Weekend Stitching Retreat and New Stash

Good afternoon everybody!

Back in April I met up with Ingrid (Mii Stitch) and Justine (Justine's Cross Stitch) for a day of chatting, stitching and stashing. We got on so well that within a couple of weeks we had arranged another rendez-vous, this time a weekend at The Dairy Cottage in Staffordshire. It was a lovely little cottage in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beautiful countryside and a perfect location for chatting and stitching to our hearts' content.

Our weekend started with the obligatory exchange of Halloween-themed goody bags. Here's a selection of the goodies I received:

beautiful hand-made ornaments.....

.....a candle and holder, backing fabric, Lizzie Kate chart, beads,

needle keep, stitched owlet kit, hand-dyed Halloween Mist fabric, ribbons,

Halloween-themed threads from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.....

.....and a host of Halloween decorations and sweeties

(which for some reason are no longer available to be photographed - yum yum!)

Thank you both so much. Everything is (was) awesome!

You'll have to pop over to their blogs (links at top of posting) to see my gifts to them.


Stitching-wise, we had all agreed to start two new projects during the weekend. Ingrid and Justine opted for small projects. Justine even finished one of hers! But me? I went for bigger ones of course! I started Owls in Love and Dragon Eye, as they were already in my 2015 stitching plans, but I will save pictures of them for another post.

We looked through each others' piles of WIPs and "helpfully" prioritised our favourites. A couple of doubtful WIPs were even discarded!

And we exchanged a few charts, meaning my stash pile is now even bigger. To be fair though, most of these will be quick stitches:

Lizzie Kate - Spooky String

JBW Designs - French Country Witch, Alphabet Pumpkin and Sweet Nothings

CCN - Snow Love, Dear Santa and Holly Jolly

The others also relieved me of some of the lovely fabric I bought at Alexandra Palace. I had intended to go home with less than I had taken but didn't realise quite how little that would be! I'm glad I could help them out though.

It was such a perfect weekend and, sadly, over far too quickly. It's a terrible cliche, but I'm lucky to have met two great bloggers who very quickly became two great friends.

So now it's back to usual life for the three of us but with lovely memories and the excitement of planning our next retreat in Spring 2016!

Happy stitching everybody :)
Rachel x