Retreat part 2

On Wednesday afternoon, Adana, Joanna and I arrived at the Canyons Grand Summit in Park city where the retreat took place. We had pooled for a 2 room suite with parlour which was surprising cheap as far as my experience goes. It also had the advantage of a kitchen, which was great for breakfast.
I shared one of the bedrooms with Susan who didn't arrive till later.


After a few teething problems with the keycards - we could only get into one of the rooms as the keycards wouldn't work in the other doors. We had problems on and off all end with the keycards. I'm not very good with them generally and tend to kill them every time I use them.

We did a grocery run and then Adana and I waited up for Susan to arrive just before midnight.

Susan gave each of us a little gift of a scissor fob plus I got some chocolate and a magnet of Chicago. The fob is gorgeous. I also got a gift of a halloween stitching pouch and a variety of fabrics from Adana which was lovely too.




Thursday morning, the retreat shop opened. Most people arrived at the conference room it was in before the shop opened. I guess the talking was pretty loud as hotel security came along and asked everyone to be quiet LOL. The shop was pretty amazing - full of things from each designer plus a retreat fob from Shepherds bush. It was pretty full with lots of shopping going on.



Whilst we were there, I met Georgie - pictured here with Susan and I


After a short lunch break, when I had some lovely Salmon tacos in Loco lizard, It was back to the hotel for registration and the welcome project which was a tin pin necklace. There were 7 designs to chose from. There's only 5 in my picture because some of the designers were wearing theirs


The designers then took it in turns to reveal their projects. I had chosen the Shepherds bush/Amy Mitten/R&R reproductions track. The only point I doubted my choice was when I saw the Merry Cox piece which was beautiful.

After another short break, we then had our evening class which was called Scared stitches and was a little bag with a design by Shepherds bush, a charm by Charland, fabric by R&R and finishing instructions by Merry Cox. Each teacher came into explain their section. I forgot to take pictures of the finished piece but I will stitch it soon so watch out for pictures.

Friday morning brought our first full class. For my half of the track, that meant Shepherds bush so I got to spend nearly 3 hours with Tina. Teri came in at the start to kid Tina on about how late it was before the piece was ready then she went off to take pictures and look after the retreat shop. The Shepherds bush piece is called Happy Haunting and its so cute. I got a good start on it in class and I've been stitching away on it since I came home. I think I'm about 1/3 of the way done.

After class, we had some free time until the Blackbird class in the evening so we went off for a wander down main street in Park city. The weather was gorgeous and sunny. I had to hid behind sunglasses as my eyes are pretty light sensitive (which is also why you may see a lot of pictures of me with my eyes closed lol). I was delighted to find a keyring with my name on it as I never find personalised name stuff for me over here. Of course then everywhere we looked, I found a ton of stuff with my name on it.

Friday evening, it was off to another class with Alma and Barb from Blackbird designs. The class was to applique a felt design on to a black purse. Some of trhe other retreater weren't overly pleased intially as they had a similar project last time but I thought it was fun. We had a great table with Berangere, Cindy from Illinois and Cindy from Texas amongst others. Joanna and Cindy from Texas worked away at their purses.



Joanna and I both finished ours before the end of the retreat and wore them to the Banquet on the last night.

Tomorrow Part 3 with the rest of the classes, the banquet and the stash report.

Utah trip part one.

I think I am starting to get over the jet lag. My sleep pattern is still all over the place but thats not that different from normal.

I've been struggling to start the trip entries as there is so much to tell, it was hard to know where to begin.

I began my journey at Glasgow airport. Security was tight but they had plenty staff on duty. The flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful. The security at O'Hare was pretty slow though; it took me longer to get through the security checkpoint to get into the domestic terminal than it did to clear Immigration and Customs combined. I did confuse the Immigration officer - I don't think he quite understood why some one would come to the USA for a needlework event.

I found Adana quite easily in the terminal and we had lunch in the airport, which was great for me as American airlines has the worst food ever. The waiter got a little confused when settling the check as he tried to give me more in change than I gave him for the meal.

After a short flight, we arrived in Salt lake city. My luggage arrived safely but unfortunately Adana's didn't. It finally turned up the following afternoon. We spent the first night in a hotel near the airport and set out next morning to drive to Ogden.

We got to Ogden and made a short trip to Walmart prior to anything else. I took the opportunity to stock up on DMC - I think the checkout lady was cursing me as she scanned in nearly 100 skeins. After Walmart, it was on to Shepherds bush.

Adana tells me the shop is small. Obviously I haven't been in enough shops as it was the biggest and best stocked shop I had been in. I took a ton of pictures - I loved the Shepherds bush stocking display.


After a little bit of stash enhacement, I went back to the hotel for a bit and then returned for Shepherds night birthday party. I mer a ton of people who I don't seem to have pictures of - I did have my picture taken with a few people, just not with my camera.
I met Berangere at the back of the shop.



I also met Cindy (didimr2), CathyUT, Lancy and her sister and many others. After some lovely cake and, more stash enhancement and a gift from the shop which included a lovely sheep pin, Berangere, Cindy, CathyUT, the other Cathy, Adana and myself went to Roosters for dinner. There was lovely food and interesting chat. One of the waiters heard more of our conversation than I think he wanted to and he seemed a little shocked LOL. It was lovely to meet everyone. Berangere is so much fun and she brought lovely Belgian chocolate for us to eat. It was great to meet Cindy as I had been her exchange partner in a recent exchange on the Rotation BB.

Wednesday we made another run to Walmart first thing. I had to buy a back pack as I reach the realisation that I was never going to fit all the stuff I was going to buy in my hand luggage and there was no way I was putting any stitching stuff in my checked luggage after Adana's experience. After more stops at Joanns for more DMC and a few other bits, it was back to the shop for the retreat open house.

The shop was decorated for Halloween and there were a few new releases too. Near the front of the store, there was a table full of Halloween stuff



I bought a few of the new things including a lovely Halloween ABC shop exclusive. We got a lovely pumpkin pin with our purchases.

Tina was behind the counter and Charland (of Charland designs) was helping out. Everyone working in the shop was so busy but took the time to help when neeeded. Tina and Teri are so welcoming and friendly.



We also met quite a few people including one of our room mates, Joanna who flew in Wednesday morning. After visiting the shop, we went off to Jill Rensel's framing studio. What a great place. She had laid on a lovely food spread and gave gifts too. She had lots of little frames that she was giving one of to each visitor and magnets and bookmarks.






Next time, I'm going to send something ahead to be framed. This time I had to make do with drooling over the mats and frames.

After Jill's, it was off for more shopping, We visited Needlepoint joint. I was hoping to buy some Lorna's laces yarn but their selection was very small and not very interesting. I did buy two skeins of Koigu: I couldn't leave without buying something. We then had lunch, did a little shopping and headed off for Park city.

Tomorrow, details of the retreat itself.

Back from Utah

I got back from Utah last night after a few delays and some ropey flights due to weather.

I'm planning to start posting a retreat report tomorrow once I stop randomly falling asleep. I hate jet lag. Meantime here's a photo of me outside the Shepherd's bush shop in Ogden.

Busy week

Spare time has been a little short around here. I had planned to post last week but various things got in the way.

I've got a stitching finish to share - A bunny's fill by Shepherds bush. I finished this last week.


I've been knitting a bit too - I finished my Lorna's laces Black watch socks (picture to follow) and I've nearly finish other sock which will complete a pair. I have bought a few balls of sock wool on ebay also so I'd better get knitting. The new issue of Knitty is online and I've seen quite a few thing on that I would like to knit. Knitty is where the fingerless glove pattern came from. Stupid blogger won't let this poor safari user post a clickable link but knitty can be found at www.knitty.com

This past week has gone by in a flash. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night. I met my sister for breakfast on Thursday morning. When I got back home, my slight toothache got much worse and my gum had swollen so I had to go to the dentist. I've got an abscess which needed antibiotics and I need to go back for a long appointment at the start of October to have a root canal. Not looking forward to that. By the time I got home, I had been up for 24 hours so I crashed out of the sofa and woke up 7 hours later.
Friday morning, my boss woke me up with a phone call at 9am to ask if I could change my shifts from Monday/Tuesday to Saturday/Sunday because someone at work had a family bereavement. I agreed, mainly because I was half asleep. After working all day Saturday/Sunday, I slept most of the day yesterday and tried to catch up with housework.

Tomorrow, I'm back to work for one day only and then I'm off until the 12th of October !!. I leave this Monday for the USA. I've got a few more things to get and most of my packing to do but for now its time for bed.

2 weeks to go...

I can't quite believe it but there's only two weeks to go until I fly to the USA. For those who asked in comments, I'm going to Park city in Utah to attend the 2006 Shepherd's bush retreat. I'm also going to visit the Shepherd's bush shop in Ogden. Its a short trip - only a week and pretty packed. Luckily I've got a week off when I come back to recover.

I received a lovely exchange package this morning as part of the SBEBB redwork exchange. It came from the lovely Satomi in Japan and she stitches beautifully. I've put it on my bookcase in the hall with most of my other exchanges. Blogger isn't being very helpful with photographs today so the picture comes via webshots.


by pjmckuk

I''ve got to go now as I've got work tonight and need to get ready.

Bad blogger

I've been a bit remiss in blogging over the past few weeks in the that I haven't blogged at all. I haven't really felt like it - work has been crazy/busy since I went back after my time off and I really couldn't think of anything exciting to say. Most of the stitching I did last month was exchange things that I couldn't share either.

This week I've been feeling a bit more motivated. My trip to the US is just over 3 weeks away and I'm starting to get a bit more excited about it. September onwards always leads to more stitching for me. I seem to have more time and inspiration too. After I come back from the USA, its only a few weeks to the hobbycrafts show in Glasgow and then at the end of November, its Harrogate, which is so great to go to. The other plus of Harrogate is that I get to see friends also and spend time in Yorkshire, which is the only other area of the UK that I would happily live in.

Anyway on the stitching. I finished Portrait of Lauren in blue last night. I know a lot of stitchers weren't that keen on this design when it came out but I loved it straight away. She's stitched on 28ct SMF blue moon linen.



Its been a good weekend all round. Yesterday I made a long awaited visit to K1 yarns in the West end of Glasgow. Its a ver small shop but the yarns they stock are ones that you can't any where else around here.

This is what I bought.



There's some hand dyed opal. 4 balls of oh soft and lovely Orkney angora and 2 balls of Alpaca cloud. I also got the new Vogue knitting, Knit simple and knitscene magazines. They had Colinette which I now really want some of. Before this time next year I want to have made some cardigans or jumpers. At the moment, its mostly socks and scarves that I've been making. I've been afraid to start something bigger in case I get bored. I got some Rowan Yorkshire tweed in a sale a few months back to knit the Sunrise circle cardigan from Interweave knits. So far I've got the courage up to wind one hank into a ball and knit a tension square but no further. Its like when I was a beginning stitcher andwas afraid to try something new.

Keeping busy

No news on the job front. I'm still on holiday from work so I've been keeping busy. The organisation of my craft room continues slowly.

I have some knitting HDs to share

Firstly some gloves knitted from the Fetching pattern featured in Knitty Summer 2006. I loved knitting these and cables are my new love - they are much easier to knit than I would have thought. I've got more cashmerino aran to knit some more



And a simple garter stitch scarf from some cheap yarn called funky chunky



I've also finished stitching another coutry companions design from a Cross stitcher cover kit.



Today I'm planning to get some more finishing done. I've got a couple of exchanges to work on too.

Organisation and frustration

Those are the two words that sum up today. Organisation because I'm in the process of reorganising my spare room aka the craft room to make it tidier and more organised. At the moment, things are really disorganised, especially the card making stuff and so I bought a portable storage unit to tame it. Photos to follow when its done.

The frustration is job related. I want to move into a different field of nursing and with that in mind, I applied for a distance learning degree. Today I was told I can't get into the course because I don't have a job in that field. It gets worse as every job I have seen in my area in that field, wants experience in that field plus the course, which I can't get either of because I can't get a job without the experience or the course... I feel like I have spent a lot of time today banging my head against a brick wall. In addition, I had sent out CVs to several recruitment agencies with no reply. Finally, late on today, I got a couple of job leads which I need to wait to see if they turn into anything.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my last few posts. Your comments are very much appreciated. Eileen, I'm just about to email you about the SB pillow. I'm away to try and finish some knitting which hopefully will reduce my stress levels.

Weekend catch up

This will the third time I've tried to post this as blogger has been acting up.

This past weekend, I didn't have to work so I had my parents and my aunt over for dinner. Dinner went well apart from when my dad was opening a bottle of sparkling wine and set the cork off. It shot up and smashed my light fitting to pieces so I've going to have to brave Ikea to buy a replacement.
Other than that, the week has been okay. I got some very good news about a long awaited pay rise. I haven't had a lot of time to stitch but I have done some more finishing





Today was a great mail day. I got 4 lovely balls of sock yarn that I bought off ebay, my monthly Essy's friend kit from Elegant stitch and finally a lovely scissor fob from Judith as part of the Rotation stitchers scissor fob exchange.


by pjmckuk

One more work day till I have 13 days off. I'm planning 13 days of extra sleep, stitching, knitting, finishing and stash organisation

Back

I tried to think of a witty title for this entry but I'm all out. Its been unusually warm here this week - up to 32 degrees and I think my brain is fried. The sun is lovely but air conditioning isn't really that common here so work is very uncomfortable. Work is horrid for other reasons and on Monday, I felt like leaving work and never going back I was back there today and it was a good bit better plus I got news of a fairly good pay rises so it doesn't seem so bad.

Stitching wise, I haven't really done much. I decided to tidy my stash a bit. I found 5 more started WIPs, each with only a little down. I also seem to have a huge amount of stuff thats waiting to be framed or made into something. Inspired by Terry and Shannon discussing their waiting to be finished off piles, I decided to have a Friday finishing day and here are the results.





I'm still trying to get to grips with my sewing machine so the seams aren't the straightest but on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

The stitching GTG at Kate's was fantastic. We had a great day followed by another great day at Bakewell. Its great to spend time with people who understand your need to stitch and appreciate your point of view. I saw some beautiful stitching and laughed so much. The strangest moment was the GTG stopping so that the remaining people could watch the last in the series of Doctor Who.

Some framed stuff to share

I'm back after Karoline's GTG. I forgot to take pictures but if you go to Karoline's blog, you can see a picture of most of us. I have my eyes shut in the photo, which is something I seem to do in pictures. This weekend brings another GTG at Kate's. I am going to try and remember to take pictures this time.
Other than going to a GTG, I've been busy stitching and framing up some stuff too. I've been on nights for the past week also so that makes life a bit upside down.
And so to some pictures
Garden Gossip by Heritage/Margaret Sherry


Winter Snapperland by Bent creek


And two frame Shepherds bush designs True Friend and Be mine



I've also been knitting more socks in Opal tiger and Lorna's lace Black Purl



This week so far, I've been trying to catch up on my Japanese Octagon box WIP. I saw Pat's WIP at the GTG and I realised I want to be up to date and finish along with everyone else. I'm also half way through making Be true by Shepherds bush into a pillow. I have a few other things in the works but they are all secret things of some sort so I can't share any of them just yet. I'm signed up to a fair few exchanges at present and I want to get moving on all these over the next week. The first one is almost done.

Off on my travels

Thanks to everyone for the lovely comments on Trick or treat. I am pretty critical of my stitching sometimes but I can assure you all that the seams on the base of the box are a bit wonky. But its the base and no one will see it.
I've got an early start tomorrow but I really don't mind because I"m off to a stitchers GTG this weekend. Two stitchers, Belinda from the US and Angela from Australia, are visiting our shores just now and Karoline is hosting a GTG this weekend so we can all meet up. I'm combining it with a few days away in Yorkshire and visiting Leeds and York.
The suitcase is almost packed and I've got a few stitchy things still to pack, I'm hoping to get a bit of stitching progress while I'm away so I should have a few pictures to share on my return.
Have a great weekend everyone.

Holiday mode

I'm in holiday mode this week as I'm off on holiday. One of the advantages of working for the NHS is that the holidays are good so with all my public holidays added on to my annual leave, I have 8 weeks in total. With the nights getting lighter here too, it feels like summer is here except for the fact that we had a gale and rain all day today.
I have no particular plans this week apart from a GTG at Karolines this weekend in honour of Belinda visiting the UK. I'm really looking forward to it. Other than that, I'm trying to get some finishing done. My to be finishing pile is, as I have mentioned, is getting huge.
So here is the first result of this - Trick or treat box by Just Nan.





The finishing instructions were good but it was a very fiddly finish. I'm not 100% happy with some of the seams but I've got them as good as I can get them so it will have to do.

Some answers...

2 posts in two days. I think the hot weather is affecting my brain. I got to work this morning to find the heating on.. Thankfully after a quick call to the works department, it got switched off. I can't imagine why it would be on. It was 28 degrees yesterday.


I got a few questions in the comments for my last post so I thought I should answer them.

First off, to the other Paula. The Taj Mahal design is by Chatelaine designs and you can buy the chart and materials at http://www.europeanxs.com/mandalas2.html#039 I'm a big Chatelaine design fan and European cross stitch has so many lovely designs. I accept no resonsibility for any additions to your stash that the link will cause.

Secondly for Debbie in San Diego, there used to a company called Gamrie Classic who did a kilted wedding sampler design but they went out of business last year to retire. I have found a Gordon tartan design at http://www.mearnscraft.co.uk/catnmacpherson/mactartan1.htm# I hope that helps.

And finally Jenna, Spooky night is a flat fold. Its my second attempt at making something into a flat fold and I find it reasonably easy to do. Its also cheaper and easier to store than loads of framed stuff. I only have so much room. The Purple box is actually a box canvas which I decorated with some oil pastels. I couldn't think how to display this needlepoint piece so I had a little play with some pastels and the canvas.

Anyway its nearly time for bed here. I've got a busy day at work tomorrow. I hope that helps.

28 degrees..

I think summer has arrived. Its 28 degrees Celsius here and its been that or slightly cooler for the past week. And no rain either. I am enjoying the lovely weather except at 2 am this morning when I couldn't sleep because it was so warm. For those who don't live here or have never visited, Britain isn't really an air conditioning country mainly because it isn't usually warm enough to need it lol. So at 2 am, I decided to stitch for a bit until it cooled down. I've got to work the next couple of days so I'm hoping its a bit cooler tonight

Recently I've been trying to make an effort to get my to be finish/framed pile down a little. With the trip to the US in September, I'm trying hard not to buy stash too so I'm trying to stitch from stash also. I"ve come to realise that I have far too much stuff waiting to be stitched and its not really very finanically sensible.
So first off some finishing photographs - Shepherds Bush Spooky time and an Orna Willis needlepoint design.



I've also finished a couple of things Meadow Hill by Shepherds bush and May's Essy friends piece which was designed by Drawn thread.



I'm off to watch Doctor Who now and try to cool down a bit.

Its the weekend..

..which means I have to work again. It can only be better than last weekend which was mostly awful. I was late leaving on Saturday so I'm owed 1/2 hour or so by work which I'm going to try and take on Sunday. Inspite of the awfulness of work, I'm in a pretty good mood as the days are getting longer and the weather's a bit better - its just wet rather than cold and wet.

I've heard that Melanie got the needle case that I made her as part of the Melanie's exchange on the SBEBB. I had received a skein of weeks dye works thread and two pansy buttons. I added some leftover princess perle thread in the shade Highland garden and it all turned into the pictures below.


I had a really hard time thinking of a design to use so I improvised the design as I went along.

On other stitching progress, I've started and finished two small projects - Baa, Baa little sheep and Be warm, which are both Shepherds bush designs. I have a bit of a stash of Shepherds bush projects waiting to be stitched so I thought I'd better stitch a few of them before I go to the retreat in September




In other craft news, my sock knitting obsession is showing no signs of ending

The more observant amongst you may notice that there are only single socks. I'm attempting a sock knitting rotation of sorts. The idea is to try and prevent the boredom that causes second sock syndrome. Whether this will work is not certain. I have cast on and started knitting the second tiger and purple socks.

Good mail

Its good when amongst the bills you find a stitchy package. I've just received my Melanie's exchange parcel from Anne. She stitched a beautiful needleroll which I love and sent me a few other goodies too. I've posted some picturs below.


Not a great deal of stitching going on here this week. I've finished the exchange piece for Melanie's exchange which I can't share just yet as it has still to travel to its eventual owner. Other than that I haven't had much stitching time because I've on nights and then suffering as I tried to get back into dayshift mode.
I do have some stitching finishes to share from last month - a Margaret Sherry hedgehog design and my complete Winter snapperland.