Cathy B and I have just returned from a fabulous weekend at the
Blackbird Designs retreat held at the
Silver Needle in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were both excited to go to this retreat not only because of the Blackbird girls, Alma and Barb but we were also going to be able to meet some of the girls we have come to know through the blog world. There was about 150 women at this retreat and they came from 20 states and Canada.
Here are
Karen and
Michele. I have done exchanges with both these girls. It was so great to finally meet them. We had a chance to get to know each other on Saturday night when we all went out to dinner. I wish I would have thought to get some pictures from dinner because of course Cathy was with us as well as two other gals, Chris and Michelle which we met through Karen and Michele. Karen is from Arizona and Michele is from Washington. There was lots of fun and laughing going on.
This is Cathy, Edie and I. Edie had seen on my blog that Cathy and I had been to a Blackbird Designs retreat back in April here in Minnesota and that we were planning on going to the Silver Needle for this retreat. Well Edie got signed up for this retreat and we got to meet and stitch with her. She sat with us for our class on Saturday. I was glad to get to know Edie. Edie is from Texas. Thanks for such a great time.
I also got to meet
Yvonne another blogger, and I thought I had gotten a picture with her but I guess I didn't. So I hope that you got one Yvonne and will share it with me. Yvonne is from Georgia.
We also met two gals from Iowa, Lisa and Loretta and of course I didn't get any pictures with them either. I sure hope that maybe Cathy got some of those pictures, because she was much better at socializing and picture taking then me.
I am sure
Cathy will fill in with more stories about our trip.
Here are Alma and Barb on Friday night sharing some stories with us.
This is a picture I took of the pin keep we would be making in class. I should have gotten a picture of the needle book to, but I was not thinking.
This is my pin keep, which I did finish during class and how far I am on my needle book.
This is a side view of my pin keep. We painted our box and then gave it a "worn" look by sanding it and putting briwax on it. We also made the pins that are in my pin keep.
These are all the wonderful goodies we received from the Silver Needle. There are 16 limited edition skeins of Sampler Threads, a small scissors, and some Vera Bradley items: a Quickstep wallet, a small coin purse, two different note pads and a small metal tin.
All I can say is I love Alma and Barb from Blackbird Designs and if you ever get a chance to take a class from them you should. And it is worth a trip to Tulsa to go to the Silver Needle. The staff there is great and you will be overwhelmed by that shop.
Keep Stitching and thanks for stopping by.
I finished the small box pin keep while at retreat. I started to stitch on the Needle book on Saturday night after we got back to the hotel. I finished the stitching this morning and went right to work on making it into the needle book.
Here it is in it's folded form.
This is the outside view of the whole stitched piece.
And the inside of the needle book. I added a scissors, a thread counter that Jill had made for me and a Kelmscott thread keep.
