Trick or Treat Blog Hop 🎃 2019

Finally, Happy Halloween!
It's my favourite time of the year - pumpkins, colours, costumes, coolness, and candy.
It's also time for Jo's Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop. Start there to collect the letters from other blogs to get the Halloween phrase she's chosen for this year.


Here's my Mill Hill Halloween Ornaments, with more still waiting to be stitched.

 

Our mantel, proudly displaying my Trick or Treat Fairy.

  

Maximus ever so happy to be displaying his collar.

I actually finished this at the end of summer, but waited until this post to share it. He'll have a partner next year!

I love this display, I just wish I could see it at night! This is near Karen's house and I might be able to see it on Friday night if they still have it up.

My chosen sister, Cori, gave me this little guy because she fell in love with him and I liked him too!

And finally, what you've been waiting for...

And now you can head over to my friend, Katie's blog @Jeremiah's Mom, to collect the next letter.

I hope you have a fun Halloween, however you celebrate it! We're supposed to be getting some nasty weather tonight so I'm not sure how that's going to effect the Trick or Treating.

The People Chose 🐱

A purrfect month for this Cat Momma! And especially today, it's National Cat Day!
Take a look at Jo @ Serendipitous Stitching to see more kitty stitching. 


Here's an oldie, but a goodie! Oh my, 30 years ago.

Another oldie, this is in memory of our first Siamese cat, Chachi.

This was supposed to be a trio of baking cats from Margaret Sherry, but I only finished this one for now.

A special birthday present for a friend. 

The pattern is from Lynn @ Happiness is Cross Stitching.

Ming helping me with kitty colours.

This is from The Snowflower Diaries.

A Mill Hill cutie, sneaking a cat in the sleigh!

This was a gift from a friend, but I haven't started it yet.

Nathan chose this one to try for his first piece. But the "floss" was more like yarn and it wasn't easy to work with. This might have been as far as he got!

Another Margaret Sherry kitty, this was for a recent exchange.

I didn't stitch this one, but it does have our two kitties in it! Karen made it for me when me moved into our house again.

More Mill Hill treasures, I think I have a couple I still need to stitch.

That's it for now, but I'm thinking about making this photo into a pattern.

So head on over to Jo's blog to if you haven't already.
Is there such a thing as too many cats?!

Friday's Stitching Ground 🧜‍♀️

I wasn't able to stitch until this evening, but switched it up and decided to work on the mermaids for a little bit.
Poor Maximus, he's wearing the cone of shame with getting another anal gland infection. Just yuck!

We decided to join DH in the basement and watch the National's play in the World Series. Come on Nats, you only need

I prefer being at a game rather than watch it on TV, but it's for the Series so I thought I would. Are there any sports you like to watch while stitching? 

Another Retreat... Stitchfest 2019! 🧵

I attended another fun retreat last weekend, Stitchfest 2019. I was planning on going on my own, but a spot opened up and my friend Denise was able to grab it and join me.

I still think it was a little strange to see swans in the hotel lobby, but they were fun to see. Don't get too close to them though, one of them hissed at me for doing so!

So tempting, more patterns to look at and want.

I'm thinking it was good thing my back was to all of them!

Alas, in other section of patterns I found these and couldn't resist. I'll see about stitching it time for next Halloween.

There were two finishing tables and so many lovely pieces. Maybe next year I'll add to it if I can get my act together.

And then there was a freebie table, I brought the box from the last retreat and then forgot it when I left. Sorry Stephanie! I hope maybe it was donated afterwards? 

I did find some treasures, because I obviously don't have enough stash. 😉

On Saturday, we had a project bag exchange that included the bag and kitting up a freebie. Such fun!

Since I wasn't smart enough to buy a project bag at the last retreat, I decided I would attempt to make one.
So with Karen giving me some of her Mom's fall fabric, I actually put together this... all by myself! This was supposed to be the tester one and it was rather small, but I loved the way it turned out. It was more like a pencil case and now Nathan wants one. Unfortunately, when I went to make the bigger bag, my iron died so I couldn't make it. And so much for asking a neighbour to borrow one since I'm aka Last Minute Lucy!
I did have another bag that I put it in though, so I guess it worked out and it can at least hold floss and accessories.

No stealing in this game, which was a good thing since I was #5 and I chose the dragon bag, what a surprise!

There's a big smile hiding behind there.

This is what was inside, what a treat!
I received this from Lynn, who is Jan's @ Stitching Cats sister, small world. Thanks so much, Lynn, I love it all!
Jan figured out that we followed each other's blogs, I'm so glad she did. She hasn't blogged in a while, but promised me should would, and she did! I also saw Minnie @All XX's, and hopefully she'll post sometime soon too. I'm sure we'll all see each other again in the near future for some stitching days.

Here's our group of stitchers, they made for a great weekend!

And here's our table, including Stephanie @ OhSewCrafty! Thanks to Stephanie for organizing a fantastic weekend! I'm already looking forward to next year.

Oooh, look who joined us, Jamie! I'm sure he was honoured to display my "so close to being finished" piece.

For the first time in three weeks, I'll be home this weekend. Unless I can find something else to take me away?!

Friday’s Stitching Ground 🦢

Oh boy, another stitching retreat! This time it's in Virginia, just over an hour away from me.

I finally finished all the words, now I just need a few more extras and I’m done. We’ll see what I can get done tomorrow.

This was my stitching view... 😍🥰

I don’t know the story behind it yet, but I’m not sure I care!

I can’t say I’ve ever seen swans in a hotel before, but they're beautiful. 

What unusual things have you seen in a hotel?

Friday's Stitching Ground 🐾

Today Gman1 and I payed a visit to my parents, and Addie too! It was my Dad's birthday last Sunday, so we had a little celebration with them. Addie got a goodie too, a Halloween collar!

Here's Little Missy keeping me company while stitching. She's not like Maximus who likes to play with the floss. Oh no, she'd rather try and chew the fabric! So I figured out rather quickly not to leave it alone with her.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to finish this, it's for a dear friend who recently got married and they are both "bikers"! 🚵

During her walk, she followed me into the pachysandra patch to jump around and try and grab the weeds I was pulling. I'm still waiting on more leaves to fall for her to run and play in them!

Here's my Momma and Addie, she was finally calm enough to sit with her - Momma can get kind of wild! 😜

I think we wore her out before we left, she was exhausted!

My Dad took lots of photos, but he has to "fix" them before sending them to me so I've got nothing to show!

Are you a picture taker or more in front of the lens? I do like to take them, but nothing like my Dad!

Fun at the PA Fall Getaway! 🍂

Finally, it had arrived, time to head to Pennsylvania for a stitching getaway! Get ready of lots of pictures...

Linda and Annette @Cross Stitch and More by LinAnn Events hosted this absolutely fantastic weekend, many thanks to you both! I hope you decide to come back here next year, but it not, I'll go wherever you choose!

Here are the goodies we received - patterns, needle minder, scissor fob (with our own initial on it!), telescope magnetic pick-up tool, and we got to choose three colours for the tree pattern. I think I got it all!

I won a door prize on the left, and then won a prize for most creative bag in the exchange (I think that was the title?) more on that later. I went from having zero scissor frogs to having two - awesome! Now I need more scissors.
Karen gave our table some homemade lip balm made from the beeswax from their bees, and NY Annette gave us a Halloween themed needle minder. So sweet, thanks ladies!

Although I didn't take her class that was offered while there, I do love the patterns designed by the lovely Sue Hillis.

Seeing them all stitched up and finished made them look even more amazing!

And the other part of her display.

I was only going to get the Stitches for the Needleworker, but seeing the Happy Thanksgiving framed made me want to get that one too. And a sweet freebie was included also.

Jim and Kevin @Needleworker's Delight/Silkweaver Fabrics were there and brought so many patterns, fabric, and goodies!

And there was another fabric table too!

More finished treasures, so tempting.

After one of my purchases with them, I won a $15 gift certificate so I had to get another piece of fabric. I could have sworn I bought another pattern, but maybe it was one I liked but they sold out.

The bag was made by Sarah, isn't it beautiful? Can you see the "butterfly"?! 💀

It was such a beautiful day, Karen and I stepped out for a walk to enjoy the sunshine. The trees really hadn't started changing colour yet, but it was still pretty.

After a most delicious lunch earlier, we thought we would wait until later to have dinner, but when we got back to the stitching room, everyone else had gone to eat.

That left us alone in the room... trouble! 😉

But instead, we joined everyone for dinner. The lunches and dinners were delicious, and the desserts... even better! It's a good thing our room was a bit of a walk away, I was still able to get my steps in!

Then it was time for the CIDER exchange. Each item had to begin with the letters in cider. These were mine, C - Christmas chart, I - invisible thread, D - DMC floss, E - Etoile Floss (2 Halloween and 2 Christmas colours), R - Ribbons for finishing.

I also stitched this without the beads and altered it to fit the theme. I finished it there but couldn't show it as finished piece and ring the bell since it was added to the bag!

Here it is put together. I made the bag on Thursday night, nothing like waiting until the last minute.

These were all the bags, so many creative ones! We played it like the white elephant or dirty Santa game. Lots of "stealing", laughter, and luckily not too many tears!

This is the gift I chose, it came from Edie - thanks, Edie!

C - Christmas, I - Igloo, D - Drink, E - Embroidery thread, R - Red. Did you notice the two Sue Hillis charts?! I told DH I was stitching the pink drink for his bar, he just rolled his eyes!

And then there was the giveaway table, I brought a box and still ended up bringing a lot home! I guess I'll be bringing it to the next retreat in two weeks.

These are some of the treasure I couldn't pass up.

There were so many gorgeous finishes, this was NY Annette's adorable mouse! It was the first one she put together, with Fran's help, and turned out great.


Although I didn't finish, I'm getting closer! Just the Harvest Moon to go, wishful thinking to be done by the full moon on the 12th.

And then all too soon, it was over. 😢
Thanks to Helene for sharing our two tables group pic! I made lots of new stitching friends, such fun! Even the darn frog joined us, he definitely made his way around the room.

So until next time, I'm already looking forward to it!
And on the way out, some colour to tease us.