I flew out to Charleston, NC at the beginning of the month for a Mirabilia retreat, and I am so glad I did as it was so much fun! This was the first retreat that the hosts, Maggi and Amy, have ever put on, but you wouldn't know it from how well it was put together. I definitely hope to attend more of their retreats, even ones with a different guest designer.
The hotel was in an area billed as a "walking community", so there were a large variety of shops and restaurants within walking distance (round trip within about 1.5miles), and the weather was beautiful, so it was nice to get some exercise in between bouts of sitting and stitching. My table mates were Debbie, Mindy, Rachel and Chris (from left to right, with me in the middle and Nora sitting at her meet & greet table), and it was a very nice group to spend a few days with at table 17:
How fun is a photo booth?!
Every person won a door prize (which is pretty amazing because there were almost 150 attendees); my table number must have brought me luck because I won the OOP Adia the Garden Fairy:
However, I already have two Adia charts so I gifted it to Rachel, who is a relatively new stitcher. It was so nice to sit with a younger stitcher and see someone at the start of their stitching journey, but also odd because I don't feel that differently than I did when I was the younger stitcher!
There was also a table full of prizes that were raffled off on Saturday night. Everyone got some tickets in their welcome pack, but you could also buy extra tickets at a rate of 5 for $5; the proceeds from the sale of those tickets were donated to a local animal shelter. The grand total raised and donated was $5213, which is absolutely amazing!
The brag tables took up one entire wall of the room, and pieces were still stacked up in piles because there wasn't enough room to have them all displayed:
Even knowing how much better these designs look IRL doesn't prepare you for the so much blingy beauty in one space--it was almost overwhelming!
Nora Corbett did a meet & greet on Friday morning, then gave a talk on Saturday morning and the hosts did a Q & A with her as well:
She also spent time visiting tables and getting inspiration for possible new designs. Someone suggested doing Betsy Ross, so Nora spent some time with an attendee studying and sketching her hand movements as she stitched:
It was such a thrill to see her in action, after being a fan for so many (30!) years. And if Betsy Ross shows up as a chart in about a year from now, you read it here first!
I took Silver Moon Tea with me, and spent Thursday evening working on her; basically, all I stitched was the teacup and the steam trails above it:
There was a chart designed by Nora for the attendees (which will be released a free chart for everyone at some point in the future), so I decided to work on that starting Friday morning. I bought a piece of fabric from Grace Notes Fabrics, who was a vendor in the room; it's called Melissa and it's on 36ct linen; this is how far I got by Saturday night:
I finished it last weekend, and am planning to send it to a finisher to have it made into a project bag using some of this great fabric that Maggi used to have notions bags made for all the attendees:
I had to laugh at this picture that Rachel took of Mindy and me scouring the floor for a bead that I dropped on the last night:
In my defense, it was a Magnifica bead, which are currently unavailable for who knows how long; I did end up finding it, as well as another bead that wasn't even mine, so I doubled the return on my time investment! I guess the person who dropped the other bead isn't as obsessive as I am...
On the trip home I had a 6-hour layover at O'Hare, so I improvised a truly portable stitching stand and spent the time working on a Mill Hill kit:
The time really flew by and I was sad to see it end, but I was pretty tired by the time I got home, and it's always good to see my guys and critters. Maggi and Amy will be announcing their 2024 guest in a couple of days, and I'm hoping to be able to get into that event set for next October--fingers crossed!
Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!
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