Cross Stitch Camp/Retreat Report

WARNING!!! WARNING!!

This is going to be a long post, sorry. I thought of breaking the Cross Stitch Camp report into 2 posts, but I just uploaded 10 pictures so I am going for it. Julie sent me an e-mail this morning saying she almost was ready to come by the LNS to get a report, that she was tired of waiting for me to do my report. Sorry Julie, I had been tagged twice and need to take care of them first.

Very early last Thursday morning, two of my stitch group friends (Jan and Linda) headed out for a Cross Stitch Retreat sponsored by Heartland Needleworks in Oklahoma City. I am not much of a morning person so leaving my house at 6:00AM was rather difficult, but I went on to pick up Jan and on to meet Linda in a town 30 miles to the south. We loaded up stitch bags, stitch lights, folding camp chairs and suitcases and off we went. Things were rather uneventful all the way to Wichita, where we made a stop at Heart's Desire. They were having a trunk show from Midnight Stitching. This shop does all the framing for Lizzie-Kate. Below is what I added to my stash. I had been looking at Quaker Row and I am still collecting Needle Necessities fiber whenever I find it.

You noticed that earlier I stated that things had been uneventful all the way to Wichita. Well that all changed after we left Heart's Desire. We needed to get back on the Highway and back to the Kansas Turnpike. We missed our turn onto the Highway twice because we were always in the wrong lane. It was not a full interchange, so the getting on was different than we expected. We just had a few laughs over that.

Once on the Turnpike we continued down the road. Stopped for lunch at Braums. For those of you that don't know about Braums, it is an ice cream store that also does fast food. We ate lunch and then left room for ice cream. Cannot go to Braums without getting ice cream.

In Oklahoma they have many toll roads, but they operate way different than they do in Kansas. And you know we are just little country girls from Kansas. Well, now you can probably say that we are wanted in the State of Oklahoma. Their toll roads have a pull off place ever so often that you are supposed to pull over and throw some money into a chute. In Kansas, you pay the toll when you are getting off the toll road. So the first one we came to we just drove on through like we had their pike pass. We worried as we went along that we would see red lights and siren, but we never did. The next one that we came to we decided to pull over and put money in. And on the way home we stopped at both of them along our way. My sister came from Missouri on Friday and she had to pay $3.50 two different places and then also on the road that we had been on. At one point she got off to get gas and had to pay $.30 to get back on. We asked the girls at the retreat and they said they have cameras that take pictures and then they send you a ticket, if you don't pay the toll. Well, as of Monday night Linda had not received the ticket. On top of everything else, she has a personalized tag, so it should not be hard to figure out who it was. We have had several laughs over this one.

We made it to camp around 4. Got to pick out our own room. It had 2 twin beds and a queen bed and we had our own bathroom. That is a change from other camps. This was more like a motel room. Next we picked out our table and figured out how to get all of our lights plugged in so that we were not tripping on the cords all weekend. The camp facility was a church camp operated by the Methodist Church. Very nice facilities. It was down in a canyon and we were told to downshift our cars because of the sharp descent into the camp area. Cell phones did not work there. Nice break from contact with the real world. The dining hall was quite a hike from the lodge where we were staying and stitching. I figured it must have been at least a 4 block walk. Food was decent. Just the normal camp food. Not great, but edible.

I just realized I loaded a couple of pictures out of order, but will continue on any way. The next picture is of my cohorts in crime. Jan and Linda. We have stitched together at least once a week for maybe 12 years. They both work for the State Law Library and have know each other for 38 years and were in each other's wedding. Both will become grandmothers in the next 6 months. Linda in late November and Jan in early March. These two gals are 2 of my best buddies and we always have a fun time together. Never a dull moment for sure. Jan is the one in the foreground. They are going to yell at me for putting their picture into my blog. It is easier to talk about someone once you know what they look like.

The following picture is of my sister Ruth Ann. She joined us on Friday afternoon. She calls herself the unserious stitcher. She loves to do stamped embroidery, but does counted too. This is the second year she has joined Jan, Linda and I at a camp. She needs it since she is a school counselor and the mother to a 16-year old son and step-mother to 3 sons, 17, 19 and 20. Sometimes I think that house just has too much testosterone in it. Her and my other sister always tease me about my cross stitch and fabric stash along with all my other craft supplies. They call it my store. Usually I can come up with what they want from the store.

As I said this camp was in a canyon and we were surrounded by cliffs and bluffs of red dirt and rocks and lots of trees. The gals in charge of the camp mentioned that there were mountain goats in the area. I found it hard to believe there were mountain goats in the middle of Oklahoma, but here is proof. It is hard to see, but the white blob in this picture is a mountain goat sunning on the cliff. At one time we saw 6 goats. I tried to zoom in, but this is the best I could get. I think Jan got a better picture, but I forgot to tell her send it to me so I could use it in my post.

Here is our stitch room. Look at all the lamps!!!! Lighting was not the best so the lights were really necessary. I also took a goose-neck magnifier. Not my Day Light, but it works OK. The Day Light is too hard to transport. The vehicle already looked like we were moving to camp when we got everything loaded up.

You never go to camp without snacks, etc. Here was the variety of stuff on the snack table. We did not even get to put out all of our stuff on the table since it was already full.

Heartland Needleworks shuts down their shop during the retreat and brings a great deal of the shop to the camp. This is very handy to those attending the camp that do not have a LNS. This shop has been open since June, 2006. At the time they opened 3 needlework shops in the Oklahoma City area closed. In talking to the other campers, many had to travel several hours to a shop or did their shopping on the Internet. For me, I like to see the stuff in person. Here is a picture of the table of fabric that was there. This was taken on Saturday after a lot of fabric had already been sold. They zig-zagged everyones's purchases and had to have one of the husbands bring out more thread. I think I heard them say they had been through 5 bobbins full of thread.

Something that I had never seen at at camp before was a board to hang any projects completed during the weekend. This was fun to watch. We really had to tease Jan because she put up 2 Christmas Trees early on in the weekend. We accused her of having only 3-4 stitches left to complete them. However, none of us knew that they did this. It is a great idea.

Bear with me, I know this is getting long, but there are only 2 more pictures. We really were not aware that we would have projects at this camp, but we did. We thought we would be just stitching on whatever we wanted and enjoy the peace and semi-quiet. Below is a picture of the projects that we were given at the camp. One of the shop owners had made everyone a scrap bag to hang on your chair arm. These are a little different than I had seen before. Actually, it worked pretty good on the dashboard of the car on the way home. In it was a pattern for a Needle Nanny from Twisted Oaks. Also Twisted Oaks had done a small freebie just for camp and they provided the fabric and thread to do it. These were stuck inside the scrap bag. The Friday project was Be Blessed by Plum Pudding Needleart. They provided 18-ct linen and thread to do it along with everything we needed to finish into an easel-backed flat. Then the Saturday project was from Full Circle Designs, named Pumpkin Petals. This design was just released for the online Needlework Show being held at the same time as camp. They provided us all the thread and the 32-ct Silkweaver linen to do the project. The pattern included the overdyed wool and buttons used in the design. These are all shown below. They are kinda hard to see. You would think that I would eventually be able to take decent pictures for my posts.

And at long last the final picture is of the stash I acquired at camp. Included is 28-ct Blue Moon Java from R&R. I just fell in love with this fabric. I almost waited too long to pick it up. I guess others liked it too. From Little House Needleworks, I got Frappuccino and Cappuccino. Still need the last one of these so I can do them together. Also got "Believe" from LHN. Blackbird Designs, Be True and Kind. The kit from Homespun Elegance for "A Chill is in the Air". In the bargain bin, I found Homespun Elegance "Blooming Summer Bellpull" and A Quaker Clock from Samplers and Such.

As far as stitching goes, I got quite a bit done, but will save that to another post. I tried to do a little bit of a rotation for my stitching. I started out working on a new Sunflower Seed design model that is needed around the first of December. Ran into a color issue, so moved on to VOHRH. Also stitched on were one Christmas present, started another Christmas present and Waxing Moon "Christmas Stack". I had not worked on Christmas Stack for a while. I am getting much closer to having it done. I have gotten more done on VOHRH and should post a progress picture, but will do that on the next post, since this one is so long. Also I have a story about a kitten rescue that my significant other and I did Monday night, but that will be saved for the next post too.

All in all, we had a great weekend and are making plans to attend another one. We felt this one was a very good camp/retreat to attend since there was no pressure to do the projects and you could do what you wanted when you wanted. The only real structure was when the meals were served. Now that you all are either asleep or worn out from such a long post, I will close and get to bed. I am worn out just writing and posting this thing.

Happy stitching!!!!