A Primitive Weekend

Finally getting around to trying to tell everything that happened on my trip with DF Jackie to Mesa, AZ for a weekend of stitching put on by the fantastic ladies at The Attic. If you head over to Jackie's blog she has a great day by day description of what we did. Since it's taken me so long to get things together for this post I'll just bring you the eye candy you come to see anyway.

First the great freebies we received during the weekend.

From left to right: from Priscilla's Pocket a beautiful handmade hornbook frame with a great little alphabet sampler to stitch and mount, from Chessie & Me "Rosey Alphabet Pincushion", above a great pair of scissors, a great mini quilt, scissor's holder & pincushion pattern from Renee Plains of Liberty Star, last but not least a beautiful hornbook necklace that Jean gave us on our first evening. There was also another lovely pair of scissors you'll see when I get to the project they go with.

Our first project was from Linda of Chessie & Me, "Needlebook of Stitches". I managed to finish putting the book together and started stitching on the front panel.

Notice the very adorable pair of mini stork scissors? Those were a surprise as well. I'm fairly certain this will end up being finished fairly quickly. It's been added to my current rotation so it will be coming out and seeing the light of day soon I'm sure.

Saturday morning we got a start on "Nancy V. Renssela: An Unfinished Sampler". I haven't decided what to put at the end, I've got some books I want to look through along with looking at the designs Linda gave us with the project. Linda suggested we decide how we're going to approach this project, one of her suggestions was to think about it as if we were Nancy's granddaughter who is going to finish the sampler years later. My grandmother taught me to stitch oh so many years ago, so as a tribute to her I'm going to take that approach. I'm thinking of using a quote at the bottom and I'll put both our initials on it. Here's what I accomplished between class and the other stitching I did on Saturday.

Nancy v. Renssela: An Unfinished Sampler
on 36 ct Vintage Meadow Rue from Lakeside Linens

You can't see it, but I did manage to finish the first row of wording, so that's a very nice start.

That afternoon we were privelged to be invited to the home of Vickie Jennett to view her collection of needlework. What a great afternoon! I told Vickie that I was going to do this, so I guess I have to live up to my promise.

Gotta love a bathroon that has samplers in it! The whole house was full of wonderful examples of needlework. Not to mention sitting in the lovely weather and enjoying our lunch, like Jackie here...

Then there's Deb and Beth enjoying the lovely weather as well.

Deb, Beth, Angela (one of my many friends from the Atlanta Stitch Group), Jackie and I went on a bit of a shopping trip. First we went looking at Vera Bradley at a Hallmark store, we checked out a quilt shop (where I found a couple of lovely fabrics to add to my collection for backing smalls), then on to Vera Bradley and finally to The Attic to make our purchases. By the time we finished the back of Beth's car looked like this...

Bags are hiding bags. Can't say we didn't do our part to help the economy!

Sunday morning brought our time with Stacy Nash. This was the class I'd done the pre-stitching for and I was looking forward to it all weekend. The first order of business was to sew it together, then stuff it with sawdust Stacy had brought with her (don't you wish you could have heard that conversation from TSA when they looked at her suitcase filled with tubs of sawdust???). Then we sewed it up and embellished with stitches and finally used a solution of water and walnut crystals to make it look old. The final result?

The last one shows my little strawberry that we made and then could make as old looking as we wanted. I went for mangy looking! I love how this turned out and am looking forward to her releasing the Christmas themed one she did for a different class. Plus it's my first official finish of the year! Now I can sit back and relax and not worry that I won't finish anything this year.

All in all it was a great weekend. Saw old friends, met new ones and learned some great things. I hope Jean will do another weekend next year and that I can go again.

As an added bonus I got to meet an on-line friend who was also in the area with her son. Wendy & I met on Ravelry because we both like NASCAR. She's part of a group that meets online to chat during the races each week. Since almost everyone lives in a different state it's not like we've all met in person and she lives in WY, so I was excited when she mentioned she might be in Phoenix the same weekend I would be in Mesa. We managed to meet up for dinner. It was so great getting to sit and chat and actually meet! Now I want to meet the rest of "the gang"!

Wendy & I (two Tony Stewart fans together!)

I'm going to finish this post and start another to show you the stash I bought, you knew I did right? Stay tuned!