Almost time to Get Your Stitch On

This Thursday is the start of Needle Bling Design's Get Your Stitch On retreat, and I am both excited and nervous. The other night I had a dream that I forgot to take stitching with me, and even my sleeping brain must have known that that was ridiculous as it morphed into having my stitching but someone had purposely taken just the clamps from my Qsnaps, so I couldn't frame my fabric and stitch--too funny!

I haven't been to very many retreats over the years since I am a pretty extreme introvert, but I've always enjoyed them when I've gone. I never participate in any exchanges because that's just too much pressure, but now it seems to be a thing to have gifts for your tablemates, so I made my first foray into that custom. I got some cards with small designs that would be suitable for stitching on perforated paper, small easels and canvases that could be painted and then used to display the finishes and the floss and paper needed to stitch the designs, and I made some counting pins; this is the result:

Credit for the counting pins goes to Honeybee over on her blog, where she explained her process for making them; I just bought a couple of strings of beads and went for it:

Now I just need to pick up a few groceries to take with me, gas up my car and pack. I'm happy that I can drive to this one, as it's just about 4.5 hours away, which is part of the reason I decided to go. I am also hoping to go to Stitchville while I'm there--the store is closing and I'm not sure how much will be left, but I'd like to see it one time before it's gone. The retreat starts Thursday at 10am, so I'm driving over on Wednesday and will try to get to Stitchville then. I also need to look into the location of Welcome Stitchery relative to the hotel; I used to shop there when it was located in Illinois, so I'd kind of like to stop in just for old times' sake. 

I decided that I would take Mirabilia's Silver Moon Tea with me to work on; I had taken it to Charlotte last October, but then didn't work on it very much since I started the retreat design there. I pulled it out last Friday to put it on the Qsnaps and stitch on it for long enough to figure out where I was in the chart and get a feel for the symbols; this is where I started:

When I started this back in 2012 I used to do all the back stitching and beading at the end, but now I do them as I go so this weekend I had fun bringing her face to life:

I am hoping to make a lot of progress at the retreat, and possibly even finish her sometime in May. I don't want her to disappear into the WIP bin for another 12 years!

Speaking of finishes, I do have a couple since my last post; the first is Mill Hill's Puppy Love, which I wrapped up the day after I wrote that post:

And I finished Nora Corbett's Miss Pink Mushroom, which was good because I needed the Qsnaps for Silver Moon Tea!

The fabric for this is Autumn Leaves on 36ct linen from NicholasFlamelDesign on Etsy. At one point I did get a bit worried that it was too similar in color to the design, but I'm very happy with the finished piece.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!