Apple Festival and Retreat

Happy Friday, Friends!

Last weekend's Apple Festival was a big success in spite of the rain and chilly temps.
                                            

Lots of vendors selling their wares.

Our local apple orchard was there offering bags of apples, tarts, doughnuts, turnovers, cider and more.

The Apple Festival Cross Stitch Retreat hosted by Anabella's was also a success.  There were approximately 60 attendees.  Unfortunately, the guest designer could not make it. Priscilla from Stitching with the Housewives got a terrible stomach flu the day she was to fly from Chicago and had to cancel.

She still provided us with two exclusive designs, as well as the fabric and floss to complete them.

I started and finished the smaller design over the weekend.

I secured Table # 6 and invited these four ladies to join me.

We played a game called Left Right Center with DMC floss. I've played this game many times but have never won. That is....until now.

I also won TWO raffle prizes...

A wool candle mat from Penny Lane Primitives

Lori Holt's new cross stitch book, some of her chunky thread and her crochet hooks

Before I started the smaller design from Priscilla, I started Pinkie Santa.
                                            
This is where I stopped before picking up the new design.

Since the weekend, I've been catching up on exercise (if there is such a thing) and getting my steps in at the lake. Just wanted to share a photo and let my long-time friends know that the ghosts are back...

And they've added some pumpkins to the waterfall...

Sadly, the waterfall will be turned off soon. We are already getting into the 20s and 30s F in the mornings. Although, the afternoon temps are hitting the 70s and sometimes 80s still.

My cousins from Florida are in town visiting. Even though some of them are staying in a hotel, and some with my mom, I'm not sure how my weekend is going to go. I'm hoping to finally start the Boo to You quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop. We shall see...

My friend Diann at Little Penguin Quilts mentioned her son just made a sourdough pumpkin bread. I'm looking all over the county for a bakery that has one. It sounds so good.

What are your plans for the weekend? Tell me all the things...and I'll see you soon!

Floss Friday -- Retreat and Cross Stitch Progress

Happy Friday!

Stitching in the Wild 2026 is in the books. It was a great time stitching and laughing with friends that I only see at this retreat. As I expected, there aren't a lot of photos to share but here are a few highlights.

I made these small zippered bags filled with treats for my tablemates and a few other friends.
                                            
I received some nice gifts but didn't think to take photos until after everything had been put away.

The retreat attendees got candy and a little green duck from me. We played a game where I hid many of these ducks around the hotel common areas and in the stitching room. The person who found the most won a gift certificate to the retreat store. It was a lot of fun and several folks asked if I was going to do it again next year.

The charity raffle raised $4,079 dollars for St. Jude, Shriner's and Wounded Warriors.  I had donated two items for the raffle. Here are the winners.

My haul from the retreat...

36 count linen in my favorite colors from Fabrics by Stephanie

Pins for pillow finishes from Puntini Puntini
                                            

Lori Holt reading glasses, Romy's Creations floss and pins, needles
                                               
Goodness and Light chart by The Proper Stitcher
                                            

The Goodness and Light kit (fabric, floss, velveteen and ribbon for finishing)
                                          
Merry Bouquet chart by Shakespeare's Peddler 
                                                
Floss, fabric and the finishing board for Merry Bouquet
                                            
And last but not least, Give Thanks Sampler Pillow by Mani di Donna
                                                
What did I stitch while there? Well, it wasn't Wilding Hill Manor as I had planned. I brough out Red Letter Sampler instead.
                                                
Here is where I left off when I last stitched on it.
                                                 
Here is where I got to during the retreat.
                                                

There isn't much left to do so I will make this a focus piece over the next week or so.

I noticed when I returned from the retreat that my Blogger Reading List had not updated since September 9th. So, I am slowly making my way around to everyone. I'll apologize in advance for all the comments you will get from me. Do not feel obligated to respond to each one.

My daughter, her boyfriend, and our grand fur-baby will arrive on Saturday and be here for a week. There are a lot of things planned but I'll also be stitching and catching up on Sewcialites 3...maybe another flimsy?

Enjoy the weekend ahead and I'll see you soon.

Floss Friday -- A Finish, A WIP and Retreat Gifts

Happy Friday, Friends!

So excited to share my finish of Melisa’s Pinker N Punkin’ Quilting and Stitching Summer Stamp Sampler.

The last two stamps were stitched this past week.

In the Apiary and Canning Season

I already had the frame and knew I wanted to use it for this sampler. It is a little tighter than I usually like but anything else would be too big. I am trying to do my own framing when I can and avoid custom work.

Chart: Summer Stamp Sampler by Melisa at Pinker N Punkin’ Quilting and Stitching

Fabric: 28 count lugana (evenweave) by Zweigart in the color Mushroom

Floss: The called-for DMC threads

Stitch count: 107 x 132

Started: 4/9/26, Finished: 6/23/26

Thank you, Melisa, for generously sharing your designs with us. I enjoyed this stitch along very much!!

Once that was finished, I picked up American Sampler by Crocette a GoGo.

This is where I left off…

This is where I am as of Thursday evening…

I finished the house and started on the right side border.

The goal was to stitch ½ a page each month beginning last August and to have a finish by July 4^th. Clearly, that is not going to happen. I am going to keep it going until the stitching is complete.

I mentioned that while we were on the cruise I participated in a cross-stitch retreat hosted by Elayne of Anabella’s and the featured designer was Priscilla from Stitching with the Housewives. That post is here  in case you missed it.

I made gifts for Elayne (host), as well as for Priscilla and Chelsea.

Quilted bags with their initials machine embroidered on them. I attached zipper pulls/scissor fobs to them and then filled the bags with small gifts.

I also put together small gifts for my tablemates.

They received the same fob, a machine embroidered tissue cover, a waxer, small scissors, flavored Chapstick and a skein of Classic Colorworks floss in the color Priscilla’s Peppermint. (Yes, Classic Colorworks custom dyed floss for Stitching with the Housewives.)

All the other attendees received a fob. There were 40 attendees in total.

The gifts I received were plentiful. Candy and small stitching tools were very popular.

One of the first things I do when I return from a retreat is sort the gifts.  The candy goes in a jar on the Hoosier. I have a box of small bins that will hold stitching tools, stickers and other miscellaneous items.

Our host gave the attendees a bag filled with patterns, fabric, floss and other miscellaneous items. 

Included in the bag were raffle tickets to be used on the last day.  There were several gifts lined up on a table, and we could put our tickets inside the container in front of the gift we wanted. I forgot to take a photo of the gift table.

I only wanted one thing and that was a project bag made from Lori Holt tea towels….and I won it!

Inside the bag was a smaller notions bag, an ORT container for leftover thread pieces and a small yellow box. The yellow box held all sorts of items from a drink mix, hand sanitizer, sticky notes….lots of yellow.

Since fully finishing the Summer Stamp Sampler, I am inspired to finish more items from the under-the-bed-box of cross-stitch. So, a trip to Hobby Lobby is on the agenda for Saturday. The closest HL to me is in Asheville. Hubby will accompany me and we will do our big shopping day at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Sam’s. It doesn’t happen frequently, but when it does, my wallet gets sad!

Also on the agenda this weekend is sewing more blocks for Sewcialites 3, Four Patch Fun and Fat Quarters by the Dozen.  I’ll be back on Monday, June 29^th to share those.

I hope you have a great weekend!! See you soon.