Retreat updates just a little late

We had a great time on retreat several weeks ago. I made a lot of progress on my pieces but of course not as much as I wanted to. I got the last square done on CHS Alphabets and two of the blocks filled in. I still have 8 blocks to fill in. As I do the fill in I pull the pattern for that block back out and check to be sure I haven't missed anything on it. I am hoping to get a little work done on it today. I did work on Anniversaries of the Heart for part of a day. I got the linen color thread I needed and got quite a bit done on that one but I am a slow stitcher and I am good with that.
We had a great time. Two of our members were wounded and thus unable to attend. We had the place to ourselves and stitched the whole time. We didn't hike, we didn't watch a movie, we just ate, stitched and slept. It was great. We try to do that twice a year and I look forward to it every time. I love to see what everyone else is stitching on and what progress is made.
Dee was the only one with a cross stitch finish this time. This will be the inset for a mirror. It is so beautiful in real life.
Gretchen knitted a dish cloth with a new yarn she bought on the way down. It was a lovely pattern and the colors striped out quite lovely on it. She was working on a teapot design. She was the designated baker for the weekend. When  I worked a lot of overtime she volunteered to be my "personal baker" and made some extra muffins (they were so good) and egg salad as it was coming down to the wire and I was cutting it close for time.  I really appreciated it. We always have plenty of food, no one ever leaves hungry. We took some of it to one of our wounded members so since she couldn't come stitch she could at least snack with us.

Jeannette had several different projects. She was doing some hand quilting on a crazy quilt piece she had started back when we had a visit to the area by Judith Baker Montano and it getting ready to finish it out. The crazy quilt part is done she is doing the quilting now. She also was doing an Alaska themed cross stitch and had knitted, felted and was embellishing a purse for her own use. Lovely work as always.

Joan had her retreat piece and is coming to the end of it. It is a class piece from EGA that didn't get finished and she is determined to get it done.
We had a great time and I am always ready to go back. Have some great stitching time in your day. Marjo

Reading and stitching

My two favorite past times to be sure. I love reading mysteries as you can tell from my sidebar of book lists. I check out all the online bookstores for new and upcoming reads, add then to the notes on my phone and am thus armed whenever I make it to the store to be able to get a good book should one cross my path. I love going to the library but due to budget cuts ours is not open on Mondays which is my only weekday off work. I miss it. What more could you ask than a great big room (I live in a small town) full of free books. I love it. Fortunately for me, the librarian loves mysteries as much as I do so I rarely have trouble getting a copy of the latest bestsellers on my list. Fortunately, I can browse the card catalog online and put books on reserve. My husband walks our chocolate lab at the park across from the library almost everyday so he is the only way I can get library books. He loves to read as well so there is no hardship for him to go to the library for me.  When I can't get one from the library or the used book stores I do hit up Amazon or their branch Audible for books to listen to while I stitch or right before I go to sleep. The timer on the IPOD is a wonderful tool for me. I went shopping at Audible yesterday as I knew my husband was going to be working all day today so I would have plenty of new books to choose from for my listening pleasure as I stitch.  They have recently started releasing (or maybe Audible just picked up) the Ngaio Marsh books. I love old mysteries like that and I stocked up. I listed my newest choices in the sidebar listing of Books upcoming to be read. I recently hit up Etsy for an Ipod cover as mine is getting much the worse for wear. I have had it for years and it goes everywhere with me. I have to laugh at myself as I keep a charge cable in my stitching carrier as I would hate to run out of battery and no way to charge it when I have time to listen and stitch. Not your normal needlework basket I guess. Speaking of stitching, time to shut down the computer,  and put on the water for tea and get to work on my stitching. The dog is asleep, my husband is at work and the cat will sleep on my lap so now it is my turn to stitch.
Hope there is peace and at least a little stitching in your day. Marjo

Did you see????

Did you see Dorothy Walpole is charted and ready for sale at Scarlet Letter? I have been checking back every once in a while to see when the chart would be ready. I recently posted about this wonderful reproduction. I finally saw it was ready for sale and put that one on order. I also got Dorcas Haynes as well.  Jean at Attic Needlework is making Dorothy her May Sampler and I cannot wait to get the color conversion as I think the change in fabric and threads will make it look more like the original. I am so excited. I know, I know I need another sampler like I need a hole in the head but this one I must have. I hope you have something you are excited about to stitch and time in which to stitch it. Have a stitchy kind of day. Marjo

Really, is it really May already?

Well, I have no idea what happened to April. It just swooped by me and here it is May. I have much to report and pictures to follow.  Stay tuned.....Have a stitchy sort of day. Marjo

Latest progress

I am heading out on retreat this weekend with my stitching buddies. Just wanted to share a quick post of my last pic of the CHS Alphabet. Hope to have a lot of progress to share when I get back. It has been a long week at work with many decisions to make and work to be completed. I am so looking forward to a weekend of no stress. The most I will have to decide is which piece I want to stitch on and which chair I want to sit on. The food is cooked, the snacks are prepared and I am ready.  Always ready for some friend time and stitching. What more could I ask for?

I have about 10 bottom areas to fill in and the X block to finish. This is done on an unknown color and count from my stash using the called for threads except I am filling in the base of the blocks with Tropical Ocean from Gentle Art. I skipped around filling in the bases so I could use multiple dye lots of the fill in color and not notice a big jump in dye lots just in case. I will have to go back and do a block by block check as I go to be sure I didn't leave anything out but the finish line is definitely in sight. I did go ahead and date it as I felt sure I could finish it this year though there for a while I had my doubts. I swear those blocks grew like bunnies the more I would fill in the more there seemed to be.

I will take pictures when I get back from the weekend to show you how much progress I have made. I am taking only a few projects. I always take too much but sometimes frogs drive me to put down a piece for a while and with all that uninterrupted stitching time I have to have a back up. I am taking a Homespun Elegance Christmas ornament Merry Stitcher, CHS Alphabets of course, Anniversaries of the heart and Beneath the Sunlit sky which has such beautiful colors. I want to get CHS Alphabets done but want to stitch on some other things as well. Oh, and I will take what I wanted to become my new retreat piece FAS. I have not touched that in quite some time but not sure if that will happen this weekend either. I really want to concentrate on the ones that are closer to being finished I think this time.

I hope your weekend is full of stitches, friends and family. Marjo

Market already

Have you been reading all the previews for Market already? It seems this time that there are way more previews than there used to be. I enjoy it as it allows me to shop ahead as I don't have a local store to be able to see the items. This way I get to peruse the pictures and look at the lists for floss and fabric. This is really the only kind of shopping I like to do besides maybe the antique or consignment stores.  I mostly buy  samplers now but there are a lot of pretty things being previewed.
I have mentioned before that the counted canvas appeals to me for a change of pace. The latest one to be released at Market By Nancy's Needle is Quilt Market and that will have to go on the Wish list for sure. Especially after my recent trip to Amish country. I have purchased from her online shop a couple of times and I highly recommend it for good prices and fast shipping.
Another Market pre-release is from With My Needle Miss Trenner's Needlework Academy boxes. I love the way Ellen Chester has painted those and lined them. They are just so cute. She also has a new sampler reproduction that is a lovely floral that is on the wish list.
I have purchased a couple of designs from Heartstring Samplery in the recent past and her new ones for market this time are definitely on the must have list for me. They are called Matchless Grace and Permit me not to stray. I also want a couple of her prior releases that strike my prim side.  The one I want the most is Simple Bounty Cupboard Sampler which is a purely simple design that I love.
I am intrigued by Rosewood Manor's Crabapple Tree design. I would love to see it up close and personal. Several of her new ones look really nice.  Blackbird Designs new book of all the class pieces is on the please purchase for me list for sure. The Flood by Plumstreet Samplers is a fun one that looks really big. Another one I would love to see in person. GPA designs has released two pincushion dolls that look lovely as well. I could go on and on. There are so many great designers and I have picked just a few. I have many more I could list for sure.  So what is on your list either to buy or to wish?
 Oh, so much to stitch. Speaking of which I need to turn off the Mac and get back to that.
Hope your day is full of stitches. Marjo

Samplers

I love samplers. I love the alphabets, the houses, the over or undersized people, the colors, the whole thing really. I love reading about them, I love looking at them online or in person on the rare chances I get to somewhere to see them. I just plain love samplers. I love the idea of the hours spent stitching that brought pleasure and creativity to the hearts of the young girls and women who came before us to give us samples that talented designers have reproduced for us to stitch. I go back through the old newsletters of the Attic just to look at all the samplers. I just really love them. I collect the patterns and wish I stitched more quickly so I could have more of them on my walls. Yesterday while I was browsing the usual sites I came across one for sale on Scarlet Letter website. I usually don't even look at the antiques as I know that there is no way I could ever afford one but this time I decided to look.  I really hope they make a reproduction of this one. I absolutely love it. The colors are so pretty to me. And I really like the bargello section. The picture is from the Scarlet Letter website. You really need to go to her site to see it in more detail. Lovely,  Sigh.
Hope you have a very stitchy day. Marjo
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Edited to say, that I had written to Marsha Parker to ask if she was going to reproduce this lovely thing and she already had and for those of you who love it as much as I do, it will be available in a couple of months according to Marsha of Scarlet Letter. She has close ups of this lovely on her site. Check it out.