Quick Update

For those of you that are waiting for my report on our recent stitching retreat, I am sorry, it is going to have to wait for a little longer. Decided I needed to do some kind of post in the meantime. Between my busy life and my dying digital camera, things have just not worked out for me to do a full blown report on the retreat. When I downloaded the pictures that I took at retreat, most of them had a pink tint to them. In talking to Reina, (stitching friend) she said that when hers died it was doing that. Waited to get some pictures from one of the others at the retreat. I am including some of them here. Thanks Jan.

Last week I was busy making stuff for a brunch that was held at the church on Saturday. On Friday, Morris's cousin Jackie and husband Richard came from South Dakota for a visit. They were here until Monday morning. You know how stitchers are---we would rather stitch than clean house. So I had to spend some time cleaning and preparing for their visit. I went from Wednesday night until sometime on Sunday after lunch without stitching. That is an extraordinary length of time for me to go without stitching. I am surprised that I did not turn into the b***h that I usually do when I do not get a chance to stitch. We are a wonderful time with Jackie and Richard. Even took them to a Royals baseball game on Saturday night. Royals lost. Boo!!!

However, on the stitching front I did finish something. Finished the Blackbird Design freebie that was on their blog. They were running a contest while they were gone to France. Checked in on the contest yesterday. There were 133 entrants. Wow!!! Congrats to the winner, Brenda and to one of my blogging buddies, Marie P who was one of the second place winners. My sampler was started at our stitch retreat so I put in "Stitcher's Retreat -- 2009.

Blackbird Design Freebie

30-ct Creme Brule by R&R

Mahogany Belle Soie

During our retreat, I finished my LHN--From Sea to Shining Sea. You even get to see a picture of me with it. This is one of the pictures supplied by Jan. I should have done some photo editing to cut down the size, but haven't figured out how to do that yet with pictures that I get from someone else and not downloaded through my camera program. Still am technology challenged on such things. I don't often allow my photo to be taken, much less post them here.

All that I am going to cover about our retreat is to include a group picture of all my stitching buddies. These are the same people that I stitch with every Monday night.

Back Row: (l-r) Linda, Anita, Janet, Jan

Front Row: (l-r)Reita, Reina, Marcia, Moi

Laying in Front: (l-r) Jack, Josie

The B&B where we stayed has a new rescue dog Josie. She is a beautiful Golden Retriever. They were worried about how she would handle the guests. She did great and just came in the room where were stitching and hung out with the girls. The retreat was as wonderful as it always is. Lots of laughs, a good amount of stitching and a really wild game of CLR Floss Toss. More about all of this later. Suffice it to say that there was one time I was laughing so hard that I made myself dizzy.

The big thing on the agenda right now is the Heartland Shop Hop that begins tomorrow morning at 9:00AM. Have worked at The Sunflower Seed from around noon the last two days helping Anita get ready for it. Left there tonight at closing with everything ready to roll in the morning. I am going to try to take some pictures tomorrow and if I am not too tired maybe post them tomorrow night. Anita has a freebie Shop Hop sampler done (actually I stitched the model) along with fabric, floss and frames to go with it. There are several other specials available, like a mini-sampler, a fun new little design and 2 new designs. The new designs have not even been released through Hoffman and Norden yet. I stitched one of the new designs and the mini-sampler. If you are the in the Topeka and Kansas City areas, the Hop runs Thursday through Saturday. Come in and see all the goodies that are available.

My next post will be my 100th. I will be doing some kind of giveaway to those commenting on that post. Not sure now what it will be, but it will probably be a pattern with fabric and possibly the floss too. Stay tuned for that.