Overdue retreat post and more.....

Ok as promised two weeks ago, here is the last update on retreat. I meant to post much sooner but as usual just been busy. First I wanted to post what I had did for the girls for retreat. I stitched these floss tags and made some marking pins with crystals. Also made a long stick pin. The crystals are in the colors each of us have. This design is part of Country Cottage Needleworks called Mermaids. Cathy B also used this designs for a fob for each of us. Great minds think alike!

Here is a photo of the rest of the goodies I gave. Each year I try to make a pillow case, plus we now have a small retreat pillow and I make a cover for that pillow too. Then I also gave a small piece of fish fabric.

This fob is from Lori. She didn't have time to finish it, so I did get this finished off into a fob.

Now I am revisiting last years retreat. The theme was snowmen. I wanted to make these quilts for last years retreat but had other life events going on. So this summer I got on a quilting frenzy and sewed up these five quilts. Next year's theme is Pink Flamingo's!!!!

I also had this quilt kit and finally got around to putting it together. I just love the colors in this quilt.

Then I made these two quilts with fabric I have had for a couple of years. I always wanted to use the fabric for something and when our daughter was home from TN she had this pattern and I just got busy and did a lot of cutting and sewing.
I tried my hand at making a carrot pincushion. There is a tutorial on eHandcrafts blog. Not to bad for my first attempt.

This is Blackbird Designs Rose Garden. I stitched it during retreat and finished it into this pin pillow. I stitched my dad's initials and year of his birth on this pillow. I thought it would be a nice remembrance of him. He has been gone many years. I was six years old when he died.

I have wanted to stitch this piece for a while now. It's LHN's Traveling Stitcher. I finally finished the stitching this week. With that being said I then made the needle case and pouch for this piece.

Instead of using a tie and buttons to close these pieces I used snaps and then just sewed on a button. I got these buttons from an antique shop and thought they were just right for this project.

Last but not least I finished this LHN ornament. I have them all stitched up to date but have the 3 previous ones that need to be finished.

I have also been doing some model stitching which I can not share right now. Thanks for taking time to read this long post.

Happy Stitching!!!

A very happy dance...........

Just a quick update on the Friendship book. As you can see Jill and I have our books done. I can not tell you how happy I am to have this finished. It was quite a challenge!!!!! This seemed to be a very painful finish for me. I just could not wait to have it done, not sure if it was because I just wanted to stitch and not spend all of my retreat on this finish or what. But I have been doing the happy dance since about noon today. My Friendship book is on the left and Jill's is on the right. We stitched our pieces on 36 count flax and I used Belle Soie Enchanted Forest. Jill used a threadworx fiber number 1157. I must say after all the work our books turned out very well.

Here is a look at the book opened

and the other side.

After I finished my book I got back to work on this Blackbird designs Rose Garden. I stitched it on 30 count St. Valentine's Blend with Crescent Colours Cappuccino. I stitched this for my dad who passed away many years ago when I was six. I stitched his initials and year of his birth in this piece.

Lori finished her LHN scissors bed. Hers is on the left. I did mine earlier this year and made my own bed. Just thought we would take a picture of both of our scissors beds.

So there is an update of retreat 2010. I am sure I will have one or two more posts before the fun ends:)
Thanks for checking in and Happy Stitching.

Retreat update...

The theme for this years retreat is: Under the Sea!!!

Here is day one of retreat. This was fairly early when it was just Jill, me and Lori. As we were waiting for the other 3 girls to get here, we did start working on our Friendship Book.

This is just before we handed out our goody bags. The fun was just beginning.

First up were these bags from Jackie. She bought us these bags when she was in Hawaii last March. We each have a color assigned to us so to speak, so Jackie got us a bag in "our" color. The items in the front of the bags are what were in each bag.

Another picture of our goodies: a fish cup and bowl, a stitched coaster, fish magnets, a scissors with a light on it, a tape measure with a light, a fish key ring that lights up and make noise some note cards and turtle note pads.

Cathy's goodies for us were wrapped up in this cute paper, with a personalized name card.

Here is what we received: a mermaid scissor fob, a fish themed pin cushion, fish soap, goldfish S'mores, a very cute dish and two skeins of Crescent Colours thread--Deep Sea Blue and Shrimp Cocktail.

A close up of the pin cushion and fob Cathy made. How cute are they. Each fob was stitched in our color, mine is green.

Jill wrapped each of our goodies separately.

The goodies revealed. Jill's mom crocheted each of us a pair of fish slippers before she passed away. It was a bittersweet remembrance from her mom. This is the third pair of slippers Jill's mom made for all of us. We will miss not having a pair next year. Jill also stitched a fish pin keep, beaded up a fish needle case, included a fish scissors with a beaded fob that says: Under the Sea, a Kelmscott thread winder,a vinyl project bag, a scissor charm from her mom's stash, pencil and some candy.

A close up of the needle case.

This is the goody bag from Lori. A great mesh project bag filled with:

these goodies:

Some cards Lori's mom made, a fish candle, fish napkins and plates, a fish cookie cutter, some homemade chocolate dolphins, an orts jar painted with Under the Sea theme, stickers and candy, plus a fob which we will all finish ourselves as a group project.

Today the girls were busy stitching and talking. It doesn't take long to settle in with all of our stuff.

Thought I would include a picture of our snack table. Seems we could have used a bigger table!!!

Cathy is working hard on her Friendship book. She is staying on task.

Yesterday because of our friend Chris, four of us had to take a break and make a Joann's run to get these new Ott Lights. They are battery operated LED lights. Nice and bright and portable. You can also buy a DC adapter cord for it. That will be my next purchase. You just can 't have enough lights!!!

Last but not least here is the progress on my Friendship Book. I have the first two pages together. This is a very intense project and is taking longer than we expected. There is a lot of hand sewing to do before you can put this book together. So I have decided to do a little work each day.

This is the other side or the inside of my book.

The rest of my book. All the hand sewing is done, lining is on and they are ready to be put together. So I will do that tomorrow.

So there is the first day and a half of retreat. Sorry for such a long post but we have been up to a lot. Tomorrow I will have to post the goodies I had for the girls, just remembered that I forgot my goodies. Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I will have another update tomorrow. Still three days of stitching fun left:)

Happy Stitching:)
Joan

Pre Retreat Post....

I have been very busy getting ready for our annual retreat which starts tomorrow at 9 am and goes until Saturday afternoon. With that being said here is what we will be doing tomorrow. These are the squares that I had to stitch for the Ackworth Friendship book. Now tomorrow the six of us will put our books together.

I have been doing a lot of stitching and sewing for retreat. I won't be able to show my works until after tomorrow. But I have also been doing some other stitching which brings me to the following item:

I stitched this LHN ornament for Cathy B for an exchange on the Friends Through Threads Blog. This ornament is from the 2010 JCS magazine Christmas ornament preview. It is called the Gingerbread Tree. I stitched it on 28 count coffee dyed fabric with DMC.

Since about the middle of June I have also been obsessed with quilting. So I made this table topper with a new tool called the lil twister. The fabrics are from the local Quilt Shop hop here in Minnesota. I have some pictures of other quilts I have made in the last 7 weeks, which I will post later.

I received these squares from Jill last year for my birthday and I finally decided how I wanted to finish them. Here is the front of the pillow.

Here is the view of the back of the pillow. I am quite happy with how the pillow turned out. Thanks Jill.