Cross Stitch Extravaganza - Quilter’s Station

Had a wonderful week last week at the Cross Stitch Extravaganza put on by Quilter’s Station in Lee’s Summit, Mo. Our road trip began and ended in Lamoni, Ia. We love stopping at the Amish Country Store and have stopped there many times, but this time, we ate a late lunch at the Pizza Shack. It was so good, we had lunch there on the way home too. We also discovered two wonderful antique stores.

We save Wednesday for shopping at CC and Company, the antique shops in Greenwood, and more shopping at Quilter’s Station! A visit to Greenwood would not be complete without a visit to the tea room!

The main event is on Thursday and Friday. Four designers with great projects. We loved them all! All brought trunk shows to ooh and aah over.

Kim Nugent from Samplers Not Forgotten was up first! Her project was an Amish Puzzle Ball. She also designed a sweet little pincushion for us. Prior to the retreat, our group all worked on “One Nation” a needlebook and biscornu, so we had to take a picture with her.

Rae Niles from Red Barn Samplers told us an amazing story about how she acquired a collection of samplers. She provided us with a sweet pincushion project and the corresponding sampler.

On Friday, Jeannine McGowan from the Blue Flower started out the day with an amazing sampler!

Our next group project will be Jeanine’s “Bees in the Greenhouse.”

Last but not least, Annie Belcher from Annie Beez also shared her inspiration and the pattern for a sweet little sampler. Belle was there too!

All four designers delivered such delightful stories and projects!

Next Cross Stitch Extravaganza is in September! Come if you can - you won’t be dissappointed!

Samplers Not Forgotten

Hi there! I’ve got quite a lot of catching up to do on this ol’ blog. I’ve been busy, busy stitching and finishing. Where to start? 

This post will be dedicated to Samplers Not Forgotten. I’ve been on a mission to complete some of her kits over the past few weeks. My friends and I are headed to Quilter’s Station this week and Kimberly Nugent is one of the guest designers. Kim puts out wonderful little kits at the Nashville Needlework Market each year and I’ve collected quite a few over the years.

My first finish was this sweet little design called Floral Cup Pincushion. The kit included the little mug, linen, threads, ribbon, and even the coordinating pins. It was a quick stitch and an easy finish.

Next up is a kit that I acquired through one of the Country Sampler groups. The stitching was intense (almost two months) and the finishing was more involved, but I love this design and finish! It’s called One Nation.

At market this year, Kimberly introduced another sweet little pincushion kit called Blue Bird. I knew I could get this one stitched and finished quickly. It was kind of like “instant gratification” after working on One Nation for so long!

Tonight, I put the finishing touches on one more small kit. It’s called Lovey Dovey. I acquired the kit through the Silver Needle Circle of Friends a few years ago, but I believe the pattern is available to all now.

So here’s my collection of finishes. Aren’t they sweet? I’m looking forward to a new project from Kimberly at the retreat this week!

Hope to be back soon. Have more finishes to share!

Country Sampler Spring Soiree

Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night…the snow almost kept us at home. We delayed our start and ventured east to Spring Green, Wisconsin this weekend. Country Sampler had their Spring Soiree and Stacy Nash was there as their special guest.

The shop was all decked out for spring.

After an afternoon of shopping followed by visiting and stitching in the classroom, we headed to Mt. Horeb for dinner with friends. Perfect day!

Before heading home on Saturday, we stopped at Lynn’s of Madison. They always have a great linen selection. Their framed models are so inspiring.

Now, back to reality!

A Day with the Primitive Hare

My Partners in Crime (PICs) and I spent a lovely day yesterday at Welcome Stitchery in Blue Earth, MN with Isobel Argante from the Primitive Hare. The Primitive Hare is a cross stitch designer from northern Italy. Her friend and model stitcher, Elisabetta, came with her. They had been at the Nashville Needlework Market and then came to Minnesota for two days of classes before returning to Italy.

We had such a fun day. Isobel is just delightful and very funny. She brought a large trunk show of models with her.

We received two special designs, both Minnesota themed! The loon design was kitted for us on Isobel’s Boleyn linen with DMC. Additional linen was available for purchase for the Minnesota design.

Such a great opportunity to meet Isobel!

Valentine Display

I’m continuing to stitch along on One Nation from Samplers Not Forgotten. Not enough of a change to post a progress photo, maybe next time.

Today, I’ll share with you a picture of some valentine stitches. I have them displayed in a shadow box to keep them away from the dogs.

 

A Productive January

Where did January go? It came and went very quickly. Here in Minnesota it has not been a normal winter. We received a little snow and experienced a few really cold days, but for the most part the temperatures have been above normal, our ground is brown and dry, and most of the days have been overcast and gloomy. A little snow would be nice to brighten things up a bit!

January was a very good stitching month for me. I finished stitching three projects: 

• Early Christmas Morning from Blackbird Designs
• Savio E. From Rovaris
• Floral Cup Pincushion from Samplers Not Forgotten

During January, I also worked on two SALs that are ongoing. Happy to report that I am keeping up with these:

• Tona’s Randje
• Erica Michael’s Sampler Book

Then there were several WIPS that I spent time with; I should be able to finish all three of these in 2024:

• Village of Hawk Run Hollow (9 blocks done, 3 to go)
• American Welcome from Plum Street Samplers
• O Joyous Day

I had two new starts:

• One Nation from Samplers Not Forgotten
• KSSG 20th Anniversary Pillow from Samplers Not Forgotten

Pictures to all of the above can be found in my previous January posts.

Now, I’ve been holding out on you. I also fully finished two items in January. It’s been hard to take really good pictures because of our gloomy weather. Here they are:

Early Christmas Morning from Blackbird Designs

I don’t do drum finishes, so I followed instructions from an old Loose Feathers design of theirs (the Peacock Pincushion.) You take strips of wool cut to the desired height and roll them tightly until you get the desired width of the pincushion. You then finish the stitched pieces around the wool shape - hard to describe. Not perfect by any means, but I am happy with it.

My second fully finish is the Floral Pincushion from Samplers Notforgotten. I am super pleased with how this turned out.

So that’s January in review! I hope that February will be just as productive! Until next time, here’s a little selfie from Rosie and me.