Fully Finished Gallery ~ September 2023 🖼

Welcome to Rachel's Fully Finished Gallery SAL for September. I'm getting ready for October!

Be sure to have a look and see what others have finished this time.

Family Portrait - Just Cross Stitch Halloween Magazine 2013

Even better, I actually had the Tokens and Trifles sewing card. I filled in the background, I didn't like how it looked without it.

Pumpkit - Just Cross Stitch Halloween Magazine 2018

This was just too cute that I couldn't NOT stitch it!

And here they are together on my Halloween tree. Most of the ornaments are Mill Hill, but not anymore.

Not sure what I have planned for next month...

👻🎃🍁?

A sweet find!🧵

I saw this on our local Buy Nothing page for our area and threw my name in the hat to get it.

And I got it!

I cleaned it up as best as I could to display it asap. It needed some cover up until I fix the top, and since it's getting to be that time, I knew what to put on it.

The sewing machine inside was still there, but it came out and wouldn't stay in place. So I left it out and stored it away. Undecided if I'll clean it up enough to try and use it, it's a bit of a mess!

The 1st Grace Notes Retreat 🎶

Through friends, I heard about a retreat from Grace Notes Fabrics and I was ready to join them!

Three weeks ago today, I traveled to Pennsylvania, not that far from me.

You can already see the beautiful fabric they have to offer.

We had tickets in our goodie bag and could also earn more tickets with games in the booklet we received. These were the items available for the raffle. So many lovely things!

These were on the brag tables, all stitched on Grace Notes Fabric. Lots of amazing stitching on gorgeous fabric. I hope to be able to add to it next year.

The Grace Notes Retreat Crew, they all made it such fun!

Jamey, Hannah, Colleen, Corrin, John, Sheri, Allison, and Karla

This was my area of our table, just a little bit of a hot mess.

And what's a retreat without the giveaway table?!

This is what I came home with.

Our goodie bag came with this booklet, which included plenty of sweet patterns and games.

There were lots of goodies inside!

And also very generous stitchers who gave out their own goodies.

This was the set up for shopping, as well as patterns on the left side against the wall.

I was mainly interested in fabric, especially for this piece. I wanted to use purple for the witches and the one I had started before just didn't look right to me.

I found this and it's perfect!

I also bought all these smaller pieces to stitch who knows what on. I just love all those gorgeous colours!

Sheri (of the Notes Crew) made this beautiful quilt for a raffle to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation and Precious Life... $1000 was raised!

And with the leftover fabric, Sheri made every one of us a needle book, what a treasure!

And can I say, there were tears.

Each table had a frog and when announced, the person who had it because they were frogging, received a prize - I won the little imagine book.

Also shown is the needle book from Sheri and the boo boo stick that was in the goodie bag I forgot to show.

Last win was the actual frog which I got. Sadly, we spend quite a bit of time together!

Fran and I each had a finish, yay!

I then worked on The Snowflower Diaries, which I'm way behind on. October was a porcupine and a snail, but I wanted something more for Halloween and wanted to use one of Maja's actual designs. I decided to make her witch into a bunny, based on another one of her designs. I still have to finish the bottom part and add more flowers. I know it's not quite like the rest of the series, but I like it!

Here's a reminder of what the rest look like.

And besides cross stitching, there was some bobbin lace happening with Arlene. So beautiful, but I'm not sure I'd have the patience to attempt it.

Our Grace Notes Retreat Group!

And here's our table of stitchers.🥰

This is what I've been working on since getting the perfect fabric there.

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.

So for their first retreat, it was an AMAZING one! Thank you for making it such a memorable weekend.

Everyone was so wonderful and friendly, and the place was perfect. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Fully Finished Gallery ~ August 2023 🖼

Welcome to Rachel's Fully Finished Gallery SAL for August. It was a sweet finish this month!

Be sure to have a look and see what others have finished this time.

I've had this stitched for a while, but wasn't sure how to finish it. I had this frame and decided it would look good in it.

I couldn't get it to align, only to realize I was a stitch off. Luckily it was only three stitches.

I love this little guy from Mill Hill, he was a fun stitch.

I glued this little piece on the back so it would stand up. It's actually a place card holder I found online.

A rather small beehive to go with the gnome?!

That is all for now, I hope for more next time!

I'll have a retreat post coming soon, it was a fantastic one!

Fun at the Flower Power Retreat ✌❤ 🪡

And whoosh, just like that, it seems like forever ago! 

This was the Flower Power retreat in June, hosted by Linda and Annette @LinAnn Events.

This sweet piece was stitched by Helene and framed by Kim. It's a lovely addition to the Flower Power display.

Most of the room, empty but one.

Our hot mess of a table!

Our free pattern and goodies.

Sara @Sister Lou Stitches had her lovely patterns available, they are so cute!

Annette @Mind Your Needle always has so many needle minders and fobs, it's hard to pick just one!

Just a small section of the needle minders.

And such fun fobs!

I was trying to be good, but had to have these treasures. The mermaid goes perfectly with the scissors from the goodie bag.

The lovely Janis @Noteworthy Needle was also there. I'm looking forward to taking her Change of Seasons class at our next retreat.

A couple of other goodies I couldn't resist.

It wouldn't be a LinAnn retreat without Jimmy @Needlework with Jim!

This is Annette's photo of BFF Bags. Sadly, they are closing up shop soon but we still had lots to choose from!

I already had the tea bag, perfect for my traveling teas. But I couldn't resist the other two!

I showed this in a previous post, it was finished in Annette's (Mind Your Needle) cube finishing class.

Still not thrilled with the skull/spider's web, but I had a time crunch and I had to stick with it before the finishing class.

The "flip" side for spring/summer.

Once again, a better view of what each side looks like.

An amazing, beautiful finish by Barb, it took her five stitching years to finish it! As much as I love mermaids, I'm not sure I'd have the patience to stitch this one.

The Grab Bag Exchange, so many and such fun!

The word was PETAL and this is what I put together.

I found the cute pig planter and thought it needed some pink.

Two of the ones I picked were "grabbed" and this is what I got to keep in the end.

A lovely box put together by Linda, with a Pincushion, Embroidery thread, Thimble, Aida, and a Light. All useful and appreciated!

I ended up winning all this amazing fabric from Jimmy as my little pig was one out of two for most creative. What a nice surprise, so many beautiful colours!

So are you ready for some drama entertainment?!

Saturday afternoon, I went to our room during the afternoon to get a drink. The hallway AND our room smelled rather "skunky". I told our table when I came back down and when Karen went to our room, it still smelled. So she went to the front desk to let them know. Fast forward to that evening going to bed, the smell had pretty much cleared and we saw a grandma being helped to her room by her family as she had obviously enjoyed herself at a wedding reception! I was having a hard time going to sleep because it started to smell again in our room, and about 2:15am, the fire alarm started going off in the hallway. I tried to wake Karen, but she didn't wake up until our room fire alarm started going off a few minutes later. And boy was THAT loud!

We peeked out the door and looked down the hall, people were starting to leave their rooms. So we took a quick bathroom visit, put on our shoes, I grabbed my purse, and we headed out the door! The hallway smelled like burnt pot, nasty.

We ended up staying outside for about an hour. Good thing I had my car keys, we had a place to sit.

Long story short - The family helping grandma was causing quite the commotion after midnight and someone called the front desk as well as the police.

Fast forward to the fire alarm - it was pulled because that family had trashed the room and tried to set fire to the carpet... with marijuana?! They apparently fled the hotel as soon as the alarm went off. I'm pretty sure they'll be found since they have their credit card information and ID!

Still a rough night for sleeping, the ventilation on our floor was terrible and still stunk in our room.

But having these ladies at our table certainly made for a fun weekend!

And here's our fantastic group. This will be a retreat to remember for sure!