The Salty Trip - Day Three

On our first night at the Lankford Hotel my BFF comes down to my room to stitch.  She's working on her pre-stitching and I working on a Drawn Thread needle case I started eons ago.  We watch two episodes of Downton Abbey on my IPad.  My BFF is hooked on Downton Abbey now.
Then in the morning I meet Stasi at 7 a.m. and we walk the right on the boardwalk.  Paola joins us.  It is so nice to see her again.

 The hotel is near the middle of the boardwalk which makes it easy to walk half of the boardwalk.  Stasi has been coming to Ocean City since she was a child so she knows where everything is.  It is great to get to the end of the boardwalk with a lovely view and benches to sit on.  But we can't sit, we have to get back and get ready for class.  There is breakfast in the lobby.  I just grab something as I have to get ready.  I'm wearing my crazy shoes and a pin I have made.  This is becoming my habit when going to stitching classes.
The class is being held at Sara's which is the top floor of the next building.  We cut through the Salty Yarns shop.  Oh do I want to shop!

Sara's house/apartment is fantastic.  It has a  gourmet kitchen and views to die for.  We are in the dining room.  There are antique clocks all around.

I have a thing for clocks so I am loving this.  My favorite moment is when we get a new complete kit placed in front of us.  Today (and tomorrow) we are making the Elizabethan Etui.

Our project today is to finish the crown pin cushion/thimble holder.  We also practice the stitch that will join the pieces together.  Betsy is a great teacher.  She is patient with us.  Her instructions are good.  Let me repeat because this is rare, her instructions are complete, understandable and good.  I think the crown pin cushion is a wonderful design.

So clever and well put together.  If you follow the directions, it is foolproof.

We get to pick out our wooden thistle for the top of the etui.

We have lunch right there at Sara's.  Sara puts together a very nice lunch and there is a choice of several salads and desserts as well as subs.  We sit out on her porch looking at the ocean as we eat.  Pinch me, this is so great.  Someone thinks about putting silk chenille around the crown.  So Sara goes down to the shop and gets some.  Everybody gets a hunk of it to put on their crown.  I love that I have an almost finished crown by the end of the day.

Time to shop!  I go shopping at Salty Yarns.  They have a bag and a tag for us.  We can put things we want to buy in a bag and just leave it in the shop until we are ready to check out.  There is so much to see in the shop.  It is so full of everything.  Truly, everything.  In fact I don't think I saw half of what is in there.  It would take days to really see everything.  They had all the new stuff and old stuff and French stuff and boxes, fabrics, threads etc.  I find several things I have been looking for.  It was hog heaven.
Tonight for dinner I want to cross off my list some of the "must try at Ocean City" things.  I get an Alaskan Stand hot dog and drink (refillable for 1.50!).

  Then we go over to Thrashers to get some fries.  I was a bit surprised at the cost of the fries.  The 9.95 size is a bucket - a whole bucket - of fries.  My BFF and I split a small size and can't manage to finish them. There is no ketchup for the fries, just bottles of vinegar.   We go eat in the lobby of the hotel.  Lots of people are there stitching, eating, watching TV, looking at their IPads.  There is a box of toys in the lobby and kids are around.  Well behaved sweet children.  This is a family place.  I feel like I am a distant cousin come to visit.  I get my bag of show and tell.  It is really fun to talk about my stuff and show it to people who appreciate stitching.  Paola has two of the most fabulous samplers with her, Ann Bowers and Mistress L's Band Sampler.  I love seeing her work.  It is perfection.  She has a few other things too. She has made Sally a lovely bag, all by hand.   Someone has a Merry Cox box that is gorgeous.
What a great day!
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The Salty Trip - Day Two and a Half

This is the back door of the Lankford Hotel from the parking lot.
The Lankford Hotel was built by Sally's Aunt Mary in 1924.  It is an old hotel.  The boardwalk has many newer high rise hotels and looks a lot like what we saw in Virginia Beach.  But the Lankford is special.  We walk down the well worn wooden floors of the hall to the lobby and we see the view out the front doors.  The ocean!

It is wonderful.  We hear the slap of the sturdy screen doors as they close. (Reminds me of the house I grew up in)  The air here is clear and cool.  The girls working at the front desk are perfect for the job.  A ready smile,  helpful, open and friendly.  They are patient with me when I don't understand why BFF has a room number and I have a named room.  Our rooms are up on the second floor.  The girls help us get our suitcases up there.  My room is the SeaHawk.  It is not just a room.  It is a suite, an apartment.

 I have two bedrooms, a living room area and kitchenette.  Not only that, I have a porch with a view of the ocean.

How did I get so lucky??  Now I understand.  A named room is a suite.  Man, I could live here.
BFF and I walk down the boardwalk to get the lay of the land and to find something to eat.  We see Salty Yarns, the needlework store that is part of the hotel.  I try the door but it is locked.  I didn't know that it really was open to us through the secret passageway.  We pass about 5 candy stores.  Uh-oh, I'm in trouble.  I can't resist and buy some taffy and dark chocolate covered orange peel.  We decide to try a pizza place recommended by the front desk girls, Piezano's. They have nice thin crust pizza and it sure hits the spot.  We are exhausted from our day at Winterthur and the drive down.  We see someone who looks familiar (Paula).  Then Grace stops by to see me and we meet her friend Ginny.  We are among other stitch crazy people.  I love it!
We go down the hall to check out the second floor porch and look at the ocean.  Then we run into another friend, Stasi.  Stasi and I make plans to go walking early in the morning.  Stasi has a Fitbit also.
Class starts at 9 tomorrow.  Everybody is excited.  BFF and I have never had a class with Betsy Morgan.
More tomorrow . . .
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The Salty Trip - Day Two

I forgot to tell you yesterday that I got a couple of things at the little store of Downton related stuff.  I got a tea towel with teacups on it (cute) and I got a t-shirt.

Luckily Winterthur tickets are good for two days.  So we go to the information desk and ask for a Behind the Scenes Needlework Tour.  It takes a while to track down someone to do it and arrange a time.  We have a choice of one hour or two hour tour.  Of course we want the two hour.  But first we are going on a tour of the DuPont house.  I love seeing gorgeous old fancy houses.  We can take pictures too.

 It is amazing to see the rooms and all the stuff.  Many of the rooms have a theme.
 There are needlework items throughout our tour.

The house tour was great and it was fascinating to see all the opulence.
But the best is yet to come, the needlework tour.  So there is me, my BFF and a docent to show us the needlework.  We go to this storage room with large flat file drawers in the center of the room and storage along all the walls.  Oh my.  The docent opens every drawer and lets us look at the needlework inside.  Wow.  Unfortunately, I'm too short to see in the topmost drawers.  What we see is fabulous.  My favorite thing is the 17th century sweet bag.  Oh my.  I love all the pockets often worked in bargello patterns.  I see some tambour work.  I've read about it on Mary Corbet's blog so it is nice to see it in person.  We can't take photos.  Rats.  Then the docent takes us through many rooms that we did not see on the house tour to point out needlework.  Oh my.  It is a great experience to see all the needlework.  Wow.  I wish I had pictures to show you.
Then our day at Winterthur is not done.  We take the Garden Tour.  It is a fun ride around the grounds.

We've had a glorious day at Winterthur.  It was certainly worth seeing.

Time to go to Ocean City!  It is a two hour drive to Ocean City.  The traffic gets better as we go along.  We want to stop at Serendipity Quilts store.  It isn't too far from OC.  We manage to find it with help from somebody at a gas station.  But it's closed! Rats.  So on we go.  With only a couple of u-turns, we make it to the parking lot of The Lankford Hotel.  More tomorrow!
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The Salty Trip Day One

First of all, I have to thank Paola for telling me about this retreat.  I wouldn't have known.  I read the Salty Yarns Blog but I wasn't looking in the right place to see what is coming up.  Paula showed me that I should watch the Events Page.  So a big thank you is due both of you.
Day one is always a travel day.  I flew into Baltimore and went down to baggage level and waited for my BFF to arrive.  As I was sitting there stitching a young man came up to me and asked for 7 dollars so he could get home.  DH has taught me to be very skeptical of such requests.  But I believed this kid.  He looked so tired and a bit embarrassed to be asking for money.  (the kids that ask you for money and want to spend it on drugs are overly friendly and charming - they've had lots of practice soliciting).  So I gave him the seven dollars and hope he made it home.  I did warn him to not buy drugs with it.  Maybe I'm a fool, but I hope I'm not.
My BFF arrived.  There is a whole arduous process to rent a car at BWI.  You have to take a shuttle to the rental car place and stand in line.  It takes a while.  I've brought Matilda, my (not updated) GPS to help us get where we need to go.  This afternoon we need to drive to the Wilmington, Delaware area to the Winterthur Museum.  My BFF has graciously offered to drive.  All of the East Coast is densely populated and the traffic is terrible.  We have 4:00 o'clock tickets to see the Downton Abbey Exhibit.  So we are off to Wilmington.  There are a ton of tolls and they are high.  We decide we will stop for something to eat if we see something and are hungry.  We drive for a while.  Then BFF spots a Baskin Robbins.  They have a limited ice cream flavor that she loves called Baseball Nut.  It involves raspberry and chocolate, I think.  So in the middle of the afternoon we decide to stop and get some.  We are both pretty hungry and wanted to have one of everything when we go in.  All the pictures look delicious.  It seems that all Baskin Robbins places are combined with Dunkin Donuts.

We decide we'll be good and eat a chicken sandwich first.  Then a donut.  Then some ice cream.  My favorite is Mint Chocolate Chip.  There goes the diet.

Back on the road, it is taking us longer to get to Winterthur than we thought.  There is terrible road construction right before we get there.  I've printed out written instructions to the places we are going as a back up.  We finally make it to Winterthur but it is after 4:30 and it closes at 5.  The estate has beautiful grounds.

 We get our tickets and take the shuttle over to the museum.  We get to see the exhibit.  BFF hasn't seen Downton Abbey but she enjoys the exhibit anyway.  I love seeing the clothes and especially the needlework accents.  The exhibit is set up to compare and contrast the fictional Downton Abbey's Crawley Family with the DuPonts.  The costumes are a combination of vintage dresses made into costumes for the show.  The backdrops are pictures showing scenes in which the costumes were worn.  It is fantastic.  The dress Mary wore when Matthew proposed is there with beading on the edges.

Edith's wedding dress.

O'Briens lady's maid dress.

The Dowager's dresses were exquisite.

What fun!  We are coming back tomorrow to see the rest of the museum and to try and get a Behind the Scenes Needlework tour.
So off to find the hotel.  This hotel is very difficult to find and we have to make some u-turns. (Recalculating!)  We think Matilda is confused.  Or lost.  But finally we find it - down a road behind a cemetery.  I don't really like this hotel as my room smells like a rodent died there.  Otherwise it is adequate.  Back to the museum tomorrow.
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Getting Ready

I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.  I've printed out my boarding passes.  I'm so excited.  It will be such fun.  But I have to finish packing.  I have to get some projects ready to take with me.
I got the stitching on Miss Kitty's Pin Cube all done.  No detached buttonhole was done yesterday. :(

Today I want to finish off the pin cube.  It always feels great to get a project all done-done.

It is a beautiful day here, I could just sit and look out the window and enjoy the breeze.  I'll be back next week with tales of adventure, stitching and fun.
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Little Stuff

I worked on lots of little stuff from the Spring Casket Keepsakes.  There were some lessons I knew I could get done without too much trouble.
I got the pouch that will hold the thread winder all done.  It is ingenious how the edge will hold the drawstring.  I am very happy with it.

Then I spent a some time looking for the plastic bag that had the tape measure in it.  I went through the laundry basket of shame and surprised myself with many things I've been meaning to make.  I finally found the bag and was able to make that do-hickey on the end.

Then came the finger loop braiding.  I made one drawstring and it turned out pretty well.  Some parts are more tightly woven than other parts. and there is one place I hope stays hidden.  Otherwise, it turned out fine.  I still have one more drawstring to make.

Then I got really brave and put the calyx's together.  You have to really trust your directions when it says to cut one-eighth of an inch away from the stitching.  I could see this going very bad very easily.  But all is well!  I was able to cut them out with my handy-dandy applique scissors (first time I've used them).  Then you had to clip down to the stitching.  But look, they turned out!

They really are quite small.  And, yes, they are done in different colors of floss.  Am I wild and crazy or what?
So now that's like four lessons I got done.  Now back to the wretched detached buttonhole stuff.
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Back to Older Projects

I am making good progress on Miss Kitty's Pin Cube.  I have almost completed the center square that will become the top of the Pin Cube.  It is the hardest, well, most work intensive square.  The rest is easy.

Then I stitched a bit on the Shepherd's Fold Fob.

 I tried doing an over one version as well as a regular version.  Then of course, I changed the bird.  I just loved the bird on the Spring Jumble and it is very close in size to the blackbird on the fob.  So I switched them.  This means my "home" doesn't fit.  But that's okay.  I turned "my" into "Amy".  Now it is personalized.  I'm pretty close to having the front done.  I think I want to change the flower on the back to one of my sunflowers.  We'll see.

There is going to be a limited edition kit from Silver Needle designed by Just Nan.

I love it!  It is Lindy's House.  It won't come out until late July but I've put my name down for one.

Now I have procrastinated long enough!! Time to get back to working on the Spring Casket Keepsakes.  I want to finish them before the Summer ones come out on June 21.  I started working on the pouch that will be inside the carnation.

I am 5 humps (out of 8) on the detached buttonhole of the second petal.  Someone said that she found it relaxing to do the detached buttonhole.  "How is that possible?", I thought.  Then I decided I need to work on my attitude.  Maybe I'll do better just repeating to myself over and over, "This is relaxing"..
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