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.

Floss Friday – Stitching in the Wild, August Stats and More

Welcome to the last Friday of September, 2025! How can this be?

Before getting to what happened after my return from Italy, I’ll give you my August cross-stitch stats.

Number of stitches = a measly 2,873 on three projects.

American Sampler

I finished my first (August) assignment on time. And I am currently working on the September assignment. This is where I am now.

                                          

Patriotic Heart – I’ll share this as part of my retreat update below.

Parrot

                                        

There hasn’t been any progress on this one since I shared it last.

We returned from Italy late on a Monday evening. I had one day to finish getting ready to attend a cross-stitch retreat in Montgomery, AL. I’ve mentioned previously that Stitching in the Wild is hosted by Gary and Ronny Hovatter who own a brick-and-mortar cross stitch store in Ozark, AL. They also have an online store called Garon-Stitchery. They’ve held three annual retreats so far and I’ve attended all of them.

I had enough time to make sour cream cookies with green butter cream frosting for my friends.  They are always a hit!

Gary and Ronny welcomed everyone early on Thursday morning.

There were 130 attendess, not including hosts and vendors.

There were a lot of table and attendee gifts exchanged. I haven't unpacked and organized those yet. I'll show them in a future post.

Many stitchers brought pieces for the brag tables.

There were so many creative finishes and absolutely stunning stitches!

In early August I had visited Gary and Ronny and left three pieces at their framer. The guys brought my finished framing to me at the retreat.

Witching Hour

English Rose Sampler

Red Bird Sampler

I'm entering this one into the county fair this weekend.

There were several of us from the GaRon zoom group that stitched Witching Hour together. Two of the ladies brought there finished pieces to share with me.

Karen, a zoom friend, wanted to start a chart that we both purchased at last year's retreat. I'll show you more on that in a future post.

I know...I hear ya...another start???? Well, I had a finish while at the retreat.

Patriotic Heart

I can check this one of the old WiP list!! It is small, but don't let that fool you. Those are a lot of stitches!

Friends old and new gathered for lunch

And one last hug until next time!

That is my September cross-stitch update in a nutshell.

My agenda for the weekend is back to binding quilts and enjoying some cooler temps. What are your plans? How is your weather? Tell me all the things.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts for Finished (Or Not!) Friday

Until next week...

Stitching in the Wild Retreat 2024 - Recap

Hello, Friends!

I mentioned in my last post on September 6^th that there would not be much stitching or sewing happening for me. My daughter came for a visit and only left the day before I traveled to Montgomery, AL for a cross-stitch retreat.

 

We walked around Lake Junaluska, took trips to see the sights, shopped in our little town and just had fun watching sports and putting together a puzzle.  The last couple of days of her visit was spent preparing for the retreat.

 

Stitching in the Wild Retreat is hosted by Gary and Ronny Hovatter. They have an online shop here and they opened a brick and mortar shop in Ozark, AL last April. Their 2023 retreat was held in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I attended that one as well and you can see that recap here.

 

On Wednesday the 18^th I loaded the car and headed to ‘Bama. The last stop before reaching the retreat hotel was a stop in Auburn to get my Buc-cee’s banana pudding. 

A large, of course, to get me through the weekend.

That evening was spent putting together the attendee gifts I brought.

We checked into the retreat early Thursday morning. We were presented with a nice burlap bag filled with goodies.

The travel scissors unfold

Several designers provided exclusive FREE charts for attendees

Ronny made a 6" x 9" notions bag for everyone

We selected our seat after check-in. 

I was fortunate to sit at Table #2. Here is a photo of my tablemates with Gary. Gary is eating his favorite sour cream cookie that I made. I gave him one dozen and our table shared a dozen.

My tablemates were Stephanie (from Fabrics by Stephanie), Robbie, Dianne, Linda (Stitchy Linda on IG), Kristine and Maria.

Before settling in for business, a few of us enjoyed delicious BBQ at Dreamland. The food didn’t last long enough to get a photo.

Once settled, I started stitching Halloween Alphabet by Primrose Cottage. 

Here is the progress I made.

Notice the big project bag matches the small bag that was in our gift from GaRon. I received the larger bag when I was in the GaRon bag-of-the-month. It was a coincidence I selected that one for the retreat.

Our tablemates also exchanged gifts.

My gift to Table 2 was a jar of apple butter from our local orchard (no photo), Waynesville sticker, candy and a beeswax thread conditioner.

Gift from Linda and Dianne was a printed Pinkern Punkin’ chart, called for floss on Halloween floss drops and delicious Key Lime cookies.

Robbie had a Halloween theme for her gift which was socks, orange Sharpie marker, orange post it notes and pumpkin spice Werthers…what?!? Werthers and pumpkin spice are two of my favorites, and together??? So good.

Maria and Kristine gave us an adorable crocheted doily and ort bag, counting pin and scissor fob.

A friend who was not in attendance sent a gift for Ronny to pass along to me. A floss bling with my name on it. Jackie made the rings for everyone but personalized one for me.

Some attendees brought a little something for everyone, not just their tablemates. My gift was candy and beeswax floss conditioner.

I received several useful handmade gifts.

I won’t show you my embarrassingly large haul but there is one item I must show.

I mentioned Stephanie of Fabricsby Stephanie was one of my tablemates. She dyes the most beautiful fabric and was a vendor at the retreat. I already have several pieces of her linen and added three more to my stash.

36 count Bewitched, 40 count Chocolate Milk, 40 count Friendship Greene

I couldn’t resist getting a photo with Stephanie, Gary and Ronny on Saturday evening.

There were approximately 120 attendees. A great group of stitchers!

Sunday was the last day. As much fun as it was, it was also very nice to be home.

The eight hour drive home was easy. I quickly unloaded the car and unpacked. By Monday evening I had worked a full day, done all the laundry and organized everything I brought home.

Now I am in full cruise prep mode. We leave next Wednesday on a 10-day New England and Canada cruise.  I haven’t even made a packing list yet…geesh!

The next few days will be work, prepping for vacation and catching up on blog reading and flosstubes.

If you finished to the end…thank you 😊

Enjoy your day!