World's longest Retreat Post Part II

We had a Thursday through Sunday option and a Friday through Sunday option again this year.  The facility requires a minimum of ten if you wish to have meals.  Last year there were only 9 of us so the shop paid for the ghostly 10th person but this year there were 15 of us.  Those that arrived at 2 o'clock sharp had 4 hours of stitching time in already when it was time for supper.  After supper it was a wonderful laid back evening of good conversations and many laughs along with some excellent uninterrupted stitching time.

This is most of the Thursday group

Poor Carole, she staked out a table and had to sit all by herself since the rest of her peeps didn't come until Friday and she didn't want to move her stuff twice.  We made sure she got in on all the good conversation so she wouldn't feel too ostracized!

Those that intended to take the finishing class worked on their homework and a big fuss was made when said homework was finished!  Ya just gotta celebrate your finishes...even the very small ones.

Doreen's Homework Finish!!

There were a lot of beautiful projects being worked on...

/Diane

Connie A.

Jennifer

Jocelyn

Linda S's wip

Laurie's new start

Mary's Santa's Village

Pam's cats

Sue's Wip

but don't ask me what the names of most the projects are cuz I don't know most of them.  I could ask if you're really interested though.

Everyone drifted off to bed in the wee hours of the morning.  Breakfast is at 8 a.m. so most are up early but a few decided to forgo eating and slept late instead.  Friday morning was spent once again stitching and chatting.

Carole didn't do her homework Thursday night so she had to work on it Friday

Except for when she was up walking around (which was often)

Carole and Mary Ann

Long about the time Mary Ann, Connie and I were thinking we would head upstairs to prepare for the onslaught of Fridays stitcher's, what or I should say who should come down the hall but some early arrivals!  It wasn't long after their arrival that the onslaught began and we were pretty darn busy for the next couple of hours getting everyone situated and explaining the homework to the new arrivals.

18 more stitcher's joined us on Friday with Sally being the last to arrive and shortly after she did we headed over to supper.

Quite the crowd!

After supper Mary Ann took those with their home work done into the other room and taught them how to do the finish technique for the chart that was in their goody bag.  

Bad me didn't take a picture of Friday nights class
so this is actually Saturday's class

The swap tables were also opened up Friday night.

And of course there was a lot of stitching and visiting being done that night also.

Cathi's hands and WIP

Connie A.  and Linda W.

L-R from Corner:  Joyce, Deb B., Deb C. and Connie A
Denise (back to camera)

Connie N. with her Hometown Holiday finish!

L to R:  Deb C., Connie A. , Connie N. & Jocelyn 

Diane's hands and WIP!

Doreen's Egg

I originally chose these colors for Denise and Nancy liked them
so much she decided to use them too!

Jennifer's  Just Nan finish!

Joyce's wip.  

Linda and Kay

One of  Deb C.'s WIP's

Hello?  Anyone still there?  I'll continue this post most likely on Wednesday.  Lot's of excitement still to come!

Take care till next time!

Julie

Back from Retreat...Warning...Pic Heavy

Good Afternoon (it will probably be evening by the time I get this finished)!

Today was literally the first day I have had a large enough span of time to sit down and get the pictures from retreat edited and it has taken me since 9 this morning (it's 3:30 now).  My behind is numb and flat after that marathon but I promised myself that I would git 'er done today and so come hell or high water that's what's gonna happen!  

Let me start my retreat report by saying what a wonderful time we had!  The company was awesome, the food I am told was good and the eye candy was beautiful!  Now lest you all think I didn't eat the entire weekend let's just throw that idea out the window!  I ate.  Just not a lot.  World's pickiest eater here and most of what was served was not to my taste.  There was however plenty of snacks and the ever present peanut butter sandwich.  I also need to say a big THANK YOU to my husband Dan for all of his help with the many projects involved in retreat this year.  We couldn't have done it without him.

I have a ton of pictures to share so I will need to split this into at least 2 if not 3 separate posts.  So with that being said, grab a cold one and we'll get this party started!

Let's start at the very beginning...I hear it's a very good place to start.  Anyone wanna chime in with the next line of the song?  Sorry, I digress.

To announce retreat this year I wrote  a little poem and prefaced it with this:

Choosing a theme for retreat is a lot of work.  It starts with a glimmer of an idea that needs to be researched and thoroughly thought out before being brought to life.  It involves hours and hours of endless wandering thorough craft stores to get ideas, hours and hours of lying in bed at 3a.m. tossing thoughts around in your head, and hours and hours of hand-wringing as you stress over whether or not the idea is original or even good.  And while the subject of this year's retreat has been spoken of, memorialized in song, and written about by Dr. Seuss himself, they haven't been celebrated in quite this manner before.  It seems as though our particular theme is something of a taboo subject in polite society.  However, we've never claimed to be part of polite society so...

Without further ado, we would like to cordially invite you to...

                                                              The Stinky Feet Retreat!!

Now don't get offended,

we aren't saying yours stink,

It's just that all others 

have been done so we think.

Dr. Seuss wrote a book 

About feet of all kinds,

But the stinky feet ones

He put out of his mind. 

It rolls off the tongue, 

so nice and so neat!

What choice did we have

but to choose Stinky Feet!

Set aside your misgivings,

prepare for a treat. 

We have lots of great plans

To make our Retreat sweet!

~J.  McConnell~

I received a lot of raised eyebrows with this theme, I'm not gonna lie.  Most folks were wondering what in the world I was going to do with Stinky Feet.  That was exactly the response I was hoping for!  Are you wondering too?  

I won't keep you in suspense any longer.  No point in doing that.  Retreat is over.  

On the day of Retreat an email was sent with the following poem:

Big Feet, Little Feet

Pretty Feet, Ugly Feet

Feet with nails painted bright

Feet whose nails are quite a site!

Some Feet will travel east

Some Feet will travel west

Safe travels to you all

On your stinky Feet quest!

When our retreaters arrived at camp, they were mostly (some arrived early) met at the door and were given a helping hand with getting their stuff out of the car and to their rooms where they were greeted with a shoe full of candy on their bed.  

I found the pattern for the shoes online and after searching all over for paper that I liked, Dan finally just printed it out for me.  Then I printed the pattern onto the card stock and cut them out after which Dan put them together and then I added the jewels.  Very time consuming but oh so cute I think! 

  

After settling into their room, everyone checked in at the desk where they were given a shoe box, a goody bag, and a coupon for the door prizes.  They were asked if they wished to sign up for a massage and/or the finishing class and then shown the model of the retreat project and the model showing the finishing technique.  If they wished to take the finishing class they were given some fabric and floss along with instructions so they could get their homework done in time for class.  After that it was time to head down to the stitching area, stake out a spot and get down to the serious business of stitching!

Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the shoe boxes all set up at retreat so this picture of them in our library will have to suffice.  

Inside the shoe box was everything they would need to stitch and finish the Retreat project. 

This year Jan from Tree of Life Samplings designed the exclusive chart for our Retreat.

When finished, it's a miniature footstool that looks like this:

Connie and I did ours a bit differently than the model. I'll show you mine at a later point. 

The goody bags this year looked like this sitting on the piano in the library.  Amy was not happy about this and was thrilled when they were removed. 

see the stinky feet we stamped on the bags
 and if you look close you can see the  paper clips too.

And greeting the stitcher's at retreat...

Inside was a plethora of goodies designed to hopefully tickle the fancy of  our retreaters.

There was a bottle of water with a Stinky Feet Label on it.

There was a quilted coaster (or a very flat pin cushion, haha Stacy!).

A 3 x 3 inch Stitch Starter , a Flip Flop Note Pad and Feet shaped paper clips

Socks

Needle Pin Inn chart: 

The finishing class Mary Ann taught was really more of a demonstration but it was a technique the ladies would need to know in order to finish the above pin pillow.  

A flip flop ort container:

Polka Dot Scissors:

A Barefoot Wine Cork Scissor Fob:

This is the fob Dan made special for me

Connie tied one of these cute flip flop buttons to each bag with ribbon. 

  

And last but not least...something that every Stinky Feet Retreat needs to have.  Foot Scrub!!

That takes you through check in so I think now is a good place to stop.  I'll post part 2 this weekend. 

I hope you are enjoying this retreat story.  I know it's long but hopefully it's not too boring.  

Take care till next time!

Julie 

 

I think I might live

Aw geez, I knew it had been a long time since my last post but didn't know it was a month ago! It's been a hectic 4 weeks.  I was ill for two of them.  Started out with a sinus infection which turned into bronchitis that was knocking on the door of pneumonia.  I don't remember ever being quite that ill and I am still not completely well but much better than before.  Had a death in the family.  Abby came home from her trip to Puerto Rico with the beginnings of blood poisoning and if that wasn't enough, she also broke up with her boyfriend. Lots of tears and 2:00a.m. phone calls!  My sister and I both had a breast cancer scare...thank God we are both okay and of course lets not forget that Retreat is just a week and a half away and due to illness, I am not ready yet.  Made some progress on it today but I would guess we'll be finishing things right up until we pull out of the driveway a week from this Thursday!

I have no stitching to show you although I did finish two projects while I was sick.  I took both of them to work though and forgot to take picture.  I'll try to rectify that in my next post. The rest of the things I've been working on are for retreat and if I showed you I would then have to hunt each and every one of you down and kill you and that just sounds like waaaay too much work so a pictureless post it will be.

I want to say Thank You so much for all the wonderful comments you left on my last post.  Seems like my flocked box is very popular! LOL!!   I really do appreciate all the great comments that were left.  Dan ordered the black flocking for the extra box we had.  It didn't take long to get here and Dan has already flocked the drawers.  I still need to do the button tufted top though.

While I was sick I discovered a new show.  Well it was new to me.  I found it on Netflix...Doc Martin.  I am so totally addicted and so is Dan.  We blew through all the episodes they had and now I find out newer ones are being shown on our local PBS.  If you haven't seen this show you should really check it out.  It's full of quirky characters and despite the fact that Doc is oftentimes a total jerk you can't help but like him.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I think that's about all the news I have for now.  I will make no promises as to when my next post will be but I hope it'll be sooner than a month from now!  I'm so behind reading other folks' blogs that I will never catch up and while I should spend some time on it tonight I think instead I will go sit down and rest.  I'm still waiting for my energy to come back.  So far it's still missing in action.  

Take care till next time!

Julie

Finally...done!

Hello!

Been a while, hasn't it?  Were you thinking I went off to Nashville and never came home??  I came home but   I've been running non-stop since then.  I anticipate the next few weeks being more of the same.

A while back I finished the Strawberry Hill Sampler from With Thy Needle and said I would show it when I was done with the finishing of it.  That finally happened today!  I really like how it turned out so if you hate it, please keep it to yourself!  LOL!!

I found this box at Hobby Lobby some time ago and have been waiting for something to put on the top.  Originally when I was stitching Strawberry Hill I intended to mount it on the candy box it calls for but then I remembered I had this box in the basement and decided to use it instead.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I love it.  Dan sanded the box so it was nice and smooth, primed it and then I painted an undercoat of red followed by black and then a dark gray.  Dan then did a bit of distressing on it.  After that he flocked my drawers or my box, however you wish to call it (we've been having a lot of fun with that one!) and then  I mounted my piece on the top. I wish he could have flocked my box with black but apparently there is a shortage of black flock and I would have had to wait 6 weeks.  Who knew you could have a shortage of flocking???  Being the impatient soul that I am I didn't want to wait so he used the least offensive color he could find.

INSIDE:

The drawers are removable for extra storage

HARDWARE & DISTRESSING

The box originally had a mirror in the inside mounted on the lid but I wasn't feeling it so I covered that up with fabric that I button tufted.  First time I tried that but it was really pretty easy to do.
I added my little bits and bobbles and it's finished and on display at the shop.  We're going to finish a second box in case someone comes into the shop and wants one but I have no clue what to price it at.  I'll have to ponder that one for a while.

I had a bit of a stressful day today and I'm tired so I'm going cut this short.  Hope you are all doing well out there in blogland.

OH!  One last thing...someone asked and I am too lazy to go look now who it was but they wanted to know the designer of the bare butted folks that I showed in the Needleart  Exhibit a post or so ago.  It's a kit from Design Works and can be found on the Herrschners website.  

Take care till next time!

Julie