Welcome back! Here are some more pictures from our retreat weekend, which was an absolutely wonderful time! My classes were so much fun (perhaps I'm only speaking for myself! Ha!), and it was a fabulous time chatting with lots of familiar friends and newly-made ones.

I'm sad to say I didn't get any pictures of the class pieces that the other designers taught, which is surprising, since I had several opportunities to get some. (How did this happen?) But the truth of it is, we were having so much fun laughing and being silly that it didn't occur to me to take any class piece photos, and I didn't have my camera when we were revealing them to those in attendance.

The only ones I have to share with you are mine, which sounds awfully selfish, but I don't mean for it to be. 🙁

The theme for the retreat was It's A Celebration! So I decided to combine two things that I love to celebrate in October: the gorgeous orange of jack o'lanterns and my sweet Sabrina's birthday. 

This is Jack's Bash:

The verse reads:

Here in the rust and autumn bower,
    the knobby gourd and bitter flower,
We merry-make and sing Hooray!
    to our friend Jack on his birthday.

(The word "rust" contains an old-style letter s, which looks like a half-crossed lower-case f.)

Nicole Neville stitched the model beautifully and in record time, and I love love love the moulding that Sherri at Total Framing used for it!

The kitted piece that the class actually worked on is called Jack's Birthday Tart, and it accompanied the larger sampler, using all the same threads:

Jack's Bash will be released next fall, and most likely Jack's Birthday Tart will be also. (The tart will probably have a companion or two to go with it.) I thought it was a lot of fun to make, and very easy!

By the way, this was the sunrise that greeted me every morning from the balcony of the hotel room:

And as the sun rose higher, the beach grew more crowded…

On Saturday evening we had a huge banquet, and each person dressed in something that denoted the era in which they were born. The food was beautifully presented, and Ann and Pat (despite the challenges of the elevators being inaccessible for the better part of the day) did a wonderful job as our hostesses…

 

 

And the winner of the costume contest was…. Barefoot and Pregnant!

What a crazy good time that was! The door prizes were amazing, the cheering was raucus, and the whole room was full of stitchy friends who were relieved that the elevators started working just in time for the party, as the banquet was held on the 11th floor. 🙂

I'd like to thank Ann and Pat and Sybil and Norma and all the wonderful people who helped pull this retreat together. You all are the best!

I'll be back soon with Part 3, which isn't so much the retreat as it is what we did after the retreat was over. See you soon!

What a fantastic weekend the retreat was! If you've never been to a Dyeing to Stitch retreat, you've got to plan to attend the next one! It was so much fun, and the time spent with friends will always be a cherished memory for me.

I took lots of pictures to share, so if you can play a soundtrack in your mind of lots of oohing and aahing and clapping and laughing, you'll get an idea of how it all went. What fun we all had!

Here's how it started out, at least for me:

The retreat was held at the Cavelier Hotel on Virginia Beach, which was lovely! Here are some pictures of the boutique that was set up for the attendees to shop:

Stacy Nash Primitives…(what a sweetheart Stacy is!)

(I have to include a photo of her Halloween at Hollyberry Farm to show you what the linen really looks like. For those of you who ordered it kitted, it isn't as gray as the photo appears, but that's the curse that designers deal with – the digital print! The model was fabulous to see in person, though, and I can't wait to get started on mine.)

Here's a photo of the gorgeous designs of Bonnie Woomer/The Nebby Needle:

(I actually just discovered Bonnie's blog, which will give you a far better idea of how the retreat went than mine will!)

The Purple Thread… (Sharon is an excellent teacher, by the way)(and her boutique table had so much to look at, you saw something different every time you blinked!)

Olde Colonial Designs… (this was my first time meeting Pam and her sweet husband Bob, and I loved every minute spent with them)

Jeanette Douglas Designs…(my way-too-much-fun Canadian sister, who was also my roomie; I'm still recovering from our 2 am designing-brainstorming session!)…

I love Jeanette's imagination, and her new A Most Suitable Name series is so sweet! Alphabet Annie is my favorite, I think…

And of course, Shepherd's Bush has always been a super favorite of mine…(Teri and Tina are a hilarious duo when they get in front of a group, and they're so much fun to spend time with!)

There was so much to look at, all around the room…

(Love, love, love Pat and Ann's hand-dyed trims; the mini rickrack in Cinnamon is my favorite!)

 The first night of the retreat was spent learning how to finish a beautiful stitched booklet in our Evening with Friends, taught by Sharon of The Purple Thread. I don't have a photo of the book, but it was absolutely stunning! Each page featured a different design from each designer, and the theme of the book was a celebration of life – from friends to marriage, and everything in between. I'm hoping Pat and Ann will show a photo of it on their blog soon!

I'm not sure which night our Evening with Stacy Nash was, but I believe it was the second night we were there. The weekend went by so fast, it's a blur! Stacy had the sweetest project for us to work on (is there anything of Stacy's that isn't sweet?)…

I think this is a good stopping point! I'll get the rest uploaded soon, so if you'd like to check back, I'll be here! 🙂

I do want to end today's post with saying how much I enjoyed meeting each one of you. I loved spending time at the tables chatting, looking at your photos and your beautiful stitching, and swapping pet stories. It's so much fun to get together with those who are so sweet to sign up for my classes, and I can't thank you enough for your always-warm welcome and kindhearted support. I hope you were all pleased (even if the fabric for Jack's Bash ran out before some of you even knew it was there!), and I especially hope I see you again at a future retreat.

And of course, a huge thank-you to Ann and Pat for the many months they spent putting together such an amazing retreat. It was one of the best weekends ever!