Saturday

Saturday, the main day of Spring Fling, is here.  I'm feeling a bit guilty as I have been indulging in all the great food and snacks.  I have a particular weakness for cashews.  There is a large snack table filled with good stuff just outside of the meeting room. I ate breakfast with some early risers.  We had such fun discussing the hot men of HGTV.  (Mary Ann, you are so funny!)  So I decide to go walking.  One of my goals this trip is to walk around the lake.  But the lake steps are roped off and there is snow and ice on the path.  So where to walk?  I decide to walk the long driveway and parking lots.

 It is rather cold but I am determined.  I get in about half my steps before going to get ready for class.
Again, that special moment when the kits are passed out.

It is packaged wonderfully in a cardboard envelope.  Be still my heart.  We have a choice between stitching a sampler or a pocket.  I pick the pocket.

We have whole skeins of silk to put on a thread holder.  There is some basting to be done and then we can start stitching.  Oh I love a day full of stitching and no other responsibilities except eating.  There are five of us at the table:  me, BFF, Janet, Joy and Sarah.  It is fun to talk as we stitch.
At lunch we can look out the big windows in the restaurant area to see that a wedding party is having their pictures taken out on the patio.  That poor bride is freezing in a strapless gown.  The bride and groom look too young to be getting married.  Are they still in high school?  All the groomsmen and bridesmaids have on high top tennis shoes.  The groomsmen have on electric blue vests (not my favorite).
Anyway back to stitching after lunch.  A name is picked out of a basket for a door prize.  Guess what!?!?  I win!  Look what I got:

A very nice zipper bag and scissors with a beautiful fob.  Wow.
I'm not getting very far in my stitching but it is not a race.
We have a dinner in a different room because of the wedding taking place.  Again the food is great.  I considered not eating dinner as I had so much for lunch.  Hah!  Too many good things to eat.  I especially liked the mini pineapple upside down cakes.  I think I had three of them.
After dinner a lot of the people left to go to Stitchville and shop.  There is a 20% discount on what we buy tonight.  But BFF and I have already been to Stitchville and spent too much.  We like to shop when it is not crowded.  So we stay and stitch.  It is interesting to see what stuff other people bought.
I'm a little sad knowing that this fun all ends tomorrow and we go back to our real lives.
A

The Retreat Begins

So finally, it is Friday afternoon, 4 p.m.  Deb (who owns Stitchville) introduces Cynthia Zittel of The Drawn Thread.  We are all so excited.  Cynthia hasn't taught in a while and we are so lucky that she decided to teach at Spring Fling.

Deb is wearing red on the far left.  Cynthia is up front showing the project.
Then the Friday evening project is handed out.  This is a special moment for me.  I love when the project is revealed, given out and I am handed a complete kit.

Cynthia's packaging if fabulous.  Inside are two pockets and there are holes that will hold thread.  How clever!

The project is a scissors fob done in Swedish weaving.  Cynthia is a true artist.  It has texture, color, design.  We get right to work.  I'm so excited.  I have to calm down to stitch.
We see the project and are delighted.  It is gorgeous.  We are working on lavender linen.
I make lots of mistakes and have to go back and correct them.  But I don't care, this is fun.  The time flies.
We stop for dinner.  The hotel has the best food ever.  It is served buffet style.  The desserts are so good and are tiny.  So I take about six.  The diet went out the window.
We go back after dinner and work on the fob.  Many people have brought their Drawn Thread projects to display on table in the back of the room and it is fun to see them up close and done.  It is great to talk to friends from last year.  I meet Marilyn who has brought her Mermaid Treasures.  Oh my is it beautiful.  It was Marilyn who found mistakes in the chart and suggested a different way of weaving the edges.  I knew of her so it was nice to meet her in person.  There are some fabulous stitchers here.  One of the fabulous ones is Chris who brought some projects also.

Her stitching is amazing.  Instead of putting twisted cording on the edge of the scissors fob, she put beads.  So I wanted to do that too.  My beads weren't looking as even as hers.  But she told me how she did it, so I fixed mine and I love it.  Here is mine all finished.

I am totally exhausted by the time the evening is over.  What a fun day!  

Tomorrow is the big project!

A

Last Friday

Okay, so when BFF took me back to my hotel it had started snowing and sleeting.  But I didn't care as I had stuff to eat from Target and all my purchases to look over.  I had a great room too.  It was on the top floor and I could look out over the roof of the hotel.   I could kind of tell how much snow we had by the build up on the roof.

 It had a little kitchen area which was handy.  It was a big room.

This is what the roof looked like in the morning.  Nine inches of snow.  The roads were a mess.

So BFF and I decided not to attempt to drive until noon.  So I had all morning to peruse my new stuff and stitch.
Here is some of the stuff I got.
New glasses:

 A frame for Windswept:

New fabric for Shepherd's Fold.  I don't like overdyed as it is too soft and floppy.  I also hate splotchy fabric.  So I got two fabrics that would go well with the color of the box.

 I got other fabric too since Stitchville has a great selection:

 I got three The Heart's Content kits and a Tokens and Trifles card:

I got The Common Thread.  I liked all the different motifs but didn't get the thread pack (yet?):

I also got some Stitcher's Lotion and a bunch of threads.  BFF and I are going to a class in two weeks and we needed some threads for the special project the teacher is designing for us.  Cool.
Then here are the Dupioni silks we bought for lining various stitching projects:

 At Eagle Creek we both got those special applique scissors with very sharp tips and fabric and towels:

These towels can be embroidered.  They had samples at the store that were darling.
I got new fabric for Sophia:

So when BFF picked me up we went out to lunch at Doolittle's.  I been there many times and they have great food.  It always smells great there since they have that big spit roasting about 40 chickens over a wood fire.  Then we hit a couple of places like this:

 It is mostly a yarn store but it had a Gentle Arts floss that I needed.  There was a gem/jewelry store next door that we enjoyed too.
Then it was time!  Time to drive out to Oak Ridge Hotel and Convention Center!  We timed it perfectly and got there at 3.

 This is the lobby:

 We saw friends as we came in the door.  Oh, yes, this is going to be fun!  I even ran into Cynthia Zittel - and she remembered me from Celebrations a few years ago!
Boy, does Stitchville run a great retreat.  Each room had a welcome gift in it for us:

In the bag are delicious caramels.  Yes, that bird candle holder is for us to take home.  The tube is a toothbrush.
I love a room with a window seat:

 My view:

Then it is time for the retreat to start.
We get another gift:

 It is a great project bag with hand lotion and a case that can hold small scissors.  That isn't all!  (this is like Christmas!)  At each place at the table is this:

A wood tray that has a magnetic needle holder and pin cushion with a couple of pins in it, a small flower arrangement and a set of two decorative towels.  Each of us has a bottle of water too.  How lucky are we to be there?
More tomorrow. . . .
A

I'm Back

What a great time I had at Spring Fling!  So much fun and so many friends were there.  I made some new friends too.  I'll tell you about my trip in daily installments.  So. . . Last Thursday early in the morning DH took me to the airport.  Here is a photo of a piece of paper mache/wire sculpture at our airport.  I think this is called "You are Here".  It is by a local artist.  He has several other sculptures in the airport.

The plane was not delayed.  Yeah!  I got to Minneapolis early.  Yeah!  BFF picked me up at the airport. Yeah!   Things are going well.  It was early and stores weren't open yet.  We wanted to get some shopping in before the big storm got there.  So what to do?  Breakfast.  We went to the shopping center where Stitchville USA (my number one shopping destination) is.  There is a Panera nearby.  It was a delicious breakfast even though I ate more that I usually do.  Then onto Stitchville!

We were the only ones there and were able to look at everything and finds many new and nifty things.  I'm afraid I went nuts.  BFF talked me into a new pair of readers.  I love them.  They are a lot more than I usually pay but they are so light that I forget I have glasses on.  And BFF tells me that they are scratch resistant which is important for a klutz like me.  They have a small clear case that works well too.
I filled up two punch cards!  Don't tell DH.
It was wonderful to have such a selection of fabric to choose from.  I got threads I needed.  I got kits I wanted.  Such fun!  (I'll show you what I bought tomorrow)

Are we done shopping?  No of course not.
We went on to a fabric outlet that is called Fabric Outlet:

BFF had taken me there before and I knew that this place has the most amazing assortment of Duponi Silks (not counting Delectable Mountain which is in a class by itself).  Sorry for the blurry pictures but I wanted to show you the inside of this place as I've never seen anything like it.  This is just the silks!

 They have all kinds of other fabric too.  You mostly cut your own.  There are barrels of buttons.  Truly.

Are we done shopping?  No of course not.
We went onto a great quilt shop.

 Eagle Creek Quilt Shop is  in an old train station.  Very cool.

We found some great fabric for various projects.  I found the perfect fabric to finish "Sophia".  But I have to get final approval from DIL.  It would so much fun to live in this area and take their classes.  Lucky BFF.
Then BFF and I had a yummy lunch at Rocky Rococo.  I love pizza and I indulged and even had breadsticks.  This eating is getting out of hand.
Are we done shopping?  No of course not.
We hit Target for some snacks and found a couple cute things for Claire's Easter basket.  BFF gave me a wonderful basket for Claire's Easter basket.  She is so sweet.
The weather was deteriorating by this time.  So BFF took me to my hotel.  What a great day of shopping and eating!  I'll show you what I bought tomorrow.
A

Drawn Thread Day 27

Today is the last day of the Drawn Thread Show as I leave early tomorrow for Minneapolis.  The weather in Minneapolis is supposed to be very bad.  I'm hoping that is misses the city entirely.  Bad weather would put a serious kink in our shopping plans.  Today's finish isn't finished.  It is a freebie that I stitched.

Cathy has hers made into a floss tag.  That's what I should do too.  I have a few more Drawn Thread finishes.

I know I have made at least three of the monthly checkbook holder things but this is the only one I could find.

I put some backstitch into the Spring Casket Keepsakes.

 These should be easy as they are small.  But I'm finding them challenging.  Now I've gone rogue on them.  I stitched the wrong colors on one of them and didn't take it out (being the wild and crazy woman that I am).  Then I deliberately stitched with some Hand Dyed Fibers on one side of the other one just to see if a slightly different color would be easier to see.  Not really.

With overdyed fibers you run the risk of lines.  I was stitching in a basketweave pattern and I got some diagonal lines.  But the other side stitched in called for colors has some lines too.

DH found these for me at the grocery store.  They aren't ice cream creations but just cookies.

DIL likes the combo of the fabrics I got yesterday so I need to finish the pillow.
I'll be back next week with tales of my travels and treats.
A

Drawn Thread Day 26

Today's finish is a small one.  I don't know why but this one took me forever to start.  It was something about the specialty stitches in the tree trunk.  But It turned out nicely.  I haven't done anything with it - yet.

I went to Hobby Lobby this morning looking for fabric to finish the commission pillow.  I looked yesterday at a fabric store but didn't find anything.  I bought two fabrics.

 One I like and one my DIL will like.  I have to think about this and ask DIL.  Maybe we can combine the two.

I can do the cording in one fabric and the pillow parts in the other.

I got one tower on Hampton Court all done.  I'm learning about working with metal threads.  It is better to cut them a hair short than a bit long.  But I think it looks okay.  I'd like to get the other tower done today.
But with my big finish of Along the River James, I felt I could start about 6 other things. LOL.  I was feeling guilty for not making something for the new grandnephew and I ran across the perfect design for him.  A little boy fishing with a dog in the boat.

Too cute.  It is an old Birds of a Feather design.  So I started that.  I got a kit in the mail and I couldn't resist starting that too.  Then I was looking for something to work on on my trip. Heaven forbid I should be without something to stitch for a day.
I am so excited about going to Spring Fling and shopping at Stitchville and staying at the hotel and seeing my friends.  I'm going to start packing today.  Yes, I'm going to wear my crazy shoes.
A