Anabella’s Summer Girlfriend Getaway Weekend Retreat

*warning…photo heavy*

Anabella’s is a cross-stitch, quilting and paper craft store located in my town. In addition to their brick and mortar (housed in a beautiful 3-story log cabin), they also have an Etsy shop and a website. Clicking the bold text will take you to those links.

The owners, Elayne and Terry, also host cross-stitch retreats all over the country. Next year, they will embark on their first retreat at sea, an Alaskan cruise. And the 2027 cruise will be Italy!

They have offered quite a few retreats near my home, but I’ve always been out of town and couldn’t attend. I happened to secure the last spot at a small gathering they held at the shop June 27^th through 29^th. It was their first Summer Girlfriend Getaway Weekend Retreat. I didn’t know any of the other attendees when I got there, but we became great friends by the end of the weekend.

The table was filled with lovely gifts from Team Anabella’s.

Each place setting had a bag filled with swag. We were so spoiled!

The Agenda

So many goodies for cross stitch

We received several charts!

This chart came with the finish fabrics
and floss drops with a strawberry bling

Two sheets of patriotic stickers for our
planners or drinking vessels

We were fed breakfast, lunch and snacks. We were on our own for dinner, but we all went out to eat both nights with the team from Anabella’s.

Enjoying cookies with Sarah from Millenial Fabrics LLC

Each attendee brought table gifts. I gave everyone a waxer I made from beeswax I got locally. I’ve given these out at other retreats before. Some people use them, some do not, but everyone agrees that they smell good 😊

My waxers

Louann and Wynn gave us some useful items

Alexis made crocheted coasters and gave us floss

Leigh had these cute tins made which held more stitchy goodness

Sarah made fobs and gave us Piecemaker needles

Ann made ort containers that held a fob, snagnabbit,
needle minder, floss drops and a 2025 charm

Shannon gave everyone a gift certificate to Anabella's. No photo because it flew out of my pocket too fast!

Elayne also designs cross stitch charts, and she created a project just for us.

Every Stitch Tells A Story

We all started the retreat piece on Saturday

She taught a finishing class for the piece. We painted our boards, made the bows, attached fabric and batting to sticky boards and left with everything prepped for fully finishing our piece.

My fully finished piece

We played several games like Left, Right, Center and Trivia (cross stitch related, of course). There was a scavenger hunt and a raffle. I won one of the trivia games and the prize was some beautiful Cosmo floss. 

I also won a raffle prize which was the registration fee to any future Anabella’s retreat that is not sold out. Guess what I selected? Ok, I’ll tell you….the Alaskan cruise retreat. The designers will be Priscilla and Chelsea from Stitching with the Housewives. Hubby is coming along since it is on Royal Caribbean, our favorite cruise line. The prize was for the registration fee and NOT the cruise...just to be clear.

An optional activity, which is common at most cross-stitch retreats, was a smalls exchange. We stitched and fully finished a piece no larger than 5” or so. The instructions were to wrap the item in a way that the recipient has an idea of the theme. This was my first time participating in such an exchange and I stitched Bees Knees by Not Forgotten Farm.

I chose my own colors and made it into a pillow.

My bag was simple. The little bee on the bag is a needle minder. I also included some honey lip balms and hand lotion.

Ann received my small.

I received a Halloween themed gift from Alexis.

And she didn't even know me before this retreat. It fits!

They closed the store the entire weekend for us. So, we all took advantage of the retreat discount they offered to do some…let’s say stash enhancement.

I had to get this chart because of the bees, duh!

This one will work from Christmas through Valentine's Day

And I heard it was a rule, per Brenda and the Serial Starter,
that we must buy all the Blackbird Designs

And last but not least...

A pretty box that holds....

A quilt kit for Lori Holt's Spacious Skies Quilt
using her Americana fabric

The eight of us had an incredible weekend and decided we want to get together again at Anabella’s Christmas Girlfriend Getaway Weekend Retreat in December.  

We selected a chart to stitch between now and then. 

We will add our initials to each other’s piece at the retreat.

If you stayed until the end, thank you! I hope you enjoyed the recap.

See you soon,