Retreat part II and some finishes

Happy Saturday!

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and Dan is hard at work putting the new trim up in the library. What more could a girl ask for?? How about kids that are actually helping with the cleaning, the poop scooping and the grocery shopping. Yep, I have that too!! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood folks and I am loving it!!

When last I posted, Mary had decided to stay at the retreat and everyone was up either eating breakfast or stitching and chatting. Poor Doreen was supposed to have been with us on Friday night but her plane was delayed coming home from California so she arrived early Saturday and then 3 other stitchers arrived to stitch with us just for the day. Here's the whole lot of us:

Front Row L to R: Julie, Merrilyn, Sue
Middle Row L to R: Stephanie, Mary, Lois
Back Row L to R: Mary Ann, Doreen, Sandy, Karen, Carole, Deb, Patty, Connie

Sue and Sandy stitching the day away!

As the day progressed, stitcher's started to finish their WIP's and cheering and clapping became a common occurrence.

Mary finished her Ink Circles project:

I finished Quaker Diamonds:
Merrilyn finished a Just Nan:
Mary Ann finished a Sweetheart Tree:

Carole finished a Lizzie Kate:

And although Patty didn't finish or even work on this project she did share it with us and I thought it deserved a picture too:

I thought she said it was a Carriage House Samplings but I don't remember for sure. What I do remember for sure is she is stitching it on 40 count linen!

We had Nora our innkeeper take small group pictures of everyone with our projects, both finished and those in progress.

Supper time came all too soon, some ordered out for Chinese and others opted to have a croissant sandwich.

Doreen celebrated her birthday on the Thursday before retreat so we had a cake for her. She's 29. Again.

The day ended slightly earlier than the previous night. Most were tucked into their beds by midnight. Sunday morning everyone was up early. Gotta get that last hour or so of stitching in before it was time to check out at 11:00! I think everyone had a great time and several expressed the desire to do it again in the fall. It was sad to see everyone pack up and head home but I know it won't be long before we do it all over again!

After I finished up Quaker Diamonds I started Antique Locks and Keys by Shakespeare's Peddler. I didn't care for the fabric and floss that they used so I picked something more to my taste. I chose Belle Soie Briar Patch for the floss and for the fabric, I chose Brash, one of the new fabric colors from Picture This Plus
This piece stitched up quickly and I finished it up the day after retreat ended.


I plan to have Dan make a frame for it with a wide bottom so i can hang keys from it, an idea I will happily admit I got from my friend Connie! It was brilliant of her!!

I also want to share a finish by Mary Ann. She stitched up Lizzie Kate's Chicks Rule before we went to retreat and then I finished it into a flat fold. I think it turned out pretty darn cute. We used it for the centerpiece at retreat.


And that pretty much finishes our adventure. We arrived home tired but happy with the weekend. Mary Ann and I talked all the way home about what to do to make it even better next time. The chair situation was BAD!! We'll have to have everyone bring a chair or perhaps rent some more comfortable chairs. We will book both houses next time as several who were unable to go this time would like to go next time. We have a couple of other ideas we're pondering too. We are working on something else for next April but I'll keep that to myself until we know what is going to happen for sure.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter tomorrow!

Till next time, keep the needles flying!

Julie

Back from Retreat!!

Hello!

I've been back since Sunday but have not had a chance to sit down and do a decent job on a blog post so I just didn't post at all. Retreat was a blast! Well, there was one minor little uh oh but for the most part, everyone had a great time. Mary Ann and I arrived at the Roger's House about 2:30.


We checked in, chatted with Nora, our innkeeper, about what our needs were regarding a stitching area and before we knew it, the rest of the group were there! Things were going swimmingly until Mary arrived. As you come into the house there are 3 stairs leading up to the main floor and she missed the last step and fell. She says she heard and felt something pop as she fell and then her leg started spasming. At this point in the story I feel I must tell you that I have a confession to make. I'm a sick sick person. Here's poor Mary, writhing on the floor with pain and what do I do??? I take a picture!! I know, how rude of me. There's Connie massaging her spasming muscle, Carole bending over giving words of encouragement and Julie with camera in hand recording it for all time. I should be shot.

Mary was able to get up into a sitting position after about 45 minutes and from there we helped her to a chair. We all thought it was just muscle spasms and were hoping with ice and then heat that she would be okay by the end of the evening. Unfortunately this was not the case and after one last trip down the stairs to the powder room at about 10:30 that night it was decided that as long as she was already down the stairs we should take her on out to the car and to the ER. The first report from the ER was not good. The Dr. thought she might have fractured her pelvis when her hamstring muscle pulled away from it. Happily this theory was incorrect, turns out she had a severely sprained hamstring and they sent her home with Percoset, crutches, an order to not do any stairs and to see her family Dr. as soon as possible. The no stairs was going to be a problem. Just getting into the house required 5 stairs. There was no way she was going to make it up there. So.....here she is in a beautiful B & B, a gorgeous room just waiting for her and she has to sleep on the sofa.


She was a trooper about it though and before long was fast asleep. In the morning, Mary's sister was going to come and pick her and her mom Lois up and take them home. It's amazing though the recuperative powers of a drug induced sleep. Mary felt much much better in the morning and was able to move around more easily so the decision was made to call off the sister pick up and Mary and Lois were able to stay for the entire weekend. She never did make it up the stairs to see her room so next time Mary you can have your pick of rooms. You deserve it for being so brave this weekend.

Mary and Lois discussing the fall.

While Mary was off getting drugs the rest of us stayed up to wait for news on her condition. We stitched and chatted but all the while we worried about what they would find. It was after 2:00 a.m. when they got back to the house and close to 3:00 a.m. by the time we got her all tucked in and we could seek our own beds. Most of us were a bit wired and stayed up reading before we went to sleep so it was a very short night. I got up, showered and was headed down the stairs by 8:30. I thought I was going to be one of the first up but as I came down the stairs I could hear what sounded like a bunch of magpies chattering away! Turns out, I was one of the last up! Carole took the prize for very last one up though. We were getting worried about her so Merrilyn went up to check on her at 11:30ish and she was up but barely!

I think I will end my post here and post a part two tomorrow or the next day. It's a beautiful evening and I want to get out and take a quick walk. I hope you're enjoying the story so far, stay tuned for part 2!!

. Have a great evening!