Thursday, April 14, 2011

Stitchville's Spring Fling - Part II

Day two of the retreat starts with a delicious breakfast! Why didn't I take pictures of the food? Next year...

On Saturday morning we received the kits for our project. Jeanette had designed a sampler just for this retreat. The theme of the sampler was very appropriate for our Minnesota retreat - Three Pines.

Here's a picture of Jeanette telling us about the sampler:



And a picture of the completed sampler:



I love the northwoods look! Of course the moose, the bear, the loon (our Minnesota state bird), the pine trees, the pine cones, and the log cabin are all very fitting!

Let the stitching begin! Those of you who stitch Jeanette's designs know that she likes to include lots of specialty stitches. Those three pinecones in the top left of the sampler are done in queen stitches; that's where we started; let's just say we had to do quite a lot of queen stitches to create those pine cones! But learning how to do the queen stitch Jeanette's way was worth the price of admission!

Jeanette said that she was having so much fun designing this piece that she couldn't stop with just the sampler. She also designed a set of needlework smalls that coordinated with the northwoods theme. Check out these little pretties:



Blogger is misbehaving! Sorry, used a flash on that one, they are a little washed out, but you get the idea!

We stitched and stitched and then we ate, and then we stitched and stitched, and then we ate more!

In the back of the classroom there was a table filled with Jeanette Douglas pieces that had been stitched by the retreat attendees. Look at all of these beautiful finishes:




And then we had a Jeanette Douglas trunk show to boot!








Do you recognize that quaker piece in the third photo? It was so gorgeous and it inspired me to finish the stitching on mine after I returned home.

Our day of stitching flew by. Saturday evening we had the opportunity to shop at Stitchville - those of us who live in Minnesota are very lucky to have this shop; it's a needlework lovers paradise. After shopping we went back to our hotel for a little more stitching and then headed to bed. Our retreat is almost over...

Part III tomorrow...

12 comments:

Katrina said...

What a pretty class design and loved seeing all Jeannette's pieces!!!!

Yvonne..... said...

What a nice class piece and the smalls are really pretty too. Loved seeing all of the finishes and the trunk show pieces too.

~*Sharee*~ said...

I'm so jealous, I've never been to a retreat and it's on my "Bucket List" LOL Looks like a lot of fun hun...

Hugs, Shar

Lelia said...

thx for sharing. Looks like an interesting sampler. The smalls are terrific. What a fun time.

I recognize the stackers, I think they are called stackers, the three biscournu.

Our EGA members are going to do the Autumn set (I think Autumn), sometime this year.

I'm making red, round yo yo pieces for my poppy. I have a practice piece of tatting for the center and hope to get it assembled soon.

Jean said...

What a wonderful time you'all are having, can't wait to read part 3

Karen said...

What a great treat of viewing all of those goodies! Looks like you couldn't help but have a great time.

happy stitching on your new sampler....

Margaret said...

Oh how lovely!!!! I really love the retreat piece too! JD is coming to my LNS and I don't know whether to sign up or not. If she were offering this piece I would. lol! Thanks for showing us everything!

Laurie in Iowa said...

What perfect projects for a MN retreat. Thanks for sharing pics of all Jeannette's pieces. It must have been wonderful to see them in person.
I think I'm going to have to go to this retreat next year.

Siobhán said...

Oh wow!! I loved seeing all of the pictures. I love Jeannette's designs. What a gorgeous class piece!

Lynn said...

That sampler is gorgeous! I'll bet it's a fun design to stitch although I'm not sure I'd love all those Queen stitches!
Lovely JD finishes on display!

Bekca said...

I love that sampler! And the smalls are gorgeous too, thank you for sharing your retreat experiance.

WendyJo said...

A very lovely design for your class Cathy. I really enjoyed seeing all of Jeannette's pieces as well.