I'm Back... Unofficially

I'm back, but unofficially, so don't tell anyone. Technically I'm still on vacation through tomorrow. We had the most wonderful time. It was absolutely beautiful. Every road we took was breathtaking. Even more so on a motorcycle. You can see everything. The weather was perfect. Coming in we rode along the famous Ocoee River. One of the sites of the Olympic games when they were in Atlanta,GA. The river is actually in Tennessee. Not so glamorous, it is also the same river the movie Deliverance was filmed. This was at a different place. Beautiful falls. Not sure if this was TN or NC. It was hard to tell when you crossed state lines.

I even got some stitching done. Started and finished this project. Part of my ideal vacation was to sit on the porch of the cabin and just stitch and listen and be peaceful. I sure hated coming back to 90% humidity. I started on LK Spring has Sprung, but didn't get much of that done.

Little House Needleworks "Believe"

More Tigerlily Progress

Here's another progress pic of Tigerlily. So pretty. I like to add my beads as I go so I don't have to skip around so much later. Her skirt is almost done and she needs another leg. This will be last I can work on it for a while. I'm going on vacation next week. YEAH!!! I'm so ready to get outta town. We are riding our motorcycle up the Natchez Trace to Tupelo, MS then cutting across Alabama to North Georgia. We'll be staying at my cousin's cabin in the mountains of Blue Ridge, GA. It's so beautiful up there. The weather should be perfect for riding. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s. Much better than the 90s+ here. I can hardly wait. I'll post some pics when I get back. Have a great day!

TigerLily Progress

Just a quick post to show my progress on TigerLily. She so pretty and stitching up so fast. Hey Jen, how is yours coming?

I also finished my first needlebook. It turned out ok despite my lack of sewing skill. Everytime I use the sewing machine, I am reminded how far from a semtress I am. It took 3 or 4 tries to get this thing right. First, I forgot to put the ribbon in. Then I ripped out the wrong side for the ribbon, had to rip the other. Then I stitched all the way around, leaving no hole to turn it. Then I ripped a little out of one side and started turning then realized I put the ribbon in wrong. The loop was on the inside. Sooo, had to rip that side out again and redo the ribbon. I have to make a lot of mistakes before I learn from them. But alas the finished piece looks pretty good. Good enough for me anyway.

Retreat Was Fabulous

We had a wonderful time at the stitching retreat last weekend. Acutally got some stitching done and made noticable progress. Very proud of myself. I worked on several different projects. Finished up a couple of little things that have been hanging around forever. Started a couple of new things and worked on other WIPs.
Theresa from my LNS helped me pick a color for the border of the Red Thread round robin we are doing. Can't really tell from the picture, but it's very verigated. It is Waterlillies Espresso. It is a dream to stitch with. Very pretty and it stitches very fast.

I started a new reindeer. Dancer this time. Didn't get too much done. This day we all decided to do speed stitching. We rotated projects every 30 mins then every hour. 30 min was barely enough time to get the project out and find your floss.

Also worked on my Stoney Creek nativity. Just a little progress here. Really need to get this done. New stuff keeps grabbing my attention.

Then Jen and I decided to start Mirabilia Tigerlily together and do her as a SAL. Check out our progress each week. I don't think this will take very long to finish. I'm not sure if this is a SAL or a stitch-off.

The only things I finished were Bridget's sailboat on our RR and this LizzyKate June block. I plan to make it into a needlebook. Never tried one before, so I'm anxious to get that going.

That about wraps it up for the retreat. We got all kinds of freebies- patterns,floss,fabric... I also got a beautiful needlebook for the pins and needles exchange Friday night. And a whole bag of goodies for the Sat gift exchange. It was a patriotic theme like the gift I gave. It had a Bless this House pattern from Country Cottage Needleworks, the floss and fabric to complete it, and other items. All in all we had a fabulous time stitching and talking.

Loose Ends

I've spent the weekend tying up loose ends on some projects. Friends came over for stitching and a movie yesterday. Had a great time. Finished up a floss ring tag for the gift exchange at the retreat next weekend. I got the idea from Mylene's blog. For my first attempt, it came out ok. The pattern is Love & Country from Sam and Sarah Designs. Theresa from my LNS helped me pick that and a few WDW threads with patriotic themes. To the gift I added a patriotic bandana that would make great backing fabric, the pattern and some buttons.


My beads finally came in and I finished my first reindeer, Blitzen. He turned out great. I got to show him off and let everyone ooh and aah over him. He's very sparkly. The fabric is perfect.

I also finally got the rest of the treasures for the Santa Sleigh Ride put on. Not the easiest thing I've ever done. The treasures with no holes in them, wreath and candy canes, are a little tricky. Then I went ahead and stretched it to get it ready to frame. While I was at it, I stretched the Love Crazy piece too. I have the materials to make frames for both of them. I should get to that this week. I'll post those when I'm done.

So I cleaned up after all the other projects to prepare for retreat. Have to decide what to work on. Got to be prepared to maximize my time and get as much done as possible. Still have to keep up with Jen.
Thanks for all the people who stop by and leave comments. I enjoy that very much. Have a great day.