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