La D Da Class

Now it is Friday of the Silver Needle Retreat.  I get up and walk.

  I have to time things well today to get to class by 9.  I decide to eat breakfast at the Starbucks across the street from the hotel as I will get more what I want and it will cost me half as much as the hotel buffet.  This Starbucks has State Police that like to hang out there too.  I take the shuttle to the shop.  The shop opens early for us.  I want to get some silk for tomorrow's class with Cynthia.  When I get to the classroom I find that every seat has a little treat of a delicious cupcake.

 It's a little early for dessert but I eat it anyway.
Then we have a goodie bag of nice things.  At first I think it is our kit as it has a chart and floss in it.  But it is just gifts for us.

Very nice.
There are five other women at my table.  Two of them are sisters who are nice and interesting and more my age.  The other three are from Texas.  I love that moment when we get a whole new complete kit in front of us.  This is our project from Lori of La-D-Da:

Tall House Needlebook.  It is all cross stitch, no specialty stitches so it should be pretty easy to stitch.  We all get started.  Lori goes around from table to table checking to see how we are doing and if we have any questions.  That is a good way of doing it as this class is so huge.  It is hard to talk to all of us at once.  I take a break and walk to the quilt store.  I get this (it was on sale):

I see some other stuff I want to buy later.
Lunch is several different salads and chicken legs.  Snacks are set out and we always have a choice of chips, mini candy bars, dried fruit, nuts (cashews even, I love those), M & M's, and drinks.  You won't go hungry here.
After lunch we are back to stitching.  Isn't it great to have a whole day to stitch and shop?  I decide that I want to buy Cynthia's Ricardo's Roses after hearing about Ricardo.  I have admired this pattern anyway.

In the middle of the afternoon, they bring in ice cream!  I love an ice cream sandwich.

On tables in the back of the room are all the pin cushions people have made for the fund raiser.  I forgot to bring one so I am not participating.  It is fun to see all the different ones people have made.  They are all different.  

A customer and friend of the store has passed away and her collection of samplers is for sale.  There are quite a few and it is fun to look through them.  I didn't buy any.

The two sisters give me a ride back to the hotel.  I grab a bag of chips for dinner.  I'm kind of full from all the stuff we had to eat today.  I work on Tall House and make really good progress.  One lady actually finishes hers but she had to stay up until midnight doing it.

It was a fun day!

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Finishing Class

Last Thursday the retreat began.  I was very good.  I walked in the morning since the hotel has a wonderful area in back with trails and walkways.

 I decided to try the hotel buffet for breakfast.  My plan for the day was to go to the shop and get some things on my list.  I was only looking for a chart and some flosses.  Then at 11 I would walk over to the finishing class.  I went down to the lobby to see about getting the shuttle to the shop.  But I ran into Cynthia at the Starbucks in the lobby.  She offered me a ride over to the shop.  She has a cute little red Fiat.  It was loaded with all the kits.  There are 164 people coming to this retreat.  I had no idea it was this big.  It is always fun to shop at a needlework store.

 I didn't find the chart I was looking for but I got the floss.  The classes are held in an empty store in the strip mall just around the corner from the Silver Needle.  The only drawback is this store has no bathrooms.  164 women and no bathrooms.  But it's okay.  We can use the bathroom at the store and another bathroom in a different empty store. This is the bathroom at the shop.  It is filled with models that are for sale.

 Also there is a Quilt store down the strip mall that has a bathroom.  I always check out all the possible bathrooms.
I also check into the retreat.  This means they give me a name tag and a big bag.

 The bag is empty except for a coupon that keeps track of your purchases.  If you buy 200 dollars worth of stuff you get 15 dollars to spent in the store.  I don't plan on spending very much.  I go over to the finishing class.

I have all my pre-stitching done.  I like the teacher, Mona.  She is very competent and confident.  The first thing we do is finish the rabbit into a pin cushion. This is Mona's:

 Mona uses a technique I've never seen.  We have a little plastic cup, a half of a styrofoam ball and some batting.  Then we put ribbon rushing around the edge.  I'm happy with how mine turned out.

Then we break for lunch.  I went over to the deli but there was a line and I wasn't really interested in a meat sandwich.  I forget what I did.  I had more to eat than normal at the buffet that morning.  Maybe I just skipped lunch.  After lunch we started the humbug.  I've made serveral humbugs so I know how it goes.  Mona has added beads to the bottom of hers so that was new for me.

  I am tickled to say that my humbug is finished and I am happy with it.

Then we started on the needle book.  I didn't think the stiffening is strong enough and I don't want to glue so I didn't finish it.  I tried lacing the fabric to the stiffening but it didn't lay flat.  I'm going to work on it when I get home and have all my stuff.  I'll use comic board and Thermolam.  Also I want to use my scallop scissors on the edge of the heart shaped needle page.  This is Mona's.

 We were running out of class time so Mona talked us through finishing the scissors fob.

I'll do it at home too, where I can cut a good oval shape.
After the finishing class is the reception for the teachers and a dinner.  There is a table of each of the teachers models.  Also patterns are available.  Cynthia has described our project for the retreat and I find it on her table.  It is very nice but I think I'll add some color as it is monochromatic.
There are hors d'oeuvres !  Yum, I'm starving.  Each of the teachers talks a bit about how they got started designing.  Lori of La D Dah gives us a photo tour of her house in Wisconsin.  Cynthia is teased about her neighbor across the street, Ricardo.  She likes the roses in his yard and has a design she calls Ricardo's Roses.
But they don't show the retreat projects!  I still don't know what we are making tomorrow when Lori does her project.
More food is served but I am full of the hors d'oeuvres.  I'm not really fond of Greek food.  The dessert is great though.

I am so tired I could pass out.  I look around trying to find a ride back to the hotel.  No luck.  I'll just call the shuttle.
The shuttle arrives. I tell the shuttle driver that I will  announce that the shuttle is here in case anyone else needs a ride.  So I go back in, let people know that the shuttle is here.  When I go back outside I walk over to a white van and open the back door.  Only it isn't the shuttle!!  The shuttle has moved closer to the door.  I opened the door to someones car.  Oh no, now how do I close it?  I am so embarrassed.  Luckily I see a button that says "close" .  Whew.
It's been a long day but tomorrow classes start. Yeah!
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Secret

I got back late last night from my adventures in Tulsa at the Silver Needle Retreat.  So now I am ready to tell you all about it.  I left last Wednesday.  I knew it would take me all day to get there.  The airline sent me a bit out of my way to Minneapolis.  I got there fine but then things turned a little weird.  The gate agent wanted at least one person to give up his seat.  First she offered $300 on a Visa or similar card.  When she had no takers, she offered $400.  Still there were no takers.  So she offered $500.  I was thinking about it.  But getting in to Tulsa after 11 didn't sound very good to me.  Finally one guy volunteered.  We got on the plane a little late.  Someone was in my seat.  There was an assortment of  5 unaccompanied minors in the back of the plane.  I just sat in front of where my assigned seat was.  I hate having a seat in the back of the plane by the bathroom.  Ugh.  The plane was half empty.  Why was the gate agent desperate for someone to give up his seat?  We were held up since the airline wanted to add 15 people to our flight so they wouldn't have to do another flight to Tulsa.  Whatever.  We finally took off.  Unfortunately the child behind me talked incessantly the entire time.  Our flight attendant looked like she was very young and just beginning her job.  She was very nice.  I didn't catch her name although I thought she said it was Wanda.
We made it to Tulsa.  The airport looked very new.  I wasn't sure what to do to get the shuttle to the hotel.  I thought I would just walk down and see what shuttles were at the airport.  Hey, I got lucky!  My hotel shuttle happened to be there.  It was there to pick up the flight crew that had been on my plane.  I got to listen to the conversation amongst the crew as we went to the hotel.  I found out that the very young flight attendant's name was Secret.  What an unusual name!  Her grandmother talked her mother into naming her Secret.  But then, what middle name do you give when your first name is Secret?  When we got to the hotel, I was checking in and the lady working at the front desk had a Russian accent.  She was looking for a Miss Secret.  It seems that Secret's boyfriend arranged for a box of candy and a red rose to be delivered to her when she arrived.  How sweet!  Secret was quite surprised and touched to get her gifts.
I was starving when I finally got to my room. I had only had pretzels and water all day.  I wanted pizza which was on the room service menu.  So I figured they would serve it in the bar too.  So I went down and ordered an entire pizza.  I had a bunch of slices leftover.  My room has a refrigerator and a microwave so I took the leftovers with me.
There is a stitching room for retreat attendees up on the 9th floor.  So I thought I would just check it out for a few minutes.

 Mona was in there cutting stuff for tomorrow's finishing class, which I was taking.  Two girls from Arkansas were there stitching.  I decided to stay for a bit.  The light was pretty bad though.  Then Cynthia from The Drawn Thread comes in (her room happens to be next door).  She has driven all day from Denver to get here.  She recognizes me from past retreats.  So we sit and talk.  She talks me into trying a Margarita.  It wasn't bad, but I only like Pina Coladas.  She gets some of her stitching.  Oh fun, I love seeing what she is working on.  It is a Halloween design called Tangled up in Boo.  It is a skeleton holding on to the word 'Boo" that she is working on canvas.  The title is a play on words from an old Bob Dylan song called Tangled up in Blue.  I wasn't familiar with that song.  Although I googled it a few days later so I could listen to it. I was so exhausted by this time, I went back to my room and to bed.
Interesting day.
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Working Things Out

I finished up the scissors fob.  I should have tacked down the mitered corners and it would have been easier to lace together.  I think it turned out nicely.  I don't even think that it needs twisted cording on the edge.

I should have been working on the Spring Fling project but I didn't.  I went onto the pinkeep for Williamsburg Remembered.  It is a Tudor rose.  It is very small so I thought I could whip it out.  But things don't always work our like you imagine.  The rose part is a challenge because some of it is tent stitch over one, some is trellis and some is spiral trellis.  I wasn't sure about the trellis part.  Which way should I work it?  Horizontally or vertically?  Well I tried horizontally.  Nope, I didn't like how it looked.  So I tried vertically.  That was better.  So I cut out my first petal and started again.  Somewhere in the back of my head, I know that when you paint a flower, you paint it in the way that it grows.  Maybe that applies to stitching too.
Here I am so far:

Now that I'm looking at it, the rose doesn't seem like it is centered.  I wonder if I made a mistake.  I'm changing the shape of the rose as I go along so that makes it challenging as well.
It was storming this morning so I had to walk at the Y.  I really prefer to walk outside but not in thunder and lightening and wind and rain.

The bathrooms are clean.  I've been to the bank and my LNS.  I think I should pack for my trip on Wednesday.  The same three outfits I always take in the summer.  I hope it won't be too hot there.
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Inside and Outside

I got the scissors fob to Williamsburg Remembered all stitched, front and back.

I can't wait to lace this guy together.  I think I'll put a piece of comic board in the middle and maybe a piece of Warm'n Natural.  Cute!
Then I did some of the preliminary finishing for the Needlebook.  I ironed my stitching and pressed the seam allowances to the inside.  I put interfacing on the muslin and cut this to fix the three sections.  I did this also for the inside of the case.

 I can't put the two parts (outside and inside of the case) together until I get the pin keep, pocket and needle keep stitched and installed on the inside.   I'm worried that the inside is too big for the outside.  Sometimes compensation has to be made.
It was fun to concentrate on this yesterday and make some progress.
I had coffee with my BFF#2 and her mom.  My BFF#2 picked me up a pattern I was looking for when she went to House of Stitches.

This looks like it will be fun to stitch.  Maybe I'll take it along with me to the Silver Needle retreat.  I just have to look up all the threads.
This month is flying by.  How can it be almost the middle of July??  Does time go faster when you are older?
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Front Cover

I've been calling this project by the wrong name!  It isn't Americana needlebook.  It is Williamsburg Remembered by Catherine Theron.  I am so happy to show you that the cover of the needlebook is all done.

The inside of the needelbook is just stem stitched all around the outside.  How easy is that?  Several pockets will be added.  The cover was the largest most difficult part and it is done!  Yeah!  I would like to make the scissors fob today.  Easy-peasy.

I got this section done on the Spring Fling project.  It is one of my favorite stitches, boucle.  It looks way harder than it is.

I got one flower done on Ophelia's sampler.

 I have to figure out some initials to put here and there.
I got these in the mail yesterday. They are drawer pulls.

 I bid on them on ebay thinking I would be outbid for sure.  Nope.  I won.  I love them even though they aren't perfect matches.  I have to find the right size screw thing to install them.  Maybe DH will help me.
I have a thing for fish.  This is a bowl that I have that matches.  Sort of.  I've decided to use this bowl at every opportunity and not save it for good.

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Itching

I have a ton of mosquito bites.  There are at least eight on my right elbow area driving me crazy.  I wore long pants and a long sleeved shirt to go walking this morning hoping it would deter any more bites.
It seems like I'm working at a very slow pace.  I got a bit more done on Ophelia's sampler.  I'm done with the alphabet and on to the motifs which are way more interesting.  The crown has a mistake in it but I think it is fine.

I worked several trellis stitches on the Americana needlebook.  They are a bit tedious but I think I can finish them up today.  Only seven more to do.

I'm half done with panel 3 of the Spring Fling project.  Panel four is much more interesting and I'd like to get that far.

 A button will go in that space in the second row.

I am itching to go stash diving.  I shouldn't as I have too much to do already.  We'll see if I can resist. Maybe I'll just look...
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