NG of MN Retreat - Day Four

Now it is Friday of our retreat and I have the morning free and Tiny Treasures with Orna Willis in the afternoon.  I am so happy to have Briar Rose finished.  Although, if I were doing it again, I would do it so much better.  I would know what to be careful of.   I would cut the skirtex correctly.  The sewing would be much nicer as  I would be using my own sewing machine.  But there is no way I'm stitching this again!

I stitched in my spot in the Garden Room.  Since Briar Rose is finished, I pulled out Strawberry Hill that I brought along to stitch on the plane.  I was playing with it.  I started stitching the top row and then realized that it wouldn't fit on that piece of linen.  So I started it again on a larger piece.  I tried stitching the strawberry vine over one just to see what it looked like.  I took a break from stitching and in the lobby was a lady sewing a quilt on her sewing machine.  She was very organized and just starting to cut out the pieces.  Behind her on a chair and sofa were a ton of small boxes.  I asked about them.

 They were cigar boxes she had gotten from a cigar shop.  She airs them out and tries to get rid of the smell.  Then she sells them.  They were pretty cheap, four dollars a box or three for ten dollars.  There is a lot of things you could do with them.  I bought four.  That is the most I think I can get into my suitcase.  I want to use one for all my bobbins on my sewing machine table.  I have a couple of clear bobbin cases that have tops that are broken.  I could throw the tops away and put the bobbins in one of these boxes.  I wanted to give my BFF one of the boxes too.

My BFF comes to get me.  She is in the Tisket class and there are a few accessories that you can buy/order from Jackie.  So I go to her classroom and find out that the Pansy Thread Box and Pansy Tape Measure are not included with the Tisket kit.  That's the part I like the best! So of course I have to get them.  I am able to buy the Pansy Tape Measure kit and order the Pansy Thread Box.  Third check made out to Jackie.

 I go back to my stitching spot and start the Pansy Tape Measure.  It is pretty.  It is interesting to see everybody working in the Tisket class.  They have to cut up a lot of mylar template plastic that is the basis of the tisket box.  Then they have to iron on linen and taffeta and stitch witch the seam allowance.  Interesting.

My class in the afternoon is a needlepoint class.  Orna has put the kit into a small metal box.  Nifty.

 It is only  about two inches square when it is done.  The chart is nice and big and easy to read.  I have done needlepoint before so it is easy.  She tells us a few pointers about how to get the fold bumps out of one of our threads and how to make a bullion stitch (even though our project doesn't have any bullions!).  I know I
can finish this.  The class is in one of the dungeon rooms.

LuAnne, who I met at Celebrations last year gives me a gift in a darling box.  It goes with the theme of the retreat, Acorns.  But I still think she needs eyes.

The evening activity is Bingo but instead of b-i-n-g-o it is a-c-o-r-n.  As I'm going to "Acorn"  I see that the lady in the lobby has finished piecing the quilt she started that morning.  Whoa.
The first thing I do when I go to the game is check out the prizes.  The prizes are needlework charts or kits.  Cool.  I'm not very lucky.  I'm beginning to think I won't win anything when Mary Ann who is sitting next to me wins and she gets several charts and gives me a Drawn Thread one.   Okay, now I'm a winner.  Then finally in the next to the last game I win!  I go choose a prize.

Neat!  One of the charts I really wanted.  I admired Needle Nut that I saw Chris stitching on.  It is on silk gauze but not a high count.  It is worked with Simply Wool.
Another great day at retreat.  I go back to my room.  I am missing all the digital stuff in my life and so I watch the first episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey.
Tomorrow is my Beautiful class.
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