Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Fully Finished Gallery - February 2024 πŸ–Ό

Welcome to Rachel's 
This is a great way to make sure I actually fully finish my stitched pieces! 
Please consider joining this monthly SAL, it just might inspire you.

I've had this sweet koala stitched since 2020. It's from The Blackberry Rabbit and it was for the Australian Bushfire Appeal. 
The profits went to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
I had the frame and thought it would be nice in it.


That's it for this time, hopefully I'll do better next month!

I'm a little behind on my blog reading, but I will be catching up to what the others have fully finished. I hope you check them out too.

Super Bowl Retreat 2025 🏈

Bring on the Super Bowl... Retreat!



My setup for the weekend.


Of course we needed our candy/snack area in the middle of the table.


Brenda's birthday was on that Thursday, so I gave her these framed photos as a gift. The bottom one is a shadow box and it has a little frog on top - keep that frog right there and nowhere else! Her favourite colour is pink, so I had to add that pink floss.


We went to The West Essex Diner one night for dinner and brought back dessert for later.
There were sooo many to choose from, from cakes, cheesecakes, pies, and pastries. I had to get the peanut butter cheesecake, delicious!


Our goodie bag, minus the Super Bowl pin which I added to my lanyard. One of the attendees made the cute frog coaster for everyone - adorable!


On Friday, Brenda, Claire, and I went to see Amy at Born to Stitch. It was only about 20 minutes away from the hotel, how could we not go?!
She's still working on getting her online shop open, but I love being there in person!


Some of the goodies I bought, although I forgot to add the beautiful floss. She ordered the Frony Ritter and Mill Hills for me, so they were waiting for me when I got there. If you ever need anything, give her a call and place an order!


It snowed/sleeted on Saturday evening, which had quite a few of the attendees leave early. Since we weren't leaving until after noon on Sunday, I wasn't too worried.


Because of that, the pajama/slipper contest was pretty slim! "Mickey" and I tied so we each won a huge insulated football tumbler. I think you could fit a bottle of wine in it, I'll let you know... 🍷🀣



This chick loved seeing it snow!


One of the stitchers brought a huge stash from a friend who was downsizing due to moving to an assisted living facility. She is also suffering from dementia, so she's really not stitching anymore. So terribly sad.
She brought finished pieces, partially finished pieces, fully kitted charts, books, charts, and other misc items. Charts were going for $1, kits were various prices depending on how big and what was in them. All the money was going back to her friend.
I think I spent about $60 or so? This is what I got, I think I took a photo of everything?!
I just love that sweet little owl!

All the Santa's Closet charts together were $15, with everything included.

What a treasure to find these two witches, especially after Brooke's recent passing.πŸ˜₯

So sweet!

I think all I have to do is put it together.

More fun finds. The bigger ones all came with fabric, and one of them with variegated floss.

This one didn't come with a pattern and I'm wondering if the witch's face was supposed to be left out. I'll have to look for this online. Unless maybe you've stitched it and can tell me?

More finished pieces that just need to be put together.
And all the ones she's finished are stitched beautifully.


The group, before fleeing the snow/sleet!


Our table, these girls are fun as always!

I'm already looking forward to our next stitching event!

Monday, 27 January 2025

What to add? πŸ§™

The last time I worked on this was at the Grace Notes Retreat... in August 2023!
I added the witch and that was it. Just recently, I added the bottom part. I'm not sure what I was going for, kind of a mess of fall leaves? I also gave her a sparkly wand.
But, now what?! I'm trying to keep it all Maja's designs from The Snowflower Diaries, but can think of what to put above the ground and/or to the right.
Any suggestions?


This is what October looks like, but I wanted a more Halloween feel.


These are the previous months.

Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Fully Finished Gallery - January 2025 πŸ–Ό

Welcome to Rachel's 
This is a great way to make sure I actually fully finish my stitched pieces! 
Please consider joining this monthly SAL, it just might inspire you.

Nathan is an aide for Mrs. H this year, all the boys have had her as a science teacher. She gave him some lovely Christmas tree ornaments she made out of wood. Nathan told me she likes turtles, and I had this Mill Hill kit I had made before. I already had everything I needed to make another, so that's what I did. She liked it and added it to her collection in the classroom!

This little cutie is actually a January birthday present for our daughter-in-love, C. He does look like their "little" Finn. I just changed some of the colours, removed some hearts, and gave him a Christmas bow.  


These Bride's Tree Ornaments were supposed to be a bridal show gift for C, but I didn't finish it in time. (Imagine that!)
So it was a Christmas pressie instead. I found all these little patterns either in one of the books I have of smalls, or free online.
I'm not quite sure why it's called a German Tradition, I never heard my German Momma ever talk about this, and my cousin there hasn't heard of it either. But, I thought of her when I was stitching them so that works for me! 


This is what my mother-in-law always used to sing to all the boys when they were little, so I thought it was an appropriate gift for her. It's also a magnet if she wants to use it that way.


Not the best photo, but I finished the last month for this Hands on Design , A Year of Celebrations. I changed a few things. Some because I made a mistake and wasn't about to frog it, and some colours so you could see them better. It was hard to see white on cream, so I outlined the snowman and made some of the white a light blue.

Here it sits with all the other snowmen. I'll leave this display up longer than the Christmas decorations because... snow!


Wow, that makes 16 Fully Finishes!
Be sure to check out what others have done, I need to do some catching up on blog reading so I'll be looking at them soon.
Thanks for hosting another year, Rachel!

Saturday, 28 December 2024

Flashback of the Hershey Fall Getaway 2024 🍫

I know this is a late posting since this was in September, but at least it's still 2024!
(Memories of last year, posting late.) 


Another fabulous event by LinAnn Events!
So many fun retreats, present, past and future!


We were in a different stitching room this year, much nicer with lots of windows.


Our "sweet" goodie bag.
I love that I have a stitching magnet for the car.


So many great vendors!





One that I didn't get a photo of was Sister Lou Stitches. She came later and I forgot to take one, oops!


My little stitching area.
I had just started Hands on Design's October.


We didn't go into the park this year, but instead went shopping at Hershey's Chocolate World.


I love those Reese's, especially the pumpkin ones.




Who knew?!


Such fun with these girls!



That would be one huge brain freeze!


Brenda thinks if she kisses up to the frog, he'll leave her alone.


Cathy working on her sampler, such a beautiful colour.


My bestie!


And a sweet Kiss!


Our funtastic table, it's always a good time with these girls!


Ah, the white elephant exchange.


This is what I ended up with, so many lovely treats. The word this year was CANDY.


This is what I put together. The tree stump had to have a squirrel!
If I remember correctly, two of us were tied for the most creative.


A collection of treasures I purchased from some of the vendors.


Our group, hogging the stairway for our photo shoot!


So another fall retreat was a success, and next year is planned. I'm already excited about it!