The Trip Part Three

The retreat began with a welcoming wine reception on Friday night.  It was nice to see the other attendees.  I knew one of them from another retreat.  I don't like wine but I was sure glad to see the cheese and crackers and other snacks.  We hadn't eaten all day.  The teacher is very nice and I am taller than she is.  Really.  When we went up to our rooms there was a little treat hanging on the doorknob.

  How nice!

My room was fine but I had some trouble getting water that was warm enough to stand in the shower.
Saturday morning the retreat began.  We went down to the classroom and there were more goodies for us.

 There was a  bag with various charts and a pair of scissors from the sponsor of the event, ABC Stitch Therapy.

Then there was the kit and more instructions for our project which is called Aunt Julia's Sewing Box.  The teacher, Cathy Campbell, also gave us a bag and charts for three accessories that match the bag.

I really liked how organized the teacher was.  She handed out the chipboard strips and circles which looked like sturdy cardboard and each piece had a sticker on it so we could keep all the pieces straight.  We had to first cut the Warm & Natural batting and label each piece with a sticker.  Then came the interfacing.  We cut and labeled each piece.  Then we cut the fabric and labeled each piece.  There were so many pieces that we really needed to have each one labeled.   We ironed on the interfacing to the fabric.  Next we put some of the chipboard pieces together with masking tape.  We each were given a bottle of Aileen's Tacky Glue which we used to glue the fabric to the chipboard.  We spent all day putting together the box.  Most of us weren't quite done by the end of the day.

  My tray was just a bit too small and I discovered that I used the wrong piece of chipboard.  Luckily I was able to take it apart and fix it.  We didn't do any stitching all day.
The food was catered and was good.
We had a Yankee Swap after dinner.  It was fun and it was a good way to get to know people.  There were only about 21 people there.  Many states were represented: Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland.

I think I got the best prize.  It was an assortment of linens in various colors and counts.  I felt bad taking it from Shelley.

We are excited that tomorrow we get to go to ABC Stitch Therapy and shop!
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