Quilter’s Station Retreat - Day Two

Day Two (Saturday) of the retreat did not disappoint! Our morning class was with Beth Twist of Heartstring Samplery.  

Beth loves bees and flowers and that was the theme of our project! It was wrapped in such pretty tissue paper - too lovely to open! Even the thread card was so sweet!

Beth also had a trunk show of some of her lovely designs at the retreat.

Photo opportunity! Liz Mathews, me, and Beth Twist!

In between the morning and afternoon sessions, we snuck away for a quick visit to CC and Company, another needlework shop located very close to the hotel. It was a small, but very nice shop!

Looking forward to the final session of the weekend!

Quilter’s Station - Bonus

At the end of our first day we had a bonus presentation. Maggie Bonanomi joined us and shared some of her finished wool appliqué pieces. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Maggie was just a delight to listen to.

Quilter’s Station Retreat - Day One

Today we had the pleasure of working on projects designed by Liz Mathews (Hello From Liz Mathews) and Linda Lautenschlager (Chessie and Me).

First up, Liz Mathews!

Liz gifted us the chart for an antique sampler she acquired. It was stitched by Martha Padfield in 1852 when she was 12 years old. 

Our project today was based on motifs from the sampler. The lower half of the sampler was screen printed on some fabric. We had two additional sheets of images of butterflies and birds that we can cut out and add to the sampler image. Take a look at the hoops that Liz is holding to better understand what I mean.

Unique and fun idea! I look forward to working on this when I get home. Liz also had a trunk show of her designs on display.

After lunch, Linda from Chessie and Me joined us. You can tell from the box and the gloves that we’re going to be painting!

And paint we did. Our boxes are meant to look kind of primitive. I think my finished box fits the bill! 

We will be stitching a lovely needleroll and scissor fob as well as a stitched piece for the top of the box!

Linda also had a trunk show on display.

We had a special presentation before dinner- will share in a separate post!

Kansas City Road Trip

My Partner in Crime (PIC) and I are happy to be on the road again. Our road trip started early this morning and took us to Kansas City, MO. We made a couple stops along the way.

First stop, a new cross stitch shop in Iowa Falls called Criss Cross Stitchery. If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that my PIC’s mission in life is to visit as many brick and mortar needlework shops as possible. This was her 109th shop!

It’s a nice shop with a very friendly owner! Nice selection of charts and supplies for a shop that has been open less than a year.

Our second stop was Hamilton, MO, the home of the Missouri Star Quilt empire.

Last stop was at Quilter’s Station in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. They are sponsoring our retreat this weekend.

We ended the day with a delicious meal and an awesome piece of pie! 

Need a good night’s sleep now!

Happy Labrador Day!

 

Red Alphabet Samplers

Thought you might like to see a couple of red alphabet samplers that I recently acquired. 

This first one is my favorite. It is from Holland and it’s dated 1890.

Next up is a German sampler stitched in 1916.

And another German sampler by GK. No date, but probably was stitched around 1915.

All three samplers have held up very well despite their age. Of course, they are all stitched in my favorite color - red!  I wonder about the little girls that stitched them!

Sunday Stitching

Just a quick update…here’s my current work in progress. Abigail Colby’s Workbasket by Primitive Traditions.

And so begins another work week.

All Joys For Thine

Where has summer gone? I can’t believe that September 1st is just around the corner. We finally received some much needed rain this weekend. Praying for those affected by the wildfires and those in the path of Hurricane Ida.

I am closing out the month of August with a finish! I started this piece the day I learned of Barb Adams’ passing; it just felt appropriate to stitch something from Blackbird Designs. Barb designed and stitched the model for this piece.

All Joys For Thine from Blackbird Designs

I used the called for linen and threads. I chose to personalize with my maternal grandmother’s initials and birth year.

I also fully finished this small project that has been languishing in the finish pile since June! Earlier this year a couple stitching friends and I took this virtual class. It was a class from Isobel of The Primitive Hare. The class was great fun- conducted in both English and Italian, with participants from several countries.

Tudor Rose by the Primitive Hare

Tudor Rose is stitched on 30ct Primitive Hare linen with GAST fibers, 2 over 2. One of the colors was the very elusive Garden Gate. I had to rely on friends to find enough to finish the checkerboard on back.

I will leave you with a photo of my Lizzie. She was away for 2.5 weeks at obedience camp and is very happy to be home!

Long Overdue Post

Summer is flying by, oh my. I can’t believe that August is half over! It’s been a long, hot summer here in Minnesota, so to be honest, I am looking forward to fall. I’m just not looking forward to what follows!

My stitching time has been spotty. In July, I found myself wanting to stitch something that had been designed by Barb Adams from Blackbird Designs. So, I started All Joys For Thine. I’ve made really good progress on it and could finish it by the end of the month if I stay on task.

Near the end of July, I also started France by Amy Mitten. I finished it last week. This chart is from her Around the World series. I’m going to try to finish a sampler every quarter. I have collected quite a few of these kits over the years.

When I was at the Attic in June, we learned how to hemstitch. I’ve attempted hemstitching before but it never really clicked until we practiced hemstitching at the Attic. On Friday night, I hemstitched the Vierlande sampler from Amy Mitten. I stitched this two or three years ago.

That’s it for today. I’m hoping for a stitchy week this week!