A Primitive Gathering

This past weekend I went to Primitive Gatherings hosted by Jean Lea of Attic Needlework. I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun it was! Teresa and I stayed up late every night and took advantage of every experience that we could. It started Thursday night where we went to the Attic's regular stitch night. In attendance were two of our "Rock Stars" of the weekend. Linda of Chessie and Me and Vickie of NeedleWork Press. All of the stitchers were very nice and welcoming. Jean has a gorgeous shop and a wonderful staff.

Friday Night was our first project with Linda which is a book of specialty stitches. No pictures yet. It's put together but not stitched but it is a project that I'll finish. I did make my first cording. I had no idea it was so easy! I'll definitely be doing this again.

Saturday was Linda's Unfinished Sampler which I barely started. Saturday afternoon Vickie opened her home up to us. Amazing! Her home is located on acreage and is full of samplers both old and new. Her collection is so large that she had several people in the home helping and each area had a sheet of paper giving details on most of the samplers. She also had several items that have been featured in Sampler and Antique Needlework to include the bag featured on the cover of the most recent issue (Winter 2010).

On Sunday, we spent the entire day with Stacy Nash working on this Drumroll Pincushion. We had prestitched our piece so almost the entire day was spent on assembly. After assembly, we aged them using walnut crystals diluted in water. This was the really fun part.

This is my drumroll before aging.

After aging with the walnut crystals. And wouldn't you know it, I've lost the strawberry.

The weather was in the 70s and the sun was shining the entire time we were there. It was tough to come home. I'll definitely be doing something like this again.

I didn't take many photos but I thought I'd post these few of the pictures I took of the Jean's group of Rock Stars she brought in for the weekend.

Stacy Nash of Stacy Nash Primitives and Bunny of Priscilla's Pocket.

Teresa talking to Renee Plains of Liberty Star.

Linda Lautenchlager of Chessie & Me talking to Linda Danielson of Samplers Remembered who was there as an attendee.

Anne Fraser of Gloriana. Teresa and I spent some time talking to her late one night near the dessert counter in the hotel. She couldn't be any nicer!

Vickie Jennett of NeedleWork Press.

We also got some great swag but I haven't photographed any of it as yet. Let's just say we were surprised over and over again.

The weird part of the weekend is that we seemed to run into people wearing their pajama bottoms everywhere we went. Seriously, we saw at least 10 people wearing PJ bottoms. Odd.

Yesterday we had a rude awakening. At 3:45am when we had to get up to get ready for our flight back home. It was either that or get home really late. Today it was back to the real world. Soon this retreat will be in the distant past but it will always carry great memories for me!