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Another reason we go to retreats ... to buy buy buy! Not living close to a LNS I miss fondling fabric, picking up a chart and kitting it up, and discovering that chart you've never seen before but instantly fall in love with. Well I got to do all that ... and boy was it fun! First up is my Blackbird Design purchases ... Some kits and some patterns I kitted up ... assorted charts that I just had to have ... I fell in love with this wonderful needlecase/scissor keeper ... maybe cause it's red? Karen and I both bought this kit and started it Thursday evening ... this will be hanging in my kitchen some day ... too cute ... I found some yummy fabric and kitted up this Christmas ornament from this years JCS preview issue ... here's some odds and ends ... and a couple of purchases from the bathroom at The Silver Needle ... lol yep the bathroom. That's where they display all the shop models for sale. I could have bought a few more, but ran out of money and room in my suitc...

On Friday The Silver Needle offered two finishing classes taught by finishing extraordinaire Mona. We only took one of the classes, the other one was ornament finishing but we were at the airport picking up Chris during that time. The finishing class we took learning to finish a box ... This will fix Lizzie*Kate's Naughty or Nice pattern from last year. I know I'll be making more of these ... as long as Terry helps cut the mat board lol Saturday was the 2nd day of our BBD class ... here's a picture of the class piece. It's two projects, one a pin cushion and the other is a needlebook. I finished the stitching for the pin cushion on Sunday, but haven't started the needlebook stitching yet. Speedy stitcher Joan has finished it and it's lovely ... check out her blog . One of the techniques we learned was how to finish a paper mache' box to look like it is worn leather. It was sooo easy and I can't wait to make more. Alma and Barb brought a lot of th...

On Friday all the ladies started arriving for the retreat. One of my favorite things about going to stitching retreats is spending time with woman share my passion for cross stitch ... My dear friend Karen lives in Arizona and luckily we've been able to see each other at least once a year. Here we are at The Silver Needle ... A week or so before the retreat I found out that Joan was coming to the retreat too. I've been reading Joan's blog for a while now and she and I belong to a small exchange group ... in fact she's my exchange partner ... I was soooooo excited that we were going to get to meet in person! Joan such a nice person, funny and omgosh she's a quick stitcher! I got to meet another blogger that came along with Joan ... Cathy , who's blog I've been reading for a long time now but didn't put two and two together ... I wanted to put them both in my purse and bring them home with me *smile* Ladies, It'm so glad I got meet both of you ....

I spent 4 glorious days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now I never thought I ever say that about a city where the weather was over 100 every day and the humidity was at least 80% every day ... I mean I'm a Seattle girl complete with webbed toes *smile* ... but add dear friends, stitching, laughing, chocolate and coffee, shopping, meeting new friends, taking classes from Blackbird Design , fondling stash and hugs ... and well it makes even the hottest of days a bit more tolerable. The retreat I attended was hosted by The Silver Needle . Karen and I flew in on the Wednesday before the retreat started. Neither of us had every been to Oklahoma and we knew we'd want to do a little sightseeing while we were there. First stop was our hotel ... really nice room. this couch was really comfy for stitching ... After getting settled in our room it was off to the grocery store for water, pop and chocolate. Back to the room before heading out to dinner. Back at our room we exchanged a few goodie...

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. We had dinner with Ken and Lisa ... steaks, corn on the cob and yummy margaritas :) then it was off to Bellevue for their fireworks display. We were lucky it didn't rain on us! Of course I forgot to take a camera with me so no pictures :( But I do have pictures of an exchange that arrived on Tuesday. Kathy and I are doing a personal needlebook exchange. When I opened the package out same all these smaller packages ... they were all numbered, so before opening them, I put them in order ... of course :) lol here's the mess after I opened all of them ... First opened was this lovely needlebook and scissor keeper ... love love love them :) The scissors and needles were in another package ... immediately found their new homes ... and the backs ... Kathy's stitching is great and her finishing is awesome! one of the other packages contained this Lizzie*Kate chart and a yummy skein of orange floss ... yep, she did spoil me! opening ...