A Day With Paulette

Made a quick trip to The Chicago suburbs this weekend. The event started on Friday evening with a meet and greet at Tomorrow’s Heirlooms, the shop hosting the event. 

There were lots of models on display.

Saturday was the main event. Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers introduced the sampler she had designed for us. It was inspired by an antique she had in her collection, a very subtle Adam and Eve sampler in fall colors!

We also received the pattern and the wood box to stitch this cute pincushion!

It was a fun and very fast weekend!

Zoom, Zoom - Pacific Northwest Stitch Summit

Not much good has come from COVID, but it has created opportunities to take needlework classes and retreats online and one such event took place this weekend - the Pacific Northwest Stitch Summit.

The event was hosted by Acorns and Threads, a needlework shop in Portland, OR. One day, I hope to get to that shop! Jeannine is the owner and she has a great group of friendly, helpful employees. I’ve participated in two of their online events and it seems like everyone pitches in to help! They just launched an online webshop, so please take a look!

https://www.acornsandthreads.com/

The highlight of the weekend was a workshop with three topnotch needlework designers: Cathy Habermann from Hands on Design, Beth Seal from Summer House Stitche Workes, and Tracy Horner from Ink Circles. Their three individual projects were all coordinated into one wonderful project!

Cathy designed the basket. I think that this will be fun to finish! The linen is actually a very pretty red - Aztec Red from Weeks Dye Works. And the fibers are silk from Gloriana!

Beth designed the ball (pincushion) that fits inside the basket. A little bit of cross stitch and a little bit of embroidery and appliqué!

Tracy’s project is the book. She worked in a little bit of embroidery too, they all did!

And in celebration of the shop’s 25th anniversary, the three designers gave us a bonus project - they each designed one of these round pinwheels. This pattern will be available exclusively through Acorns and Threads if you are interested!

It was a nice way to spend the weekend. Saw some old friends as well as new friends online. Great weekend.

Back to reality tomorrow!

Final Weekend Travel Day

I forgot to post the last day of our weekend excursion. We left Galleria on Saturday morning and stopped in Muscatine at the Little Red Hen. It was a cute quilt shop with some cross stitch and a nice wool collection. They said it was okay to take pictures, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking!

So glad we made this stop. It was a great shop!

Needlework Galleria Day 2

We put on our walking shoes on and headed down to the fourth floor to check out all the vendors that were here for Needlework Galleria 2021. It was so nice to SEE people in person. Some wore masks, some didn’t. Some vendors asked us to wear masks and everyone was respectful. We decided that we would check out every vendor. Some of our favorites were…Summer House Stitche Workes, the Silver Needle, Hands on Design, the Inspired Needle, Erica Michaels…and more. There was an entire floor of shopping!

I spied this model of a Shakespeare’s Peddler sampler design at the Silver Needle. Hmmmm, I think I know that stitcher!

My partner in crime and I had this photo taken with Cathy from Hands on Design. One of our new friends that we met at Stitch Con is a huge fan of Cathy H and we wanted to send this photo to her.

We worked up quite the appetite shopping and headed out to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we decided to visit Main Street St. Charles. It was like stepping back in time - cobblestone streets and sidewalks. There even was a trolley! We poked our heads in a few shops. 

Most importantly, we stopped in the bakery so that we would have a snack later that evening.

Another great time at Needlework Galleria!

Needlework Galleria

On the road again, with TWO partners in crime. We’re making up for missed time and events in 2020!

We arrived in St. Louis on Wednesday night and got checked in for Galleria. Our Galleria gift included a cute little wooden ruler and some wooden floss tags.

I registered to take Cathy Habermann’s class on Thursday morning. Love her designs and enjoy learning about finishing from her. In this bee-themed class, What’s the Buzz, we are learning about paper piecing and appliqué. My project is off to a good start.

Here’s what the finished pillow and fob will look like.

We found our favorite restaurant from two years ago and had a good lunch and then headed to the St. Charles Antique Mall. I think we all found some treasures. I get the award for finding the largest treasure. I just had to bring this beauty home with me. It’s an original A.S. Strommen Bruk Hamar Norwegian Sewing box. It’s in excellent condition.

Early bird shopping started at 6:30pm last night. We made a bee line for the Hands on Design room to purchase the Philanthropic Pumpkin kit that Cathy designed as a fundraiser for their local Special Olympics group. They went fast.

I made a few more purchases including a kit from Lois at Lady Dot Creates, a strawberry that Cathy made, and a needle minder from Me and My Stitches.

We also visited Linda from Erica Michaels to pick up her exclusive pincushion kit, her new English Sampler berries, and …. I could not resist bringing this sweet pincushion home with me!

We called it a night at that point. Ordered a margarita at the bar and came back to the room to enjoy our dessert from the restaurant we stopped at earlier in the day. Coconut Creme!

We’re ready for Day Two!