Retreat Wrap Up!

On my last post, I talked about the first day of my retreat and showed you a picture of our room at midnight. Here it is full of quilters with some knitters, stitchers and hookers (the rug kind) thrown in.

On Saturday, Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts stopped by for a trunk show.

I think I like her quilts so much because she uses a lot of red. I love red!

This was a favorite and would look fantastic on my bed. One day!

Teresa and I spent all of Saturday doing some finishing. First up was the Schoolgirl Linen Sewing Book by Stacy Nash, a class project from our trip to A Primitive Gathering hosted by The Attic Needlework in January. The photo below shows our supplies laid out on craft paper to protect the table and our assembled sewing books waiting to be aged. Knowing my personality, you'd think that this would be the part that I would have the most angst about. In fact, I love this step! It feels so free form reminding me of the abandon with which I approached my projects as a child. Fun!

Here is Teresa working on her sewing book - just painting away with the walnut stain made with walnut crystals and water.

Teresa's finished sewing book is on the left and mine on the right. As you can tell, she likes the aging to be featured more predominantly than I do. The stain on the linen dried a little lighter (these are dry here). Surprisingly, the cotton on the backside didn't lighten up much at all.

Next up, Teresa took me through finishing an ornament step by step. I put this down around 11pm to dry and finished up the cording on Sunday. It's not perfect but for a first attempt I must admit I'm very pleased. It's a testament to Teresa's patience and skills as a teacher. The part that I thought would be the most fiddly - sewing on the cording - was actually the easiest.

I added this charm to the backing. Isn't it cute? You can find them at Down Sunshine Lane about a third of the way down (great shop if you're looking for one). Next time I'm going to maybe stitch my initials and year on the back. I started finishing another ornament but it's not quite completed yet. Hopefully soon.

My Lessons Learned from my first retreat experience:

1. I don't enjoy finishing 14 hours at a time. I should finish in stages over time.

2. I took too much stuff to work on. I'm going to work on editing and finding that happy place.

3. There is too much food. The meals are too big. Snacks are not necessary.

4. I need to bring very warm slippers. The floors were so cold that my wool socks were not warm enough (I can't sew with a shoe on).

4. Staying up late each night and so we could enjoy every moment was totally worth it!

I came home to find a surprise waiting for me. Patty sent me a beautiful biscornu and some thread. I've never seen a biscornu in real life before. It's stitched and finished beautifully. Thank you Patty! If you haven't visited her blog Hanging on by a Thread please do stop by and see what she is up to. I promise her blog is full of good stuff!

Spring has definitely arrived here. The sun is shining, our a/c has been on twice, and there is pollen everywhere. I'm sneezing like crazy! I hope that where ever you are that it's warmed up a bit and you can feel the hint of spring in the air. Enjoy your week and happy stitches!