February Cottage of the Month

I did finish stitching February Cottage of the Month by Little House Needleworks.  I've put this one away as is to put together next year or at some point in
the future.

February Cottage

Here is my progress on February Cottage by Country Cottage Needlework.  I"ve put this guy away as is to bring out again next year and hopefully finish.

Hare Pyns Progress

Here's a little update on my progress on Hare Pyns.  As you  can see, I've begun the second section.  I am undecided about filling in the background on the first section.  I did see someone else's and she was filling in the background and it did look and feel nice.

Woodland Forest Retreat - Part 5

I know I said in the last post that we went home.   I want to share my door prize for the weekend.  Each attendee received a door prize, but not all of the prizes were the same.  This what was in mine.

This is the retreat sampler designed by the retreat committe and kitted up for us.

 

 

We each received one of these little boxes as our final gift of the weekend.  

Look at what was inside - a scissor fob. Isnt' that cute?  And so appropriate for the weekend.

These ladies do a fabulous job of preparing for the  retreats.  I think that it is a year round thing for them. It is a weekend filled with good food, new friends, and lots and lots of laughter.  I can't wait for next year!

Woodland Forest Retreat - Part 4

Sunday morning it was time for our class with Amy of Amy Bruecken Designs.  Look at this cute kit that she put together.  She made each one of us one of these acorns.  How cute is that?

Had I been thinking I would have taken a picture of the model to show you.  Amy used Memory Wire by DMC in this project.  I haven't used it before. It's pretty interesting.  Amy designed this piece for us  and won't release it in the future.

This is my progress in class.

 Amy also included these two charts in our kits.

And she gave these out as door prizes. Isn't that cool!

Amy is lots of fun as an insructor. 

We had a contest on Sunday afternoon where you could vote for your favorite name tag.  Nancy won and received a gorgeous assortment of Dinky Dyes flosses and ribbon (I think.) 

There was also a drawing for two themed baskets.  We were given opportunities to put our names in the bags for those over the course of the weekend.  The baskets were great.  Again, I should have taken pictures of those. 

Then it was lunch in the classroom followed by dessert. 

And time to head for home.

It was a wonderful weekend filled with learning and lots of laughter.

Happy Easter!

Woodland Forest Retreat - Part 3

I had totally intended to publish this last night.  I went down and did my treadmill time and started watching Mad Men on my nook.  And, that was it for the evening.  I could not tear myself away from Mad Men to do anything else, even stitch!  Hope you have a great day today.  Back to the retreat.

Saturday morning our first class with Pam Reed from Olde Colonial Designs began. 

She gave each of us one of these bags.

Inside the folder was a great picture of the finished project as well as  the charts.

The first thing we did was mount the nameplate on top of the box using a jig that Pam provided so that it would be centered precisely. A nice way to do that.

Next we began stitching the scissor fob cube.  Three at a time we were called to the front of the room for Pam to help us line our boxes. Each of us had a box that looked like this one by early in the afternoon. Now, we did not have the scissor fob finished before lunch!  But, I forgot to take a picture of the empty box.

When we went to the dining room these adorable needle books were at each place.  Along with the counting pin that I've shown.

 

 

Back to the classroom after lunch to finish working on the cube for the scissor fob.   Pam had lots of helpful hints and tips as we progressed with these.  She was on hand for one on one instruction throughout the afternoon.  We also had cookies for dessert in the classroom after lunch.



 

Then it was back to the dining room for dinner.  And these were on our table at each place. Aren't they pretty.  These were made by Belinda Karls Nace of Blue Ribbon Designs.  These are one of a kind, made just for retreat attendees with fabric provided by A Stitcher's Garden.

After dinner we returned to the classroom to continue working on the fobs and start the needlebooks.  This is as far as I got with my needlebook.  I'm sorry for the blurry picture. If you ever get the opportunity to take a class with Pam Reed from Olde Colonial I highly recommend that you do it.  She is a patient instructor.  Her kit was complete and well organized.  Pam is a delight to work with and has so many helpful tips and pointers that can be applied to any project that you are finishing.

 

 

There was dessert, different from what we had in the afternoon. 

 

Then it was time to say goodnight.