Well lets go back to Friday of last week. After work I had to stop in at Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription I would need over the weekend. I had tried to pick it up at lunch time but they were closed until after 12:30. I mean its fantastic that they respect the fact that it was remembrance Day but it annoyed me to no end because I wasted half of my lunch to drive there and back and I would have to go after work instead of leaving right away.
It was a three hour drive to Ann's home in Brighton, Ann is the owner of Knowledge and Needles a small needlework shop run in her house. Ann and her husband Dan were nice enough to let me come out the evening before the retreat and to put me up for the night. I got properly greeted by the puppies!
We had a good visit and a soak in the hot tub (heaven). I stayed up and stitched until midnight while my hosts retired early. But I was determined to finish my November Ornament!
I finished A Merry Tree For Thee by Full Circle Designs c2002 from the JCS 02 Ornament Issue. Its quite pretty.
Saturday morning I stitched away on Nick's Christmas Stocking. Ann had all of us ladies over for lunch before we headed over to the Butler Creek B&B where we would be stitching and spending the night. Dan was a true man and BBQ'ed some chicken for us. Lunch wrapped up with a unique experience for most of us.
Our attention was drawn to a deer in the field across the street from Ann's. It was off in the distance a bit at first we thought it had just gone over the hill. But then one of the ladies spoke up, she thought it had dropped. There was a bit of debate over it either going over the hill or dropping, but the hunter showing up in his neon orange with a rifle slung over his shoulder quickly ended that debate. So did the pickup truck showing up to take the carcass away. Oh well one less deer/car collision.
Sooo we went off to the B&B we quickly staked out our stitching spots for the next 24 hours and started stitching!
Left to right : Beatrice's Mom, Angie, Beatrice
Ann is really concentrating on that stitching! Joy, in the background.
I stitched until midnight then chatted for a little longer on Saturday. I got to meet a number of new stitchers and a few ladies I had met through Ann again. I had a lovely room to myself at the B&B and its run by a sweet couple. Sunday morning we were made a fantastic breakfast of either Eggs Benedict (which I had) or Apple Pancakes. The retreat came to an end wayyy too soon! By noon some of us were heading back to Ann's.
Dan was awesome! He let me take his new toy out for a drive all by myself, no chaperone! I got to zip around (cautiously because its Dan's new toy and I'm not as familiar with the roads around there) in a 2003 Convertible GT Mustang 5-speed. What fun!
I was polite in Ann's shop! I bought M Designs letters A&B and Floral Sampler.
I got home in time on Sunday to take a 2 hour nap before my 6pm soccer game, I've just checked our standings and we're in 3rd place in our division, very cool!
Okay I think I'm really rambling now... so here's the SBQ and I'll shut up...
Q : How do you feel about staying totally true to a pattern? Do you feel that you have to rip out stitches to fix a mistake or do you feel it's acceptable to incorporate a mistake into the design?
A : Well it really depends on the design and how anal a mood I'm in. If I'm feeling anal or its integral to the design I'll rip it out and stitch it. If its not noticeable and I'm feeling lazy it'll stay. It just depends.
Oh and what do you folks thing of my new profile photo?
