Where have I been? This is a long post!

I joined my sister and her friend in Victor, NY at Hobby House Needleworks for a cross stitch retreat. My sister and I went last year and had a great time and this year was even better! I drove over on Wednesday with my buddy Bubba. The first stop was at Hobby House.

After I checked into my room I went for a walk and found walking trails next to the hotel. The trails were narrow, curvy, and up and down. I only walked so far then turned around since I had no idea where the path I was on ended up.

Thursday, I picked up my sister and her friend at the airport and we headed to Hobby House so they could shop. Bubba was loving on the Fox and Rabbit linen!

They then got checked into the hotel and we went to dinner to a great Mexican restaurant that we found last year. My dinner was delicious!

Bubba was tired.

My sister brought Jack and here he is with the birthday present I bought for my sister. She is a lavender girl and the shop did not have many Winterberry items in lavender. This had her name all over it! Her birthday is not until August, so I am ahead of schedule on this one!

Friday at noon I started passing out the pouches. Everybody loved them and was surprised I had made one for everybody! I laid them out on my bed so my sister and her friend could pick the one they wanted before I started passing them out.  I ended up with one leftover.  

There was 170 people at the retreat and three designers, Stacy Nash, Beth Twist, and Pauline. We received an exclusive kit from each designer that they designed. I usually stitch on 32 count and the fabric we received is 36 so I will have to challenge myself to stitch on that.

Everyone also received a stitching mat. There were many different fabrics to pick from and I loved this red fabric.

There were only two other people at our table; the event had set up some extra seating since there was suppose to be 8 at a table. I did hear that a few people couldn't come at the last minute due to illness and a car accident on the way to NY. The lady did not get hurt, but was shook up so she turned around and headed home. I passed out the thread beds for my table gifts and here is the haul for stuff I received as table gifts and gifts from other stitches for appreciation for the pouch. My sister's friend's table gift was a slate coaster that she had etched on and some chocolates. She had an extra gift left so the two coasters are on center left.

My sister's table gift was a tiny sampler. She stitched it over one and made 10 or 12 of them!

My sister also made these framed names to put at our table. She had her's, her friend's and mine made, but when our table mates arrived she made one for them. This is something we each can use at retreats in the future.

Hobby House also has a quilt shop. Outside there was a bin of 70% off fabric. That had my attention! I bought a bunch and it was all Moda fabric. I had to buy what was left on the bolt, but at $4.00 at yard - what a deal! The dark print on the top of this pile will be a backing for one of my bunkhouse quilts. The rest I will make boxy pouches, thread beds, and project bags for the next retreat. I bought all the prettier fabric and left the fugly stuff.

I had taken all those thread beds that I had made and the project bags I still had from last year to see if anyone would want to buy them. I sold everything I had brought, and they were asking for more! I had no idea I would sell all of them! They don't sell these at the shop so I wasn't in competition with them. I had already decided I was going to use the money to buy two family members Pandora jewelry for their 16th birthday. I had taken Monday off so I headed to the mall; I just couldn't wait to buy what they had picked out. I bought a bracelet for one and added a 16th and music charm since she plays the bass drum in the marching band

For the other one I bought the necklace with a cherry charm and added the 16th charm.

I had enough money left that I decided to splurge and get myself one plus a few charms!

My sister brought me my Christmas gift. We were both behind this year! She made this sweet framed piece, a cute scissor fob attached to a beautiful pair of scissors, and these fabulous tiny red scissors!

My present to her that I had mailed to her last week was this reproduction sampler that I had seen on ebay. The name is significant and she loved it! It fit in a 5 x 7 frame so it is small.

One of the thread beds I made went to a friend in Colorado. She loves sharks and was thrilled to receive it!

So what did I buy? Some beautiful 32 count linen

A few skeins of floss.

This cute Stacy Nash chart. I don't like cats but this was so cute! Stacy signed it for me.

The hotel gave me this bottle of French sparkling wine which we never had time to drink so I brought it home. Dianne, you know what I will be saving this for! LOL!

My only focus on now is to get the Harley t-shirt quilt done by June 3rd. Monday I started getting the shirts cut and interfaced. By bedtime last night I had two columns of shirts sewn together. I needed to make this one as easy as possible since I am a time crunch. It will be a bit smaller too, but still around 92" high by 80" wide.

No I didn't die - LOL!!!

I have been at a cross stitch retreat. Having a great time every day and will catch uo soon!

Baking and more spring bulbs blooming

I am getting ready to have a visit with my sister. She loves my crinkle pan banging chocolate chip cookies so I made a batch along with a coffee cake to take to work. I needed to use up the sour cream so coffee cake it is!

Baking and the clean up took up most of my evening. I did see that there where lots of white blooms in the big center flower bed. I always forget about these since they bloom after the daffodils. I don't know what these are but they kind of look like a daffodil. Over the years they have spread and have been relocated by the squirrels so I just never know where they will pop up! There are now three big clumps of them and a few growing under the mugo pine. This whole bed needs a good cleaning out which I will try to get too soon.  Blurry pictures again - don't know what I am doing wrong.

I got a small and I mean very small start on the Harley quilt. I have one t-shirt ready for the interfacing and the bolt of interfacing ready to go. I am not sure this is even a start! LOL!!  I have 37 days to get it done.  

Finishing stuff, straightening up, and a project folder

It was a busy weekend trying to get stuff done. The last 10 thread beds got their snaps. After that was cleaning up. I couldn't mow because it was raining.

I spent my time Saturday morning mending. I fixed two pairs of pants and a hoodie. Then I decided I needed another pocket on that jacket that I got during Women In Construction week. I covered the monogram.

I decided to use Ultrasuede so I didn't have to turn under any edges and just topstitch it on. I did add a zipper so I secure what I usually keep in that pocket.  Gosh that is a bad picture!  You can't even see the zipper!  LOL!!

The afternoon was spent working on sewing the back son smalls for stuffing. I am way behind on finishing my cross stitch. These are all ready for stuffing now.   I did some laundry and cleaning up since it was still raining so I couldn't mow.

Sunday I took apart that desk extension and hauled it upstairs. I forgot to take a picture of it in place with the plants on it - I post one tomorrow. The top was the heaviest part and I could only go up one step at a time with it, but I got it done.

I decided to play around a bit and try to make a project folder. I did a little drawing and made a cut list. It is similar to a thread bed only bigger so figuring out the parts I needed was quick. For the insides I used a piece of iron-on Bosal foam stabilizer to give it more firmness. It finished at 11" x 12 1/2" when it is folded in half. I had debated what fabric to use and I thought this Sugar Skull fabric would look good.

Here is the inside. There are two zipper pockets, three other pockets, and a pen holder.

I needed a button for the closure, and it dawned on me that I had a sugar skull button - somewhere! I had bought a towel a couple of years ago at a craft fair, you know one of those towels you hang on your oven door. It had a poor quality sugar skull towel but the button was fabulous so I bought the towel for the button. I had to look around a bit to find the button and I did! It was perfect for this folder.

I have seen these project folders on Etsy and they cost around sixty dollars. The rain finally went away and it was sunny on Sunday so I finally got at least the front and the one side yard mowed. Round out the weekend with some more laundry and that was it.