have another kit like this one in my stash waiting to be stitched!

I have one more finish to share, but I am still tinkering with it a little bit. I’ll share that photo next time.

Looking forward to our July finishing day as I still have more things to finish!

Welcome Stitchery and Annie Beez

We traveled to Blue Earth this weekend, not just to see the Jolly Green Giant but to attend the Welcome Stitchery Retreat! The featured designer was Annie from Annie Beez!

The line to get in the retreat started building early. Anticipation! 

As we entered the venue, we were serenaded with piano music. Such a fun and festive way to get the retreat started!

The retreat piece was fabulous. Check out the checkerboard roof on the house! And the spools for chimneys! I’ve started stitching the little pincushion.

Of course, the best part of any retreat is the friends you spend time with. Old friends and new friends.

Many thanks to Justine at Welcome Stitchery, our fabulous hostess, and her wonderful team at Welcome Stitchery! Thank you to Annie and Kay for making the trip to Minnesota.

It was a great weekend!

 

Mary Beale Progress

Finished block #4 for our Mary Beale project. We fondly refer to it as our “bible study project”.

Hit the road yesterday and landed in Blue Earth, MN, home of the Jolly Green Giant!

Might there be a stitching retreat in my future? You betcha there is!

MH 1860 and Some Fully Finished Items

Busy, busy, like a bee - that’s me! I’m really trying to finish up some of my WIPs and I’m also trying to empty my finishing bag.

First up, a stitchy finish! This is MH 1860, also known as the “Green Bunny Sampler”. This is a reproduction from Needlework Press.

Up next, three fully finished projects from the finishing bag!

1) Whitman’s Vintage Red Tin Sewing Set from Fancy Work. Instead of finishing a scissor sheath, I opted to stitch a tiny little fob.

2) I love hornbooks. This hornbook and needle minder is from Giulia Punti Antichi and the motifs are from an Icelandic sampler. 

3) Last but not least, Bird ‘n Berry Box from Barbara Jackson. This was an offering from the Shining Needle Society back in 2023.

That’s it for today. I’m currently working on another block on the Mary Beale “Days of Advent” project. Should have a progress report for you very soon.

Midwest Shop Hop

For the third year in a row, some of our local shops are sponsoring a shop-hop. The participating shops are Welcome Stitchery in Blue Earth, MN, The Stitchery Nook in Osage, IA, and Shanty Stitchers in Beresford, SD. Every year they team up with a designer who designs a three-part pattern just for the shop hop. Each shop offers one of the complimentary three parts just for visiting, between June1 and August 31. (Note that the chart will be available for purchase at one of these shops beginning September 1).

This year’s designer is Cathy Habermann from Hands on Design. Cathy and Bill (Mr. HOD) did their own little “shop-hop” last weekend, visiting with stitchers at all three shops on Friday and Saturday.

We did not make the trek to Shanty Stitchers; it’s about a four hour drive for us, we will get there later this summer. Cathy and Bill were there on Friday morning. We started out our day at the Stitchery Nook. Collected a third of the pattern, did some shopping, and enjoyed lunch at the restaurant/bar next door. When we were finished we got back on the road and headed to Welcome Stitchery. Cathy and Bill were there from 4pm to 6:30pm. There was a nice turnout of stitchers! We collected the second part of the design and did a little shopping. Cathy shared details on how she painted the board that was used for finishing. She brought a long a small trunk show of some of her most recent designs.

We have always been big fans of Cathy and her designs and have learned so much from her regarding finishing over the years. Five years ago, she was at Welcome Stitchery for their grand opening. At that time, her flamingo designs were a big hit. The “flamingals” made an appearance then, and at several events since!