Part two vacation the west coast

California here I come!!! I have only visited California once before so I was quite excited to visit again. This is the first time I have ever taken a week off by myself and I was excited to see what I could see. I traveled from Pennsylvania to Sacramento, California. The point of the trip was my decision to take a class at Elegant Stitch taught by Jaquie du Pleiss of It's Finely Finished. I have done a PALS convention once and took classes, one Camp Wannasew by Silver Needle and a Merry Cox weekend at the Attic. I was really looking forward to the class. It was "I had a Farm" and centered around three trunks filled with tea and lace. Once I found out about the tea and lace part I really wanted to go. I was able to score the last slot and so then it became the question of what was I going to do between leaving my friend on Tuesday and waiting for class on Friday evening. I decided I would go to Yosemite and see what there was to offer there.  I loved it. I went into the park three times and basically spent the entire day there for 2 of those days. I drove all through the valley one day walking to what I could and driving to a lot.




 The second day I drove to Glacier Point and was so glad I did. I packed picnic lunches and read and stitched at the top for a while just enjoying the view and the quiet. I drove down and hiked until dusk and enjoyed the sunset around the huge rocks.  The third day I stayed  just a while to say goodbye and then hit the road to Modesto to Elegant Stitch and stitching heaven.
I was so excited to be in a brick and mortar store



and see all the things I normally just get to read about online. I fondled the threads, handled all the fabric and pawed through the patterns. It was wonderful. The retreat started with an open house at the shop, catered food and all the shopping your could cram into 2 hours. The next morning class started and the morning flew by with excellent teaching by Jacquie and Lois roaming around giving us excellent gifts to fit into the trunks we would be making. There were not just gifts that she bought but also things that she put a lot of work into making especially for each person who attended (scissor fobs with our initials on it, necklaces with initials worked into) and all fitting into the theme. We learned how to finish the boxes to make them into trunks, we got special bits f lace to add to the design and to make a necklace out of. There was so much to the kit. I was really impressed.  I absolutely loved it and wished I could go to every class offered. Everyone who was there was very welcoming and as a newbie I was made to feel one of the group, always a place to sit for lunch, always a table with a spot to sit and conversations were lively. I met some great people and laughed till I cried at some of it.  I thought the hotel would rock when the stitchers found out the Giants were going to the World Series. It was good to see I am not the only baseball loving stitcher.  Though my team didn't make it all the way this year I had to smile at the ladies at my dinner table with their phones giving a play by play account of the game off of the MLB application for their phones.
The shop was open for more shopping and I took advantage of it mostly just to continue to touch it all but I did pick up a few things, some linen on sale and a couple of things to be made into gifts, fabric and thread for two patterns I took with me for that purpose. Wonderful time.
And that is where I have been and why you haven't heard from me. Back to the routine now. Hope to post more often with stitching updates. Have a stitchy day. Marjo